Sir Edmund Head's Sojourn At Spencer Wood Was Marked By A Grievous Family
Bereavement; His Only Son, A Promising Youth Of Nineteen Summers, Was, In
1858, Accidentally Drowned In The St. Maurice, At Three Rivers, While
Bathing.
This domestic affliction threw a pall over the remainder of the
existence of His Excellency, already darkened by bodily disease.
Seclusion
and quiet were desirable to him.
A small private gate still exists at Spencer Grange, which at the request
of the sorrowful father was opened through the adjoining property with the
permission of the proprietor. Each week His Excellency, with his amiable
lady, stealing a few moments from the burthen of affairs of State, would
thus walk through unobserved to drop a silent tear on the green grave at
Mount Hermon, in which were entombed all the hopes of a noble house. On
the 12th March, 1860, on a wintry evening, whilst the castle was a blaze
of light and powdered footmen hurried through its sounding corridors, to
relieve of their fur coats and mufflers His Excellency's guests asked at a
state dinner that night - Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Geo. E. Cartier, Mr.
Pennefather and others - the alarm of fire was sounded, and in a couple of
hours, of the magnificent pile a few charred ruins only remained. There
was no State dinner that night.
One of the last acts of the Ministry in retiring in 1861, was the signing
of the contract to rebuild Spencer Wood. The appropriation was a very
niggardly one, in view of the size of the structure required as a vice-
regal residence. All meretricious ornaments in the design were of course
left out. A square building, two hundred feet by fifty, was erected with
the main entrance, in rear, on the site of the former lovely flower
garden. The location of the entrance and consequent sacrifice of the
flower garden for a court, left the river front of the dwelling for the
private use of the inmates of the Chateau by excluding the public.
Lord Monk, the new Governor-General, took possession of the new mansion
and had a plantation of fir and other trees added to conceal the east end
from public gaze. Many happy days were spent at Spencer Wood by His
Lordship and family, whose private secretary, Denis Godley, Esq., occupied
the picturesque cottage "Bagatelle," facing the Holland Road, on the
Spencer Grange property. If illustrious names on the Spencer Wood
Visitor's Register could enhance the interest the place may possess,
foremost, one might point to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, visiting in 1860
the site probably more than once surveyed and admired, in 1791-4, by his
grand-father, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, in his drives round Quebec,
with the fascinating Baroness de St. Laurent. Conspicuous among all those
familiar with the portals of Spencer Wood, may be mentioned other Royal
Princes - the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Arthur, Princess Louise, Prince
Leopold; with Dukes and Earls - the Duke of Newcastle, Manchester,
Buckingham, Argyll, Athol.
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