From Time Immemorial An Antique And Crumbling Ruin, Standing In Solitary
Loneliness, In The Centre Of A Clearing At The Foot Of The Charlesbourg
Mountain, Some Five Miles From Quebec, Has Been Visited By The Young And
The Curious.
It was once a two story stone building, with ponderous walls.
In length it is fifty-five feet by thirty-five feet broad - pierced for six
windows in each story, with a well-proportioned door, in the centre.
In
1843, at the date of my first visit, the floor of the second story was yet
tolerably strong: I ascended to it by a rickety, old staircase. The ruin
was sketched in 1858, by Col. Benj. Lossing, and reproduced in Harper's
Magazine for January, 1859. The lofty mountain to the north-west of it
is called La Montagne des Ormes; for more than a century, the
Charlesbourg peasantry designate the ruin as La Maison de la Montagne.
The English have christened it the Hermitage, whilst to the French
portion of the population, it is known as Chateau-Bigot, or Beaumanoir;
and truly, were it not on account of the associations which surround the
time-worn pile, few would take the trouble to go and look at the dreary
object.
The land on which it stands was formerly included in the Fief de la
Trinite granted between 1640 and 1650 to Monsieur Denis, a gentleman
from La Rochelle, in France, the ancestor of the numerous clans of Denis,
Denis de la Ronde, Denis de Vitre, &c. The seigniory was subsequently sold
to Monseigneur de Laval, a descendant of the Montmorency's, who founded in
1663 the Seminary of Quebec, and one of the most illustrious prelates in
New France, the portion towards the Mountain was dismembered.
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