[Editor: This poem by Barcroft Boake was published in Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems (1897).]
On the Range
On Nungar the mists of the morning hung low;
The beetle-browed hills brooded silent and black,
Not yet warmed to life by the sun’s loving glow,
As through the tall tussocks rode young Charlie Mac.
What cared he for mists at the dawning of day?
What cared he that over the valley stern Jack,
The Monarch of Frost, held his pitiless sway?
A bold mountaineer born and bred was young Mac —
A galloping son of a galloping sire —
Stiffest fence, roughest ground, never took him aback;
With his father’s cool judgment, his dash, and his fire,
The pick of Monaro rode young Charlie Mac.
And the pick of the stable the mare he bestrode —
Arab-grey, built to stay, lithe of limb, deep of chest;
Who seemed to be happy to bear such a load
As she tossed the soft forelock that curled on her crest.
They crossed Nungar Creek where its span is but short;
At its head, where together spring two mountain rills,
When a mob of wild horses made off with a snort —
‘By thunder!’ quoth Mac, ‘there’s the Lord of the Hills!’
Decoyed from her paddock, a Murray-bred mare
Had fled to the hills with a warrigal band;
A pretty bay foal had been born to her there,
Whose veins held the very best blood in the land —
‘The Lord of the Hills,’ as the bold mountain men
Whose courage and skill he was wont to defy
Had named him: they yarded him once; but since then
He held to the saying, ‘Once bitten, twice shy.’
The scrubber, thus suddenly roused from his lair,
Made straight for the timber, with fear in his heart.
As Charlie rose up in his stirrups, the mare
Sprang forward — no need to tell Empress to start:
She lay to the chase just as soon as she felt
Her rider’s skilled touch, light, yet firm, on the rein.
Stride for stride, lengthened wide, for the green timber belt —
The fastest half-mile ever done on the plain —
They reached the low sallee before he could wheel
The warrigal mob: up they dashed with a stir
Of low branches and undergrowth — Charlie could feel
His mare catch her breath on the side of the spur
That steeply slopes up till it meets the bald cone.
’Twas here on the range that the trouble began;
For a slip on the sidling, a loose rolling stone,
And the chase would be done; but the bay in the van
And the little grey mare were a sure-footed pair.
He looked once around as she crept to his heel,
And the swish that he gave his long tail in the air
Seemed to say, ‘Here’s a foeman well worthy my steel!’
They raced to within half-a-mile of the bluff
That drops to the river — the squadron strung out.
‘I wonder,’ quoth Mac, ‘has the bay had enough!’
But he wasn’t left very much longer in doubt,
For the Lord of the Hills struck a spur for the flat
And followed it, leaving his mob, mares and all,
While Empress (brave heart! she could climb like a cat)
Down the stony descent raced with never a fall.
Once down on the level ’twas galloping ground:
For a while Charlie thought he might yard the big bay
At his uncle’s out-station; but no! he wheeled round
And down the sharp dip to the Gulf made his way.
Betwixt the twin portals that, towering high
And backwardly sloping in watchfulness, lift
Their smooth grassy summits towards the far sky,
The course of the clear Murrumbidgee runs swift.
No time then to seek where the crossing should be:
It was in at the one side and out where you could:
But fear never dwelt in the hearts of those three
Who emerged in the shade of the low muzzle-wood.
Once more did the Lord of the Hills strike a line
Up the side of the range, and once more he looked back:
So close were they now he could see the sun shine
In the bold grey eyes flashing of young Charlie Mac.
He saw little Empress stretched out like a hound
On the trail of its quarry, the pick of the pack,
With ne’er-tiring stride; and his heart gave a bound
As he saw the lithe stockwhip of young Charlie Mac
Showing snaky and black on the neck of the mare,
In three hanging coils, with a turn round the wrist;
And he heartily wished himself back in his lair
’Mid the tall tussocks beaded with chill morning mist;
While he fancied the straight mountain ash trees, the gums
And the wattles, all mocked him and whispered, ‘You lack
The speed to avert cruel capture that comes
To the warrigal fancied by young Charlie Mac;
For he’ll yard you, and rope you, and then you’ll be stuck
In the crush, while his saddle is girthed to your back;
Then out in the open, and there you may buck
Till you break your bold heart, but you’ll never throw Mac!’
