This Lady, Whom All Quebec Knew As Mr. Nesbitt, Turned Out To Be A
Miss Neville, Left For England, And Was Eventually Married To Sir J.
C - -, Brother Of Lord F - - , A British Nobleman.
One of the Nestors of the present generation, Col.
J. Sewell, has
related to me the circumstances as he heard them in his youth from the
lips of a man of veracity and honour - Hon. W. Smith, son of Chief
Justice Smith.
Here are his own words: - "Hon. Mr. Smith told me that Mr. Nesbitt,
alias Miss Neville, was dining at a mess dinner of the 24th
Grenadiers at the Jesuits' Barracks, upper Town market place - Having
sacrificed too freely to the rosy god, an officer of the 24th, Mr.
Broadstreet, I think, helped him to the balcony ... when having to
lean on his supporter, Mr. Broadstreet became confident Nesbitt was a
girl in disguise. Nesbitt drove out after dinner to Holland House and
Broadstreet told the joke all round. Nesbitt hearing of it, sent him,
next day, a challenge for originating such a report.
Mr. Broadstreet, not knowing how to act, applied to one of his
superior officers - Capt. Doyle (subsequently Genl. Doyle, who married
at Quebec, a Miss Smith), for advice, saying: "How can I fight a
girl?" to which Capt. Doyle rejoined, "I will act as your second. If
Nesbitt is a girl, you shall not fight him, and I engage to prove this
fact." He then drove out to Holland House, and found the gay Lothario
Nesbitt flirting with the young ladies. He observed him attentively,
and having tried an experiment, calculated to throw light on the
mysterious foreigner, he went to complain direct to the Governor and
Commander in Chief; Lord Dorchester, who, on hearing the perplexity
caused by Mr. Nesbitt, sent for Dr. Longmore, the military physician,
and ordered him to investigate of what sex Nesbitt might be.
Mr. Nesbitt stormed - refused to submit - vowed he would go direct to
England and make a formal complaint of the indignity with which he was
threatened.
Hon. Jonathan Sewell, - later on Chief Justice, by persuasion,
succeeded in pouring oil on the troubled waters. Nesbitt confessed,
and Quebec was minus of a very handsome but beardless youngster, and
the English Court journals soon made mention of a fashionable marriage
in high life.
HAMWOOD.
How sweet it is, when mother Fancy rocks
The wayward brain, to saunter through a wood
An old place, full of many a lovely brood,
Tall trees, green arbours, and ground-flowers in flocks
And wild rose tiptoe upon hawthorn stocks,
- Wordsworth.
How many vicissitudes in the destinies of places, men, families, nations!
See yonder mansion, its verdant leaves, with the leafy honours of nascent
spring encircling it like a garland, exhaling the aroma of countless buds
and blossoms, embellished by conservatory, grapery, avenues of fruit and
floral trees. Does not every object bespeak comfort, rural felicity,
commercial success!
When you enter that snug billiard-room, luxuriously fitted up with fire
place, ottomans, &c., or when, on a balmy summer evening, you are seated
on the ample verandah, next to the kind host, do you not my legal friend,
feel inclined to repeat to yourself "Commerce, commerce is the turnpike to
health, to affluence, the path to consideration." But was the scene always
so smiling, and redolent of rustic enjoyment.
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