Sir Peregrine, As Patron Of Education, Opened An Era Of
Progress Which His Successors Lords Elgin, Dufferin And Lorne Have
Continued In A Most Munificent Manner.
A curious glimpse of high life at Quebec, in the good old days of Lord
Dalhousie, is furnished in a letter addressed to Delta, of Blackwood's
Magazine, by John Galt, the novelist, the respected father of our gifted
statesman, Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt.
[40]
The talented author of the "Annals of the Parish," after expatiating on
the dangers he had that day incurred in crossing over from Levis to Quebec
in a canoe, among the ice-floes, thus alludes to the winter amusements: -
QUEBEC, 22nd February, 1827.
MY DEAR SIR, - I am under very great obligations to you. A copy of the
"Laird" having come to the castle from the New York publishers, Lady
Dalhousie lent it to me. * * * I am much pleased with Quebec. It is at
present filled with Highland regiments, in which I have many
acquaintances and the hospitality of the other inhabitants is also
unbounded, for the winter suspends all business, and pleasure is
conducted as if it were business. The amateurs have a theatre, and I
wrote a piece for them, in which a Londoner, a Glasgow merchant, an
Irish girl, a Yankee family and a Highlander were introduced. It was
adapted entirely to the place, and in quiz of a very agreeable custom
- of everybody calling on strangers. Dr. Dunlop performed the
Highlander beyond anything I ever saw on the regular stage. The whole
went off with more laughter than anything I have ever seen, for the
jokes being local and personal (supplied by upwards of thirty
contributors), every one told with the utmost effect."
"This farce, says Delta, composed at Quebec by J. Galt, and performed
there before the Earl of Dalhousie (then Governor-General), was named
"The Visitors, or a Trip to Quebec," and was meant as a good humoured
satire on some of the particular usages of the place. An American
family figured as the visitors, and the piece opened with a scene in
an hotel, when a waiter brings in a tea-tray loaded with cards of
callers, and the explanation of the initials having had reference to
people, many of whom were present at the performance, tended much to
make the thing pass off with great eclat. It seems that a custom
prevails there to a punctilious extent, of all the inhabitants of a
certain grade calling upon strangers and leaving their cards.
"This flash of harmless lightning, however, assumed somewhat of a
malignant glare when seen from the United States. The drift of the
performance was, it seems, hideously misrepresented by some of the
newspapers, and it was said that Mr. Galt had ungratefully ridiculed
the Americans, notwithstanding the distinction and hospitality with
which they had received him. It thus came to pass that he promised,
when next in New York, to write another farce, in which liberty as
great should be taken with his own countrymen. "An Aunt in Virginia"
was the product of this promise, and with the alterations mentioned
and a change of scene from New York to London, it was published under
the name of "Scotch and Yankees.""
A volume would not suffice to detail the brilliant receptions, gay routs,
levees, state balls given at the Castle during Lord Dorchester's
administration - the lively discussions - the formal protests originating
out of points of precedence, burning questions de jupons between
the touchy magnates of the old and those of the new regime. Whether
la Baronne de St. Laurent would be admitted there or not? Whether a de
Longueuil's or a de Lanaudiere's place was on the right of Lady Maria, the
charming consort of His Excellency Lord Dorchester - a daughter of the
great English Earl of Effingham? Whether dancing ought to cease when their
Lordships the Bishops entered, and made their bow to the representative of
royalty? Unfortunately Quebec had then no Court Journal, so that following
generations will have but faint ideas of all the witchery, the stunning
head-dresses, the decolletees, high-waisted robes of their stately
grandmothers, whirled round in the giddy waltz by whiskered, epauletted
cavaliers, or else courtesying in the demure menuet de la cour.
In August, 1796, when Isaac Weld, Jr., visited Quebec, he describes the
old part of the chateau as chiefly taken up with the public offices, all
the apartments in it, says he, "are small and ill-contrived; but in the new
part (Haldimand Castle) which stands in front of the other, facing the
square (the ring), they are spacious and tolerably well furnished, but
none of them can be called elegant. This part is inhabited by the
Governor's family. * * * * Every evening during summer, when the weather
is fine, one of the regiments of the garrison parades in the open place
before the chateau, and the band plays for an hour or two, at which time
the place becomes the resort of numbers of the most genteel people of the
town, and has a very gay appearance." (Weld's Travels through the States
of North America in 1795-6-7, vol. 1, p. 351)
In 1807, when the deadly duel between England and Imperial France was at
its height, Great Britain sent New France as her Viceroy, a military
Governor, equally remarkable for the sternness of his rule and for his
love of display, hence the name of "Little King Craig," awarded to Sir
James Craig. To meet his requirements the House of Assembly voted in 1808,
a sum of L7,000 to repair the Chateau St. Louis. Sir James took up his
quarters in the interim, in Castle Haldimand. The Chateau St. Louis
received an additional story and was much enlarged. In 1812 an additional
sum of L7,980 19s 4d was voted to cover the deficit in the repairs. Little
King Craig inhabited Chateau St. Louis during the winters of 1809-10-11,
occupying Spencer Wood during the summer months.
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