MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
1872-8
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA, 1872-78
/Vom a Photograph taken at the time in Canada [frontitpiece
MY
CANADIAN JOURNAL
1872-8
EXTRACTS FROM MY LETTERS HOME
WRITTEN WHILE
LORD DUFFERIN WAS GOVERNOR-GENERAL
BY THE
MARCHIONESS OF DUFFERIN & AVA
AUTHOR OF 'OUR VICE-REUAL LIFE IS INDIA'
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES BY LORD DUFFERIN
PORTRAITS AND MAP
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1891
TO MY CANADIAN FRIENDS
THIS LITTLE BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCEIBED
H. D. & A.
PREFACE
ENCOURAGED by the kind reception given to my Indian
Journal, I have ventured to prepare this earlier one for
publication ; though I am well aware that the subject is less
new, and that Canada, and the life a Governor-General
leads there, are much better known, and offer less novelty
to most readers, than did a similar record of the Viceroy's
social life in India.
Both Journals were sent in the same way, as weekly
letters to my mother, and the only difference between the
two is this that whereas the one was published directly I
returned from India, the first pages of my Canadian diary
were written nearly twenty years ago, and it is more than
twelve since the book was closed.
In a prosperous and quick-growing country like Canada,
[8] MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
every year makes a difference: and I know, both from
hearsay and from pictures I have seen, that places I
mention as villages have become towns; that a new
railway traverses the North West, with cities springing
up everywhere in its wake ; that Ottawa itself has quite
outgrown my memories of it ; that the contemplated im-
provements, designed to keep Quebec the most beautiful
| city in the world, have been accomplished ; and that in
almost every part of the Dominion the hand of progress
has been busy, building, adding to, and improving.
My little Journal, therefore, is rather a record of the
past than a description of the present ; and this I sadly
feel, as I find in it the names of many who have passed
away, some leaving never-to-be-filled blanks in their own
homes, others mourned by a whole nation.
Nothing has oppressed me more in the revision of this
Journal than the sense that, from the necessity of shorten-
ing it as much as possible, I have done scant justice to the
kindness of many friends, and that some of those of whom
we saw the most, and who added so materially to the
happiness of our daily life in Canada, are scarcely men-
tioned in it. The Prime Ministers, for instance, who, with
their wives, were constantly associated with all we did, are
only occasionally mentioned, though the warm affection
we felt for Sir John and Lady Macdonald, and for Mr.
and Mrs. Mackenzie, are amongst the pleasantest recollec-
tions of our Canadian life.
And the same may be said of their colleagues, and of
many others, who, if they read these pages, will, I hope,
remember that they relate but a quarter of the events and
the pleasures of the years we spent in Canada, and give
but a few of the names of those with whom we made
PREFACE [9]
enduring friendships, and with whom we worked and
played and enjoyed our life in the Dominion.
I have also been sorry to pass so very lightly over
the cordiality and the friendliness invariably shown us
whenever we crossed our borders into the United States ;
for whether we were travelling officially through Chicago
or Detroit, or went as ordinary visitors to New York or
Boston, we were always received with a kindness and a
hospitality which we can never forget.
I must also say one word as to the silence on all political
matters maintained in this Journal. I have not attempted
to record in it any part of the business of the Governor-
General ; and it is only as they affected our movements,
or our social arrangements, that I have, even distantly,
alluded to public events, and then, I fear, in a somewhat
light and irresponsible spirit.
The Governor-General and his wife belong to no party ;
and we met with such universal kindness from all persons
with whom we came in contact in the Dominion, that I, at
least, never wanted to remember that people differed from
each other in their political views, and was only too glad to
leave politics to those whom they necessarily concerned.
HABIOT DUFFERIN AND AVA,
CLANDEBOYE : August 18, 1891.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
AKEIVAL IN CANADA
JUNE-AUGUST 1872
The Voyage Eeception at Quebec Eiver steamers on the St. Law-
renceArrival at Ottawa Eideau Hall Household arrange-
ments Chaudiere Fall The LachineEapids Quebec Privileges
of the Kings of France Montmorency Falls Eiviere du Loup
The Dauntless Cacouna Tadousac The Saguenay Trout-
fishing My first entertainment in Canada An early church
Canoeing and camping on the Marguerite Eiver Our first
Canadian salmon .
CHAPTER II
QUEBEC
AUGUST-SEPTEMBEE 1872
The Citadel Setting-up house Our first dinner party A picnic
' Mr. Briggs ' Social duties The Ursuline Convent Canadian
songs The local institutions Eeceptions at the Convents Ball
given by Lady Belleau Universite Laval The Stadacona Hunt
Ball at the Citadel Departure from Quebec . . . .18
[12] MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
CHAPTER III
ONTARIO
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 1872
PAGE
Toronto Hamilton Grand reception at Toronto Niagara The
Falls Buffalo Drawing-room at Toronto Woodstock London
Petrolia Schools at Toronto The York Pioneers ' Not at
home ' Ball in the Parliament Buildings Sunday schools The
children arrive from England 34
CHAPTER IV
OTTAWA
NOVEMBER 1872-JAUUARY 1873
Ottawa Eideau Hall Thanksgiving Day The first direct telegram
from Australia Winter costumes Tobogganing His Excel-
lency's visit to Montreal Daily routine Snow-shoeing Cana-
dian celebrities Frost-bites Making a rink 22 below zero
Skating Sleighing New Year's Day 44
CHAPTER V
MONTREAL
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1873
Montreal Quebec Citizens' ball Drawing-room at Montreal
Torch-light procession on snow-shoes The Eink The M'Gill
College Ball E.G. Deaf and Dumb Institutions Fancy dress
ball at the rink Winter games Ladies' skating matches . . 54
CHAPTER VI
OUR FIRST PARLIAMENTARY SESSION
FEBRUARY-MAY 1873
Arrangements for the season at Ottawa Cabinet dinner Opening of
Parliament The Drawing-room Theatricals Parliamentary
dinners Ball at Eideau Hall Prince Edward's Island joins the
Dominion Birth of a daughter 65
CONTENTS [13]
CHAPTER VII
ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
JUNE-JULY 1873
PAGE
Sir George Cartier Quebec Christening of the Queen's godchild-
Viceregal functions The Druid Tadousac The Godbout River
The Mingan Indians in chapel One of our men drowned
Fishing A day at sea Gasp< Tete-a-Ute drives Camping out
on the Dartmouth Eiver On the St. John Not enough blankets !
A strange coincidence Perc6 Curing fish Paspediac
Dalhousie Chatham Newcastle 76
CHAPTER VIII
THE MARITIME PEOVINCES
JoLY-AoGUST 1873
Prince Edward's Island Charlotte Town Ball in the Senate Chamber
Pictou coal mines Louisburg Sydney Fog Landing at
Halifax, N.S. Dinner at Government House Party feeling
McNab's Island Lobster-spearing Lord Dufferin's speech at
the Club Ball in the Parliament Buildings Ball on H.M.S.
Royal A I/red Industrial homes Bay of Fundy St. John, N.B.
