The
Ejected Amphibii Crossed The River In A Body And "Elected Domicile" In The
Roots Of An Elm Tree At Poplar Grove, Opposite And In Full View Of The
Castle, Probably By Way Of A Threat.
On the high river banks is a twelve-
pounder used formerly to crown a miniature fort erected over there.
We
remember on certain occasions hearing at a distance its loud boom.
Coucy-le-Castel is surrounded on two sides by a spacious piazza, and
stands on an elevated position close to the river bank. From the drawing-
room windows is visible the even course of the fairy Cahire-Coubat,
hurrying past in dark eddies, under the pendulous foliage of some graceful
elms which overhang the bank at Poplar Grove, the mansion of the late L.
T. McPherson, Esq. Now and again from the small fort, amidst the murmur of
rapids not far distant, you may catch the shrill note of the king-fisher
in his hasty flight over the limpid stream, or see a lively trout leap in
yonder deep pool; or else, in the midsummer vacation, see a birch canoe
lazily floating down from la mer Pacifique, impelled by the arm of
a pensive law student, dreaming perchance of Pothier or Blackstone, -
perchance of his lady love, whilst paddling to the air: -
"Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
Jamais je ne t'oublierai."
The neighborhood of running water; the warbling of the birds; the distant
lowing of kine in the green meadows; the variety and beauty of the
landscape, especially when the descending orb of day gilds the dark woods
to the west, furnish a strikingly rural spectacle at Coucy-le-Castel, thus
named from a French estate in Picardy, owned by the Badelarts, ancestors,
on the maternal side, of the Panets.
In 1861 Coucy-le-Castel was purchased by Judge Jean Thomas Taschereau, of
Quebec, under whose care it is acquiring each year new charms. A
plantation of deciduous trees and evergreens has taken the place of the
row of poplars which formerly lined the avenue. The Judge's Chateau
stands conspicuous amongst the pretty but less extensive surrounding
country seats, such as the old mansion of Fred. Andrews, Esq., Q. C., the
neat cottage of Fred. W. Andrews, Esq., Barrister, festooned with wild
vines.
RINGFIELD.
FRANCISCUS PRIMUS, DEI GRATIA, FRANCORUM REX REGNAT.
Inscription on cross erected 3d May, 1536, by Jacques Cartier.
We will be pardoned for devoting a larger space than for other country
seats, in describing Ringfield, on account of the important events of
which it was the theatre.
Close to the Dorchester Bridge to the west, on the Charlesbourg road,
there was once an extensive estate known as Smithville - five or six
hundred acres of table land owned by the late Charles Smith, Esq., who for
many years resided in the substantial large stone dwelling subsequently
occupied by A. Laurie, Esq., at present by Owen Murphy, Esq., opposite the
Marine Hospital. Some hundred acres, comprising the land on the west of
the ruisseau Lairet, known as Ferme des Anges, [282] were detached
from it and now form Ringfield, whose handsome villa is scarcely visible
from the Charlesbourg road in summer on account of the plantation of
evergreens and other forest trees which, with white-thorn hedge, line
its semicircular avenue on both sides. One might be inclined to regret
that this plantation has grown up so luxuriantly, as it interferes with
the striking view to be had here of the Island of Orleans, St. Lawrence,
and surrounding parishes. Before the trees assume their vernal honours
there can be counted, irrespective of the city spires, no less than
thirteen steeples of churches in so many parishes. Ringfield takes its
name from its circular meadow (Montcalm's hornwork). In rear it is bounded
to the west by the little stream called Lairet, with the ruisseau St.
Michel in view; to the south, its natural boundary is the meandering
Cahire-Coubat. [283]
Ringfield has even more to recommend it than the rural beauty common to
the majority of our country seats; here were enacted scenes calculated to
awaken the deepest interest in every student of Canadian history. On the
banks of the River St. Charles, 1535-36, during his second voyage of
discovery, Jacques Cartier, the intrepid navigator of St. Malo, more than
three centuries back, it is now generally supposed, wintered. We have
Champlain's [284] authority for this historical fact, though, Charlevoix
erroneously asserts that the great discoverer wintered on the banks of the
River Jacques Cartier, twenty-seven miles higher up than Quebec. A careful
examination of Lescarbot's Journal of Cartier's Second Voyage, and
the investigations of subsequent historians leave little room to doubt
Champlain's statement. [285] Jacques Cartier in his journal, written in
the quaint old style of that day, furnishes us curious descriptions of the
locality where he wintered, and of the adjoining Indian town,
Stadacone, the residence of the Chief Donacona. The Abbe Ferland
and other contemporary writers have assigned as the probable site of
Stadacona that part of Quebec which is now covered by a portion of the
suburbs of St. John, and by that part of St. Roch looking towards the St.
Charles. How graphically Jacques Cartier writes of that portion of the
River St. Lawrence opposite the Lower Town, less than a mile in width,
"deep and swift running," and also of the "goodly, fair and delectable bay
or creek convenient and fit to harbour ships," the St. Charles (St. Croix
or Holy Cross) river! and again of the spot wherein, he says, "we stayed
from the 15th of September, 1535, to the 6th May, 1536, and there our
ships remained dry." Cartier mentions the area of ground adjoining to
where he wintered "as goodly a plot of ground as possible may be seen,
and, wherewithal, very fruitful, full of goodly trees even as in France,
such as oak, elm, ash, walnut trees, white-thorns and vines that bring
forth fruit as big as any damsons, and many other sort of trees; tall hemp
as any in France, without any seed or any man's work or labor at all."
There are yet some noble specimens of elm, the survivors of a thick clump,
that once stood on the edge of the hornwork.
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