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: -
"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.
