Toasts to Emigration: Travel Tuesday

We are used to seeing sorrowful pictures of emgirants leaving their homeland for abroad.  A slightly different,   more joyous image is portayed in this article from a local paper, though I am sure the events were still tinged with sadness.

HAWICK MONTHLY ADVERTISER. 4th MAY 1854

“EMIGRATIoN. – The number of emigrants who have left this town, and are about to leave it for Australia and America, is very great. As a proof we may state that upwards of 60 chests of drawers belonging to families about to emigrate have been sold by public roup [auction] during the course of the present spring, and there are yet a good many safes to come before Whitsunday. Many of those who have gone have left their families behind them, so eager are people to get away from the mother country. Nearly 50 have departed this week, all of them in good spirits. These are chiefly for Australia. Their departure has given occasion to numerous marks of respect. There have been emigrants’ balls, emigrants’ suppers, and not a few testimonials of a more solid description have been given.”