DRAMA
“Harlequin Little Bo Peep, King Sing a Song of Sixpence; or, The Witch, the Giant & the Good little Fairy of the Golden Valley”, by “J. P. West and Waif Wander, Esq.”. Pantomime presented at Sydney’s Adelphi Theatre, then called Clark’s Varieties, Christmas 1868. Advertised in Freeman’s Journal 26 Dec 1868, which described it as a “grand, gay, and gorgeous glittering, great and glorious Christmas Local Extravaganza, glowing with glimmering, though gleaming gleanings, from all the local institutions of the day, popular, and otherwise. The joint production of J. P West and Waif Wander, Esq., and written expressly for this theatre […] This piece will be gorgeously mounted. No expense has been spared by Mr. Clarke in order that his numerous patrons shall have a special Christmas Treat. Look out for our glorious pantomime” (15). The Sydney Morning Herald of Dec 23 1868 also advertised the pantomime as the work of “Waif Wander, Esq. and Mr J. P. West” (8). West was Stage Manager at the theatre.
REFERENCES TO WRITINGS IN THE BUNINYONG ADVERTISER
“So we buried our poor mate – we buried him on the slope of a hill between the White Hills and the lead which was afterwards worked under the name of the Green Hills, Buninyong. I chose the spot myself, and have seen it more than once since, and I remember one circumstance which seemed to me very odd at the time, but which was, I daresay, simply the result of accident after all.
Some years after the death and burial of our mate, I happened to see an old copy of the Buninyong Advertiser – a little sheet I hat used to be published even at the time of the White Hills rush. In this old paper was a string of verses entitled, “The Grave by Yarrawee,” and it was poor Santon’s grave undoubtedly that formed the theme of the poet’s story.” See item 8, above.
“It was in lovely weather that we once more removed and planted our tents on the Green Hills. I remember the bright greenness of the smooth hills as we wound through to our destination and the pretty glimpse we got of the first white tents ammong the trees as we neared the River Leigh, the Yarrawee of the Black man. Here it was that we climbed to the lonely grave that lifts found a place in many of my previous sketches during all those ywars, and which I daresay has long since disappeared in every I race.[…]
I don’t know what the community would have done without the doctor and the Buninyong Advertiser. The former kept up the fun with his drunken absurdities, and the latter published occasional squibs in the shape of ‘Sketches’, of which W.W. was not wholly guiltless.” See items 2 and 704, above.