Hotel life Torch-light procession Ball in the theatre Voyage
up the St. John River Fredericton Woodstock Grand Falls
Tadousac 92
CHAPTER IX
THE FALL
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 1873
Bathing at Tadousac Quebec Miss Florence Lees Football Con-
vents Paper chase Visitors The Stadacona Races Ball at the
Citadel Montreal Ottawa Debate on the address Resignation
of Sir John Macdonald's cabinet Curling Mr. Mackenzie, the
new Premier Christmas ... .... 113
[14] MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
CHAPTER X
OUR SECOND SEASON AT OTTAWA
JANUARY-JUNE 1874
The New Year's reception Tableaux Only 10 of frost ! The insti-
tutions of Ottawa An ice storm Concert Montreal Fancy
dress ball in the rink Ottawa Curling match A winter's drive
Caves Electrical experiments Opening of Parliament
Charles Kingsley Laurence Oliphant Citizens' ball in the
Senate Chamber Lumber mills The Queen's Birthday Excur-
CHAPTER XI
FISHING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
JUNE- JULY 1874
Quebec Gaspe Mr. Beynolds's camp on the York Biver Our
camp on the St. John Biver Dominion Day ' The Countess's
Pool A fog Tadousac Up the Saguenay Chicoutimi An
Indian passenger Murray Bay The St. Anne Falls Our cook's
family 143
CHAPTER XII
ONTARIO AND THE LAKES
JULY-SEPTEMBER 1874
Trois Bivieres Toronto Bival hotels Newmarket Barrie Lake
Simcoe The Narrows Orillia Ojibbeway Indians Muskoka
Lake Bracebridge Summit House Settlers Parry Sound
Collingwood Owen Sound Manitoulin Indians Sault Ste. Marie
Michipicoten Nipigon A portage Camping out Lake
Superior Silver Islet Prince Arthur's Landing Indians at
Shebandowan Kamanistiqwa Biver Lake Michigan Chicago
The park The Palmer House Beception at the Exchange The
boulevards The shops Detroit Sarnia Lake Huron
Goderich Salt works Stratford Guelph Miss Macpherson's
Home Brantford The Six Nations Mr. George Brown's farm
CONTENTS [15]
PAGE
Woodstock London Fire at Simcoe St. Catherine's Swing
bridge over the Niagara Eiver The Falls Mr. Plumb's house
Toronto Lord Dufferin's speech at the club Whitby Port
Hope Coburg Iron mine Belleville Dr. Palmer's Deaf and
Dumb Institution Kingston Brockville Home again at
Ottawa . . 156
CHAPTEE XIII
WINTER AND SPRING
SEPTEMBEB 1874-MAY 1875
The Dominion Rifle Match New York The theatres and parks
Entertainments Drive to ' Sleepy Hollow ' Lord Dufferin goes
to Washington The Normal School Night journey to Boston-
Longfellow's house Club dinner A Universalist Church Eeturn
to Ottawa The steeple-chase Visitors An ideal Christmas Day
Children's tableaux Lord Dufferin's visit to Montreal Curl-
ing Debate on Eiel Birth and christening of a son Home on
short leave Delayed by ice and fog 99
CHAPTER XIV
AN UNEVENTFUL SEASON
OCTOBER 1875-JuLY 1876
R.M.S. Prussian Ottawa Skating A rainy Christmas Day Plays
Married v. Bachelors Montreal Ottawa Opening of Parlia-
ment Fancy dress balls Theatricals Ice block on the Eideau
Expedition up the Le Lievre Quebec After the fire Lord
Dufferin's speech Procession of Jean Baptiste Gasp6 Fishing
on the York Eiver Archie's birthday His departure for school
Ottawa Preparations for the Grand Tour . . . . .216
CHAPTER XV
ACROSS THE CONTINENT AND ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1876
Our special train A reporter and his request Five o'clock tea Chi-
cagoOmahaThe Platte Valley The Eocky Plains Cheyenne
[16] MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
PAGE
The Alkali Plains The Eocky Mountains Ogden Cape Horn
Travelling with a murderer San Francisco The Cliff House
A Killyleagh friend H.M.S. Amethyst The Pacific Esquimault
Victoria Party feeling Busy days Our Chinese cook and his
wife Eegatta Nanaimo Bute Inlet Safety Harbour Metla-
catlah Successful missionary efforts Fort Simpson Indian
monuments Queen Charlotte's Islands Alert Bay Burrard's
Inlet A heavy mail .236
CHAPTEE XVI
BRITISH COLUMBIA, CALIFORNIA AND THE SALT
LAKE CITY
SEPTEMBEB-OCTOBEE 1876
A forest giant New Westminster A speech in many tongues The
Fraser River Yale Hell's Gate An Indian escort Lytton
Indian grave Mr. Cornwall's Kamloops A ' Pow-Pow ' Down
the Thompson Eiver Perilous drive Victoria Strange servants
Ball Esquimault Dry dock A busy day At sea San Fran-
cisco Good-bye to H.M.S. Amethyst A 'Frisco merchant's
country house A Californian ball Giving names The Chinese
theatre Joss House The return journey Salt Lake City
Mormon society Cheyenne Denver Hotel manners Oregon
Bill St. Louis Toronto . . .270
CHAPTER XVII
OUR FIFTH WINTER AND SUMMER IN CANADA
OCTOBEE 1876-JuLY 1877
Toronto Lord Dufferin starts for Philadelphia Montreal Ottawa
Tom Thumb Sermon before the service Christmas festivities-
Toronto Speeches Ottawa Theatricals Presentation by the
cabmen Procession in honour of Pope Leo XIII. Distinguished
visitors Quebec In camp Fishing Tadousac .... 299
CONTENTS [17]
CHAPTER XVIII
THE NOETH WEST
AUGUST 1877
PAGE
In the Cars St. Paul Minneapolis Minnehaha Falls Across the
prairie The Eed Eiver Greetings on the way The Frontier
Fort Garry Winnipeg ' Silver Heights ' An Indian's idea of
religion St. Boniface The Hudson's Bay store Lassoing
Sioux Indians Ball at Winnipeg A Eed Eiver cart The Eock-
wood Penitentiary St. Andrew's Little Stone Fort Selkirk
The Indian reserve Winnipeg Camping out Mennonite settle-
ment A member of the local Parliament 312
CHAPTER XIX
MANITOBA
AUGUST-OCTOBER 1877
Insect life on the prairie Half-breeds St. Andrew's Pitching camp
On the Dawson route A 'corduroy' road The North- West
Angle Lake of the Woods Canoeing on the Winnipeg Eiver
The White Dog Mission Portages Eapids Fort Alexander
An Indian grave Lake Winnipeg S.S. Colville The Saskatche-
wanThe first railway in the North-WestFlour 51. a bag ! Stone
Fort Gimla, the Icelandic settlement Winnipeg An Indian-
Lodge' Lake Manitoba Duck-shooting Portage La Prairie
Productive land Want of good drinking-water Silver Heights
The Canadian Pacific Eailway Farewell dfy'euner and speeches at
Winnipeg A happy family The Military College, Kingston
Back to Ottawa , . 338
CHAPTER XX
OUB LAST SEASON AT OTTAWA AND MONTEEAL
OCTOBER 1877-JuNE 1878
Earthquake Christmas visitors Bad accident Tobogganing Visit
to Montreal The Windsor Hotel The McKay Institution Villa
Maria Convent Ball McGill College -Military display at the
a
[18] MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
PAGE
theatre Convent of the Sacred Heart Mount Royal Park Fare-
well dinner The Art Association Conversazione Sickness at
Ottawa Death of Mr. Ward ' Sweethearts 'A musical after-
noon with the House of Commons Farewell address from both
Houses of Parliament Fancy bazaar The Phonograph The
General Hospital, Montreal The Queen's Birthday Review-
Good-bye at Ottawa The children leave for England . . .369
CHAPTER XXI
THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS, AND LAST DAYS IN
CANADA
JUNE-AUGUST 1878
Gasp6 ' Tinker ' Riots at Quebec Our rooms occupied by soldiers
Island of Orleans Farewell address from the Quebec Parliament
Visit to Boston A New England home A literary dinner
party Lord Duff erin takes his degree at the Harvard University
Longfellow Mr. Adams Quebec A fog on the St. Lawrence
Fishing on the Metapediac Run to Campbell Town Rimouski
Bic Fishing Last visit to Tadousac The 12th of July The
Maine Press Association Sillery The Roman Catholic bishops
Sir Edward Thornton's visit Theatricals on the Island of
Orleans The Montmorency Falls Expedition to the Chaudiere
Falls Danville Sherbrooke Lennoxville Lake Massiwippi
Compton Stanstead Lake Memphremagog Magog Bolton
Waterloo Granby St. John's Lake Champlain Lake
George Juvenile coachman at Fort Henry Good-bye . . 388
LORD DUFFERIN'S LAST DAYS IN CANADA 416
INDEX . 419
ILLUSTBATIONS
LOBD DUFFERIN, GovEBNOK-GENEBAL OF CANADA, 1872-78 . frontispiece
(From a photograph taken at the time in Canada)
INDIAN TENTS p. [7]
OUK HOUSE AND THE HOTEL, TADOUSAC .... to face p. 80
GASPE ,,144
OUB HUT (ON THE ST. JOHN RIVER) p. 148
THE MOUTH OF THE RED RIVER AND LAKE WINNIPEG . to face p. 316
RAT PORTAGE p. 347
INDIAN GRAVE AT FORT ALEXANDER p. 351
LA ROCHE PERCEE to face p. 362
LADY DUFFERIN ,,392
(From a sketch by Lord Dufferin)
MAP
at end
MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
18721878
CHAPTEE I
ARRIVAL IN CANADA
S.S. ' Prussian ': Friday, June 14^, 1872. Ugh ! Ugh !
horrid ! Very rough ; everybody ill except the wretched
baby, Basil, who is perfectly well, but can get no one to dress
him, and is handed about, unwashed, to engineers, waiters,
to anyone who can stand.
Monday, lyih. The ship rolling from side to side till
one's back aches. Such a noise of splashing and dash-
ing and falling about, and such fears lest my infants
should follow the example of my toothbrush, and come
flying across the room ! To add to my fears, two steerage
passengers came to D. in the night, to inquire whether he
thought there was any danger, and if the captain might not
be asked to put into port until it became calmer. In the
morning these men were found sleeping with life-belts on.
