About The Year 1830 That Portion Of The Environs Of Quebec Watered By The
River St. Charles, In The Vicinity Of Scott's Bridge, Had Especially
Attracted The Attention Of Several Of Our Leading Citizens As Pleasant And
Healthy Abodes For Their Families.
Two well known gentlemen in particular,
the bearers of old and respected names, the late Honorable Mr. Justice
Philippe Panet, and his brother the Honorable Louis Panet, "Senator
selected two adjoining lots covering close on eighty acres, on the banks
of the St. Charles, the Cahire-Coubat of ancient days.
The main road to
the east intervenes between the Hon. Judge Panet's seat and the mossy old
dwelling in which Col. Arnold had his head-quarters during the winter of
1775-76, now the residence of the Langlois family. Judge Panet built there
an elegant villa on an Italian design, brought home after returning from
the sunny clime of Naples, the rooms are lofty and all are oval. Several
hundred sombre old pines surround the house on all sides.
The neighboring villa, to the west, was planted by the Honorable Louis
Panet, about 1830; also the grounds tastefully laid out in meadows,
plantations and gardens, symmetrically divided off by neat spruce, thorn,
and snowball hedges, which improve very much their aspect. One fir hedge,
in particular, is of uncommon beauty. To the west an ancient pine, a
veritable monarch of the forest, rears his hoary trunk, and amidst most
luxuriant foliage looks down proudly on the young plantation beneath him,
lending his hospitable shades to a semi-circular rustic seat - a grateful
retreat during the heat of a summer's day. Next to this old tree runs a
small rill, once dammed up for a fish-pond, but a colony of muskrats
having "unduly elected domicile thereat," the finny denizens disappeared
as if by magic; and next, the voracious rodents made so many raids
into the vegetable garden that the legal gentleman, who was lord of the
manor, served on them a notice to quit, by removing the dam. The
ejected amphibii crossed the river in a body and "elected domicile" in the
roots of an elm tree at Poplar Grove, opposite and in full view of the
castle, probably by way of a threat. On the high river banks is a twelve-
pounder used formerly to crown a miniature fort erected over there. We
remember on certain occasions hearing at a distance its loud boom.
Coucy-le-Castel is surrounded on two sides by a spacious piazza, and
stands on an elevated position close to the river bank. From the drawing-
room windows is visible the even course of the fairy Cahire-Coubat,
hurrying past in dark eddies, under the pendulous foliage of some graceful
elms which overhang the bank at Poplar Grove, the mansion of the late L.
T. McPherson, Esq. Now and again from the small fort, amidst the murmur of
rapids not far distant, you may catch the shrill note of the king-fisher
in his hasty flight over the limpid stream, or see a lively trout leap in
yonder deep pool; or else, in the midsummer vacation, see a birch canoe
lazily floating down from la mer Pacifique, impelled by the arm of
a pensive law student, dreaming perchance of Pothier or Blackstone, -
perchance of his lady love, whilst paddling to the air:
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