Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present

Front matter

A SEQUEL TO

QUEBEC PAST AND PRESENT.

BY

Preface

More than once French Canada had threatened the New England Settlements ; more than once it had acted like a barrier to the expansion and consolidation of the conquering Anglo-Saxon race.

The Environs of Quebec are, indeed, classic soil, trodden by the footsteps of many of the most remarkable men in American History: Cartier, Champlain, Phipps, d'lberville, Laval, Frontenac, La Gralissonnere, Wolfe, Montcalm, Levis, Amherst, Murray, Gruy Carleton, Nelson, Cook, Bougainville, Jervis, Montgomery, Arnold, DeSalaberry, Brock and others. Here, in early times, on the shore of the majestic St. Lawrence, stood the wigwam and canoe of the marauding savage ; here, was heard the clang of French sabre and Scotch claymore in deadly encounter — the din of battle on the tented field ; here, — but no further — had surged the wave of American invasion ; here, have bivouaced on more than one gory battle-field, the gay warrior from the banks of the Seine, the staunch musketeers of Old England, the unerring riflemen of New York, Massachusetts and E-hode Island. Another spot calculated to interest us is the vast expanse from the Plains to Cap Eouge, round by Ste. Foye to the city, for which I intend to use its former more general name, Sillery : the ground is not new for us, as its annals and country seats furnished, in 1865, materials for sketches, published that year under the title of Maple Leaves. These sketches having long since disappeared from book-stores, at the request of several enlightened patrons, I re-publish from them some selections, with anecdotes and annotations. Several other sites round Quebec — Beauport, Charlesbourg, the Falls of Montmorency and of the Chaudiere, Chateau Bigot, Lorette and its Hurons — will, of necessity, find a resting place in this repertory of Quebec history, which closes a labour of love, the series of works on Canada, commenced by me in 1861.

PREFACE.

vii

In order to oiihaiice the usefulness of this work, extensive and A'aried historical matter has been included in the appendix for reference.

To my many friends, whose notes and advice have been so freely placed at my disposal, I return my grateful thanks.

J. M. LeMoine.

Spencer G-range, December, 1881.

COI^TENTS.

Chapter 1. Fiest Impressions Of Quebec

PAGE

Quebec as seen by Tourists — Descriptions — by Francis Parkman — M. Sand — Eliot Warburton — Thoreau — Mrs. Moodie — Cliarles Dickens — Marmier — Sir Charles Dilke — Henry Ward Beecher — Professor Silliman — Charles Lever — Capt. Butler — Alfred Hawkins — Hon. P. J. O. Chauveau 1

Chapter II. Foundation Of Quebec

Samuel de Champlain — L'Abitation — the Dwelling of Champlain — Chief Donaconna — Jacques Cartier's Landing — Interview between Cartier and Donaconna 13

Chapter III. The Ancient Capital

Streets and By-ways of the Old City — ^^ames of Famous

Men preserved by Street Names — Dangerous Streets. . . 18

THE UPPER TOWN.

Louis Hebert, the First Resident— The First Street — The First Horse — Marquis de Tracy — St. Louis Street — The Quebec Gazette — William Brown — Samuel Neilson — Dr. Wilkie — Lawyers — Madame Pean — Montgomery's Assault — Death of Montcalm — Society in Early

X. CONTENTS.

PAGE

English Times— Theatre— Early Society Poets — Literature— United Empire Loyalists — St. Louis Hotel — The Frechette Dinner — Mr. Frechette's Speech — Mr. Laiirier's Speech — Mr. Stewart's Speech — Mr. LeMay's Speech — Mr. LeMoine's Speech — Fort St. Louis — Chateau St. Louis — Haldimand Castle — The Council — Dress of the Councillors — A Braggart Mohawk Hanged — The New Chateau — Fealty and Homage — Re-building by Frontenac — Quebec Agricultural Society — The Loyal League — An Antique Stone — Lord Edward Fitzgerald — The Duke of Richmond — Sir Peregrine Maitland — John Gait — Lord Dorchester — Isaac Weld — Dutferin Terrace — Laying of Corner Stone — Rev. Dr. Sparks — St. Andrew's Church — The Ly mburners — Hugh McQuarters James Thompson — The Rosses — The Georges — Parloir Street — Jupiter Street — St. George Street — Laval University— Palace Street — Statue of General Wolfe — St. Famille Street — ^St. Stanislas Street— Trinity Chapel — Theatre Royal — The Literary and Historical Society — Mr. LeMoine's Lecture on Arnold's Assault — The Centenary Fete — The Jesuit's Church — The Jesuit's Barracks — The Recollet Convent— The Palace— Couillard Street— The Union Hotel— The Prisoners of 1812— Bell's Cavalry — Rue du Tresor — Royal Notaries — St. John Street — Le Club des Anciens — La Cj'ucifix Outrage — Olden Times in the Ancient Capital — Durham Terrace. 22 the lower town.

