It Was
Offered To Lord Metcalfe Subsequently As A Country Seat, But For Reasons
Which It Is Unnecessary To Enter Into, The Negotiations Fell Through.
Mr.
Ryland occupied it till his removal from the Quebec to the Montreal
Registry, Office.
Some years back the property was purchased by Mr. James
Dinning, Quebec, who reserved for himself the farm, one hundred and five
acres in extent, and sold in 1856, the house and twenty-three acres
thereunto attached to a wealthy and whimsical old ironfounder of Quebec,
Mr. John H. Galbraith. This thrifty tradesman, in order to keep his hand
in order, like Thackeray's hero, continued the pursuit of his former
occupation, the smelting of ore, even under the perfumed groves of Mount
Lilac, and erected there an extensive grapery and conservatory, and a
foundry as well; the same furnace blast thus served to produce, under
glass, fragrant flowers - exquisite grapes - melting peaches, as well as
solid pig iron and first class stove plates.
Mount Lilac owed a divided allegiance to Vulcan and Flora. Which of the
home products pleased, the most the worthy Mr. Galbraith? is still an open
question. [304]
A VISIT TO THE INDIAN LORETTE.
Of the many attractive sites in the environs of the city, few contain in a
greater degree than the Huron village of Lorette during the leafy months
of June, July and September, picturesque scenery, combined with a wealth
of historical associations. The nine miles intervening between Quebec and
the rustic auberge of the village, thanks to an excellent turnpike,
can be spanned in little more than an hour. I shall now attempt to
recapitulate some of the sights and incidents of travel which recently
befell me, whilst escorting to Lorette an Old World tourist, of very high
literary estate.
With a mellow autumnal sun, just sufficient to bronze the sombre tints,
lingering at the close of the Indian summer, we left the St. Louis Hotel,
the headquarters of tourists, and rapidly drove through Fabrique and
Palace streets, towards the unsightly gap in our city walls, of yore
yclept Palace Gate, which all Lord Dufferin's prestige failed to protect
against vandalism, but which, thanks to his initiative, we expect yet to
see bridged over with, graceful turrets and Norman towers.
A turn to the west brought us opposite to the scarcely perceptible ruins
of the Palace [305] of the French Intendants, destroyed by the English
shells in 1775, to dislodge Arnold and Montgomery's New England soldiery.
The park which intervened formerly between it and the St. Charles was many
years back converted into a wood yard to store the fuel for the garrison,
a portion now is used as a cattle market, opposite, stands the station and
freight sheds of the Q. M. O. & O. Railway, the road skirts the park
towards the populous St. Roch suburbs, rebuilt and transformed since the
great fire of the 28th May, 1845, which destroyed 1,600 houses, occupying
the site of former spacious pasture grounds for the city cows, styled by
the early French La Vacherie. In a trice we reach Dorchester bridge, the
second one, built there in 1822, the first, opened with great pomp by His
Excellency Lord Dorchester in 1789, having been constructed a few acres to
the west, and called after him. The bridge, as a means of crossing from
one shore to the other, is an undoubted improvement on the scow used up to
1789.
One of the first objects on quitting the bridge and diverging westward to
the Charlesbourg road, on the river bank, is the stately, solid, antique
mansion of the late C. Smith, Esq, who at one time owned nearly all the
broad acres intervening between the house and Gros Pin. It took for
a time the name of Smithville and was inherited by several members of his
family, who built cosy houses round it. These green fields, fringed with
white birch and spruce plantations, are watered by the St. Charles, the
Kahir-Koubat [306] of ancient days. In rear of one of the first villas
Ringfield, owned by Geo. Holmes Parke, Esq., runs the diminutive stream,
the Lairet, at the confluence of which Jacques Cartier wintered in 1535-
6, leaving, there one of his ships, the Petite-Hermine, of 60 tons,
whose decayed oak timbers were exhumed in 1843, by Jos. Hamel, City
Surveyor of Quebec. A very remarkable vestige of French domination exists
behind the villa of Mr. Parke - a circular field (hence the name Ring-
field) covering about twelve acres, surrounded by a ditch, with an earth
work about twenty feet high, to the east, to shield its inmates from the
shot of Wolfe's fleet lying at the entrance of the St. Charles, before
Quebec. A minute description has been given by General Levi's aide-de-
camp, the Chevalier Johnstone, [307] of what was going on in this
earthwork, where at noon, on the 13th Sept., 1759, were mustered the
disorganized French squadrons in full retreat from the Plains of Abraham
toward their camp at Beauport. Here, on that fatal day, was debated the
surrender of the colony - the close of French rule: here also, close by, in
1535-6, was the cradle of French power, the first settlement and winter
quarters of the French pioneers - Jacques Cartier's hardy little band.
From this spot, at eight o'clock that night (13th Sept.), began the French
retreat towards the Charlesbourg church; at 4 a.m. next day the army was
at Cap Rouge, disordered, panic-stricken! Oh! where was the heroic Levi!
On ascending a hill (Clearihue's) to the north, the eye gathers in the
contour of a dense grove, hiding in its drooping folds "Auvergne," the
former secluded country seat of Chief Justice Jonathan Sewell, now owned
by George Alford, Esq.
A mile to the north, in the deep recesses of Bourg-Royal, rest the fast
crumbling and now insignificant ruins of the only rural Chateau of
French origin round Quebec. Was it built by Talon, or by Bigot?
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