Moreover, winter, the idle half of the year, was the season of social visits; and in these courtesies the _habitants_ were assiduous. Between Christmas and Ash Wednesday they strove, it would seem, to fill themselves with gaiety against the coming grey season of Lent. An unbidden throng of visitors would drive to a selected house, and sheer bankruptcy would indeed have been the housewife's portion if this welcome invasion had been wholly unexpected; but to meet such an emergency cooked meats and pies stood ready upon her pantry shelves, while _croquignoles_ and sweet pasties needed only a few moments in the oven before a meal was ready. Thus during the days of snow they went gaily from homestead to homestead, all being victimised in turn by these "surprise parties." For _la haute noblesse_ also, the winter season was the gayest of the year. Their quaint carrioles sped jingling over the snow from one manor-house to another; here a dinner-party, there a dance, and everywhere a frugal happiness. [Illustration: A CARRIOLE] [Illustration: VILLAGE OF BEAUPORT] In _Les Anciens Canadiens_ De Gaspé portrays the life of this seigneurial class to which he himself belonged. The manor-house was usually a long, low, stone-built structure, surmounted by overhanging gables and a lofty roof. A wing was sometimes added at right angles, and always a group of strongly-built outhouses, stables, and sheds clustered near by; among them standing a stone mill which had perhaps served as a tower of refuge in the troublous times of the Iroquois raids, but which the _censitaires_ now used merely to grind their grain. If the Seigneur was possessed of power to execute high, middle, and low justice, a gallows and a pillory might be found within the precincts; but towards the close of the _ancien régime_ these crude implements of punishment had happily fallen into disuse. The parish church was never far away, the Seigneur being at all times the patron of the _presbytère_, as well as the potent bulwark of the feudal village springing up within sight of his manor-house.