Le Chien d'Or — The Elevator — Mountain Hill — Landing of the Marquis de Tracy — Landing of the Earl of Durham — The Inconstants— St. Peter Street — Jean Tach^ — The Chronicle Building — The Neptune Inn — Press Gangs at Quebec — Notre Dame Des Yictoires — Notre Dame Street — Dalhousie Street — Public Whipping — Sous-le-Fort Street— The Cul-de-Sac— The King's Wharf— A Fighting Stevedore — M. Marmier — Sault-au-Matelot Street — Dog Lane — St. Paul Street — Pointe a Carey — The Duke of Saxc Weimar 170

Contents

xi.

ST. roch's suburbs.

PAGE

Chapter IV. Suburbs Of Quebec

St. Louis Road — Parliament Buildings — Bleak House — Martello Towers — Buttes-a-Nepveu — Wolfe's Landing Place — Ste. Foye Road — Association Hall 254

CHAPTER Y.

MODERN QUEBEC.

City Government — Boundaries of the Wards — War Department Property 266

Part II. The Environs Of Quebec

PAGE

Our Country Seats 300

The Plains op Abraham 301

The Battle-field 304

Battle-field Park 311

The Duke of Kent's Lodge — Montmorenci 312

L'AsYLE Champjetre 319

Marchmont — Anecdote of Wolfe's Army.. 323 xii. CONTENTS.

PAGE

WoLFESFiELD — Caiiyle's Account of the Capture of Quebec. 327

Elm Grove , 330

Thornhill 330

Spencer Wood — The Perceval Family — A F§te Champetre

Spencer Grange — Audubon at Quebec 344

Bagatelle Cottage 349

woodfield 350

Sous LEs Bois 354

SiLLERY House 355

St. Michael's Church — Sillery 355

Mount Hermon 356

Bardfield — Tlie Mountain Family 361

Benmore — The Sparrows and Quails 363

Clermont 36*7

The Wild Flowers of Sillery 368

Beauvoir 3*73

Montague Cottage — The History of Emily Montague 3*75

Kirk Ella 378

Cataracoui 380

Eosewood 381

e/avenswood 382

The Woods of Sillery 384

longwood 385

Meadowbanks — A Eaid in 1775 390

The Highlands 393

Winter Fox Hunting in Canada 394

Cap Eouge Cottage 397

Beausejour 404

Belmont — Irish Education in the Olden Time 405

Holland Farm 410

The Holland Tree — A Scandal of the last Century 413

Ham WOOD 417

Bijou — Anecdote of Wolfe's Army 419

Morton Lodge 422

Westfield 423

Coucy-le-Castel 426

Eingfield — Journal of Chevalier Johnstone 428

Castor Ville 434

The Joys of Winter 436

CONTENTS. xiii.

PAGE

The Manor House — Beauport — The Inscription 439

Mount Lilac — Beauport 448

A YisiT to Indian Lorette 453

Tahourenche and the Hurons of Lorette 456

Indian Customs 460

Chateau Bigot — The Algonquin Maid — Marmette's Eomance 46^7 The Falls of the Chaudiere 480 appendix.

