Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present Part 34

THE QUAIL.

I imported this bird in 1880, turning loose over 100 birds between Quebec and the river Saguenay, I cannot say what has been the result; the French population have taken much interest in this importation, because they understand it is a bird well known in France as La Caille, and I have no doubt it will become quite numerous in our French settlements wherever it is established.

Large numbers of migratory quail have been imported for the State of Maine, 2,500 birds were turned loose in 1880, in all about 10,000 quails have been imported for the United States and Canada during the last few years, and as no importations are being made this year we shall see what the migratory instinct does for the North in the spring of the year?

It is very certain the migratory quail leave for parts unknown at an early period in the autumn, but where they go to and whether they return to the north has not been established; whilst they are with us, they are very friendly, frequently mixing with the chickens in the back yards. It is not improbable the feeling which gives hospitality to the house sparrow will extend itself to the Farmer's Quail, and that the latter bird may receive the same treatment from the settler as he gives to ordinary domestic fowl, such as Pigeons, Guinea fowl, and so on.--_W. Rhodes_.

BENMORE, 4th February, 1881.

N.B.--The house sparrow has indeed multiplied amazingly and though an emigrant and not "un enfant du sol" has found a hearty welcome. 'Tis said that he scares away our singing birds, if he should thus interfere with the freedom of action of the _natives_, he will get the cold shoulder, even though he should be an _emigrant_.

The sparrow though a long suffering bird is neither meek nor uncomplaining. A "limb of the law" is, we are told, responsible for the following:

_A HUMBLE APPEAL._

(_To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle_.)

DEAR SIR,--Oft, doubtless, pa.s.sing through the Ring, Me you have seen in autumn, summer, spring-- Picking, with gleesome chirp, and nimble feet, My scanty living from the public street; Or else devouring in those golden hours, Insects from cabbages and other flowers:-- Ah me! those happy days!--but they are past, And winter with his harsh and biting blast Remind me and my fellow-sparrows bold Of coming snow-storms, ice and sleet and cold; Reminds us, too, of those far-off abodes, Whence we were rudely reft by Col. R----s, On his acclimatizing purpose bent, And moved by scientific sentiment, My heart is anxious, Sir, from what I know Of last years sufferings from cold and snow, Another winter's hardships, will, I fear, Cause us poor colonists to disappear.

What shall we do, Dear Sir?--how shall we live, Unless our charitable townsmen give Us aid in food and shelter, otherwise Each of us young and old, and male and female, dies!

Could we not make our _friend_ our _Garnishee_, And seize his chattels by a _tiers saisi_?

(I tell him, Sir, that living mid the frosts Is harder far than paying _lawyers' costs_) Or do you think, (I write in great anxiety,) We have a claim on the St. George Society?

We are compatriots--an exiled band, From the fair pickings of our native land, Cast on this frigid sh.o.r.e by savage Fate, With mouths to fill, and bills to liquidate.

Dear Sir, I leave our case now with you, pray To make it public do not long delay, But give it, (I don't mean to be ironical,) A prominent position in the CHRONICLE.

My wife and children cry to me for corn With feeble earnestness and chirp forlorn, My eye is dim, my heart within me pines, My claws so numb I scarce can scratch two lines, My head--no more will I your feelings harrow, But sign me, Truly yours, Till death, All Souls' Day. c.o.c.kSPARROW.

_CLAREMONT._

THE SEAT OF THOMAS BECKETT, ESQUIRE.

"A house amid the quiet country's shades, With length'ning vistas, ever sunny glades, Beauty and fragrance cl.u.s.tering o'er the wall.

A porch inviting, and an ample hall."

Claremont was founded by Lieut.-Governor R. E. Caron, and was his family mansion--ever since he left Spencer Grange which he had temporally leased,--until he was named Lt.-Governor of the Province of Quebec. We find in it, combined the taste and comfort which presides in Canadian homes; and in the fortunes of its founder, an ill.u.s.tration of the fact, that under the sway of Britain, the road to the highest honours has ever been open to colonists, irrespective of creed or nationality.

