Was The Chere Amie, The
Elegant Baronne De St. Laurent, Of The Party?
We found it impossible to
ascertain this from our old friend, Hon.
William Sheppard, of Woodfield,
near Quebec (who died in 1867), from whom we obtained this incident. Mr.
Sheppard, who had frequently been a guest at the most select drawing-rooms
of the ancient capital, was himself a contemporary of the generous and
jovial Prince Edward.
The Sault-au-Matelot quarter, St. Peter street, and St. James street, down
to the year 1832, contained the habitations of a great number of persons
in easy circumstances; many of our families of note had their residences
there: John Wm. Woolsey, Esq., in 1808, and later on first President of
the Quebec Bank; the millionaire auctioneer, Wm. Burns, the god-father to
the late George Burns Symes, Esq.; Archbishop Signai - this worthy prelate
was born in this street, in a house opposite to La Banque Nationale.
Evidences of the luxuriousness of their dwelling rooms are visible to this
day, in the panelling of some doors and in decorated ceilings.
Drainage, according to the modern system, was, at that period, almost
unknown to our good city. The Asiatic cholera, in 1832, decimated the
population: 3,500 corpses, in the course of a few weeks, had gone to their
last resting place. This terrible epidemic was the occasion, so to speak,
of a social revolution at Quebec; the land on the St. Louis and Ste. Foye
roads became much enhanced in value; the wealthy quitted the Lower Town.
Commercial affairs, however, still continued to be transacted there, but
the residences of merchants were selected in the Upper Town or in the
country parts adjacent.
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