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layman. That he was anti-Catholic is not elsewhere stated and would seem to be disproved by the fact that Patrick Whyte, who like Davitt was a Catholic, became headmaster of the Model School in 1863. However, Whyte’s practice of his religion was pragmatic; he married twice outside the church and his daughters were reared as Presbyterians. The fervency or otherwise of Arthur Davitt’s religious beliefs is not known.
    Davitt was buried in the Catholic section of the Eastern Cemetery, Geelong, in a handsome monument whose design is attributed to Ellen. Two months later she appealed to her ‘higher tribunal’, aided by the politician James Grant, known for his gratis representation of the Eureka stockade defendants. She even put forward a motion to address the Victorian Parliament, another extraordinary move for a woman, which was “considered in Committee”. This bold and unusual move was declined, and she did not gain extra compensation. 24
    What she did do was take up public speaking, with a lecture at the Melbourne Mechanics Institute in April 1861. The topic, ‘The Rise and Progress of the Fine Arts in Spain’, was the first of an occasional series over the following year. The Examiner described her as “a lady whose name will doubtless be familiar to many of our readers”, indicating she was a public figure. The lecture was well-received, a vote of thanks being proposed by the writer Richard Hengist Horne. Nobody commented that her speaking in public contravened the prevailing ideal of feminine modesty. Anthony Trollope himself wrote: “oratory is connected chiefly with forensic, parliamentary and pulpit pursuits for which women are unfitted…” 25
    In Australia Ellen had precursors, with Caroline Harper Dexter and Cora Ann Weekes lecturing at the Sydney School of Arts in 1855 and 1859 respectively. Harper Dexter is believed to have been the first woman public speaker in Australia. All three chose to talk on women’s role, as if justifying their public display. Davitt’s lecture was described as an ‘essay in female heroism’ – something applicable not only to the subject matter, but the performance itself. 26
    Dexter wore a Bloomer outfit, of short dress and trousers (in 1851 she had lectured on and in this radical costume in Britain, and sparked outrage). She argued for better female education and a role beyond the domestic sphere.
    Davitt’s lecture made similar points, while excluding “the pulpit, the bar, and the healing art […] such matters might well be left to man”.
    The Age reported her lecture as an “exposition of the capabilities of the sex not only to perform their domestic and lowly works, but also, when called upon, to play a conspicuous part in the world’s history, as shown by the high position they had taken in literary, artistic, and even political life”. 27
    The newspaper reports on her public speaking were generally favourable:
    Mrs. Davitt’s lecture […] is a literary work of great ability, displaying a large acquaintance with history and both English and foreign literature. The style of composition too is both easy and pleasing, and the extracts remarkably well chosen. The lecturer whose delivery is effective and pleasing was repeatedly applauded in the course of the evening and, as far as we could gather, the audience were generally well pleased, both with the subject and the manner in which it was treated. 28
    The titles of her lectures – ‘The Influence of Art’, ‘Colonisation v. Convictism’, ‘The Vixens of Shakespeare’ – indicate she was positioning herself as what we would now term a public intellectual. Such was extraordinary, given her gender, the contemporary bias against women orators, and the frontier society of colonial Australia.
    Probably in need of funds, Ellen returned to teaching, in country Victoria. For a year, from August 1862 to