Claremont stands about one acre from the main road, three miles from Quebec, a handsome, comfortable and substantial villa. The umbrageous grove of trees which encloses it from view, is a plantation laid down by the late occupant about twenty-five years ago; its growth has been truly wonderful. The view from the veranda and rear of the house is magnificent in the extreme. To the west of the dwelling, environed in forest trees well protected against our northern "blizzards," lies the fruit, flower and vegetable garden, laid out originally by Madame Caron; watered by an unfailing spring, its dark rich soil produces most luxuriant vegetables, and Mr. Beckett's phlox, lilies, pansies, roses, generally stand well represented on the prize list of the Quebec Horticultural Society, of which Mr. Beckett is a most active member.

Claremont [242] is indicated by one of the most reliable of our historians, the Abbe Ferland, as the spot where one of the first Sillery missionaries, Frere Liegeois met with his end at the hands of some hostile Indians. This occurred in the spring of 1655. The missionary at the time was helping the colonists to build a small redoubt to protect their maize and wheat fields from the inroads of their enemies. On viewing, at Sillery, in 1881, Claremont the luxurious country seat of a successful merchant, memory reverts to the same locality two centuries back, when every tree of the locality might have concealed a ferocious _Iroquois_ bent on his errand of death.

From the cupola of Claremont, a wondrous vista is revealed. The eye gazing northward, rests on the nodding pinnacles of the spruce, hemlock and surrounding pine. Towards the south-east and west you have before you nearly every object calculated to add effect to the landscape. Far below at your feet, rushes on the mighty St. Lawrence, with its fleet of merchantmen and rafts of timber; the church of St. Romuald, half way up the hill; facing you, the Etchemin stream, its mills, its piers, crowded with deals; to the west, the roaring Chaudiere, "La Riviere Bruyante" of early times, in the remote distance, on a bright morning, are also plainly visible, the hills of the White Mountains of Maine.

_THE WILD FLOWERS OF SILLERY._

"Everywhere about us are they glowing, Some like stars, to tell us spring is born; Others, their blue eyes, with tears o'erflowing, Stand like Ruth amid the golden corn."

Are you an admirer of nature, and sweet flowers? Would you, most worthy friend, like to see some of the bright gems which spring, whilst dallying over the sequestered, airy heights and swampy marshes of our woods drops along our path? Follow, then, sketch book and pencil in hand, the fairy footsteps of one of the most amiable women which old England ever sent to our climes, accompany the Countess of Dalhousie on a botanizing tour through Sillery woods; you have her note book, if not herself, to go by.

For May, see what an ample store of bright flowers scattered around you; fear not to lose yourself in thickets and underbrush; far from the beaten track a n.o.ble lady has ransacked the environs over and over again, sometimes alone, sometimes with an equally enthusiastic and intelligent friend, who hailed from Woodfield; [243] sweet flowers and beautiful ferns attract other n.o.ble ladies to this day in that wood. Are you anxious to possess the first-born of spring? Whilst virgin snow still whitens the fields, send a young friend to pluck for you, from the willow, its golden catkins:--

"The first gilt thing Decked with the earliest pearls of spring."

The Gomin Wood will, with the dawn of May, afford you materials for a wreath, rich in perfume and wild in beauty. The quant.i.ty of wild flowers, to be found in the environs of Quebec has called forth the following remarks from one of Flora's most fervid votaries, a gentleman well known in this locality:--"A stranger," says he, "landing in this country, is much surprised to find the flowers which he has carefully cultivated in his garden at home, growing wild at his feet. Such as dog-tooth violets, trilliums and columbines. I was much excited when I discovered them for the first time; the _trillium_, for which I had paid three shillings and six-pence when in England, positively growing wild. I could scarcely believe that I had a right to gather them; having paid so much for one, I felt that it was property, valuable property running wild, and no one caring to gather it. No one? Yes! some did, for _we_ carried all that we could find, and if the reader will stroll along the hedges on St. Lewis road he will find them in abundance: dark purple flowers, growing on a stalk naked to near the summit, where there is a whorl of three leaves, its sepals are three, petals three, stamens twice three, and its stigmas three, hence its name of _trillium_. We have a few of the white varieties.

After the purple _trillium_ has done flowering, we have the painted trillium of the woods; the _trillium grandiflorum_ is abundant at Grosse Isle. The dog-tooth violet early arrested my attention; the spotted leaves and the bright yellow flowers, fully recurved in the bright sunshine, contrasted beautifully with the fresh green gra.s.s on the banks on which they are usually found, the bulbs are deep-seated, and the plant will at once, from the general appearance of the flower, be recognized as belonging to the lily family.