}\ T /'dnesday, iQth. We are much better now, and quite
enjoy our meals, which D. and I have in a cabin by our-
selves.
We are also able to look about, and find that there
are 107 'street Arabs' on board, brought out by a saint
of a woman, who, although very sick and miserable her-
B
2 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. i
self, sings to them, reads out loud, goes down into the
steerage, sees them to bed, and performs many other trying
offices in the most unselfish manner. Miss Macpherson
pays her own passage and expenses. Each child costs
loZ. to bring out, arid will eventually be adopted into a
Canadian family, where it will have a happy home. This
seems to be an excellent charity.
Sunday, 23rd. A beautiful day a hot sun and a per-
fectly calm sea. Our parasols and shady hats have come out
for the first time, and Hermie and Basil l are being made
very much of by the convalescent passengers. Prepara-
tions are making for our arrival at Quebec ; and, as it has
been discovered that there is no Canadian flag on board,
my maid, Mrs. Dent, is busily engaged in trying to
manufacture one. Nobody is quite sure what it is, but all
suppose that there must be a beaver and a maple-leaf in
it. I sincerely hope that no great herald will be waiting
to receive us.
We have attended a meeting in the steerage, where
some of the Canadian passengers talked to the emigrants
about the country they are going to. D. also spoke, and
told them that in Canada they need never complain, as he
had hea^d one of them do, ' that he had too many children,'
for that there the more they had the better. An enthusi-
astic young man on hearing this slapped D. on the back
and said, ' That is just what I have been telling Emily.'
Quebec: Tuesday, 2$th. A lovely morning. We an-
chored early, but did not land till ten, when the Ministers,
Lieutenant-Governor, and several other officials, came on
board, and with them we went ashore. A salute was fired
from the citadel as D. stepped on land, and we walked
through lines of troops to a carriage- and- four, in which
we drove to Spencer Wood, the Lieutenant-Governor's resi-
dence. We passed through Quebec, up a very steep hill.
The road was rough, and it was extremely hot and dusty.
1 Our youngest children.
JUNE 1872 ARRIVAL AT QUEBEC AND OTTAWA 3
I could not see the view as we were driving away from
the river, and also, I was much occupied in looking at the
people who filled the streets ; but when we got to Spencer
Wood we were charmed with it, and it looks right down
upon the St. Lawrence. At three o'clock D. was sworn in
as Governor-General of Canada, and received some addresses
of welcome, but, as I remained quiet in my country retreat,
I can tell you nothing of the ceremony. Our host is Sir
Narcisse Belleau; his wife is a nice quiet little French-
woman, and he is pleasant and kind. There was a dinner
in the evening, but I don't feel that I have seen enough
of any of the guests to tell you about them to-day, except
that the Prime Minister, Sir John Macdonald, is the image s -
of Dizzy.
Wednesday, 26th. The papers give a most amusing de-
scription of D., stating his apparent weight and height. I am
very flatteringly described, though the ignorant male writer
speaks slightingly of my dress as being a 'plain blue silk,'
whereas it was in reality excessively smart, and had caused
me infinite trouble and anxiety ! However, I had the satis-
faction of hearing from Lady Harriet Fletcher 2 that the
ladies knew better, and had appreciated it.
Lady Harriet and I had a drive about the old town,
and I was quite delighted with it. The views are perfectly
lovely, and it would be such a charming place to live in,
if only we had a house here !
In the afternoon we started for Ottawa in a magnifi-
cent river steamer with four storeys and streets of cabins,
and a grand table d'hote on board. We sat on deck and
enjoyed ourselves immensely as we went up the St. Law-
rence. I cannot tell you what a lovely voyage this was ! so .
lovely that I cannot believe that we did it of necessity, and
not for pleasure only.
Thursday, 2?th. We arrived at Ottawa, the first view of
* Daughter of the Earl of Romney, wife of Lord Dufferin's Military
Secretary.
n 2
4 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. i
which is magnificent ; but once landed there was no time to
look at anything ! There were nine addresses to be listened
to, and after them we drove off to our new home ! . . . We
have been so very enthusiastic about everything hitherto
that the first sight of Eideau Hall did lower our spirits just
a little ! The road to it is rough and ugly, the house
appears to me to be at the land's end, and there is no view
whatever from it, though it is near the river and we have
come through hundreds of miles of splendid scenery to get
to it ! Then I have never lived in a Government House
before, and the inevitable bare tables and ornamentless
rooms have a depressing effect : for the first time I realise
that I have left my own home for many years, and this
is its substitute !
Friday, 28tli. Please forget the above growl. The
morning has brought more cheerful reflections. We are not
intended to live here at midsummer, and I dare say that in
winter this place looks lovely ! Our house is, they say, very
warm and comfortable, and the Houses of Parliament
which, after all, I do see from my windows are very beauti-
ful. And I can cover up the tables and supply the homey
look which at present is wanting so why did I grumble ?
We have driven in state through the town, and have visited
the Government buildings. I was delighted with the Senate,
and with the Library a large, circular room. When the
House is sitting I may come and listen to debates, but the
Governor- General may not !
The weather is extremely hot, and we are not going to
remain here. D. goes to-morrow to inspect militia at
Prescott, and I meet him there two days later.
^ Monday, July ist. We went for a row on the river in the
evening, which was delicious. It was very pretty ; and we
had a breath of fresh air, and got out of a perspiration for
the first time for a week !
We have been busy making a number of household
arrangements. I have chosen my nurseries ; and it has
JULY 1872 HOUSEHOLD ARRANGEMENTS 5
been decided to add a storey to the little house in the
garden in which the Fletchers will live, for they have a
number of children too. The non- arrival of all our heavy
luggage has been an anxiety ; so far our Viceregal establish-
ment possesses about six plates and as many cracked tea-
cups ; and our own supply of china, plate, and linen seems
to be trying to see the country, and to travel for pleasure,
instead of coming and settling down here as it should.
Perhaps you may wonder where my children are all
this time. The three elder ones are still in Europe, trying
to learn a little French, and Hermione and Basil, who came
out with us, are now at Eiviere du Loup, where we have
taken a house for the summer. There, also, are the
Fletcher children. Colonel 3 and Lady Harriet Fletcher came
out to Canada the mail before we did, and made all arrange-
ments for us and for themselves. He is the Military
Secretary. We have two very nice A.D.C.s at present.
One of them was with Lord Lisgar, and has kindly volun-
teered to stay and help us for a time. The other is Mr.
Coulson, who is regularly appointed, and who will remain
even after Fred comes out. Please tell the latter that I
find that an A.D.C. is a charming institution. These two
ask me ' if I will drive,' ' or walk,' ' or boat,' or ' if I want
anything from the town ' ; and if I turn my head, they find
out what I am looking for, and get it for me. So Fred
need not hope to get off any of his duties through my
ignorance of them !
D. is very happy, and is much taken with the country
and the people ; and all here seem pleased with him. I think
that I am getting on pretty well too, though I say it that
should be silent in the matter; and the papers, who talk
about us a good deal, lay great stress on my not being
affected a negative virtue which I may mention without
appearing too conceited !
My attentive A.D.C.s have taken me to see the Chau-
3 The late Colonel Fletcher, C.M.G., Scots Fusilier Guards.
6 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. I
diere Fall. It is close to Ottawa, and is very beautiful.
There is a mass of water which appears to fall in three
different directions into the same pool, and a great smoke
of foam rises from the splash ; it looks just like a big
'cauldron. Close to it is a saw-mill. The trunks of forest-
trees are carried by the stream to the door of the mill, where
they are caught by chains and slowly dragged into the teeth
of a bundle of saws. After passing through these, the trees
fall in planks, which are quickly taken up by another machine
to have their sides neatly trimmed. As they pass a man
marks them with a pencil according to their quality.
After this we ' ran the slide,' which was very exciting.
The ' slide ' is a long incline of water, divided into a series
of small waterfalls, and is the artificial road by which the
timber from the higher levels is brought down into the St.
Lawrence. The wood is made up into rafts, and you sit
upon these while they slip down the incline. It looks
rather alarming to see one of these great monsters go head-
long into the water at the foot of each fall ; but, although I
got on board with my heart in my mouth, I liked it ex-
tremely, and when I found myself safe on the calm level of
the Ottawa, I would gladly have recommenced the journey
had it been possible : but when one has slid down this
steep hill of water to the river, one is miles away from the
starting-point, and has to go home another way. The
rafts and the quantities of wood lying about in all directions
are the most curious sights here, but I see no really fine
timber growing in this neighbourhood.
