By the millionaire
proprietor during a four years' residence in Italy, France and Germany.
Such we remember Spencer Wood in its palmiest days, when it was the ornate
home of a man of taste, the late Henry Atkinson, Esquire, the President of
the Horticultural Society of Quebec.
May I be pardoned, for lingering lovingly on this old spot, recalling
"childhood scenes" of one dear to me and mine!
The following, written by a valued old friend of Mr. Atkinson, is dated
Brighton, England:
On a sketch of Spencer Wood sent to the writer (Miss A.), with her
album, Oct. 18, 1848.
Dear Spencer Wood! What a group of pleasing remembrances are clustered
around me as I gaze upon this visible image and type of thee. Thy
classic lawn, with its antiquated oaks and solemn pines; thy wood-
crowned cliffs and promontories, with the sparkling sunlight reflected
on a thousand sheaves from the broad surface of Jacques Cartier's
river, hundreds of feet below. And then the quiet repose of thy ample
mansion, with its stores of art and models of taste within and
without; thy forest shades, thy gardens, thy flowers and thy fruit.
But most of all, thy gay and happy inmates, their glad and joyous
hearts beating with generous emotions, and their countenances
brightened with the welcome smile. Ah! how I seem to hear, as in time
past I have heard, their lively prattle, or their merry laugh echoing
across the lawn, or through the flower garden, or along the winding
paths down the steep slope to the pavilion.
And can it be that I shall never again realize these happy scenes! I
would fain hope otherwise; but life is a changeful drama, and time
fleeting; this world is not our home.
Adieu, then, dear friends. May God's blessing ever rest upon you; and
should it be His providence that we meet not again here, may we all so
use His dealings with us in this disciplinary state that we may be
sure to meet.
Brighton, Dec. 20th. In memory of some pleasant moments.
E. E. DOUGLASS.
In the beginning of the century Spencer Wood, as previously stated, was
known as Powell Place. His Excellency Sir James Henry Craig spent there
the summers of 1808-9-10. Even the healthy air of Powell Place failed to
cure him of gout and dropsy. A curious letter from Sir James to his
secretary and charge d'affaires in London, H. W. Ryland, Esquire, dated
"Powell Place, 6th August, 1810," has been, among others, preserved by the
historian Robert Christie. It alludes in rather unparliamentary language
to the coup d'etat which had on the 19th March, 1810, consigned to a
Quebec dungeon three of the most prominent members of the Legislature,
Messrs. Bedard, Taschereau and Blanchet, together with Mr. Lefrancois, the
printer of the Canadien newspaper, for certain comments in that journal
on Sir James' colonial policy.
