About The Year 1780, We Find This Residence Tenanted By A
Worthy British Officer, Who Had Been A Great Favourite With The Hero Of
The Plains Of Abraham.
Major Samuel Holland had fought bravely that day
under General Wolfe, and stood, it is said, after the battle, close by the
expiring warrior.
His dwelling took the name of Holland House: he added to
it, a cupola, which served in lieu of a prospect tower, wherefrom
could be had a most extensive view of the surrounding country. [267] The
important appointment of Surveyor General of the Province, which was
bestowed on Major Holland, together with his social qualities, abilities
and education, soon gathered round him the elite of the English
Society in Quebec at that time. Amongst the distinguished guests who
frequented Holland House in 1791, we find Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent.
The numerous letters still extant addressed by His Royal Highness from
Kensington Palace, as late as 1814, to the many warm friends he had left
on the banks of the St. Lawrence, contain pleasant reminiscences of his
sojourn amongst his royal father's Canadian lieges. Amongst other
frequenters of Holland House, may also be noted a handsome stranger, who
after attending - the gayest of the gay - the Quebec Chateau balls,
Regimental mess dinners, Barons' Club, tandem drives, as the male friend
of one of the young Hollands was, to the amazement of all, convicted at a
mess dinner of being a lady [268] in disguise. A fracas of course
ensued. The lady-like guest soon vamosed to England, where he became the
lawful spouse of the Hon. Mr. C - - , the brother to Lord F - - d. One
remnant of the Hollands long endured; the old fir tree on that portion of
the property purchased by James Creighton, farmer. Holland tree was still
sacred to the memory of the five slumberers, who have reposed for more
than a century beneath its hoary branches. Nor has the recollection of the
"fatal duel" faded away. Holland farm, for many years, belonged to Mr.
Wilson of the Customs Department, Quebec, in 1843 it passed by purchase to
Judge George Okill Stuart, of Quebec; Mr. Stuart improved the place,
removed the old house and built a handsome new one on a rising ground in
rear, which he occupied for several summers. It again became renowned for
gaiety and festivity when subsequently owned by Robert Cassels, Esquire,
for many years Manager of the Bank of British North America at Quebec.
Genl. Danl. Lysons had leased it in 1862, for his residence, when the
unexpected vote of the House of Assembly on the Militia Bill broke through
his arrangements. Holland House is still the property of Mr. Cassels.
THE HOLLAND TREE.
(BY THE AUTHOR OF "MAPLE LEAVES")
"Woodman spare that tree."
It has often been noticed that one of the chief glories of Quebec
consisted in being surrounded on all sides by smiling country seats,
which in the summer season, as it were, encircle the brow of the old
city like a chaplet of flowers; those who, on a sunny June morning,
have wandered through the shady groves of Spencer Wood, Woodfield,
Marchmont, Benmore, Kilmarnock, Kirk Ella, Hamwood, Beauvoir,
Clermont, and fifty other old places, rendered vocal by the voices of
birds, and with the sparkling waters of the great river or the winding
St. Charles at their feet, are not likely to gainsay this statement.
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