Campobello: An Historical SketchWells, Kate Gannett
History
Campobello: An Historical Sketch
Wells, Kate Gannett
Campobello Island (N.B.)
=Lady Owen.= Lady Owen was queen as he was king; and never did a lady
rule more gently over store-room and parlor, over Sunday-School and
sewing-school, fitting the dresses of her domestics or of the Island
children. She was a handsome woman, with silver hair and pink and white
complexion, who, like her daughters, wore long trains and low corsages.
Sometimes the mother wrapped herself in a certain gold and black scarf
with such a courtly grace that its remembrance has never faded. Great
was the jubilee among the domestics when a box arrived from England,
with fabulous dresses ready made.
Once a year the maids and men of the great house had a ball, the ladies
playing for them even all night. Twice in the twelve months occurred
house-cleaning, when a dress was given each busy worker. The servants
were often reminded to take no more than was necessary on their plates;
for economy, though not parsimony, was the rule of the house. Guests
came from the mainland and from every vessel of war. Admiral Owen and
his house were the fashion for many long years.
Nowhere on the coast of Maine has there been a more curious mingling of
rank, with its investiture of ceremony, and of simple folk-life, of
loyalty to the Queen and her representatives and of the American spirit
of personal independence.
=Theatricals.= All the people were familiar with the great family, while
the better part of them were bidden to theatrical performances, for
which the Admiral composed songs. It is doubtful whether he chose as
early hours for his amateur shows as did the theatre manager of New
Brunswick; for on the first occasion of a dramatic performance in that
Province, March 28, 1789, the doors were opened at half-past five and
the play began at half-past six o'clock.
Other merry-makings occurred on the Island, justified, perhaps, by the
occasional homage of gifts sent to the mother country; for the Admiral's
diary bears record that "three large, eleven middle, and fourteen small,
masts were hoisted on board a vessel, and sent as a tribute to England."
Then, whenever a roof-raising occurred, he knew how to send the children
home to look after the chores, that their elders might join in the
merriment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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