PAGE

Jacques Cartier's Officers and Crew 483

Jacques Quartier, the Pilot 484

Discovery of the Remains of Jacques Cartiei's Vessel 484

The Bronze Cannon 487

The French who remained after the Capitulation of 1629 488

The Arms of the Dominion 489

Militia Uniforms 491

Horses 492

Ship-building at Quebec under French Domination 493

The Conquest of New York 495

The French Refugees of Oxford, Mass 497

The Venerable Mother of the Incarnation 499

Variation of the Needle at Quebec 500

Our City Bells 501

General Wolfe's Statue 502

Vente d'une Negresse a Quebec 505

The Ice-Shove— April 1874 506

The Pistols and Sash of General Wolfe 507

The Post Oface 508

Monument to the Victims of 1837-8 510

Fines for Duelling 512

Memorabilia 513

Executions at Quebec Gaol 514

Quebec Golf Club 518

Quebec Snowshoe Club 519 xiv.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

French Governors of Canada 522

English Governors 523

MAPS.

Plan of Quebec in 1759 To face title.

Map to Illustrate the Siege of Quebec in 1759 ....To face p. 301 Map to Illustrate Operations of Generals de Levis

and Murray, 1759-60 To face p. 419

Plan of the Links— Quebec Golf Club To face p. 518 p] R R A T A .

Page 6 Foot note, for " 1869 " read 1851.

Page 34, line 4, of foot note for 1871 " read 1873.

Page 107, line 11 (f) add a brother of de Longueuil.

Page 182, last line of note, leave out resided at Quebec 1741-46." Page 186, line 34, for " belonged," read, is said to have belonged.

Page 262, line 13, read " contains several windows."

Page 263, foot note, read " Kirk Ella, the property of Charles Ernest Levey, Esquire, Meadowbank the summer residence of Lt.-Col. Andrew Stuart." Page 299, line 13, for " Sames " read Samos.

Page 316, line 20, for Sarnoe '' read Darnoe.

Page 331, line 18, for " Shears " read Stuart.

Page 337, line 30, for " Tachereau " read Taschereau. Page 463, line 26, for " none " read some.

Page 438, line 35, for "Heure " read Hector.

Page 467, line 32, for " Benj-" read Benson J.

Page 470, line 4 from bottom for " 15,000 leagues " read 15,000 arpents.

The description of Asvle Champ^tre was written by Dr. P. Bender, the biographer of Joseph Perrault, the founder of Asyle CuAMPiiTRK.

PICTURESQUE QUEBEC.

Chapter 1. First Impressions Of Quebec

Quebec, founded by Samuel de Chamjilain, in 1608, has certainly much to recommend her, by her monuments, her historical memories and her scenery, to the traveller — the scholar — the historian. The wintering of the venturesome Jacques Cartier on the banks of the 8t. Charles in 1535-6, by its remoteness, is an incident of interest, not only to Canadians, but also to every denizen of America. It takes one back to an era nearly coeval with the discovery of the continent by Columbus — much anterior to the foundation of Jamestown, in 1607 — anterior to that of St. Augustine, in Florida. Quebec, has, then, a right to call herself an old, a very old, city of the west.

The colonization of Canada, or, as it was formerly called. New France, was undertaken by French merchants engaged in the fur trade, close on whose steps followed a host of devoted missionaries who found, in the forests

A

PICTURESQUE QUEBEC.

of this new and attractive country, ample scope for the exercise of their religious enthusiasm. It was at Quebec that these Christian heroes landed ; from hence they started for the forest primeval, the bearers of the olive branch of Christianity, an unfailing token of civilization.

A fatal mistake committed at the outset by the French commanders, in taking sides in the Indian wars, more than once brought the incipient colony to the verge of ruin. During these periods, scores of devoted missionaries fell under the scalping knife or suffered incredible tortures amongst the merciless savages whom they had come to reclaim. Indian massacres became so frequent, so appalling, that on several occasions the French thought seriously of giving up the colony forever. The rivalry between France and England, added to the hardships and dangers of the few hardy colonists established at Quebec. Its environs, the shores of its noble river, more than once became the battle-field of European armies. These are periods of strife, happily gone by, we hope, forever.

