One of the Duke of Richmond's sons was lost in the ill-fated steamer _President_ in 1840. In December, 1824, Sir Peregrine revisited Quebec with Sir Francis Burton, Lieutenant-Governor, in the _Swiftsure_, steamer escorting some very distinguished tourists. A periodical notices the arrivals at the old Château as follows:-- "Sir Peregrine is accompanied by Lord Arthur Lennox, Mr. Maitland, Colonels Foster, Lightfoot, Coffin and Talbot, with the Hon. E. G. Stanley (from 1851 to 1869 Earl of Derby), grandson of Earl Derby, M. P. for Stockbridge; John E. Denison, Esq., (subsequently Speaker of the House of Commons), M. P. for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and James S. Wortley, Esq. (afterwards Lord Wharncliffe), M. P. for Bossiney in Cornwall. The three latter gentlemen are upon a tour in this country from England, and we are happy to learn, that they have expressed themselves as being highly gratified with all they have hitherto seen in Canada."--(_Canadian Review_, 1824.) Quebecers will be pleased to learn that the name of Sir Peregrine Maitland is pleasantly preserved by means of Maitland Scholarships in a grammar school for natives at Madras, and by a Maitland Prize in the University of Cambridge. Sir Peregrine, as patron of education, opened an era of progress which his successors Lords Elgin, Dufferin and Lorne have continued in a most munificent manner. A curious glimpse of high life at Quebec, in the good old days of Lord Dalhousie, is furnished in a letter addressed to _Delta_, of Blackwood's Magazine, by John Galt, the novelist, the respected father of our gifted statesman, Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt. [40] The talented author of the "_Annals of the Parish_," after expatiating on the dangers he had that day incurred in crossing over from Levis to Quebec in a canoe, among the ice-floes, thus alludes to the winter amusements:-- QUEBEC, 22nd February, 1827. MY DEAR SIR,--I am under very great obligations to you. A copy of the "Laird" having come to the castle from the New York publishers, Lady Dalhousie lent it to me. * * * I am much pleased with Quebec. It is at present filled with Highland regiments, in which I have many acquaintances and the hospitality of the other inhabitants is also unbounded, for the winter suspends all business, and pleasure is conducted as if it were business. The amateurs have a theatre, and I wrote a piece for them, in which a Londoner, a Glasgow merchant, an Irish girl, a Yankee family and a Highlander were introduced. It was adapted entirely to the place, and in quiz of a very agreeable custom --of everybody calling on strangers. Dr. Dunlop performed the Highlander beyond anything I ever saw on the regular stage. The whole went off with more laughter than anything I have ever seen, for the jokes being local and personal (supplied by upwards of thirty contributors), every one told with the utmost effect."