Wednesday, $rd. I left Ottawa early, and met D. at
Prescott. He had been inspecting volunteer camps at
Kingston and Prescott, and is to see another at Laprairie
to-morrow.
We shot the rapids. The rapids are places where there
is a tremendous stream rushing over a rocky descent.
When the steamer comes to them the engine is stopped,
and the current carries the vessel over the broken water
JULY 1872 RUNNING THE RAPIDS 1
at a great rate. If the pilot were to make a mistake, or to
lose command of the ship, she would be wrecked. The
rapids look like a stormy sea, but you do not go up and
down in them, and rather feel as though the vessel were
being buffeted about, and as if it were striking some hard
substance. The worst rapid is called the ' Lachine,' and
that does look rather alarming. The rapids are all down
hill, and going at such a great pace the pilot 4 appears
to be steering straight upon some fearful rock, peeping
above water, when just as you expect the crash, the stream
takes the vessel and carries her clear of the danger.
"We were met at Montreal by the Mayor and a guard
of honour.
Quebec : Friday, $tli. I saw a little of Montreal yester-
day, but not enough to warrant a description. We went to
a Ifttle country place, where we had strawberries and cream
under the trees, and when I returned to the hotel I received
visitors. I find Canadian society very easy to get on with :
the people talk, and they are very simple and natural, and
willing to be pleased ; so that receiving seventy or eighty
total strangers is made a pleasant instead of an arduous
task, as it might be.
D. was occupied all day inspecting a camp, and in
receiving addresses.
We dined early, and went on board the steamer for
Quebec. There were 800 passengers, most of them lying
about on the floors ; but we had comfortable cabins, and
slept well all night.. The only new things we saw on this
journey were the fire-flies ; they were so numerous on the
wooded banks of the river that their lights looked like those
of a distant town.
Saturday, 6th. The Governor-General has some of the
privileges of the old kings of France, and one of them is
that he has the right to enter the cloistered convents. In
4 The pilot on this occasion was ' Old Baptistc,' who took us down a
channel he had himself first found in 1842.
8 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. i
his train, therefore, we have been to the Ursulines and to
the Hotel-Dieu. The Vicar-General went with us, and at
each convent, after inspecting the ordinary arrangements
of the house, we went into a room where the nuns were
arranged in rows, and where we sat on thrones on a dais.
In a clever, easy way the Vicar inaugurated a kind of general
conversation about the convent, and the nuns laughed at
his little jokes, and answered any questions put to them.
We were greatly struck by their manners, so pleasant and
cheerful, without the slightest affectation or shyness.
Monday, 8th. We made an expedition to theMontmorency
Falls. D. went in the Dauntless, a thirty-six ton yacht
which he has bought, and we rowed in a big boat. The
fall is six miles from Quebec. The day was very fine,
and as we saw them from the river the shining tin roofs
of the town looked beautiful in the sunshine.
The first view of the fall is spoilt by the quantity of
timber at its base. The bay is crammed with stacks of
boards and wood, piled up in every way, and there are saw-
mills hard at work ; but when you get close enough to see
it, the Montmorency is really beautiful. It is 170 feet
high higher than Niagara and it falls perfectly straight
down into the earth, clouds of spray rising up in front of it.
The water does not appear to rush on as in most waterfalls,
and it is supposed that it dives into the ground, and comes
out elsewhere.
We had brought provisions with us, so we lighted a
fire, cooked an excellent lunch, and afterwards made tea.
In the cool of the evening we rowed back to Quebec, and
got on board the steamer for Eiviere du Loup. This is
the fashionable time for going to the seaside, so the boats
are very full.
Riviere du Loup : Tuesday, gth. Our house here is a nice
little cottage, but it is a long way from the sea, and I don't
think that we shall care to shut ourselves up in it for long.
We are impatient to see more of the country and the
JULY 1872 THE 'DAUNTLESS* 9
people, and if only we can find a house at Quebec we shall
go there ; for the more we see of that place, the more we
like it.
Wednesday, loth. After getting my letters ready for the
mail we set out for the yacht. The day was not very good,
but there was a nice breeze, and although the Fletchers and
I felt a little uncomfortable at first, we all got over it and
enjoyed ourselves very much. H.E. was delighted with
the Dauntless. His sailors are not very smart, but he is
looking forward to the arrival of Hammond, 5 who will soon
give it the air of an English yacht. The Dauntless has a
well to sit in, and a large but rather low cabin. She is one
of the flat yachts with a sliding keel. D. steered back into
the harbour before an admiring crowd just arrived by
the steamer. An American on the shore called out,
'Well, Governor, you seem to be used to this kind of
work.'
Thursday, nth. Dr. Campbell, of Montreal, came here
to offer D. some salmon-fishing. He has accepted for two
days, and goes next Wednesday, the 1 7th Colonel Fletcher
with him. They will live in a camp, and be eaten by black
flies and mosquitoes. The former have a sharp lance, which
they insert under the skin. You do not feel the bite at the
time, but it bleeds freely and inflames next day. While
fishing, you keep your face and neck covered with a pre-
paration which the flies dislike. Dr. Campbell gave an
exciting account of the fishing, and how the fisherman runs
along the banks as fast as he can, while the salmon rushes
down the rapids. I think / should like to go too but
ladies are not invited.
Saturday, 2oth. H.E. returned in the evening. He
enjoyed his trip very much, though the salmon were
scarce, and he only caught five trout. Dr. Campbell, Mr.
Urquhart, Colonel Fletcher, and himself, were the party.
Mr. Urquhart attended to the dinner, and was ' most
5 An English sailor.
10 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. i
anxious ' about it, it consisted of salmon and cold beef,
and was very good ; still, it does not sound as if it required
immense thought and preparation.
Monday, 22nd. Colonel Fletcher has gone off to see
houses at Quebec.
In the afternoon we drove to Cacouna, a more fashion-
able watering-place than this, where there is a large hotel
frequented by Americans, who amuse themselves by dress-
ing four times a day.
Wednesday, 24th. D. and I started in the afternoon
for Tadousac. It was quite dark when we got there, after
two hours in the steamer, and we could only see that we
drove up a most dangerous road. It was a wooden ramp,
just wide enough for the carriage, and with a little precipice
on each side. It led to the hotel, which we found extremely
clean and comfortable. I think they manage these things
very well in Canada. There is a complete absence of pre-
tence. The furniture is very plain : just a strip of carpet
in one's bedroom, common-looking French beds, washing-
stand and chest of drawers no curtains anywhere the only
luxury being extreme cleanliness. There is a table d'hote
where all dine servants at the same table as the other
guests and the food is very good. We had private rooms
and private meals, but no one else would think of such a
thing. The same simplicity strikes me as characteristic of
the people. They do not pretend to be fine or smart, or
anything but what they are ; they believe every word you
say, and take all polite exaggerations au pied de la lettre.
They are exceedingly friendly and kind-hearted, so that their
saying what they think does not lead to any uncomfort-
able speeches.
Tadousac is the oldest, but I should think the smallest,
place in the Dominion. Not only as tourists, but as
sailors, we are delighted with it. The hotel is situated in
the curve of a lovely bay, with a nice sandy beach all round
it. There are rocky walks of a most amusing description
JULY 1872 T ADO US AC 11
for the walker, a good anchorage for the yachtsman, and
as all the fishing is up the Saguenay, and this place is at
its mouth, there is sport for the sportsman. There are
white porpoises and seals, and occasional whales to be seen
rolling and jumping about, and altogether we thought the
place most attractive, and have some idea of building a
house here for the summer.
Thursday, 2$th. We got up at six to go out fishing,
and drove down to the pier, where we found Mr. Eadford, a
resident here, who had promised to chaperon us to the fish-
ing-ground. It was rather too stormy, but we started
nevertheless in the yacht, followed by two row-boats. We
had a charming sail, a beautiful coast to look at, and white
porpoises and seals appearing in the water to amuse us.
When we reached the Bergeron we anchored, and went on
shore to prepare our fishing-rods. 1 was just being instructed
in the art of throwing the fly, and was standing up in the row-
boat, lashing the water with my line, when H.E. called out
from the other boat, ' Put up your rod, and come and save the
ship.' The yacht had dragged her anchor, and was fast
going on the rocks. We got on board as quickly as we could,
fastened tow-ropes to the two row-boats, and with great
difficulty got her out of the current ; her sails filled, and off
we went. ' Home,' said His Excellency and in fact it had
come on to blow too hard for fishing, as the trout go into
deep water when the waves are too much for them. We had
a very rough sail back to Tadousac, but rather enjoyed it.
We reached the hotel in time for lunch, and settled with our
friend to get up at five next day and try again.
