Part 24 (1/2)
Opposite looms out the long tea-caddy-looking building, built by the Sandfield Macdonald Government in 1862,--the Volunteer Drill Shed. Its length, if not its beauty, attracts notice. ”Ferguson's house,” next it, noted by Professor Silliman in his ”_Tour between Hartford and Quebec in 1819_,” is now difficult to recognize; its present owner, A. Joseph, Esq., has added so much to its size. This antiquated dwelling certainly does not belong to a new dispensation. Another land-mark of the past deserves notice--the ex-Commander of the Forces' lofty quarters; from its angular eaves and forlorn aspect it generally went by the name of ”Bleak House.” I cannot say whether the place was ever haunted, but it ought to have been. [149] On the summit of the plateau, formerly known as _b.u.t.tes- a-Nepveu_, and facing Mr. John Roche's stately mansion, Hon. P. Garneau and M. Bilodeau have constructed handsome terraces of cut-stone dwellings.
We are now in the _Grande Allee_--the forest avenue, which two hundred years ago led to Sillery Wood. On turning and looking back as you approach Bleak House, you have an excellent view of the Citadel, and of the old French works which extend beyond it, to the extremity of the Cape, overlooking _l'Anse de Meres_. A little beyond Bleak-House, at the top of what is generally known as Perrault's Hill, stands the Perrault [150]
homestead, dating back to 1820, _l'Asyle Champetre_--now tastefully renovated and owned by Henry Dinning, Esq. The roof and facade of a _Chalet Suisse_ would much enhance its appearance. The adjoining range of heights, occupied by the Martello Towers, the Garneau and Bilodeau Terraces, &c., were called the _b.u.t.tes-a-Nepveu_, after one of their first French owners. ”It was here that Murray took his stand on the morning of April 28th, 1760, to resist the advance of Levis, and here commenced the hardest-fought, the bloodiest action of the war, which terminated in the defeat of Murray, and his retreat within the city”. The Martello Towers are bomb-proof, they were four [151] in number, and formed a chain of forts extending along the ridge from the St. Lawrence to the River St.
Charles. The fact that this ridge commanded the city, unfortunately induced Murray to leave it and attempt to fortify the heights, in which he was only partially successful, owing to the frost being still in the ground.
The British Government were made aware of the fact, and seeing that from the improved artillery the city was now fully commanded from the heights, which are about seven hundred yards distant, decided to build the Towers.
Arrangements were accordingly made by Col. Brock, then commanding the troops in Canada. In 1806 the necessary materials were collected, and in the following year their construction commenced. They were not, however, completed till 1812. The original estimate for the four was 8,000, but before completion the Imperial Government had expended nearly 12,000.
They are not all of the same size, but, like all Martello Towers, they are circular and bomb-proof. The exposed sides are _thirteen_ feet thick and gradually diminish like the horns of the crescent moon, to seven feet in the centre of the side next the city walls. The first or lower story contains tanks, store-rooms and magazine; the second has cells for the garrison, with port-holes for two guns. On the top there used to be one 68-pounder carronade, two 24 and two 9-pounders.
A party of Arnold's soldiers ascended these heights in November, 1775, and advanced quite close to the city walls, shouting defiance at the little garrison. A few shots soon dispersed the invaders, who retraced their steps to Wolfe's Cove. At the _b.u.t.tes-a-Nepveu_ great criminals were formerly executed. Here, La Corriveau, the St. Vallier Lafarge, met her deserved fate, in 1763, after being tried by one of Governor Murray's Courts-martial for murdering her husband. After death she was hung in chains, or rather in a solid iron cage, at the fork of four roads, at Levi, close to the spot where the Temperance Monument has since been built. The loathsome form of the murderess caused more than one shudder amongst the peaceable peasantry of Levi, until some brave young men one dark night, cut down the horrid cage, and hid it deep under ground, next to the cemetery at Levi, where, close to a century afterwards, it was dug up and sold to Barnum's agent for his museum.
Sergeant Jas. Thompson describes in his diary, under date 18th Nov., 1782, another memorable execution:
”This day two fellows were executed for the murder and robbery of Capt.
Stead, Commander of one of the Treasury Brigs, on the evening of the 31st Dec., 1779, between the Upper and Lower Town. The criminals went through Port St. Louis, about 11 o'clock, at a slow and doleful pace, to the place where justice had allotted them to suffer the most ignominious death. It is astonis.h.i.+ng to see what a crowd of people followed the tragic scene.
Even our people on the works (Cape Diamond) prayed Capt. Twiss for leave to follow the hard-hearted crowd.” It was this Capt. Twiss who subsequently furnished the plan and built a temporary citadel in 1793.
In 1793, we have also, recorded in history, another doleful procession of red-coats, the Quebec Garrison accompanying to the same place of execution as a mess-mate (Draper), a soldier of the Fusileers, then commanded by the young Duke of Kent, who, after p.r.o.nouncing the sentence of death, as commander, over the trembling culprit kneeling on his coffin, as son and representative of the Sovereign, exercised the Royal prerogative of mercy and pardoned poor Draper.
Look down Perrault's hill towards the south. There stands, with a few shrubs and trees in the foreground, the Military Home--where infirm soldiers, their widows and children, could find a refuge. It has recently been purchased and converted into the ”Female Orphan Asylum.” It forms the eastern boundary of a large expanse of verdure and trees, reaching the summit of the lot originally intended by the Seminary of Quebec for a Botanical Garden; subsequently it was contemplated to build their new seminary there to afford the boys abundance of fresh air. Alas! Other counsels prevailed.
Its western boundary is a road leading to the new District Jail--a stone structure of great strength, surmounted with a diminutive tower, admirably adapted, one would imagine, for astronomical pursuits. From its glistening cupola, Commander Ashe's Provincial Observatory is. visible to the east.
