An Incident Happened In
This Expedition, Which Seems To Have Escaped The Notice Of The Author Of
The Treaties On The Canon De Bronze (Amable Barthelot), Which We
Have Noticed In A Former Chapter.
It certainly gives an authentic account
of a ship wreck having been suffered in the St. Lawrence, to which,
perhaps, the finding of the cannon, and the tradition about Jacques
Cartier, may with some possibility be referred.
The following is the
extract in question: 'Eight men and one bark drowned and lost, among whom
were Monsieur de Noire Fontaine, and one named La Vasseur of Constance.'
The error as to the name might easily arise, Jacques Cartier having been
there so short a time before, and his celebrity in the country being so
much greater than that of Roberval, or of any of his companions."
Cap Rouge Cottage is now owned by James Bowen, Esq.
BEAUSEJOUR.
Flooded in sunny silence sleep the kine,
In languid murmurs brooklets float and flow,
The quaint farm-gables in rich light shine
And round them jasmined honeysuckles twine,
And close beside them sun-flowers burn and blow.
About one mile beyond the St. Foye Church, there is a fertile farm of one,
hundred acres, lying chiefly on the north side of the road. The dwelling,
a roomy, one story cottage, stands about two acres from the highway, from
which a copse of trees interrupts the view.
There are at present in this spot, several embellishments - such as trout
ponds - which bid fair to render it worthy of the notice of men of taste.
It was merely necessary to assist nature in order to obtain here most
gratifying results. Between the road fence and the dwelling, a small brook
has worn its bed, at the bottom of a deep ravine, sweeping past the house
lawn westward, and then changing its course to due north-west the boundary
in that direction between that and the adjoining property. The banks of
the ravine are enclosed in a belt of every imaginable forest shrub, - wild
cherry, mountain ash, raspberry, blueberry, interspersed here and there
with superb specimens of oak, spruce, fir and pine. A second avenue has
been laid out amongst the trees between the road fence and the brook, to
connect with the lawn at the west of the house, by a neat little bridge,
resting on two square piers about twenty-five feet high: on either side of
the bridge a solid dam being constructed of the boulders and stones
removed from the lower portion of the property, intended to form two trout
ponds of a couple of acres in length each, a passage in the dam is left
for the water-fall, which is in full view of the bridge. On the edge of
the bank, overhanging the ravine, nature seems to have pointed out the
spot for a pavilion, from which the disciples of Isaac Walton can throw a
cast below. The green fringe of the mountain shrubs in bud, blossom or
fruit, encircling the farm, materially enhances the beauty of this sylvan
landscape, - the eye resting with particular pleasure on the vast expanse
of meadow of vivid green, clothed in most luxuriant grass, some 10,000
bundles of hay for the mower, in due time. About two acres from the house,
to the west, is placed a rustic seat, under two weather-beaten, though
still verdant oaks, which stretch their boughs across the river: closer
again to the cottage, the eye meets two pavilions. The new avenue, rustic
bridges, ponds and pavilions, are due to the good taste of the present
owner, Louis Bilodeau, Esq. This rural home was for several years occupied
in summer by Stephen Sewell, Esq., and does not belie its name -
Beausejour.
BELMONT.
Owners - Intendant Talon, 1670; General James Murray, 1765; Sir John
Caldwell, 1810; J. W. Dunscomb. Esquire, 1854-81.
That genial old joker, Sir Jonas Barrington, in his Sketches, has
invested the Irish homes and Irish gentry with features certainly very
original - at times so singular as to be difficult of acceptance. True, he
lived in an age and amongst a people proverbial for generous hospitality,
for conviviality carried to its extreme limit. Gargantuan banquets he
describes, pending which the bowls of punch and claret imbibed appear to
us something fabulous. Irish squires, roystering Irish barristers,
toddling home in pairs after having stowed away under their belts as many
as twelve bottles of claret a piece, during a prolonged sitting, i.e.,
from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. Such intrepid diners-out were known as "Twelve
bottle men;" and verily, if the old Judge is to be credited, they might
have been advantageously pitted even against such a Homeric guzzler as
history depicts Aurora Konigsmark's sturdy son, Marechal de Saxe, who, in
his youth, 'tis said, tossed off, at one draught and without experiencing
any ill-effects, one whole gallon of wine.
The first time our eye scanned the silent and deserted banquetting halls
of Belmont, with their lofty ceilings, and recalling the traditional
accounts of the hospitable gentlemen, whose joviality had once lit up the
scene, visions of social Ireland of Barrington's day floated uppermost in
our mind. We could fancy we saw the gay roysterers of times by-gone - first
a fete champetre of lively French officers from Quebec, making merry over
their Bordeaux or Burgundy, and celebrating the news of their recent
victories at Fontenoy, [259] Lauffeld or Carillon, to the jocund sound of
Vive la France! Vive le Marechal de Saxe! a la Claire Fontaine, &c
then Governor Murray, surrounded by his veterans, Guy Carleton, Col.
Caldwell, Majors Hale, Holland, and some of the new subjects, such as the
brave Chs. De Lanaudiere, [260] complimenting one another all around over
the feats of the respective armies at the two memorable battles of the
Plains, and all joining loyally in repeating the favorite toast in Wolfe's
fleet, British colours on every French fort, port and garrison in
America!
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