In the afternoon we took a walk, and were quite charmed
with Tadousac. It is at the mouth of the Saguenay river,
and the hotel is built close to the water, above a beautiful
bay. Our walk was a climb, and yet it was not too
fatiguing ; the rocks are smooth, with no sharp points, and
tufts and shrubs grow in the interstices, so that there is
always something to catch hold of if you slip. When we
12 MY CANADIAN JOUXNAL CH. i
got home, Mr. Eadford brought two Eiee Lake canoes,
/ and D. tried paddling" in one, while I went out in the
/ other.
Friday, 26th. Called at 5 A.M., with the information
that the day was very favourable for fishing. We were at
the wharf at six a beautiful morning. There were two
row-boats ready for us, and we set off, up the Saguenay.
The river is like a rift in a rocky mountain, and it was
very pretty in the early morning rowing along it ; great cliffs
on each side, the river every now and then spreading out
into a bay, and looking like a lake, the entrance quite
hidden by projecting rocks. We had a three-hours' row,
and arrived at St. Etienne, a feeding-ground of the trout.
I again began to throw my fly, and soon became quite
expert at it. I caught sixteen, and D. nineteen, and after
my arm ached Mr. Eadford took my rod and caught four ;
so our bag was a pretty good one.
We lunched on the rocks, and afterwards got on board
and sailed nearly the whole way home till it began to rain,
then the wind fell, so we took to our row-boats and got back
in time for dinner. Our long day was not over yet. The
young ladies of Tadousac had got up a charity concert,
which we attended : it was in the hotel, and between the
songs there were some pretty tableaux. When all was over I
was glad to return to my dear bed which I had left so
early in the morning.
Saturday, 2?th. Another lovely day. We like Tadousac
so much that we have actually chosen a site, and are going
to build a wooden house here for next year. The air is
delicious, and we feel so well and cheerful !
After breakfast we walked to an Indian hut to see a
young bear they had found on the hills. He was very little
and very unamiable-looking. The Indian women are very
dark and ugly, and have their hair tied up in little bags on
each side of their faces. D. next took me out in a canoe,
and we had a talk with the authorities about our site. At
JULY 1872 RIVIERE DU LOUP 13
two we got on board the steamer, and returned to Kiviere
du Loup.
Colonel and Lady Harriet Fletcher came down to meet
us, and we hear from him that the artillery quarters at
Quebec are more likely to suit us than any other house we
can get this year. D. will go and see them.
Monday, 29th. Directly after breakfast Lady H. and V"
her governess and children came in to help me to prepare
for my first Canadian entertainment ! Unfortunately, D.
will not be at it, as he has gone off to Quebec. Of course
we have small means here of doing anything grand no
ornaments at all ; thick, white earthenware cups, lodging-
house furniture, etc., and only wild flowers to be had.
With them we determined to do a great deal. We got moss
and ferns, wild roses and red berries ; called in soup-plates,
finger-glasses, and bark canoes ; and had in the drawing-
room fourteen bouquets eight on brackets round the walls,
and one on each table. Then we put moss on the chimney-
piece and filled it with bright flowers, and covered the
board in front of the fireplace with fir-branches, etc.
Opposite the drawing-room is the best bedroom. We
carried out the bed, arranged the fireplace in the same way,
and had tables with tea, coffee, iced milk, champagne cup
and cakes there. On one side of our house we had croquet,
and on the other chairs, and I received my company at four
o'clock in the chair department.
The arrangements took us the whole morning, and
amused us very much ; the only drawback was that we had
no man, not even an aide-de-camp !
Luckily, the day was splendid. We sat ourselves
upon the lawn, and soon the first people came. The
second carriage which arrived contained three priests with
French names ! They had no cards, and Nowell, our
English servant, whom I had told to be very particular
about announcing the names clearly, remembering my
instructions, and unable to pronounce them, stopped my
14 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. i
guests outside and made them write their names on a piece
of paper. One of them, a very jolly Irishman, asked, ' Are
you His Excellency's aide-de-camp ? '
When all had arrived a good game of croquet was got
up, and the people who did not play sat on the lawn and
talked. I had over thirty, and they admired our decorations
very much.
The moment my party broke up, and in sight of many
of the visitors, my neighbours' servants came to fetch the
things they had lent me ; and it was funny to see cups and
soup-plates and chairs being carried off to their lawful
owners. I had asked people from four to six, and, like
Cinderella, they rushed off when the hour struck.
Wednesday, 31 si. We arrived at Tadousac late last
night, bringing the children with us. I took them this
morning to a sandy place, where they soon improvised
spades and began to ' make a dirt,' as Hermie said.
In the afternoon Lady H. and I went a drive the only
drive here. It begins on a very sandy road, comes to a
place where the horses have, every few minutes, to walk
down one wall and up another, continues through the
remains of a burnt forest, where the charred stumps of trees
are almost buried in the luxuriant, fresh green vegetation
springing up around them, and then brings you to a
place which is really fearful : one side of the road is a steep
precipice, the other a loose sandy hill, which is constantly
slipping down and filling up the very narrow space you
have to drive on. Here we got a pretty peep of the
Saguenay, while heretofore we had been looking upon the
St. Lawrence. D. and the Colonel went out boating.
Sunday, August 4th. The day was foggy and rainy, but
we walked to the little church, which D. admires, and where,
he says, we see ' the first principles of architecture.' It is
the first church ever built in Canada, and is made of
wood, just as you would make one with a child's box of
bricks ; the walls are long and short bars qf wood, piled one
AUG. 1872 THE MARGUERITE RIVER 15
upon the other. It is very quaint and simple. The service
at Tadousac depends upon stray clergymen, and this Sunday
there was none staying in the place, so they asked an
American Scripture-reader to read prayers and he gave us
a very nice service. D. and I took a walk in the afternoon,
and were inveigled into paying a visit. We are too grand
to pay visits as a rule, but sometimes we meet a friend at
his own door, and he asks us to come in.
Monday, $th. We were suddenly struck with the idea
of going salmon-fishing ; so we ordered a hamper of pro-
visions to be ready in twenty minutes, took a comb and
brush and a pocket-handkerchief in a bag, and set off,
D. and I in the Imogene, which is a small yawl, Hammond
following in the Dauntless. We had a lovely sail up the
Saguenay to the mouth of the Marguerite river, where
we arrived about four o'clock, and sent ashore for the
fisherman. Then we each got into a canoe, and began to
ascend the rapids ! I have already described the rapids as
they appeared from a steamer, but from a canoe one sees
the dangers more closely. A man stands at each end of
the canoe, with a long pole in his hand ; the passenger sits
in the middle, on the floor. The current is something tre-
mendous, and the water dashes about the rocks in quite a
fearful way. The men pole the boat along, first giving a
shove on one side and then on the other, shaving rocks,
and conducting her safely with wonderful skill. It is
very hard work, and when I said sympathetically to our
conductor, that it must be fatiguing work, he replied
with very great fervour, ' Joliment fatiyuant.' This is
going jj the rapids ; coming down the rush is with you,
and then with equal skill the men use their paddles and
ward the boat off from the rocks, stopping her in her
headlong career as she appears to be rushing to destruc-
tion. We went up successfully, and landed about eight
o'clock at the edge of a wood, groped our way up a
narrow path, and found ourselves at three small wooden
16 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. I
huts. The first was a dining-room and pantry, the
second two bedrooms, the third a place for the men.
Opposite the dining-room, but fifty yards from it, was an
open shed, which I found to be the kitchen ; and as I sat at
the head of the table I saw Imps dancing about the fire
cooking our dinner.
Opposite our encampment there is a curious geological
or clayological formation : it looks as if half a high hill had
been cut clean away with a knife in fact, a perfect section
of a hill is exposed to view. It is quite as flat as the side
of a cheese, with nothing growing upon it, but the top is
crowned with trees. The side is grey clay, and it is six
hundred feet high.
We were very glad to retire soon to our little iron beds,
and to creep under our mosquito- cur tains ; but I confess
I felt a certain emotion at the idea of sleeping in such
a lonely place, with no one between us and the North
Pole!
Tuesday, 6th. Notwithstanding the solitary feelings
which oppressed me for a time last night, I slept, and was
ready to get up at five. We performed a hasty 'toilette,'
swallowed a cup of tea, and took to the canoes for fishing.
We were both most industrious, and flogged the water with
our flies, but had no bites ; then ' Peter,' the fisherman, took
my rod and hooked a salmon. My rod is small, and he
exclaimed, as the salmon ran off with the line, that ' the
cord was too short.' Quick as possible he jumped into a
canoe, and we saw a most exciting chase ; the salmon flying
off with yards of line, being wound up again, giving an
occasional jump into the air, and battling courageously for
life. When he was getting worn out Peter landed and insisted
upon my holding the rod. I found it almost too heavy for
me, and I had a great deal of help in finishing the poor
victim, who still made dashes to release himself. At last
we got him near the shore, when a cruel gaff was stuck into
him, and a cry of triumph from the men announced his death
AUG. 1872 THE FIRST SALMON 17
to us, and to the listening woods. The salmon weighed fifteen
pounds.
