*SOCIETY IN 1854.* We will take a stroll back, citywards, coming down the Esplanade, about the year 1850. We notice, as we near the Esplanade, the sound of the band in full force. The Esplanade benches are crowded with ladies. From the windows of many houses, spectators look on the gay scene; while lord and lady, cavalier and belle, pass to and fro to enjoy the military music and a chat with their acquaintances. The militia, in some measure, replace the regular army, but with a difference: the latter were, as a general rule, men of wealth, culture, travel, and leisure with little else to do but make themselves, agreeable to the ladies, which they did so successfully as to arouse the ire of the civilians. Even from the few houses that face the Esplanade alone, one, at least, and, as in the family of Sheriff Sewell (now occupied by Mr. Hunt), no less than three, if not four, were carried off by English officers; and from houses nearly adjoining went Miss Panet, Miss Healy, two Misses Motz, the handsome Miss Joly, Miss Bradshaw, Miss Maxham; and a few doors around the corner, on St. Anne street, Miss Ashworth. Amongst the noted belles living on the Esplanade were the handsome Burrage ladies and the Misses Mackenzie, whose father met his death in a very sad manner. There was a house situated on the St. Louis road called the "H—— House," where (there being very large rooms to let for picnic use) were often held evening entertainments. On one occasion the bachelors gave us a ball there. It was a lovely moonlight night, but very cold, and, wherever there was little snow, glare ice. Mr. Mackenzie and his daughters drove out in safety to the door; but, on alighting, he slipped and broke his leg. Being a man beyond middle age, he never quite recovered. The shock was, I think, the prime cause of his death. C. E. Levy, Esq., occupied the house, former corner of St. Anne and the Esplanade. The first house opposite, on St. Anne street, was then the residence of Captain, afterwards Admiral Boxer, and the propinquity was so favorable, he induced the handsome daughter of Captain B—— to change her father’s home for his. His widow now owns one of Quebec’s most beautiful and costly residences on the St. Louis road. The house now occupied by Sir William Meredith was, when I was a child, the house of Judge, after Sir William Stuart. His daughter, most kindly I remember, sent me a doll, dressed in crimson satin, velvet and train, to represent Her Majesty. Its gorgeousness is still before me. The corner house above that was at one time occupied by Mrs. White, whose two handsome daughters married the brothers G—— and another took captive a favorite army doctor. One, her pretty young niece, if I mistake not, Miss McG——, afterwards Mrs. B——, lived with her here.