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Antipodean Seredipity
Mar. 27th, 2022 08:06 amHaving accompanied Daniel Southwell from England to Australia with the First Fleet a decade ago, I did not think that I would again have occasion to follow any of my family members into those southerly waters, but I was wrong!
Yesterday I took receipt of the latest book in my Annie Robina Butler collection, Glimpses of Maori Land (1886).
It's different from the other books of hers that I've read, in that, although (like those) it's published by the Religious Tract Society, it's not aimed at children, and it's actually about her own experiences. I'd known the title for a while, but assumed that (like Stories about Japan and By the Rivers of Africa) it would be some kind of amalgam based on others' travels; but not so. It appears in fact to be her first literary effort, and details a trip made in the early 1880s in which she accompanied her sister Lucy and Lucy's husband, George Tonge (a clergyman working in Birmingham), on a tour of New Zealand - a voyage ordered by George's doctor, apparently, although it seems a strange prescription.
Anyway, I was quickly distracted by this passage, part of a very interesting account of how people passed the time in a 3 month voyage before the advent of Netflix:
What, you are no doubt wondering (as I did) is 'zoedone'? The name suggests something lifegiving, but I'd never heard of it. Pinterest soon yielded this advert, however:
This figures. Annie, like all the Butlers of her generation, was big on temperance. (This lasted several generations. My mother, whose own family background included sailors, soldiers and publicans, was amazed to hear my grandfather - Annie's nephew - once describe a man who occasionally had a pint of beer before supper as 'a bit of a toper.') Ironically, zoedone was manufactured in Wrexham, my mother's home town, which in her own childhood was better known as one of the few places in Britain to make lager. I rather suspect they used the abandoned zoedone plant for the purpose, for the drink doesn't seem to have been popular for long. Having launched in 1880, by 1882 it was in financial trouble, having spent most of its capital on patents to protect its intellectual property.
There was also the matter of the taste. Here's one assessment, from an 1882 Vanity Fair:
In other words, it tasted exactly like Red Bull. Just as Red Bull bought a Formula One team, so Zoedone bought a racehorse, which went on to win the 1883 Grand National. However, although I find odd references to Zoedone through the 1890s, some admiring, some tinged with mockery, it doesn't seem to have had Red Bull's staying power. When did Zoedone give up the ghost? Perhaps, like the Coca-Cola company, they should have used cocaine as an ingredient? But Coca-Cola wasn't invented until 1885.
But I digress from my digression. I've barely seen Annie, Lucy and George through the Azores, and must hurry after if we are to cross the line before tea. More soft-drink adventures soon, perhaps, if they make it to Wellington.
Yesterday I took receipt of the latest book in my Annie Robina Butler collection, Glimpses of Maori Land (1886).
It's different from the other books of hers that I've read, in that, although (like those) it's published by the Religious Tract Society, it's not aimed at children, and it's actually about her own experiences. I'd known the title for a while, but assumed that (like Stories about Japan and By the Rivers of Africa) it would be some kind of amalgam based on others' travels; but not so. It appears in fact to be her first literary effort, and details a trip made in the early 1880s in which she accompanied her sister Lucy and Lucy's husband, George Tonge (a clergyman working in Birmingham), on a tour of New Zealand - a voyage ordered by George's doctor, apparently, although it seems a strange prescription.
Anyway, I was quickly distracted by this passage, part of a very interesting account of how people passed the time in a 3 month voyage before the advent of Netflix:
What, you are no doubt wondering (as I did) is 'zoedone'? The name suggests something lifegiving, but I'd never heard of it. Pinterest soon yielded this advert, however:
This figures. Annie, like all the Butlers of her generation, was big on temperance. (This lasted several generations. My mother, whose own family background included sailors, soldiers and publicans, was amazed to hear my grandfather - Annie's nephew - once describe a man who occasionally had a pint of beer before supper as 'a bit of a toper.') Ironically, zoedone was manufactured in Wrexham, my mother's home town, which in her own childhood was better known as one of the few places in Britain to make lager. I rather suspect they used the abandoned zoedone plant for the purpose, for the drink doesn't seem to have been popular for long. Having launched in 1880, by 1882 it was in financial trouble, having spent most of its capital on patents to protect its intellectual property.
There was also the matter of the taste. Here's one assessment, from an 1882 Vanity Fair:
In other words, it tasted exactly like Red Bull. Just as Red Bull bought a Formula One team, so Zoedone bought a racehorse, which went on to win the 1883 Grand National. However, although I find odd references to Zoedone through the 1890s, some admiring, some tinged with mockery, it doesn't seem to have had Red Bull's staying power. When did Zoedone give up the ghost? Perhaps, like the Coca-Cola company, they should have used cocaine as an ingredient? But Coca-Cola wasn't invented until 1885.
But I digress from my digression. I've barely seen Annie, Lucy and George through the Azores, and must hurry after if we are to cross the line before tea. More soft-drink adventures soon, perhaps, if they make it to Wellington.