At nine we went home to our breakfast. After it we
sat at the kitchen fire and burnt holes in the only boots we
had with us ! The day was very fine, and we walked and
sat about till four o'clock, when fishing recommenced. I
must tell you that we were oiled all over, face and neck and
hands, with a strong-smelling stuff, to keep off the mos-
quitoes.
Again D. and I began to work, and soon he hooked a
salmon, and I laid down my rod to see the fight. It lasted
a long time, and the fish led the fisherman a good dance
before he died. He weighed fourteen and a quarter pounds,
and was His Lordship's first salmon ! We caught no more.
Wednesday, jth. At eight o'clock we left the huts and
went down the rapids, the men singing some of their wild
and curious boat-songs as they paddled us along. We had
arranged to fish for trout at the place where we had anchored
the yachts, and then to be picked up by the steamer on its
way down the Saguenay, and to go on to Biviere du Loup.
However, to our astonishment, we saw our steamer going up
the river. She had been detained by fog, and our plans were
thus put out. There was nothing for it but to sail back to
Tadousac, and await the steamer's return there. We had
a couple of very disagreeable hours, and finally arrived at
our destination in a fog, a thunderstorm, and a heavy
shower/ As we expected the steamer's immediate return, we
merely lay down upon our beds, and waited till five o'clock
in the morning, when at last she arrived, and D. and I and
our two sleepy children got on board. D. went straight on
to Quebec, so he retired to bed; but as we were to reach
Eiviere du Loup in two hours, we remained up, and got
there at last very hungry and tired.
IS
CHAPTEE II
QUEBEC
The Citadel: Friday, August gih. Lady Harriet and I
have joined D. at Quebec, and I am much pleased with my
barrack home. All books about Canada will tell you how
splendid is the situation of the Citadel ; very high, and com-
manding a magnificent view of that great river the St. Law-
rence. Our house ' quarters,' I should say is not yet quite
ready, and workmen are still busy papering and making
alterations. The old mess-room is our dining-room, and the
drawing-room is above it. It is a long room, with windows
at either end : those facing the river open on to an immense
platform, the outer wall of which forms a balustrade. There
I sit and look down hundreds of feet upon the town lying
below me ; or into the ships, on to whose decks I fancy I
could almost throw a stone ; or at the St. Lawrence itself,
and at the blue hills far away in fact, at one of the most
celebrated views of the world ! There are great black cannon
also looking out from the Citadel, and the Union Jack and
the Dominion Flag are flying beside me. I assure you it is
very romantic !
I am rather afraid that with your little English ideas
you will not understand the size of my ' platform,' but it is
big enough to give a ball on, or a garden party, or a charity
bazaar, or any other sort of gathering you like ! so open
your mind for the consideration of it.
D. and Colonel Fletcher rode, and I went for a charming
drive, and was more pleased than ever with the country
AUG. 1872 SETTING UP HOUSE 19
round Quebec. Everything is growing so luxuriantly now.
The hedges are full of flowers and large wild maidenhair
fern, and quantities of berries which all seem to be eatable ;
and the crops, which, before they were fully developed, looked
miserable, have suddenly swelled out and filled up all the
bare places one deplored a month ago.
Monday, i2th. The weather is very hot, but not oppres-
sive. People here live behind green blinds, and shut the
sun out of their houses : they cannot understand our liking
to see it shine in, and they complain of the heat much
more than we do.
Tuesday, i $th. In the afternoon we went out to do some
shopping. The most important part of it was choosing
furniture for a little room. It was difficult to get what we
wanted. They have no plain stuffed sofas or chairs every-
thing is surrounded by elaborate carvings in wood, and the
men are astonished that their Excellencies ' n'aiment pas la
sculpture.'
We are miserable over our heavy luggage, which will not
arrive. We have nine dessert-plates, and no other china,
no silver plate at all, no harness, and it is impossible to
' set up ' or to give dinners until these things arrive. No
one travelling here should lose sight of his box for an
instant. Things are never lost, but they may be months
getting to their owner.
I have been looking for a scullery-maid, and find
women-servants very scarce. I have only seen one young
lady in search of the place: she spoke with a real
Irish brogue, and appeared in a smart hat and feathers.
She was extremely surprised at my wishing to have a
character. She had one, but had left it at home, not sup-
posing I should care to see it : of course she could fetch it
directly. Next morning she brought me three lines, on
very common paper, which, in very bad writing, certi-
fied her to be honest and ' oblidgeing.' In spite of
the brogue she was Canadian, and was ' sure she didn't
c 2
20 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. H
know what Mama was,' when I questioned her as to her
nationality.
Friday, i6th. Having got my eleven letters shut up all
ready for the mail, I took a complete holiday from writing,
for one is always pen in hand here, and letter-writing be-
comes one's normal condition. We look upon our epistles
as seed sown, and are always egging each other on to write
to new people, that our harvest of news may be plentiful.
The weather has changed, and a gale is blowing. We
hardly know our Quebec in this tempest, and long to see it
in its usual sunshine again.
Every afternoon we take a drive, and generally manage
a little walk too. Colonel Strange * has lent us some arms,
and at the top of our crimson-clothed staircase we have
a magnificent arrangement of swords and spears and flags ;
opposite it a star of bayonets. Our drawing-room is not
yet finished, but we hope it will be ready by Monday, when
we have a dinner of twenty-four people ; ' and yet I am not
happy,' for glass, plate, and china are still on their travels.
Eleven of our twenty-four are cricketers, who are expected
to arrive to-morrow from England.
Mr. Pattisson, D.'s Private Secretary, arrived from
Ottawa.
Monday, igth. We were busy the whole morning arrang-
ing the drawing-room ; then we drove to the town to get
table-covers and some finishing touches. Our efforts were
crowned with success, and the room looked extremely
pretty.
Nearly everything had to be hired for the dining-room ;
but about an hour before dinner a few cases arrived, and
two or three salvers were got out to ornament the sideboard.
We had thirty people eleven of them cricketers. The
dinner was supposed to be at 7.30, and the Canadians
arrived punctually, but the English guests were somewhat
London-like in then* hours. In the evening the officers of
1 In command of B Battery, Canadian Artillery.
AUG. 1872 A PICNIC 21
the B Battery, quartered in the Citadel, came in. Everyone
admired ou.: new platform very much, and as a most
splendid moon shone down upon the St. Lawrence for the
occasion, it really was very nice. The attractions of the
platform almost emptied the drawing-room.
Tuesday, 2Oth. In the afternoon we drove out, Lady
Harriet, Mr. Coulson, and I. First we went over an asylum
part of which is for old men and old women. The first old
gentleman I saw said, ' I was just coming up to see you. I
come from Killyleagh.' 2
At each side of the building are orphan asylums. We
went over everything thoroughly, going up to the attics
and down to the kitchens, and examining both the summer
and winter clothing of the boys and girls.
Thursday, 22nd. The morning looked damp and un-
certain, but we started on a picnic. A tandem, containing
our second cook and our guide and commissariat officer,
led the way. Lady H. and I followed in a barouche. D.
and Colonel Fletcher rode. I must tell you that our
' guide ' is quite a character, and is of a most sanguine dis-
position : he declared the distance to the lake was only twenty
miles, that there we should catch fish of enormous weights,
that moose and bear and cariboo would be shot by us in
the bush, and, although it poured as we drove along, that
the weather would be lovely ' in half an hour.'
D. thought seriously of turning back, but we voted for
giving the sun another chance, and things soon looked much
better. When we had reached the ' twenty miles ' we found
we were about half way, and we stopped at a cottage to
change carriages. The rest of the road was too rough for
our barouche, so we got into the waggon with the tandem,
while the cook set out in a cart. We gave the horses an
hour to rest, while we sat in the garden and talked to the
man and his wife. She was Scotch, and he a very good
specimen of an Irishman. He had bought eighty acres for
2 My old home in County Down.
22 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
zooL, but thinks a tenant in Ireland better olf, in spite of
his 'rent.' They both dread the long winters, and the
heat of the summer.
They had such a nice dog with an extraordinary taste
for putting out fires. When shown a lighted paper, he
rushed at it, tried to extinguish it with his mouth, then
had recourse to his paws, and, after succeeding, cooled his
poor tongue with some clay or a stone.
When we reached our destination, we found our three
tents pitched on the borders of Lake St. Joseph, which is ten
miles long, and is surrounded by hills covered with woods.
