Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and presentLe Moine, J. M. (James MacPherson), Sir
History
Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present
Le Moine, J. M. (James MacPherson), Sir
Québec (Québec) -- Description and travel; Québec (Québec) -- Suburbs
House or Powell Place, occasionally dropping in with the _bonhommie_
of a good, kind Prince, as he was--especially when the ladies were young
and pretty. You surely did not expect to find an anchorite in a slashing
Colonel of Fusileers--in perfect health, age, twenty-five. Not a grain of
asceticism ever entered, you know, in the composition of "Farmer George's"
big sons; York and Clarence, they were no saints; neither were they
suspected of asceticism; not they, they knew better. And should royal
Edward, within your sight, ever kiss his hand to any fair daughter of Eve,
inside or outside of the city, do not, my Christian friend, upturn to
heaven the whites of your eyes in pious horror; princes are men, nay, they
require at times to be more than men to escape the snares, smiles,
seductions, which beset them at every step in this wicked, wicked, world.
How was Montmorenci Lodge furnished? Is it true that the Prince's
remittances, from Carlton House never exceeded £5,000 per annum during his
stay here?--Had he really as many bells to summon his attendants in his
Beauport Lodge as his Halifax residence contained--as he had at Kensington
or Castlebar Hill? Is it a fact that he was such a punctual and early
riser, that to ensure punctuality on this point, on of his servants was
commanded to sleep during the day in order to be sure to be awake at day-
break to ring the bell?--Did he really threaten to court-martial the 7th
Fusileers, majors, captains, subs and privates, who might refuse to sport
their pig-tails in the streets of Quebec, as well as at Gibraltar?
Really, dear reader, your inquisitiveness has got beyond all bounds; and
were Prince Edward to revisit those shores, we venture to say, that you
would in a frenzy of curiosity or loyalty even do what was charged by De
Cordova, when Edward's grandson, Albert of Wales, visited, in 1860, Canada
and the American Union:--
"They have stolen his gloves and purloined his cravat
Even scraped a souvenir from the nap of his hat."
Be thankful if we satisfy even one or two of your queries. He had indeed
to live here on the niggardly allowance of £5,000 per annum. The story
[220] about censuring an officer for cutting off his pig-tail refers not
to his stay in Canada, but to another period of his life. He lived rather
retired; a select few only were admitted to his intimacy; his habits were
here, as elsewhere, regular; his punctuality, proverbial; his stay amongst
us, marked by several acts of kindness, of which we find traces in the
addresses presented on several occasions, thanking him for his own
personal exertions and the assistance rendered by his gallant men at
several fires which had occurred. [221] He left behind some warm admirers,
with whom he corresponded regularly. We have now before us a package of
his letters dated "Kensington Palace." Here is one out of twenty; but no,
the records of private friendship must remain inviolate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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