In his " Pioneers of France in the Neio World,'^ the gifted Francis Parkman mournfully reviews the vanished glories of old France in her former vast dominions in America : —

" The French dominion is a memory of the past ; and when we evoke its departed shades, they rise upon us from their graves in strange romantic guise. Again their ghostly camp-fires seem to burn, and the fitful Hght is cast around on lord and vassal and black-robed priest, mingled with wild forms of savage warriors, knit in close fellowship on the same stern errand. A boundless vision grows upon us: an untamed continent; vast wastes of forest verdure; mountains silent in primeval sleep; river, lake, and glimmering pool ; wilderness oceans mingling with the sky. Such was the domain which France conquered for civilization. Plumed helmets gleamed in the shade of its forests ; priestly vestments in its dens and fastnesses of ancient barbarism. Men steeped in antique learning, pale with the close breath of the cloister, here spent the noon and evening of their lives, ruled savage hordes with a mild, parental sway, and stood serene before the direst shapes of death. Men of a courtly nurture, heirs to the polish of a far-reaching ancestry, here, with their dauntless hardihood, put to shame the boldest sons of toil."

AS SEEN BY TOURISTS.

Of all this mighty empire of the past, Quebec was the undisputed capital, the fortress, the keystone.

It would be a curious study to place in juxtaposition the imi:)ressions produced on Tourists by the view of Quebec and its environs — from the era of Jacques Cartier, the discoverer of Canada, down to that of the Earl of DufFerin, one of its truest fiiends.

Champlain, La Potherie, La Hontan, Le Beau, Du Creux (Creuxius), Peter Kalm, Knox, Silliman, Ampere, Mrs. Moodie, Dickens, Lever, Anthony Ti-ollope, Sala, Thoreau, Warburton, Marmier, Capt. Butler, Sir Charles Dilke, Henry Ward Beecher, have all left their impressions of the rocky citadel : let us gaze on a few of their vivid pictures.

"The scenic beauty of Quebec has beea the theme of general eulogy. The majestic ap})eai-ance of Cape Diamond and the fortifications, the cupolas and minarets, like those of an eastern city, blazing and sparkling in the sun, the loveliness of the panorama, the noble basin, like a sheet of purest silver, in which might ride with safety a hundred sail of the line, the graceful meandering of the river St. Charles, the numerous village spires on either side of the St. Lawrence, the fertile fields dotted with innumerable cottages, the abode of a rich and moral peasantry, — the distant falls of Montmorency, — the park like scenery of Point Levis, — the beauteous Isle of Orleans, — and more distant still, the frowning Cape Tourmente, and the lofty range of purple mountains of the most picturesque form, which, without exaggeration, is scarcely to be surpassed in any part of the world." (Hawkins' Picture of Quebec.)

" Quebec recalls Angouleme to my mind : in the upper city, stairways, narrow streets, ancient houses on the verge of the cliff"; in the lower city, the new fortunes, commerce, workmen; — in both, many shops and much activity." (M. Sand.)

" Take mountain and plain, sinuous river, and broad, tranquil waters, stately ship and tiny boat, gentle hill and shady valley, bold headland and rich, fruitful fields, frowning battlement and cheerful villa, glittering dome and rural sj^ire, flowery garden and sombre forest, — group them all into the choicest picture of ideal beauty your fancy can create ; arch it over with a cloudless sky, light it up with a radiant sun, and lest the sheen should be too dazzling, hang a veil of lighted haze over all, to soften the lines and perfect the repose, — you will then have seen Quebec on this September morning." (Eliot Warburton.)

PICTURESQUE QUEBEC.

" I rubbed my eyes to be sure I was in the nineteenth century, and not entering one of those portals which sometimes adorn the frontispiece of old black-letter volumes. I though it would be a good place to read Froissart's Chronicles. It was such a reminiscence of the Middle Ages as Scott's Novels.

" Too much has not been said about the scenery of Quebec. The fortilications of Cape Diamond are omnipresent. You travel ten, twenty, thirty miles up or down the river's banks, you ramble fifteen miles among the hills on cither side, and then, when you have long since forgotten them, perchance slept on them by the way, at a turn of the road or of your body, there

they are still with their geometry against the sky

No wonder if Jacques Cartier's pilot exclaimed in Norman- French Que bee f ("What a peak!") when he saw this cape, as some suppose. Every modern traveller uses a similar expression