At sunset it was lovely; the hills becoming purple and
blue, and the water looking like molten brass. Close to
our encampment was a farm-house, and a nice Irish family,
all with charming manners the father a magistrate.
Our guide had been beaming all day, and was radiant
now that the weather looked better. He had shown us the
tea-plant growing on the way, the saffron-plant, etc., and
had told us a good deal about the country and the people.
He sent us out with our rods to fish, while our dinner was
being prepared. With us went Hammond (who had
arrived before to pitch our tents), and a Mr. White, one of
the afore-mentioned Irish family. We were just throwing
out our first line, when Mr. White said, ' There is a great
storm coming : we must get under the trees.' We jumped
out of the boats, got under some bushes, and pulled a
waterproof over us ; a terrific storm, with tropical rain,
came on, and, in spite of all precautions, we got quite wet.
When it was over, we set off for our encampment. Our
guide met us on the shore. His spirits were not damped,
and when Colonel Fletcher inquired anxiously if the tents
had let in any water, he replied, ' Not a drop, Colonel ; not
a drop.' On reaching them, however, we found every bed
and blanket wet through ! They had looked so nice and
comfortable when we went out, and now all our possessions
AUG. 1 872 l MR. BRIGGS' 23
We lighted a fire, for which the Whites sacrificed all
their nice palings, and surrounded it with the wet shawls,
and beds, and bedding ; then we pulled our table close to
the warm blaze, and our cook sent us soup and entrees, and
roasts and pudding, and we were quite happy. As soon as
the things were dry we went to bed.
We had three tents. In the first we dressed ; in the
second D. and I had most comfortable little beds, and we
crept through a hole to get to them. I procured a pen-
knife to put under my pillow, to cut my way out in case of
emergency, for in a panic I never could have found the
hole. There was a faint possibility of a bear peeping in
at it, and a pretty good chance of a pig committing the
same indiscretion.
Friday, 2^rd. The fire was crackling outside my tent
when I awoke, and as soon as D. had dressed, I skipped
across to the dressing-tent, and got ready for breakfast.
The day was lovely, and we were all full of anticipation.
Our guide appeared so radiant and so exactly the image of
the celebrated 'Mr. Briggs ' in 'Punch,' that he now goes
by that name amongst us. There he was, with his short
coat, and a great wide-awake hat, on each side of which
drooped an enormous long white cock's feather ; the living
picture of Mr. Briggs when he stated that 'his heart was in
the Highlands.'
The gentlemen were to go into the bush with him,
while we ladies were to fish. We had a very pleasant day,
and caught fifty bass a very good fresh-water fish, and
an amusing one to catch. We came home to lunch, sat
two hours in the sunshine, and went out on the lake again
in the afternoon.
The other party, though unsuccessful, had great fun.
' Briggs,' with his powder-flask round his neck, three or
four guns, and several fishing-rods in the canoe, ordered
his men to start. He recommended the gentlemen to take
ten ' rounds ' of ammunition, which they did, though they
24 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
feared there would be nothing to shoot, and they only
wanted to see the ' bush.' Off they went, and as they
rowed along Briggs would issue short and sharp words of
command to Mr. White : ' White, stop there and catch
a trout.' 'White, we'll take a bass here,' which they did
not do, and then went on. They landed, and Briggs was to
lead them to a small lake, on the shores of which he
promised cariboo. He had not gone ten yards before he
cried, ' Now, Colonel, we'll take a breath,' and during the
' breath ' the poor Colonel was devoured by black flies, of
which Briggs had previously declared there was not one.
The walking was very severe, as there were great trunks of
trees lying about, so covered with moss that the walkers
did not see them until they stepped on the apparently solid
ground, when they sank down between the branches of
the fallen trees. Briggs' ' breath '-taking became frequent,
and D. soon began to fear, not only that Mr. Briggs had
no notion of his way at all, but also that he was keeping
himself up by rather too many ' drops ' of brandy ; so a
consultation was held and they found that if they went on
until the sun set, they would lose their way, and be unable
to get out of the wood, so they thought seriously of return-
ing. Briggs began to give more decided orders than ever.
' White, go and get me a glass of water ; do you hear,
White? go and get it directly, sir 'this when no water
was to be seen anywhere ; then, White, go and find that
lake go on there, and you'll find it, sir ' ; but Mr. White
was afraid of being lost. Then Briggs lay down, called for
his mosquito-curtain, and D. and Colonel Fletcher began to
consider how they could get him home. They sent him a
bottle of ginger ale (without any brandy), and soon after
drinking that he pulled himself together, and they, steering
by the sun, got out of the wood.
They were immensely amused, but Briggs was crest-
fallen, and went to bed, and has never alluded to this
expedition again. Our cook had shot us some snipe and
AUG. 1872 LEVEE AND PECEPTION 25
squirrels, and gave us an excellent dinner : we tasted the
squirrels, but they were strong of turpentine and were very
nasty.
When something was said to Hammond about poor Mr.
Briggs, he said, ' And he turned out all hands this morning
after the roosters to get those two feathers for his hat.'
Saturday, 24th. We had our breakfast down on the
edge of the lake, and sat a long time enjoying the sun ;
then we rowed over to the other side to see the pitcher-plant
growing wild. We also saw a turtle found in the lake. At
noon we started on our journey home. The views the
whole way were lovely, and we stopped to lunch on the
borders of the Jacques Cartier Kiver, lighted a fire, and had
broiled fish, etc.
During the tandem part of the drive we talked to Mr.
Briggs, and he was very interesting, telling all his trade
secrets. At the half-way house we were very well received,
and the lady had baked us some fine plum-cakes, which she
begged us to take home.
Monday, 26th. D. held a levee, and was fully occupied
till seven o'clock.
Tuesday, 2jth. In the afternoon we went to see the
lunatic asylum here. It appears to be well managed, and
is very clean.
In the evening we had a dinner of twenty-five people.
Mr. Eussell Gurney and Mr. W. H. Smith, M.P. 3 for West-
minster, and Colonel and Mrs. Fessenden, Americans, were
our strangers : the rest were all Canadians.
Wednesday, 28th. Mr. E. Gurney and Mr. Smith break-
fasted with us, and went over the University with D. We
had another dinner ; twenty people. At nine ' Her Excel-
lency ' had a reception, to which all the people who had
called were asked. Our platform was hung with Chinese
lanterns.
Society is at present my business in life, and this is
3 The Bight Honourable W. H. Smith, First Lord of the Treasury, 1891.
26 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
how my week is laid out : Monday, I remain at home to
receive visitors. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we have
large dinners. Friday we keep for sight-seeing, and Satur-
day we have small dinners. On the big nights we have a
' drum.' Hitherto we have enjoyed our dinners and parties
very much ; the people are so pleasant and chatty.
There is a delightful old French lady here, Madame
Duval, who thoroughly enjoys society and ' drums.' Unfor-
tunately she is in mourning at present, and cannot come
unless I diplomatically suggest that the invitation is a
' command.' Mourning is kept here in the strictest manner,
and I believe there is a time fixed for keeping down a thick
veil a time for paying mourning visits, etc., etc.
I was ' at home ' to visitors, and we had a very pleasant
afternoon a few people at a time, instead of the rush at
an omcial gathering.
After dinner we had a drum, at which nearly the whole
of Quebec appeared. They were cheery, and it went off
well. I tried to have some singing but there was too much
talk. The band played, and, unluckily, finished its per-
formance with ' God save the Queen ' : the instant the
familiar bars were heard, half-finished ices were thrown
down and everyone rushed away.
Thursday, September $th. Lady Harriet and I called at
the Ursuline Convent. We took the babies, and I was more
struck with the peculiarities of convent life than when we
went through the establishment before ; for, not having
D. with us, we were not admitted, but had to talk to the
nuns through iron bars. In was quite funny to hear them
all buzzing inside their cage, laughing and talking, and
handing sugar to the babies and admiring them ! Luckily,
they (the babies) behaved well, and both examined the
curious scene with the utmost gravity.
Friday, 6th. I was writing this morning when D. called
me to see eight bishops, archbishops, and grands vicaires
who had particularly asked for me. I went into the drawing-
SEPT. 1872 CANADIAN SONGS 27
room, and found all these ecclesiastics in full dress. Our
Grand Vicar as usual put everyone at his ease, and initiated
a lively conversation.
Immediately after lunch we started off in a small
steamer to the other side of the river. We were met by
Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, who came out with us in the
Prussian, and they took us to the Chaudiere Falls. We
admired them very much. There is a great body of water,
of a deep brown colour, which tumbles down from a good
height, and the waterfall is very wide ; the cloud of white
spray looks so pretty against the dark water.
