A Second Avenue Has
Been Laid Out Amongst The Trees Between The Road Fence And The Brook, To
Connect With The Lawn At The West Of The House, By A Neat Little Bridge,
Resting On Two Square Piers About Twenty-Five Feet High:
On either side of
the bridge a solid dam being constructed of the boulders and stones
removed from the
Lower portion of the property, intended to form two trout
ponds of a couple of acres in length each, a passage in the dam is left
for the water-fall, which is in full view of the bridge. On the edge of
the bank, overhanging the ravine, nature seems to have pointed out the
spot for a pavilion, from which the disciples of Isaac Walton can throw a
cast below. The green fringe of the mountain shrubs in bud, blossom or
fruit, encircling the farm, materially enhances the beauty of this sylvan
landscape, - the eye resting with particular pleasure on the vast expanse
of meadow of vivid green, clothed in most luxuriant grass, some 10,000
bundles of hay for the mower, in due time. About two acres from the house,
to the west, is placed a rustic seat, under two weather-beaten, though
still verdant oaks, which stretch their boughs across the river: closer
again to the cottage, the eye meets two pavilions. The new avenue, rustic
bridges, ponds and pavilions, are due to the good taste of the present
owner, Louis Bilodeau, Esq. This rural home was for several years occupied
in summer by Stephen Sewell, Esq., and does not belie its name -
Beausejour.
BELMONT.
Owners - Intendant Talon, 1670; General James Murray, 1765; Sir John
Caldwell, 1810; J. W. Dunscomb. Esquire, 1854-81.
That genial old joker, Sir Jonas Barrington, in his Sketches, has
invested the Irish homes and Irish gentry with features certainly very
original - at times so singular as to be difficult of acceptance. True, he
lived in an age and amongst a people proverbial for generous hospitality,
for conviviality carried to its extreme limit. Gargantuan banquets he
describes, pending which the bowls of punch and claret imbibed appear to
us something fabulous. Irish squires, roystering Irish barristers,
toddling home in pairs after having stowed away under their belts as many
as twelve bottles of claret a piece, during a prolonged sitting, i.e.,
from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. Such intrepid diners-out were known as "Twelve
bottle men;" and verily, if the old Judge is to be credited, they might
have been advantageously pitted even against such a Homeric guzzler as
history depicts Aurora Konigsmark's sturdy son, Marechal de Saxe, who, in
his youth, 'tis said, tossed off, at one draught and without experiencing
any ill-effects, one whole gallon of wine.
The first time our eye scanned the silent and deserted banquetting halls
of Belmont, with their lofty ceilings, and recalling the traditional
accounts of the hospitable gentlemen, whose joviality had once lit up the
scene, visions of social Ireland of Barrington's day floated uppermost in
our mind.
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