-
"Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T'aime
Jamais Je Ne T'oublierai."
The neighborhood of running water; the warbling of the birds; the distant
lowing of kine in the green meadows; the
Variety and beauty of the
landscape, especially when the descending orb of day gilds the dark woods
to the west, furnish a strikingly rural spectacle at Coucy-le-Castel, thus
named from a French estate in Picardy, owned by the Badelarts, ancestors,
on the maternal side, of the Panets.
In 1861 Coucy-le-Castel was purchased by Judge Jean Thomas Taschereau, of
Quebec, under whose care it is acquiring each year new charms. A
plantation of deciduous trees and evergreens has taken the place of the
row of poplars which formerly lined the avenue. The Judge's Chateau
stands conspicuous amongst the pretty but less extensive surrounding
country seats, such as the old mansion of Fred. Andrews, Esq., Q. C., the
neat cottage of Fred. W. Andrews, Esq., Barrister, festooned with wild
vines.
RINGFIELD.
FRANCISCUS PRIMUS, DEI GRATIA, FRANCORUM REX REGNAT.
Inscription on cross erected 3d May, 1536, by Jacques Cartier.
We will be pardoned for devoting a larger space than for other country
seats, in describing Ringfield, on account of the important events of
which it was the theatre.
Close to the Dorchester Bridge to the west, on the Charlesbourg road,
there was once an extensive estate known as Smithville - five or six
hundred acres of table land owned by the late Charles Smith, Esq., who for
many years resided in the substantial large stone dwelling subsequently
occupied by A. Laurie, Esq., at present by Owen Murphy, Esq., opposite the
Marine Hospital. Some hundred acres, comprising the land on the west of
the ruisseau Lairet, known as Ferme des Anges, [282] were detached
from it and now form Ringfield, whose handsome villa is scarcely visible
from the Charlesbourg road in summer on account of the plantation of
evergreens and other forest trees which, with white-thorn hedge, line
its semicircular avenue on both sides. One might be inclined to regret
that this plantation has grown up so luxuriantly, as it interferes with
the striking view to be had here of the Island of Orleans, St. Lawrence,
and surrounding parishes. Before the trees assume their vernal honours
there can be counted, irrespective of the city spires, no less than
thirteen steeples of churches in so many parishes. Ringfield takes its
name from its circular meadow (Montcalm's hornwork). In rear it is bounded
to the west by the little stream called Lairet, with the ruisseau St.
Michel in view; to the south, its natural boundary is the meandering
Cahire-Coubat. [283]
Ringfield has even more to recommend it than the rural beauty common to
the majority of our country seats; here were enacted scenes calculated to
awaken the deepest interest in every student of Canadian history. On the
banks of the River St. Charles, 1535-36, during his second voyage of
discovery, Jacques Cartier, the intrepid navigator of St. Malo, more than
three centuries back, it is now generally supposed, wintered.
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