Sir Edmund Head's Sojourn At Spencer Wood Was Marked By A Grievous Family
Bereavement; His Only Son, A Promising Youth Of Nineteen Summers, Was, In
1858, Accidentally Drowned In The St. Maurice, At Three Rivers, While
Bathing.
This domestic affliction threw a pall over the remainder of the
existence of His Excellency, already darkened by bodily disease.
Seclusion
and quiet were desirable to him.
A small private gate still exists at Spencer Grange, which at the request
of the sorrowful father was opened through the adjoining property with the
permission of the proprietor. Each week His Excellency, with his amiable
lady, stealing a few moments from the burthen of affairs of State, would
thus walk through unobserved to drop a silent tear on the green grave at
Mount Hermon, in which were entombed all the hopes of a noble house. On
the 12th March, 1860, on a wintry evening, whilst the castle was a blaze
of light and powdered footmen hurried through its sounding corridors, to
relieve of their fur coats and mufflers His Excellency's guests asked at a
state dinner that night - Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Geo. E. Cartier, Mr.
Pennefather and others - the alarm of fire was sounded, and in a couple of
hours, of the magnificent pile a few charred ruins only remained. There
was no State dinner that night.
One of the last acts of the Ministry in retiring in 1861, was the signing
of the contract to rebuild Spencer Wood. The appropriation was a very
niggardly one, in view of the size of the structure required as a vice-
regal residence.
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