"The marsh marigolds, with the bright yellow b.u.t.tercup-looking flowers, are now in full luxuriance of bloom in wet places near running water; they may not be esteemed beautiful by all, and yet all G.o.d's works, and all his flowers, are good and beautiful. Let any one see them as I have seen them, a large flowerbed of an acre and more, one ma.s.s of the brightest yellow, a crystal stream meandering through their midst, the beautiful Falls of Montmorenci across the river rolling their deep strains of Nature's music, the rising tide of the St. Lawrence beating with refreshing waves at their feet, and a cloudless azure sky over head, from which the rosy tints of early morn had hardly disappeared, and if his soul be not ready to overflow with grat.i.tude to the Supreme Being who has made everything so beautiful and good, I do not know what to think of him. I would not be such a man, 'I'd rather be a dog and bay the moon.'"

The whole Gomin bog is studded with Smilacina _Bifolia_, sometimes erroneously called _the white lily of the valley_, also the Smilacina _Trifolia_, the _Dentaria_, the _Streptopus roseus_ or twisted stem, a rose-colored flower, bearing red berries in the fall. There are also in this wood, _trillium_, the May flower, _Hepatica_, and _Symplocarpus_, thickets crowned with _Rhodoras_ in full bloom--a bush a few feet high with superb rose-colored flowers--the general appearance of a cl.u.s.ter of bushes is most magnificent. In the same locality, further in the swamp, may be found the _Kalmia angustifolia_ bearing very pretty compact rose- colored flowers like small cups divided into five lobes, also the beautiful Ladies' Slipper Orchis (_Cypripedum humile_) in thousands on the borders of the swamp,--such is Sillery wood in May. The crowded flora of June is the very carnival of nature, in our climes. "Our Parish" is no exception. The Ladies' Slippers, _Kalmia Smilacina_, etc., may still be gathered in the greatest abundance throughout most of this month. Here is also the bunch of Pigeon berry, in full bloom, the Brooklime Spedwell, the Blue-eyed-gra.s.s, the herb Bennet, the Labrador Tea, the _Oxalis Stricta_ and _Oxalis acetosella_, one with yellow, the other with white and purple flowers: the first grows in ploughed fields, the second in the woods. "Our sensitive plant; they shut up their leaves and go to sleep at night, and on the approach of rain. These plants are used in Europe to give an acid flavor to soup." Here also flourishes the Linnea Borealis, roseate bells, hanging like twins from one stalk, downy and aromatic all round. In the middle of June, the Ragwort, a composite flower with yellow heads, and about one-half to two feet high, abounds in wet places by the side of running streams. Also, the Anemone, so famous in English song, princ.i.p.ally represented by the Anemone Pennsylvanica, growing on wet banks, bearing large white flowers; add the Corydalis, _Smilacina racemosa_ resembling Solomon's Seal. Here we light on a lovely Tulip bed; no--'tis that strangely beautiful flower, the pitcher plant (_Saracenia Purpurea_). Next we hit on a flower not to be forgotten, the _Myosotis pal.u.s.tris_ or Forget-me-not. Cast a glance as you hurry onwards on the _Oenothera pumila_, a kind of evening primrose, on the false h.e.l.lebore--the one-sided Pyrola, the Bladder Campion--_silene inflata_, the sweet-scented yellow Mellilot, the white Yarran, the Prunella with blue labrate flowers the Yellow Rattle, so called from the rattling of the seeds. The perforated St. John's Wort is now coming into flower everywhere, and will continue until late in August; it is an upright plant, from one to two feet high, with cl.u.s.ters of yellow flowers. The Germans have a custom for maidens to gather this herb on the eve of St.

John, and from its withering or retaining its freshness to draw an augury of death or marriage in the coming year. This is well told in the following lines:--

"The young maid stole through the cottage door, And blushed as she sought the plant of power; Then silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light, I must gather the mystic St. John's Wort to-night, The wonderful herb whose leaf must decide If the coming year shall make me a bride.

And the glow-worm came With its silvery flame, And sparkled and shone Through the night of St. John; While it shone on the plant as it bloomed in its pride, And soon has the young maid her love-knot tied.

With noiseless tread To her chamber she sped, Where the spectral moon her white beams shed.

"Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power, To deck the young bride in her bridal hour; But it dropped its head, the plant of power, And died the mute death of the voiceless flower And a withered wreath on the ground it lay, And when a year had pa.s.sed away, All pale on her bier the young maid lay; And the glow-worm came, With its silvery flame, And sparkled and shone Through the night of St. John; And they closed the cold grave o'er the maid's cold clay, On the day that was meant for her bridal day."

Let us see what flowers sultry July has in store for us in her bountiful cornucopia. "In July," says a fervent lover of nature, "bogs and swamps are glorious indeed," so look out for Calopogons, Pogonias, rose-colored and white and purple-fringed Orchises, Ferns, some thirty varieties, of exquisite texture,

"In the cool and quiet nooks, By the side of running brooks; In the forest's green retreat, With the branches overhead, Nestling at the old trees' feet, Choose we there our mossy bed.

On tall cliffs that won the breeze, Where no human footstep presses, And no eye our beauty sees, There we wave our maiden tresses,"

the Willow-herb, the true Partridge-berry, the Chimaphila, Yellow Lily, Mullein, Ghost Flower, Indian Pipe, Lysimacha Stricta, Wild Chamomile.

August will bring forth a variety of other plants, amongst others the Spirantes, or Ladies' Tresses, a very sweet-scented Orchis, with white flowers placed as a spiral round the flower stalk, the purple Eupatorium, the Snake's head, and crowds of most beautiful wild flowers, too numerous to be named here. [244] (From _Maple Leaves_, 1865).

_BEAUVOIR._

"The merchant has his snug retreat in the vicinity of the metropolis, where he often displays as much pride and zeal in the cultivation of his flower garden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he does in the conduct of his business, and the success of a commercial enterprise."

--_Rural Life in England--Washington Irving_.

Situated on the left bank of the River St. Lawrence, about four miles from the city, on the Sillery heights, and overlooking the river. The site was selected about half a century back by the late Hon. A. N. Cochrane, who acquired the property in September, 1830, and after holding it for nineteen years sold it to the Hon. John Stewart, who built the residence, which was occupied for a number of years by the late Henry LeMesurier, Esq., and was finally destroyed by fire in 1866. It was subsequently rebuilt, and afterwards purchased by the present occupant R. R. Dobell, Esq., who has since added considerably to the building and extended the property by the addition of about twelve acres purchased from the Graddon estate, and about the same quant.i.ty purchased from Mr. McHugh, the whole now comprising about thirty-five acres. The grounds are beautifully wooded and descend by a series of natural terraces to the river, on the banks of which are the extensive timber coves and wharves known as Sillery Cove, with the workmen's cottages, offices, &c., fringing the side. There is also telegraphic communication between this cove and the city. Here too is the site of the ancient church of the Recollet Fathers, within the precincts of which lie buried the remains of Rev. Ed. Ma.s.se, one of the earliest missionaries sent from France to Canada by the Jesuits, the expense of the mission was chiefly borne by the Chevalier Brulart de Sillery. Here also is the old MANSION HOUSE, and a little higher up the cliff is the ancient burial ground of the Huron Indians, where the remains of many of this tribe can still be found. The property is bounded on the west by the historical stream of St. Michaels brook, so often mentioned in the narratives of the siege of Quebec in 1759. This stream used to be well stocked with trout, and promises to regain its former character in this respect, as the present proprietor intends to re-stock it.

Mr. Dobell has collected here some very fine specimens of Canadian Game, which the art of the taxidermist has rendered very life-like. His oil paintings are deserving of notice and attracted attention at a recent exhibition of art, &c., at the Morrin College, they appear in the printed catalogue as follows:--

A Scene in Wales, (Morning).............. by Marcham.

A Scene in Wales, (Evening).............. "

Reading the Bible, ...................... "

Our Saviour,--an old painting on copper..

Dead Canary,............................. S. M. Martin.

Fox and Ducks,........................... "

Prairie Hen,............................. "

View of Quebec,.......................... Creswell.

Egyptian Interior,....................... Kornan.

Dead Game,............................... "

Two Oil Paintings,....................... after Guido Reni.

Girl and Birdcage,--a Dutch painting.....

Prisoners,............................... by Jacobi.

Flower Piece,............................ Victor Pandora and Casket,--old painting........