The Lord of the Hills at the thought felt a sweat
Break over the smooth summer gloss of his hide:
He spurted his utmost to leave her, but yet
The Empress crept up to him, stride upon stride.
No need to say Charlie was riding her now,
Yet still for all that he had something in hand,
With here a sharp stoop to avoid a low bough,
Or quick rise and fall as a tree-trunk they spanned.
In his terror the brumby struck down the rough falls
Towards Yiack, with fierce disregard for his neck:
Tis useless, he finds, for the mare overhauls
Him slowly: no timber could keep her in check.
There’s a narrow-beat pathway that winds to and fro
Down the deeps of the gully, half-hid from the day;
There’s a turn in the track where the hop-bushes grow
And hide the grey granite that crosses the way,
While sharp swerves the path round the boulder’s broad base:
And now the last scene in the drama is played
As the Lord of the Hills, with the mare in full chase,
Swept towards it, and ere his long stride could be stayed,
With a gathered momentum that gave not a chance
Of escape, and a shuddering, sickening shock,
Struck the pitiless granite that barred his advance
And sobbed out his life at the foot of the rock;
While Charlie pulled off with a twitch on the rein
And an answering spring from his surefooted mount,
One might say, unscathed, though a crimsoning stain
Marked the graze of the granite; but that would ne’er count
With Charlie, who speedily sprang to the earth
To ease the mare’s burden: his deft-fingered hand
Unslackened her surcingle, loosened tight girth,
And cleansed with a tussock the spurs’ ruddy brand.
Strong limbs stilled for ever. No more would he fear
The thud of a horseman; no more would he fly
Through the hills with his harem in rapid career.
The pick of the mountain mob, bays, greys, or roans,
He proved in his death that the pace ’tis that kills;
And a sun-shrunken hide o’er a few whitened bones
Marks the last resting-place of the Lord of the Hills.
Source:
Barcroft Boake, Where the Dead Men Lie and Other Poems, Sydney (NSW): Angus and Robertson, 1897, pp. 122-127
Also published in:
The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 30 May 1891, p. 24, columns 1-2 [by “Surcingle”]
Relevant notes from the “Notes to poems” section in this book:
27. ON THE RANGE, p. 122. — Printed in The Bulletin, May 30, 1891. Signed ‘Surcingle.’
This poem records an actual occurrence. ‘Young Charlie Mac.’ was Charles McKeahnie, son of Mr. Alex. McKeahnie, of Rosedale, previously referred to. He was killed in 1895 through a horse falling with him.
‘To the warrigal fancied by young Charlie Mac.’ ‘Warrigal’ — a term drawn from an aboriginal dialect — is still applied to a wild horse in some districts of New South Wales; though ‘brumby’ seems to be superseding it.
‘muzzle-wood.’ This is eucalyptus stellulata, a tree which in the Monaro district usually grows to a height of from 12 to 20 feet. In the early days the wood was often used to make muzzles for young calves — whence the name.
Editor’s notes:
According to an article in The Land (24 December 1926), the “young Charlie Mac” of the poem was Charles McKeahnie (1868-1895). A later article, in The Canberra Times (15 June 1988), suggests that Charles McKeahnie may have been the inspiration for Banjo Paterson’s poem “The Man from Snowy River”.
