COCKSPARROW.
CLAREMONT.
THE SEAT OF THOMAS BECKETT, ESQUIRE.
"A house amid the quiet country's shades,
With length'ning vistas, ever sunny glades,
Beauty and fragrance clustering o'er the wall.
A porch inviting, and an ample hall."
Claremont was founded by Lieut.-Governor R. E. Caron, and was his family
mansion - ever since he left Spencer Grange which he had temporally
leased, - until he was named Lt.-Governor of the Province of Quebec. We
find in it, combined the taste and comfort which presides in Canadian
homes; and in the fortunes of its founder, an illustration of the fact,
that under the sway of Britain, the road to the highest honours has ever
been open to colonists, irrespective of creed or nationality.
Claremont stands about one acre from the main road, three miles from
Quebec, a handsome, comfortable and substantial villa. The umbrageous
grove of trees which encloses it from view, is a plantation laid down by
the late occupant about twenty-five years ago; its growth has been truly
wonderful. The view from the veranda and rear of the house is magnificent
in the extreme. To the west of the dwelling, environed in forest trees
well protected against our northern "blizzards," lies the fruit, flower
and vegetable garden, laid out originally by Madame Caron; watered by an
unfailing spring, its dark rich soil produces most luxuriant vegetables,
and Mr. Beckett's phlox, lilies, pansies, roses, generally stand well
represented on the prize list of the Quebec Horticultural Society, of
which Mr. Beckett is a most active member.
Claremont [242] is indicated by one of the most reliable of our
historians, the Abbe Ferland, as the spot where one of the first Sillery
missionaries, Frere Liegeois met with his end at the hands of some hostile
Indians. This occurred in the spring of 1655. The missionary at the time
was helping the colonists to build a small redoubt to protect their maize
and wheat fields from the inroads of their enemies. On viewing, at
Sillery, in 1881, Claremont the luxurious country seat of a successful
merchant, memory reverts to the same locality two centuries back, when
every tree of the locality might have concealed a ferocious Iroquois
bent on his errand of death.
From the cupola of Claremont, a wondrous vista is revealed. The eye gazing
northward, rests on the nodding pinnacles of the spruce, hemlock and
surrounding pine. Towards the south-east and west you have before you
nearly every object calculated to add effect to the landscape. Far below
at your feet, rushes on the mighty St. Lawrence, with its fleet of
merchantmen and rafts of timber; the church of St. Romuald, half way up
the hill; facing you, the Etchemin stream, its mills, its piers, crowded
with deals; to the west, the roaring Chaudiere, "La Riviere Bruyante" of
early times, in the remote distance, on a bright morning, are also plainly
visible, the hills of the White Mountains of Maine.
THE WILD FLOWERS OF SILLERY.
"Everywhere about us are they glowing,
Some like stars, to tell us spring is born;
Others, their blue eyes, with tears o'erflowing,
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn."
Are you an admirer of nature, and sweet flowers?
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