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
Varied in language and nationality were the guests of the Château in days
of yore: thus in 1693, the proud old Governor Frontenac had at one and the
same time Baron Saint Castin's Indian father-in-law, Madocawando, from
Acadia, and "a gentleman of Boston, John Nelson, captured by Villebon, the
nephew and heir of Sir Thomas Temple, in whose right he claimed the
proprietorship of Acadia, under an old grant of Oliver Cromwell."
(Parkman's _Frontenac_, p. 357.)
_FORT ST. LOUIS_
Ere one of the last vestiges of the _ancien régime_, Haldimand Castle,
disappears, a few details culled from reliable sources may not be
unacceptable, especially as by fire, repairs and the vicissitudes of time,
the changes are so great, as to render difficult the delineation of what
it originally formed part of in the past.
Grave misconceptions exist as to what constituted the stately residence of
our former Governors. Many imagine that the famous _Château St. Louis_,
was but one structure, whilst in reality, it was composed at one time of
three, viz:--Fort St. Louis, Château St. Louis and Haldimand Castle, the
present Normal School. The writer has succeeded in collecting together
nine views of the Fort and Château St. Louis since the days of Champlain
down to modern times. Champlain's "brass bell" is conspicuous in more than
one of the designs.
According to Father DuCreux, the first fort erected by Champlain on the
crest of the promontory, _arx aedificata in promontarii cuspidine_,
was not placed on the site of Dufferin Terrace, but at the south-east
point of the area, which is now occupied by the Grand Battery, north-east
of the present Parliament building and looking down on Sault-au-Matelot
street. Champlain subsequently removed it to a still more elevated site;
its bastions, towers and ramparts surrounded the space on which the former
Governor's residence, soldier's barracks, magazine, &c., were constructed.
"The fortress, says Bouchette, (Fort) of St. Louis covered about four
acres of ground, and formed nearly a parallelogram; on the western
side two strong bastions on each angle were connected by a curtain, in
the centre of which was a sallyport: the other faces presented works
of nearly a similar description, but of less dimensions." [34]
We may add that Fort St. Louis, shown on the plan of Quebec of 1660,
published by Abbé Faillon, and more plainly exhibited on Jeffery's map of
Quebec, published in London in 1760, disappears after the conquest. No
mention is made of it in 1775, and still less in 1784, as a fortress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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