It Would Be A Curious Study To Place In Juxtaposition The Impressions
Produced On Tourists By The View Of Quebec And Its Environs - From The Era
Of Jacques Cartier, The Discoverer Of Canada, Down To That Of The Earl Of
Dufferin, One Of Its Truest Friends.
Champlain, La Potherie, La Houtan, Le Beau, Du Creux (Creuxius), Peter
Kalm, Knox, Silliman, Ampere, Mrs. Moodie, Dickens, Lever, Anthony
Trollope, Sala, Thoreau, Warburton, Marmier, Capt.
Butler, Sir Charles
Dilke, Henry Ward Beecher, have all left their impressions of the rocky
citadel: let us gaze on a few of their vivid pictures.
"The scenic beauty of Quebec has been the theme of general eulogy. The
majestic appearance of Cape Diamond and the fortifications, the
cupolas and minarets, like those of an eastern city, blazing and
sparkling in the sun, the loveliness of the panorama, the noble basin,
like a sheet of purest silver, in which might ride with safety a
hundred sail of the line, the graceful meandering of the river St.
Charles, the numerous village spires on either side of the St.
Lawrence, the fertile fields dotted with innumerable cottages, the
abode of a rich and moral peasantry, - the distant falls of
Montmorency, - the park like scenery of Point Levis, - the beauteous
Isle of Orleans, - and more distant still, the frowning Cape Tourmente,
and the lofty range of purple mountains of the most picturesque form,
which, without exaggeration, is scarcely to be surpassed in any part
of the world." (Hawkins' Picture of Quebec.)
"Quebec recalls Angouleme to my mind: in the upper city, stairways,
narrow streets, ancient houses on the verge of the cliff; in the lower
city, the new fortunes, commerce, workmen; - in both, many shops and
much activity." (M. Sand.)
"Take mountain and plain, sinuous river, and broad, tranquil waters,
stately ship and tiny boat, gentle hill and shady valley, bold
headland and rich, fruitful fields, frowning battlement and cheerful
villa, glittering dome and rural spire, flowery garden and sombre
forest, - group them all into the choicest picture of ideal beauty your
fancy can create; arch it over with a cloudless sky, light it up with
a radiant sun, and lest the sheen should be too dazzling, hang a veil
of lighted haze over all, to soften the lines and perfect the repose,
- you will then have seen Quebec on this September morning." (Eliot
Warburton.)
"I rubbed my eyes to be sure I was in the nineteenth century, and not
entering one of those portals which sometimes adorn the frontispiece
of old black-letter volumes. I though it would be a good place to read
Froissart's Chronicles. It was such a reminiscence of the Middle Ages
as Scott's Novels.
"Too much has not been said about the scenery of Quebec. The
fortifications of Cape Diamond are omnipresent. You travel ten,
twenty, thirty miles up or down the river's banks, you ramble fifteen
miles among the hills on either side, and then, when you have long
since forgotten them, perchance slept on them by the way, at a turn of
the road or of your body, there they are still with their geometry
against the sky....
"No wonder if Jacques Cartier's pilot exclaimed in Norman-French
Que bec! ("What a peak!") when he saw this cape, as some suppose.
Every modern traveller uses a similar expression....
"The view from Cape Diamond has been compared by European travellers
with the most remarkable views of a similar kind in Europe, such as
those from Edinburgh Castle, Gibraltar, Cintra, and others, and
preferred by many. A main peculiarity in this, compared with other
views which I have beheld, is that it is from the ramparts of a
fortified city, and not from a solitary and majestic river cape alone
that this view is obtained.... I still remember the harbour far
beneath me, sparkling like silver in the sun, - the answering headlands
of Point Levis on the south-east, - the frowning Cape Tourmente
abruptly bounding the seaward view in the north-east, - the villages of
Lorette and Charlesbourg on the north, - and farther west, the distant
Val Cartier, sparkling with white cottages, hardly removed by distance
through the clear air, - not to mention a few blue mountains along the
horizon in that direction. You look out from the ramparts of the
citadel beyond the frontiers of civilization. Yonder small group of
hills, according to the guide-book, forms the portals of the wilds
which are trodden only by the feet of the Indian hunters as far as
Hudson's Bay." (Thoreau).
Mrs. Moodie (Susannah Strickland), in her sketches of Canadian life,
graphically delineates her trip from Grosse Isle to Quebec, and the
appearance of the city itself from the river: -
"On the 22nd of September (1832), the anchor was weighed, and we bade
a long farewell to Grosse Isle. As our vessel struck into mid-channel,
I cast a last lingering look at the beautiful shore we were leaving.
Cradled in the arms of the St. Lawrence, and basking in the bright
rays of the morning sun, the island and its sister group looked like a
second Eden just emerged from the waters of chaos. The day was warm,
and the cloudless heavens of that peculiar azure tint which gives to
the Canadian skies and waters a brilliancy unknown in more northern
latitudes. The air was pure and elastic; the sun shone out with
uncommon splendour, lighting up the changing woods with a rich mellow
colouring, composed of a thousand brilliant and vivid dyes. The mighty
river rolled flashing and sparkling onward, impelled by a strong
breeze that tipped its short rolling surges with a crest of snowy
foam.
"Never shall I forget that short voyage from Grosse Isle to Quebec.
What wonderful combinations of beauty and grandeur and power, at every
winding of that noble river!
"Every perception of my mind became absorbed into the one sense of
seeing, when, upon rounding Point Levis, we cast anchor before Quebec.
What a scene! Can the world produce another?
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 3 of 231
Words from 2041 to 3041
of 236821