" The view from Cape Diamond has been compared by European travellers with the most remarkable views of a similar kind in Europe, such as those from Edinburgh Castle, Gibraltar, Cintra, and others, and preferred by many. A main peculiarity in this, compared with other views which I have beheld, is that it is from the ramparts of a fortified city, and not from a solitary and

majestic river cape alone that this view is obtained I still

remember the harbour far beneath me, sparkling like silver in the sun, — the answering headlands of Point Levis on the south-east, — the frowning Cape Tourmente abruptly bounding the seaward view in the north-east, — the villages of Lorette and Charlesbourg on the north, — and farther west, the distant Yal Cartier, sparkling with white cottages, hardly removed by distance through the clear air, — not to mention a few blue mountains along the horizon in that direction. You look out from the ramparts of the citadel beyond the frontiers of civilization. Yonder small group of hills, according to the guide-book, forms the portals of the wilds which are trodden only by the feet of the Indian hunters as far as Hudson's Bay." (Thoreau).

Mrs. Moodie (Susannah Strickland), in her sketches of Canadian life, graphically delineates her trip from G-rosse Isle to Quebec, and the appearance of the city itself from the river : —

" On the 22nd of September (1832), the anchor was weighed, and we bade a long farewell to Grosse Isle. As our vessel sti'uck into mid-channel, I cast a last lingering look at the beautiful shore we were leaving. Cradled in the arms of the St. Lawrence, and basking in the bright rays of the morning sun, the island and its sister grouj) looked like a second Eden just emerged from the

AS SEEN BY TOURISTS.

waters of chaos. The day was warm, and the cloudless heavens of that peculiar azure tint which gives to the Canadian skies and waters a brilliancy unknown in more northern latitudes. The air was pure and elastic; the sun shone out with uncommon splendour, ligliting up the changing woods with a rich mellow colouring, com])osed of a thousand brilliant and vivid dyes. The mighty river rolled flashing and sparkling onward, impelled by a strong breeze that tipj^ed its short rolling surges with a crest of snowy foam.

" Never shall I forget that short voyage from Grosse Isle to Quebec. What wonderful combinations of beauty and grandeur and power, at every winding of that noble river !

" Every perception of my mind became absorbed into the one sense of seeing, when, upon rounding Point Levis,--we cast anchor before Quebec. What a scene ! Can the world produce another ? Edinbui'gh had been the heau ideal to me of all that was beautiful in nature — a vision of the Northern Highlands had haunted my dreams across the Atlantic ; but all these past recollections faded before pj-esent of Quebec. Nature has ransacked all our grandest elements to form this astonishing panorama. There, frowns the cloud-capjDcd mountain, and below, the cataract foams and thunders ; woods and rock and river combine to lend their aid in making the picture perfect, and worthy of its Divine originator. The i^recipitous bank upon which the city lies piled, reflected in the still, deep waters at its base, greatly enhances the romantic beauty of the situation. The mellow and serene glow of the autumn day harmonized so perfectly with the solemn grandeur of the scene around me, and sank so silently and deeply into my soul, that m}^ sj)irit fell prostrate before it, and I melted involuntarily into tears."

Such the poetic visions which were awakened in the

poetic mind of the brilliant author of " Roughing it, in the

Bush.'' Charles Dickens also had his say in this matter,

on his visit to Quebec, in May 1842, where he was the

guest of the President of the Literary and Historicat Society,

Dr. John Charlton Fisher : —

" The impression made upon the visitor by this Gibraltar of America, its giddy heights, its citadel suspended, as it were, in the air; its picturesque steep streets and frowning gateways; and the gj)lendid views which burst upon the eye at every turn, is at once unique and lasting. It is a place not to be foi'gotten or mixed up in the mind with other places, or altered for a moment in the crowd of scenes a traveller can recall. Apart from the realities of this most picturesque city, there are associa-

PICTURESQUE QUEBEC.

tions clustering about it which would make a desert rich in interest. The dangerous precipice along whose rocky front Wolfe and his brave companions climbed to glory; the Plains of Abraham, where he received his mortal wound ; the fortress so chivalrously defended by Montcalm; and his soldier's grave, dug for him when yet alive, by the bursting of a shell, are not the least among them, or among the gallant incidents of history. That is a noble monument too, and worthy of two great nations, which perpetuates the memory of both brave Generals, and on which their names are jointly written,

