We
Find In It, Combined The Taste And Comfort Which Presides In Canadian
Homes; And In The Fortunes Of Its Founder, An Illustration Of The Fact,
That Under The Sway Of Britain, The Road To The Highest Honours Has Ever
Been Open To Colonists, Irrespective Of Creed Or Nationality.
Claremont stands about one acre from the main road, three miles from
Quebec, a handsome, comfortable and substantial villa.
The umbrageous
grove of trees which encloses it from view, is a plantation laid down by
the late occupant about twenty-five years ago; its growth has been truly
wonderful. The view from the veranda and rear of the house is magnificent
in the extreme. To the west of the dwelling, environed in forest trees
well protected against our northern "blizzards," lies the fruit, flower
and vegetable garden, laid out originally by Madame Caron; watered by an
unfailing spring, its dark rich soil produces most luxuriant vegetables,
and Mr. Beckett's phlox, lilies, pansies, roses, generally stand well
represented on the prize list of the Quebec Horticultural Society, of
which Mr. Beckett is a most active member.
Claremont [242] is indicated by one of the most reliable of our
historians, the Abbe Ferland, as the spot where one of the first Sillery
missionaries, Frere Liegeois met with his end at the hands of some hostile
Indians. This occurred in the spring of 1655. The missionary at the time
was helping the colonists to build a small redoubt to protect their maize
and wheat fields from the inroads of their enemies. On viewing, at
Sillery, in 1881, Claremont the luxurious country seat of a successful
merchant, memory reverts to the same locality two centuries back, when
every tree of the locality might have concealed a ferocious Iroquois
bent on his errand of death.
From the cupola of Claremont, a wondrous vista is revealed. The eye gazing
northward, rests on the nodding pinnacles of the spruce, hemlock and
surrounding pine. Towards the south-east and west you have before you
nearly every object calculated to add effect to the landscape. Far below
at your feet, rushes on the mighty St. Lawrence, with its fleet of
merchantmen and rafts of timber; the church of St. Romuald, half way up
the hill; facing you, the Etchemin stream, its mills, its piers, crowded
with deals; to the west, the roaring Chaudiere, "La Riviere Bruyante" of
early times, in the remote distance, on a bright morning, are also plainly
visible, the hills of the White Mountains of Maine.
THE WILD FLOWERS OF SILLERY.
"Everywhere about us are they glowing,
Some like stars, to tell us spring is born;
Others, their blue eyes, with tears o'erflowing,
Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn."
Are you an admirer of nature, and sweet flowers? Would you, most worthy
friend, like to see some of the bright gems which spring, whilst dallying
over the sequestered, airy heights and swampy marshes of our woods drops
along our path? Follow, then, sketch book and pencil in hand, the fairy
footsteps of one of the most amiable women which old England ever sent to
our climes, accompany the Countess of Dalhousie on a botanizing tour
through Sillery woods; you have her note book, if not herself, to go by.
For May, see what an ample store of bright flowers scattered around you;
fear not to lose yourself in thickets and underbrush; far from the beaten
track a noble lady has ransacked the environs over and over again,
sometimes alone, sometimes with an equally enthusiastic and intelligent
friend, who hailed from Woodfield; [243] sweet flowers and beautiful ferns
attract other noble ladies to this day in that wood. Are you anxious to
possess the first-born of spring? Whilst virgin snow still whitens the
fields, send a young friend to pluck for you, from the willow, its golden
catkins: -
"The first gilt thing
Decked with the earliest pearls of spring."
The Gomin Wood will, with the dawn of May, afford you materials for a
wreath, rich in perfume and wild in beauty. The quantity of wild flowers,
to be found in the environs of Quebec has called forth the following
remarks from one of Flora's most fervid votaries, a gentleman well known
in this locality: - "A stranger," says he, "landing in this country, is
much surprised to find the flowers which he has carefully cultivated in
his garden at home, growing wild at his feet. Such as dog-tooth violets,
trilliums and columbines. I was much excited when I discovered them for
the first time; the trillium, for which I had paid three shillings
and six-pence when in England, positively growing wild. I could scarcely
believe that I had a right to gather them; having paid so much for one, I
felt that it was property, valuable property running wild, and no one
caring to gather it. No one? Yes! some did, for we carried all that
we could find, and if the reader will stroll along the hedges on St. Lewis
road he will find them in abundance: dark purple flowers, growing on a
stalk naked to near the summit, where there is a whorl of three leaves,
its sepals are three, petals three, stamens twice three, and its stigmas
three, hence its name of trillium. We have a few of the white varieties.
After the purple trillium has done flowering, we have the painted
trillium of the woods; the trillium grandiflorum is abundant at Grosse
Isle. The dog-tooth violet early arrested my attention; the spotted leaves
and the bright yellow flowers, fully recurved in the bright sunshine,
contrasted beautifully with the fresh green grass on the banks on which
they are usually found, the bulbs are deep-seated, and the plant will at
once, from the general appearance of the flower, be recognized as
belonging to the lily family.
"The marsh marigolds, with the bright yellow buttercup-looking flowers,
are now in full luxuriance of bloom in wet places near running water; they
may not be esteemed beautiful by all, and yet all God's works, and all his
flowers, are good and beautiful.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 136 of 231
Words from 138783 to 139802
of 236821