Magazine E., Hotel Dieu, on Rampart street, between Palace and Hope
Gates. - Acquired by purchase, 17th June, 1809.
The Defences along the Ramparts between Prescott Gate, Grand Battery,
Hope Gate and Palace Gate (Upper Town). - By right of conquest and
military appropriation (including Rampart street and cliff
underneath).
Inclined Plane Wharf and land to the Cime du Cap (top of the cliff) on
Champlain street, S. E. of the Citadel. - Acquired by purchase, 24th
Sept., 1781, afterwards used in connection with the Citadel.
Queen's Wharf premises, and small lot opposite, on Cul-de-Sac street -
Formerly a part of the defences of Quebec, site of a battery. -
Acquired by right of conquest, &c.
Land at the foot of the cliff in La Canoterie and St. Charles streets,
as a Glacis in front of the Town Works. - Acquired by purchase in 1846-
7, to prevent buildings against the defences.
Commissariat Fuel Yard, &c., on Palace Harbor, St. Roch's. - Part of
the Intendant's Palace property, held by conquest.
SEIGNIORY OF NEUVILLE COUNTY OF PORTNEUF.
(Site of Fort Jacques-Cartier.)
A strong defensive position, on the right bank of the River Jacques
Cartier, about 30 miles above Quebec. - Acquired by purchase from the
Seignior, 26th June, 1818.
THE ENVIRONS OF QUEBEC.
INTRODUCTION.
"Oh give me a home where the maple and pine
Around the wild heights so majestically twine;
Oh give me a home where the blue wave rolls free
From thy bosom, Superior, down to the sea."
"Could you not write the history of 'Our Parish,' and also sketch briefly
our country seats, marking out the spots connected with historical
events?" Thus discoursed one day to us, in her blandest tones, a fair
denizen of Sillery. There was a poser for a galant homme; a crusher
for the first litterateur of ... the parish. In vain did we allege
we were not a "Christopher North," but a mere retiring "antiquaire" - a
lover of books, birds, flowers, &c. The innate civility of a Frenchman
elicited from us an unreflective affirmative reply. Thus, compassionate
reader, was entrapped, caught and committed the first litterateur
of Sillery - irrevocably handed over to the tender mercies of all the
critics, present and future, in and out of the parish. Oh, my friends,
what a crunching up of literary bones in store! what an ample repast was
thus prepared for all the reviewers - the Jeffreys and LaHarpes - in and out
of the parish, should the luckless litterateur fail to assign fairy
scenery - important historical events - great battles, not only to each
renowned spot, but even to the merest potato-patch, turnip-ground or
cabbage-garden within our corporate limits? Yes, tremble for him.
Joking apart, is there not a formidable difficulty besetting our path - the
insipidity and monotony inseparable from the necessity which will devolve
on us of having constantly to discover new beauties in spots identical in
their main features; and should we, in order to vary the theme, mix up the
humorous with the rural, the historical, or the antiquarian style, may not
fun and humour be mistaken for satire - a complimentary notice for
flattery, above all others, a thing abhorrent to our nature?
