In 1623, it is recorded that two thousand bundles of fodder were
brought from the pasture grounds at Cap Tourmente to Quebec for
winter use." - (Miles.)
On the 16th of July, 1665, [13] a French ship brought twelve horses. These
were doubtless the "mounts" of the brilliant staff of the Marquis de
Tracy, Viceroy. These dashing military followers of Colonel de Salieres,
this jeunesse doree of the Marquis de Tracy, mounted on these twelve
French chargers, which the aborigines named "the moose-deer (orignaux)
of Europe," doubtless cut a great figure at Quebec. Did there exist
Tandems, driving clubs, in 1665? Quien sabe? A garrison life in 1665-7
and its amusements must have been much what it was one century later, when
the "divine" Emily Montague [14] was corresponding with her dear "Colonel
Rivers," from her Sillery abode in 1766; she then, amongst the vehicles in
use, mentions, caleches. [15]
They were not all saints such as Paul Dupuy, [16] the patriarchal seigneur
of Ile-aux-Oies, these military swells of Colonel de Salieres! Major
Lafradiere, for instance, might have vied with the most outrageous rake in
the Guards of Queen Victoria who served in the colony two centuries
later.
If there were at Quebec twelve horses for the use of gentlemen, they were
doubtless not suffered to remain idle in their stables.
