[254] The Remains Of This Old French Chapel Were Recently Discovered, (The
Site Belongs To R. R. Dobell & Co.) And A Small Monument Erected To Father
Masse Who Was Interred There In 1646.
[255] "7th September, 1759.
- Fine warm weather, Admiral Holmes' squadron
weighed early this morning. At six o'clock we doubled the mouth of the
Chaudiere, which is near half a mile over; and at eight we came to anchor
off Cap Rouge. Here is a spacious cove, into which the river St. Michael
disembogues, and within the mouth of it are the enemy's floating
batteries. A large body of the enemy is well entrenched round the cove,
(which is of circular form) as if jealous of a descent in those parts;
they appear very numerous, and may amount to about one thousand six
hundred men, besides their cavalry, who are cloathed in blue, and mounted
on neat horses of different colours; they seem very alert, parading and
counter marching between the woods on the heights in their rear, and their
breastworks, in order to make their number show to the greater advantage.
The lands all around us are high and commanding, which gave the enemy an
opportunity of popping at our ships, this morning, as we tacked in working
up." - Knox's Journal, Siege of Quebec, 1759, vol. ii., page 56.
[256] AN EARL ON FOX-HUNTING.
The Earl of Winchelsea and Nottingham addressed the following letter to
the Pall Mall Gazette, in May 1870: - Sir, - The fox is tolerated,
nay preserved (under the penalty of conventional ostracism against his
slayers,) because he is the only animal with whose intellect man may
measure himself upon equal terms without an overwhelming sense of the odds
in his favour. The lion, the elephant, the ibex, the chamois, and the red
deer are beasts of chase falling before man, but the fox alone can cope
with him in point of intellect and sagacity, and put him to all his
shifts. It is this ingredient in fox-hunting - viz: the consciousness of
having to do with a foe worthy of him, which brings men of all ages,
sorts, kinds, intellects, characters, and professions to the covert side,
uniting together occasionally as odd an assemblage as ever went into the
ark. No man, when he puts on his top-boots in the morning, can say whether
he may not be about to assist at a run which may live in story like the
Billesdon Coplow or the Trojan War, and of which it shall be sufficient,
not only to the fortunate sportsman himself but to his descendants of the
third and fourth generation, to say - he was there!
Villiers, Cholmondeley, and Forester made such sharp play,
Not omitting Germaine, never seen till to-day:
Had you jug'd of these four by the trim of their pace
At Bib'ry you'd thought they had been riding a race.
Billesdon Coplow.
"Their fame lives still. But what, O ye sentimentalists! would ye prepare
both for fox and fox-hunter? If the fox was not regarded as the only
animal possessed of these talents and capabilities, he must shortly rank
as a sneaking little robber of hen-roosts, the foe of the good wife and
gamekeeper, and become as extinct as a dodo. Were the fox himself
consulted, I am sure that he would prefer to this ignoble fate the present
pleasant life which he is in the habit of leading upon the sole condition
of putting forth all his talent and dying game when wanted."
[257] I am indebted for a deal of information contained in this
communication to McPherson LeMoyne, Esq., Seigneur of Crane Island, P.Q.,
and lately President of the Montreal Club for the protection of fish
and game.
[258] Chs. Panet, Esq., ex-member for the County of Quebec.
[259] The sanguinary battle of Fontenoy was fought on the 11th May, 1745.
The Duke of Cumberland, subsequently surnamed "the butcher," for his
brutality at Culloden, commanding the English, &c, the French led by
Marechal de Saxe. This defeat, which took place under the eye of Louis XV
cost the British 4041, their allies the Hanoverians, 2762 and the Dutch
1541 men. Success continued to attend the French arms at Ghent, Bruges,
Oudenarde, and Dendermond, which were captured - (Lord Mahon) Wolfe,
Murray and Townshend were at Fontenoy. The battle of Lauffeld took place
on the 2nd July, 1747, the English commanded by Cumberland, the French by
Saxe, the chief of the English Cavalry, Sir John Ligonier, being taken
prisoner - (Lord Mahon). The French victory of Carillon, in which
the Militia of Canada bore a conspicuous part, was won near Lake George,
8th July, 1758. The English army, under General Abercrombie, though more
numerous, was repulsed with great slaughter.
[260] Chs. Tarieu de Lanaudiere, Knight of St. Louis, commanded a portion
of the Canadian Militia at Carillon, and also during the campaign of 1759.
Under the English rule he was Aide de Camp to Sir Guy Carleton - served in
1775, and accompanied the General to England, where George III rewarded
him handsomely. He was called to the Legislative Council, and appointed
Deputy Postmaster General of Canada.
[261] Knox's Journal. Vol. I, p. 179.
[262] The Bureau was at the foot of Mountain Hill, next to (the Old
Neptune) Chronicle Office.
[263] For many years, it was the practice to close the gates of Quebec at
gun fire (10 p.m.) for carriages, leaving the wicket open only for
pedestrians, in the troublous days of 1837-8, the wicket at times was
closed.
[264] Mr. Jean Tache, the first owner of the "Old Neptune Inn," and of a
poetical turn, wrote the first Canadian poem, intituled Tableau de la
Mer.
[265] History of French Dominion in North and South America. - Jeffery,
London, 1760, page 9.
[266] Montgomery Place, on the Hudson, is now the residence of Mrs. Ed.
Livingston, a country seat of unrivalled beauty. - "It is," says Downing,
"one of our oldest improved country seats, having been originally the
residence of General Montgomery, the hero of Quebec.
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