I was forgetting to notice the substantial building, dating from 1855--the Ladies' Home. The Protestant Ladies of Quebec have here, at no small expense and trouble, raised a useful asylum, where the aged and infirm may find shelter. This, and the building opposite, St. Bridget's Asylum, with its growing fringe of trees and green plots, are decided ornaments to the _Grande Allee_.
The old burying ground of 1832, with all its ghastly memories of the Asiatic scourge, has a.s.sumed quite an ornate, nay a respectable aspect.
Close to the toll-bar on the _Grande Allee_, may yet be seen one of the meridian stones which serve to mark the western boundary of the city, beyond the Messrs. Lampson's mansion. On the adjoining domain, well named ”Battlefield Cottage,” formerly the property of Col. Charles Campbell, now owned by Michael Connolly, Esq., was the historic well out of which a cup of water was obtained to moisten the parched lips of the dying hero, James Wolfe, on the 13th September, 1759. The well was filled in a few years ago, but not before it was nigh proving fatal to Col. Campbell's then young son,--(Arch. Campbell, Esq., of Thornhill.) Its site is close to the western boundary fence, in the garden, behind ”Battlefield Cottage.” Here we are at those immortal plains--the Hastings of the two races once arrayed in battle against one another at Quebec. The western boundary of the Plains is a high fence enclosing Marchmont, for years the cherished family seat of John Gilmour, Esq., now occupied by Col. Fred Turnbull, of the Canadian Hussars.
On the north-east corner of the Belvedere Road, may be seen a range of gla.s.s houses, put up by J. Doig, formerly gardener at Benmore.
A few minutes more brings the tourist to the Hon. D. Price's villa, Wolfe- field, where may be seen the precipitous path up the St. Denis burn, by which the Highlanders and British soldiers gained a footing above, on the 13th September, 1759, and met in battle array to win a victory destined to revolutionize the New World. The British were piloted in their ascent of the river by a French prisoner brought with them from England--Denis de Vitre, formerly a Quebecer of distinction. Their landing place at Sillery was selected by Major Robert Stobo, who had, in May, 1759, escaped from a French prison in Quebec, and joined his countrymen, the English, at Louisbourg, from whence he took s.h.i.+p again to meet Admiral Saunders' fleet at Quebec. The tourist next drives past Thornhill, for years owned by Arch. Campbell, Esq., P.S.C., Sir Francis Hincks' old home when Premier to Lord Elgin. Opposite appear the leafy glades of Spencer Wood, so grateful a summer retreat, that Lord Elgin used to say, ”There he not only loved to live, but would like to rest his bones.” Next comes Spencer Grange, the seat of J. M. LeMoine, Esq.; then Woodfield, the homestead, of the Hon.
Wm. Sheppard [152] in 1847, later on of Messrs. John Lawson and Jas Gibb.
[153] Facing the Woodfield property, on the Gomin Road, are visible the extensive vineries and peach houses of Hon. Geo. Okill Stuart, Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court. The eye next dwells on the rustic church of St.
Michael, embowered in evergreens. This handsome little temple of wors.h.i.+p where the Governors of Canada usually attended, when living at Spencer Wood, contain several memorial window. Southwards looms out, at _Sous- les-Bois_, the stately convent of _Jesus-Marie_; on the edge of the bank, to the south-east, at _Pointe-a-Pizeau_, stands the R. C. Church of St.
Colomb de Sillery, in a most commanding position; on the Sillery heights, north-west of the Church of St. Michael, the late Bishop George J.
Mountain owned a delightful summer retreat, recently sold to Albert H.
Furniss, Esq.; then you meet with villas innumerable--one of the most conspicuous is Benmore House, Col. Rhodes' country seat. Benmore is well worthy of a call, were it only to procure a _bouquet_. This is not merely the Eden of roses; Col. Rhodes has combined the farm with the garden. His underground rhubarb and mushroom cellars, his boundless asparagus beds and strawberry plantations, are a credit to Quebec.
Next come Clermont, [154] Beauvoir, [155] Kilmarnock, [156] Cataraqui, [157] Kilgraston, [158] Kirk-Ella, [159] Meadow Bank, [160] Ravenswood, [161] Dornald, [162] until, after a nine miles' drive, Redclyffe closes the rural landscape--Redclyffe, [163] on the top of _Cap Rouge_ Promontory. There, many indications yet mark the spot where Roberval's ephemeral colony wintered as far back as 1542. You can now, if you like, return to the city by the same route, or select the Ste. Foye Road, skirting the cla.s.sic heights where General Murray, six months after the first battle of the Plains, lost the second, on the 28th April, 1760; the St. Foye Church was then occupied by the British soldiers. Beausejour is a beautiful demesne, where M. Ls. Bilodeau has several reservoirs, for the propagation of trout. Your gaze next rests on Holland House, Montgomery's headquarters in 1775, behind which is Holland tree, overshadowing, as of yore, the grave of the Hollands. [164]
The view, from the St. Foye Road, of the gracefully meandering St. Charles below, especially during the high tides, is something to be remembered.
The tourist shortly after detects the iron pillar, surmounted by a bronze statue of Bellona, presented in 1855 by Prince Napoleon Bonaparte-- intended to commemorate the fierce struggle at this spot on the 28th April, 1760. In close vicinity, appear the bright _parterres_ or umbrageous groves of Bellevue, [165] Hamwood, [166] Bijou, [167]
Westfield, [168] Sans-Bruit, and the narrow gothic arches of Finlay Asylum; soon you re-enter by St. John's Suburbs, with the broad basin of the St. Charles and the pretty Island of Orleans staring you in the face.