Cattle rancher in the Argentine. Editorial comment prefaced to the first instalment of "Life in an Estancia" identifies the contributor as a Northumbrian "many years settled in South America" and working for the past four years as manager of a ranch in the pampas of Buenos Ayres. The comment states that the article consists of passages selected from letters written by the rancher to relatives in England. The Office Book records the three installments as arriving at the editorial office through the agency of Charles Knight, and records payment as handed to Knight. Ten years after the publication of the article in H.W., there appeared in A.Y.R. (May 11 1861.) "CattIe Farmers in the Pampas". It began with the announcement: "Some time ago I sent you a general description of an estancia, or cattle farm, in La Plata". A footnote attached to the announcement referred the reader to the H.W. "Life in an Estancia". In his A.Y.R. article, the writer described himself as "an old La Plata cattle farmer" who had lived in the pampas for fifteen years and was "well contented with his lot".

The contributor was a man of some education. Occasional literary references appear in his H.W. article. He mentions Don Quixote, one of Peter Nicholson's works on mathematics, and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations as among the books in his pampas library. He would seem to be the C S. Harvey, Esq., Buenos Ayres, listed in John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1855, as a subscriber to that work.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.