" The city is rich in public institutions and in Catholic churches and charities, but it is mainly in the prospect from the site of the Old Government House and from the Citadel, that its surpassing beauty lies. The exquisite expanse of countrj^, rich in held and forest, mountain-heights and Avater, which lies stretched out before the view, with miles of Canadian villages, glancing in long white streaks, like veins along the landscape; the motley crowd of gables, roofs and chimney tops in the old hilly town immediately at hand ; the beautiful St. Lawrence sparkling and flashing in the sunlight; and the tiny ships below the rock from which you gaze, whose distant rigging looks like spiders' webs against the light, while casks and barrels on their decks dwindle into toys, and busy mariners become so many puppets ; all this framed by a sunken window* in the fortress and looked at from the shadowed room within, forms one of the brightest and most enchanting pictures that the ejQ can rest upon." (Dickens' American Notes.)

A distinguished French litterateur, fresh from the sunny banks of the Seine, thus discourses anent the ancient capital ; we translate : —

Few cities," says M. Marmier, f offer as many striking contrasts as Quebec, a fortress and a commercial city together, built upon the summit of a rock as the nest of an eagle, while her vessels are everywhere wrinkling the face of the ocean ; an American city inhabited by French colonists, governed by England, and garrisoned with Scotch regiments ; % a city of the middle ages by most of its ancient institutions, while it is submitted to all the combinations of modern constitutional government ; an European city by its civilization and its habits of refinement,

* Mr. and Mrs. Dickens had lunched in the Citadel on that May 27th, 1842, the admired guests of the officers of the Grenadier Guards stationed there.

f Letires sur V AmSrique : X. Marmier, Paris, 1869.

X The Highlanders— VSth. 79th, and 9;3rd.

AS SEEN BY TOURISTS. iT

and still close by, the remnants of the Indian tribes and the barren mountains of the north ; a city of about the same latitude as Paris, while successively combinino^ the torrid climate of southern regions with the severities of an hyperborean winter; a city at the same time Catholic and Protestant, where the labours of our (French) missions are still uninteiTupted alongside of the undertakings of the Bible Society, and where the Jesuits driven out of our own country (France) find a place of refuge under the aegis of British Puritanism !"

An American tourist thus epitomises the sights : —

" As the seat of French power in America until 1*759, the great fortress of English rule in British America, and the key of the St. Lawrence, Quebec must possess interest of no ordinary character for well-informed tourists. To the traveller, there are innumerable points and items vastly interesting and curious : — the citadel and forts of Cape Diamond, with their impregnable ramparts that rival Gibraltar in strength and endurance against siege ; the old walls of the city and their gates, each of which has its legend of war and bloody assault and repulse; the plains of Abraham, every foot of which is commemoi-ated with blood and battle ; Wolfe's monument, where the gallant and brave soldier died with a shout of victory on his lips ; the Martello towers, with their subterranean communications with the citadel ; the antique churches, paintings, and all their paraphernalia, treasures, and curiosities thnt are i-eligionsly preserved therein ; the falls of Montmorency ; the natural steps ; Montcalm's house, and a thousand other relics of the mysterious past that has hallowed these with all the mystic interest that attaches to antiquity, great deeds, and beautiful memories. To see all these, a tourist requires at least two days' time ; and surely no one who pretends to be a traveller, in these days of rapid transit will fail to visit Quebec, the best city, the most hospitable place, and richer in its wealth of rare sights and grand old memorials, French peculiarities and English oddities, than any other city on this broad continent."

" Leaving the citadel, we are once more in the European Middle ages. Gates and posterns, cranky steps that lead up to lofty, gabled houses, with sharp French roofs of burnished tin, like those of Liege; processions of the Host; altars decked with flowers; statues of the Virgin ; sabots, blouses, and the scarlet of the British lines-man, — all these are seen in narrow streets and markets that are graced with many a Cotentin lace cap, and all within forty miles of the down-east, Yankee state of Maine. It

is not far from New England to Old France There

has been no dying out of the race among the French Canadians. They number twenty times the thousand that they did 100 years

PICTURESQUE QUEBEC.

aero. The American soil has left physical type, religion, language, and laws absolutely untouched. They herd together in their rambling villages, dance to the fiddle after Mass on Sundays, — as gayly as once did their Norman sires, — and keep up the fleur-de-lys and the memory of Montcalm. More French than the French are the Lower Canada habitans. The pulse-beat of the continent finds no echo here." — (Sir Charles Dilke.)

