It Was A Most Curious And Startling Change From The Wooden Erections, Wide
Streets, And The Impress Of Novelty Which Pervaded Everything I Had Seen
In The New World, To The Old Stone Edifices, Lofty Houses, Narrow Streets,
And Tin Roofs Of The City Of Montreal.
There are iron window-shutters,
convents with grated windows and long dead walls; there are narrow
thoroughfares, crowded with strangely-dressed habitans, and long
processions of priests.
Then the French origin of the town contrasts
everywhere with the English occupation of it. There are streets - the Rue
St. Geneviève, the Rue St. Antoine, and the Rue St. François Xavier; there
are ancient customs and feudal privileges; Jesuit seminaries, and convents
of the Soeurs Gris and the Sulpicians; priests in long black dresses;
native carters in coats with hoods, woollen nightcaps, and coloured
sashes; and barristers pleading in the French language. Then there are
Manchester goods, in stores kept by bustling Yankees; soldiers lounge
about in the scarlet and rifle uniforms of England; Presbyterian tunes
sound from plain bald churches; the institutions are drawn alike from
Paris and Westminster; and the public vehicles partake of the fashions of
Lisbon and Long Acre. You hear "Place aux dames" on one side of the
street, and "g'lang" on the other; and the United States have
contributed their hotel system and their slang.
Montreal is an extraordinary place. It is alive with business and
enterprising traders, with soldiers, carters, and equipages. Through the
kindness of the Bishop, I saw everything of any interest in the town.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 261 of 478
Words from 70960 to 71219
of 129941
