Like The Golden Fleece Tavern
Of Corinth, Which Seems To Have Sheltered The Father Of History -
Herodotus - In The Year 460 B.C., Its "Banqueting Saloon" Was Roomy,
Though Every Word Uttered There Also Smacked Of The Salt Water.
The
old "Neptune" was probably occasionally looked up in 1807 by the Press
Gang, which, in those days, was not a thing to be laughed at.
Witness
the fate of poor Latresse, shot down for refusing to surrender to
Lieut. Andrel, R.N., on trying to make his escape from a tavern in St.
John's suburbs, where he had been attending a dancing party. [92]
Singularly enough, sixty years ago, the leading Lower Town merchants
met in this old tenement of the former "Syndic des Marchands"
to establish the first Exchange. Of the resolutions passed at the
meeting thereat, held in 1816, and presided over by an eminent
merchant, John William Woolsey, Esq., subsequently President of the
Quebec Bank, we find a notice in the Quebec Gazette, of 12th
December, 1816. [93] They decided to establish a Merchant's Exchange
in the lower part of the "Neptune" Inn. Amongst those present, one
recognizes familiar names - John Jones, George Symes, James Heath,
Robert Melvin, Thomas Edward Brown, &c.
Why was the place called "Neptune" Inn? For the obvious reason that a
large statue of the god of the sea, bearing in one hand a formidable
iron trident, stood over the main entrance in a threatening attitude.
This conspicuous land-mark was known to every British ship-captain
frequenting our port. Right well can the writer of these lines
remember the truculent trident.
But if, even in the days of that excellent landlady, Mrs. Hammond, it
meant to the wearied mariner boundless cheer, the latest London
papers, pipes and soothing rum punch mixed by a comely and cheerful
bar-maid, to the unsophisticated Canadian peasant, attracted to the
Lower Town on market days, it was of evil portent.
With honest Jean Baptiste, more deeply read in the Petit Catechisme
than in heathen mythology, the dreaded god of the sea and his
truculent trident were ominous, in his simple eyes, they symbolised
the Prince of Darkness, "Le diable et sa fourche," the terrors of a
hereafter.
This did not, however, prevent Neptune from standing sentry, in the
same exalted spot, for close on forty years, until in fact, having
fallen to pieces by natural decay, it was removed about the time the
Old Neptune Inn became the Morning Chronicle office; the whereabouts
of its dejecta membra are now a dead secret.
The origin of the famed statue had defied the most recondite searchers
of the past. For the following we are indebted to the retentive memory
of that eminently respected authority, the "oldest inhabitant." The
statue of Neptune, says the octogenarian, Robert Urquhart, so well
remembered at the foot of Mountain Hill, was presented to the landlord
of the hotel, George Cossar, formerly butler to Hon. Matthew Bell, who
then owned the St. Lawrence Chambers. It had been the figure-head of
the Neptune, a large king's ship, stranded in 1817 on Anticosti.
Would the stranded Neptune of 1817 be the same as the flagship of
Admiral Durell in 1759, the Neptune of 90 guns, to whom the large
bell bearing the word "Neptune, 1760," inscribed on, belonged? This
bell, which formerly stood on the Royal Engineers' workshop at Quebec,
was recently taken to Ottawa. The wreck had been bought by John
Goudie, of St. Roch suburb, then a leading ship builder, and, having
to break it up, the figure-head was brought to Quebec, and presented
as above stated.
The following respecting press gangs and the presence of Lord
Nelson, whilst at Quebec in 1782, was contributed by one of the
"oldest inhabitants" to QUEBEC PAST AND PRESENT, but reached too
late for insertion: -
MY RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PAST.
J. M. LEMOINE, Esq., Spencer Grange.
DEAR SIR, - I have much pleasure in acceding to your request to
send you a note of some circumstances connected with the city, in
which seventy-one years of my life - now verging towards eighty -
have been spent. I am familiar with no part of Nelson's career,
except what I heard from my mother's own lips respecting this
brave man. My mother was gifted with a remarkable memory, and
recollected well having herself seen Captain Nelson, when in 1782,
he commanded at Quebec the sloop-of-war Albemarle. "He was erect,
stern of aspect and wore, as was then customary, the queue
or pigtail," she often repeated. Her idea of the Quebec young lady
to whom he had taken such a violent fancy, was that her name was
Woolsey - an aunt or elder sister, perhaps, of the late John W.
Woolsey, Esq., President for some years of the Quebec Bank, who
died in 1852, at a very advanced age. According to her, it was a
Mr. Davidson who prevented the imprudent marriage contemplated.
As to the doings of the press gangs in the Lower Town and suburbs,
I can speak from what I saw more than once. Impressing seamen
lasted at Quebec from 1807, until after the battle of Waterloo.
The terror these sea-faring gentlemen created was great. I
remember a fine young fellow who refused to surrender, being shot
through the back with a holster pistol and dying of the wound,
this was in 1807. I can name the following as being seized by
press gangs * * * * * Soon ruses were resorted to by the gay
fellows who wandered after night fall in quest of amusement in the
highways and byways. Her Majesty's soldiers were, of course,
exempt of being impressed into the naval service; so, that our
roving city youths would either borrow coats, or get some made,
similar to the soldiers', to elude the press gang. These ruses
were, however, soon stopped, the press gang, having secured the
services of two city constables, Rosa and - - - , who could spot
every city youth and point out the counterfeits.
R. URQUHART.
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