In the rosy days of his budding fame, the gifted Henry Ward Beecher discoursed as follows of the Eock City=^: —

" Curious old Quebec ! — of all the cities on the continent of

America, the quaintest It is a populated cliff.

It is a mighty rock, scarped and graded, and made to hold houses and castles which, by a proper natural law, ought to slide off' from its back, like an ungirded load from a camel's back. But they stick. At the foot of the rocks, the space of several

streets in width has been stolen from the river We

landed

"Away we went, climbing the steep streets at a canter with little horses hardly bigger than flies, with an aj^titude for climbing perpendicular walls. It was strange to enter a walled cit}" through low and gloomy gates, on this continent of America. Here was a small bit of mediaeval Europe perched upon a rock, and dried for keeping, in this north-east corner of America, a curiosity that has not its equal, in its kind, on this side of the ocean

" We rode about as if we were in a picture-book, turning over

a new leaf at each street! The place should always

be kept old. Let people go somewhere else for modern improvements. It is a shame, when Quebec placed herself far out of the way, up in the very neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay, that it should be hunted and harassed with new-fangled notions, and that all the charming inconveniences and irregularities of narrow and tortuous streets, that so delight a traveller's eyes, should be altered to suit the fantastic notions of modern people

" Our stay in Quebec was too short by far. But it was long enough to make it certain that we shall come back again. A summer in Canada would form one of the most delightful holidays that we can imagine. We mean to prove our sincerity by our conduct. And then, if it is not all that our imagination promises, we will write again and confess."

Professor Benjamin Silliman discourses thus : —

"A seat of ancient dominion — now hoary with the lapse of

* The New York Ledger.

AS SEEN BY TOURISTS.

more than two centuries — formerly the seat of a French empire in the west — lost and won by the blood of gallant armies, and of ilhisti'ious commanders — throned on a rock, and defended by all the proud defiance of war! Who could api)roach such a cit}^ without emotion? Who in Canada has not longed to cast his e3^es on the water-girt rocks and towers of Quebec." — (Silliman's Tour in Canada^ 1819.)

Charles Lever has left a curious glimpse of Quebec from Diamond Harbour, as seen by his incomparable Irish Gril Bias, Mr. Cornelius Cregan, the appreciated lodger of Madam Thomas John Da^ds at the " Hotel Davis."

" As viewed from Diamond Harbour, a more striking city than Quebec is seldom seen. The great rock rising above the Lower Town, and crowned with its batteries, all bristling with guns, seemed to my eyes the very realization of impregnability. I looked upon the ship that lay ti-anquilly on the water below, and whose decks were thronged with blue-jackets — to the Highlander who paced his short path as sentry, some hundred feet high upon the wall of the fortress; and I thought to myself with such defenders as these that standard yonder need never carry any other banner. The wdiole view is panoramic; the bending of the river shuts out the channel by which you have made your approach, giving the semblance of a lake, on whose surface vessels of every nation lie at anchor, some with the sails hung out to dry, gracefully drooping from the taper spars ; others refitting again for sea, and loading the huge pine-trunks moored as vast rafts to the stern. There were people everywhere; all was motion, life and activity. Jolly-boats with twenty oars, man-of-war gigs bounding rapidly past them with eight; canoes skimming by without a ripple, and seemingly without impulse, till you caught sight of the lounging figure, who lay at full length in the stern, and whose red features were scarce distinguishable from the copper-coloured bark of his boat. Some moved upon the rafts, and even upon single trunks of trees, as, separated from the mass, they floated down on the swift current, boat-hook in hand to catch at the first object chance might offer them. The quays and the streets leading down to them were all thronged ; and as you cast your e3"es upwards, here and there above the tall roofs might be seen the winding of stairs that lead to the Upper Town, alike dark with the moving tide of men. On every embrasure and gallery, on every terrace and platform, it was the same. jN^ever did I behold such a human tide.