Miss Marsden Again.

Manawatu Herald, 3 November 1892, Page 3

Miss Marsden Again.

About two years ago Miss Marsden interested the people at Home by an account of the dreadful adventures she had met with in this colony, such as a herd of wild bulls in the middle of a forest through which she was driving, in the South Island, a pair of thoroughbreds. It was one of the most ridiculous statements we have ever read, and.certjajnh; authorises one to plaoe^ifctle 'reliance on any furtUer^liSi^emeniLof hers. 'Still at Home inf traveller's: -•talea],* if sufficiently^ Tfffcre'dible, . ar£ittQcepted , and Miss M|r^den has good reason.^ for knowingsp"ftjid r is'now preparing for the press a Cbopfc; describings?) her jotirney in Siblirijji, 6n*a visit' tS :• Leper settfem^M^ffiJ^time Miss Marsden has chosen to" Bketgh her new boolf ta the e<jlitoi"pfi;he Review ofßmeo aritt^eih'as' received her statements as creflulously ' as the editor of the Girls>< Own Annual did. To show how ! the lady^slips in her accounts we note that^she writes : - " We were one night in an immense forest. I noticed that our horses made a peculiar noise with their feet, as if they were trotting on hollow ground. I was told that the turf was burning not far away. :., Half anhour later I saw large and small flames in the distance. __0n getting nearer we saw a picture whick looked almost infernal in its fcerribleness, and we had to go into the midst of it.- All round, as far as. we could see, there were flames' and smote from the burning ground." An awful picture, but the explanation why, the forest was not burningthough the turf wi\3 is- not explained. There must also have been a curious a sort of . wb.irlw.ind. blowi.ig : we suppose, Mich crtused' the turf to ''fee. burning .all round^the $arty yet •leading their IJ^ck tyiiiij ured ] v ■-■Miss ; >]V|a^sden is not explicit; shaving'bei guhjbter narrative with the assertion that "We were one night in an ininiDnse forest," and so got taqgJedj up in this circular fire, she writes, " Having aJJasfc^|is3ed thfs road we! vsn{ierea an iiSnieW "forest, dark afad dense, and after all those versfcs of ; flames and smoke I. cduld see! n^jaing." Ipet she4tajed that- tha; 4 Jjj^occurred*iu the forest, which was '\ f immense, and before she. gpfc out-©f it 'she entered anothell^lnimense forest ! Poor Miss M,ars/3en, no fonder, if she 7 got- talking this way on tier trip her " horse got to such a pitch of nervousness that he was constantly stumbling agaiQstv^the j ■'■■■' foots of trees/^ His rider appear^ to have stumbleu also. We find UiglfcSbe was well cai'ed for, having had 29 guides, and during the rides through the forest, " the cavalcade had to draw in and feel for its firearms in order to prepare for an attack from bears," though she admits a little further on that the solitary lepers in the forest generally kept a dog, "which was indispensable to keep the bears away," thu? accounting for the peculiar action of the cavalcade merely ' feeling ' for their firearms to ward Qff an attack from these alarming animals. Miss Marsden may be aa&excelient lady, but she undoubtedly is an excellent drawer of the long bow. _t <L_ : '