"These gentlemen formed the St. Patrick’s Society, and the subscription was to be five shillings each, annually. They also decided to have an annual dinner every anniversary. The first president was the Hon. D. Daly, and their first dinner was in a building where now stands the Russell House. The subscription to the dinner was to be six dollars, to make the meeting as select as possible, and to be paid out of the subscribers’ own pockets without reference to the annual subscription. The next president was the Hon. George Pemberton, and that dinner took place in the Albion Hotel in Palace street. The third president was Sir H. Caldwell; they dined in the same building, the Albion. The fourth president was George Holmes Parke, Esq., who was annually elected president for the succeeding fourteen years in succession, and the dinners took place principally in the old chateau. To the anniversary dinners the presidents of St. George, St. Andrew and St. John the Baptist were invited as guests, as was also the heads of all military and civil departments. On one occasion in the old chateau, when over two hundred and fifty guests sat down to dinner, it looked well to see Geo. Holmes Parke, Esq., with the president of St. George on one arm, and the presidents of St. Andrew and St. John the Baptist on the other, walking up the long room to the head of the dinner table. There were a large number of subscribers to the Society, and the consequence was, although the subscription was small, it was enabled to do a multitude of good. The Society for many years got on admirably until other branches were formed, and then Mr. Parke did not take the same interest as he had formerly done. Notwithstanding, there never was an anniversary dinner given afterwards but Mr. Parke was invited to it as a guest, and given one of the most prominent seats at the table. Charles Gethings, Esq., I believe, followed Mr. Parke as president, and after him others whose names I have not ascertained. Of all the gentlemen that met to form the Society, Mr. Parke is the only one living. In 1840 Mr. Parke bought a large tract of land on the River St. Charles, a short distance from the Dorchester Toll Bridge, on which he had built a splendid mansion, and ornamented it with thousands of forest trees and circular avenues, iron entrance gates, stone pillars, etc., also beautiful quickset hedges on each side of the avenues kept neatly trimmed. In this house, which he called "Ringfield," he has lived for the last fifty years, and is still living in it. There is a splendid view from Ringfield. From St. Foy’s church to St. Peter street in Lower Town can be seen almost every house in Upper Town, St. Roch and St. Sauveur. Down the River St. Lawrence can be seen nine miles, and from the hall door, before the trees grew up, could be counted fourteen parish churches, apart from the city or suburbs. Mr. Parke came to Canada in 1830, and is now in his eighty-fourth year.