Details:

Original handwritten manuscript leaf dating to the Civil War era, circa 1860s, measuring approximately 6.5 x 9.5 inches. Written entirely in period ink, the sheet contains the folk ballad “Pleasure at Home or Vandeman’s Land” on the recto, with a handwritten journal entry on the verso. The poem survives as an evocative example of nineteenth-century manuscript culture, copied by hand at a time when songs and ballads were frequently shared through personal journals and commonplace books.

The manuscript preserves two verses of the traditional transportation ballad, beginning:

Come all ye boys of pleasure,
Ye rambling boys beware,
If you go a hunting,
Take your dogs and gun to share…

The verses continue with references to the “tedious journey” and life in Van Diemen’s Land, the former name of Tasmania, which served as one of Britain’s principal penal colonies from the early nineteenth century until transportation ceased in the 1850s.

Songs concerning Van Diemen’s Land became widely known throughout Britain, Ireland, and North America during the nineteenth century. They recounted the experiences of convicts sentenced to transportation, often contrasting memories of home with the harsh realities of exile. The ballads remained popular long after transportation ended and circulated in handwritten form, broadsides, and later printed songsters, preserving an important tradition of Anglo-Irish folk music and social history.

The reverse bears a period pencil journal entry.

Overall very good condition with expected age toning and an irregularly torn right edge.

Authentication:
Includes a full letter of authenticity from JG Autographs, Inc.

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Reference sku: 11500 1416969-1