See: 1) “A great horseman”, The Land (Sydney, NSW), 24 December 1926, p. 1
2) Tony Corp, “Snowy’s ‘ill-starred youth’”, The Canberra Times (Fyshwick, ACT), 15 June 1988, p. 33 [Charles McKeahnie and Banjo Paterson’s poem]
Re death of Charles McKeahnie, see:
a) “Fatal riding accident”, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 5 August 1895, p. 5 [death of Charles M’Kechnie (died from injuries, after being thrown from his horse)]
b) “In the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Probate Jurisdiction” (legal notice), The Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW), 31 August 1895, p. 52 [Alexander Anderson M’Keahnie was the father of Charles Lachlan Mckeahnie]
c) “In sad but loving remembrance”, Goulburn Evening Penny Post (Goulburn, NSW), 6 August 1896, p. 3 [In Memoriam notice for Charles Lachlan McKeahnie “who died 1st August, 1895”]
d) “Family history research guide”, NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages
(birth record: name: McKeahnie Charles L; registration number: 15527/1868; father’s given name(s): Alexander A; mother’s given name(s): Mary; district: Queanbeyan)
(death record: name: McKeahnie Charles L; reg. no. 7467/1895; father’s given name/s: Alexander A; mother’s given name/s: Mary; district: Adaminaby)
Editor’s notes:
bay = a reddish-brown colour; particularly used to refer to a reddish-brown horse (especially with a black mane and black tail); a reddish-brown animal
beetle-browed = having heavy overhanging eyebrows; hills or mountains with prominent rocks or rock formations which are extending outwards, jutting out, or overhanging
betwixt = (archaic) between (“betwixt” can be abbreviated as: ’twixt)
bluff = a high cliff or bank with a steep broad face, especially situated by the sea or a river
brumby = a wild horse, a feral horse; can also have a negative meaning, referring to a horse which is regarded as inferior or worthless (plural: brumbies)
career = to move, run, or charge swiftly, especially at full speed (can also mean to rush in an uncontrolled manner)
ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)
grey = a horse of a grey or whitish colour; a horse with a grey coat (a “dapple-grey” is a horse with a mixture of white and dark hairs on its coat, distributed in a mottled or spotted manner)
Jack, the Monarch of Frost = Jack Frost, a personification of cold weather, freezing temperatures, frost, ice, sleet, snow, and winter
lithe = flexible, limber, supple; graceful; thin, athletic; someone who is young, graceful, healthy-looking, and thin
’mid = an abbreviation of “amid” or “amidst”: of or in the middle of an area, group, position, etc.
mob = a large group of animals, especially used when referring to cattle, horses, kangaroos, and sheep; also used to refer to a group of people, sometimes — although definitely not always — used in a negative or derogatory sense (possibly as an allusion to a group of dumb or wild animals), but also used in a positive sense (e.g. “they’re my mob”), especially amongst Australian Aborigines
Monaro = a region in the south of New South Wales
See: “Monaro (New South Wales)”, Wikipedia
Murray = the Murray River (also known as the River Murray), a major river which flows through New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia (it serves as the major part of the border between NSW and Victoria)
ne’er = (vernacular) an archaic contraction of “never”
o’er = (archaic) over (pronounced the same as “oar”, “or”, and “ore”)
out-station = a station in a remote or outlying area of a pastoral property (distinct from the head station); a post or station in a remote or outlying area or position; an outpost
quoth = (archaic) said
rill = a very small brook, creek, or stream (a rivulet)
roan = an animal (especially a horse) that has a coat consisting of a dark base color (e.g. black, brown, chestnut, red) with an admixture of grey or white hairs; a roan horse (i.e. a horse with such a colouring)
sallee = a snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora; also known as a cabbage gum or white sally), a eucalyptus tree with a smooth pale grey, white, or yellow bark, which is native to eastern Australia; any of various eucalyptus trees; any of various acacia (wattle) trees
See: “Eucalyptus pauciflora”, Wikipedia
surcingle = (also spelt: circingle) a strap which goes around the body of an animal (especially horses) to keep a blanket, pack, or saddle in place
tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
’tis = (archaic) a contraction of “it is”
’twas = (archaic) a contraction of “it was”
van = an abbreviation of “vanguard”: in the lead, at the front; the advance unit of a military force; the forefront in an area, field, movement, profession, or science; the leaders of a cultural, intellectual, political, or social movement
warrigal = a brumby (a wild horse); can also refer to a dingo (also spelt: warragal, warragle, warragul)
wont = custom, habit, practice; accustomed; apt, inclined
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