We also went to see a very handsome new Eoman
Catholic church just built at New Liverpool. We found the
priest Father Saxe a most superior old man, and very
good-looking. He is proud of his church, and was pleased
with our visit. He cultivates grapes and a garden, ' which
are his wife and children.'
Saturday, jth. In the evening we had a small dinner,
and as soon as the gentlemen came up we had singing and
playing. Mrs. Pemberton sang Irish melodies, and Madame
Sericole French songs, and M. La Eue sang a little of every-
thing, and then we had a number of Canadian boat-songs
with choruses. They are very pretty, the music wild and
plaintive. Our old friend, Madame Duval, was in great
force, and she and her daughter dictated a song to M. La
Rue which was rather amusing and pretty. She (Madame
Sericole) sang, ' I will be an eel in a pond to escape from
you ; ' then he, ' Si vous vous faites anguille, je me ferai
pecheur pour vous prendre en pechant ; ' then she, ' Si vous
vous faites pecheur pour me prendre en pechant, je devien-
drai alouette,' etc. This kind of conversation goes on to
any length, till finally she says she will become a nun, when
he makes himself 'precheur pour vous prendre en prechant.'
This fidelity she is unable to resist, and, ' Puisque tu m'aimes
tant pour te faire precheur pour me prendre en prechant,
I will marry you.'
28 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
Monday, gth. Mr. and Mrs. T. Brassey 4 and Miss Bobin-
son dined with us. He has just come from England in his
yacht, a twenty-eight days' voyage ; Mrs. Brassey came out
in the steamer.
Wednesday, nth. The Bishop of Quebec and Judge
Stuart came to breakfast, and at eleven we started on an
educational tour. At the first school separate addresses
were made to each of us, and I was asked for a holiday.
The boys' schools seem almost all to be under the Christian
Brothers. The Cure of Quebec went with us. He, like the
other priests here, is very 'jolly.' I think we went to six
schools ; at each an address was read, and at each we gave
a holiday. We also went to see the Houses of Parliament
that is, the local Parliament. Before the seat of Govern-
ment was moved it was the imperial one. It is in good
taste ; the outside quite plain. After lunch we went with
D. (who had not previously been there) to the lunatic
asylum. We saw as much as we dared to see, and D. just
escaped a cup of tea which one of the wildest of the patients
threw through the holes in the door of her cell. After
this we went to see some Egyptian curiosities, and I
hurried home to rest for twenty minutes before my dinner.
We had twenty-two people, the Brasseys among the
number.
Thursday, i2th. It is the experience of a very tired
person you will now hear, for to-day must be added to
yesterday to understand my feelings. We did not go out
till two, for I was very busy all the morning; but at two
we went down to the Convent of St. Eoch, where our
reception was most charming. The nuns received us at the
door and led us into a very large room, the walls of which
were lined from floor to ceiling with little children : they
each wore either a blue or a red ribbon, and they were all
from three to eight years old five hundred in number.
About twenty stood in the middle of the room and sang a
1 Lord and (the late) Lady Brassey.
SEPT. 1872 VISITS TO CONVENTS 29
song of welcome, and whenever they came to the word
' Excellence,' or ' Milor,' they all curtseyed together. Then
one came forward and made a little address, adding that
this great occasion was worthy of * a double holiday.' In
his reply D. said that although he had never heard of that
phenomenon in nature ' a double holiday,' he was happy to
grant it. Then we went upstairs to see the older pupils.
I cannot tell you what a pretty ceremony it was, and
how gracefully they all made their reverences together.
We looked at the Church of St. Eoch, which is a large and
rather gaudy building. Then we proceeded to the boys'
school of the district, and heard some singing, and received
an address. We had a large dinner at night.
Friday, i^tli. To our duties again to-day, in spite of
pouring rain. We began at ten, and visited the High
School, which is a superior boys' school, and several other
Protestant schools.
Monday, i6th. We went to the Ursuline Convent
and were received at the door by the Confessor and
some other clergy, and by some of the official people in the
parlour. We looked at pictures and at Montcalm's skull
until all was ready, and then we went to the great door of
the convent and knocked. Some nuns opened to us, and
conducted us to a large room, where we found all the pupils
dressed in white and with wreaths of flowers on their heads.
They sang a welcome as we came in ; then two came forward,
and one gave a little address in English and one in French.
All the time we were there waves of curtseys kept sweeping
along the line every time our names were mentioned, and
as we passed down the room. It was very prettily decorated.
We made a tour of the convent, and heard the pupils play
a piece on five pianos and a harmonium at once. We
were admitted to the cells cold and cheerless places saw
the great cage in which the pupils are enclosed when they
see their parents, the dining-room with its meagre furni-
ture, the children's playground, and, in fact, all the sights
30 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
of the convent. The nuns themselves we found most
cheerful and happy.
In the evening we went to a ball given in our honour
by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Narcisse Belleau. It was
held in the music-hall, a very fine room. D. danced
everything, and I danced the square dances.
Tuesday, ijth. In spite of our fatigues, we had to
start early to visit another convent, ' Jesus Marie,' at
Sillery. Here our reception was too lovely. The convent
has only been built three years, and is a splendid house,
with all the new improvements, and with fine grounds
surrounding it. In one hall there are twelve glass boxes,
each containing a piano, so that the pupils can practise
simultaneously; whilst in another glass house sits the
mistress, overlooking, but, happily for her, not overhearing.
At the door we were met by priests, and by the Lady
Superior, and we first of all paid our respects to the nuns
little black ladies with white, large-bordered caps. They
conducted us through passages ornamented with maple-
leaves, and placed us on thrones in presence of the pupils.
The children were in white, and a circle of twelve of them
began a dramatic conversation, in which they consulted
each other as to the best way of doing us honour. One
suggested that the ' Genius of Canada ' should be asked
her opinion on the subject, and, like a good fairy, she im-
mediately appeared upon the scene, and settled the question
by giving me a large bunch of artificial roses made in the
convent, singing meanwhile a song the refrain of which
was
' Ce sont des roses sans epines,
Que Ton vous offre au Canada.'
The Genius was a pretty, fair girl, wearing a silver
wreath and a white gown ornamented with maple-leaves
and roses. After all this the nuns gave us cake and sweet
wine, and we hurried off to another convent. It was a very
small one, only just setting itself up, but there were about
SEPT. 1872 THE LA VAL UNIVERSITY 31
thirty pupils. On our way we went to look at a church,
and called on Lady Belleau, and then rushed back to be ' at
home ' all the afternoon.
I had my room full of people from three to six, so, as you
may suppose, I was pretty tired when the hour for rest came.
D. and I dined alone, which is much more of an event
now than a dinner-party would be.
Wednesday, iSth. The day of our first ball. We were
excessively busy making decorations, and attending to all the
endless ball arrangements. Nevertheless, we had to go out
to pay a state visit to the Universite Laval. There we
were received by the Archbishop, etc., and, after seeing the
young boys, D. went through the building, museum, and
library, and finally into the great room, where we were
received by the University proper. We sat on a dais at
one end, and the hall was filled with students, priests, and
guests ; the Eector and the Professors, in robes, walked in
and read an address, and listened to D.'s reply. Then we
went up on the roof, looked at the magnificent view, and
peeped at the sun through a telescope. After this, home,
where we partly rested and partly looked after the ball.
Our room has light-coloured walls and a high arched
roof, and we ornamented it with festoons of blue and white,
fastened with great bunches of pink and white roses the
ceiling the same. We had a military band outside, where
there was a very good floor, and a string band in the room ;
so people danced both outside and in, and they kept it up till
three with great spirit. They really did enjoy themselves,
which is encouraging, as we have another on Friday.
Thursday, igth. Gay people that we are! To-day we
had a paper-hunt. We started at eleven, D. riding, and I
taking two Frenchmen who are staying here le Comte de
Montebello and le Baron Brun in the carriage. It poured
at first, but cleared soon. We crossed the river in a ferry,
carriage and all, and were told where to place ourselves ;
so we were much amused, as we saw the jumping perfectly.
32 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
When the paper was 'killed,' we met at some country
barracks, had lunch, and formed a 'club,' 'the Stadacona
Hunt,' with D. as president.
Friday, 2Oth. At twelve o'clock I went over a Protestant
home, where orphans and old women have a refuge. It
seems to be very nice and comfortable. After lunch we
inspected an indiarubber manufactory, and saw the material
from the time it comes out of the tree till it leaves the
place as goloshes. Then we proceeded to a wood-mill,
where all carpentering is done by machinery, and where
we saw our Tadousac house laid out. It will be made there,
and transported in barges to its site.
We had a second ball in the evening, and this time we
had an awning on the platform, which was hung with
Chinese lanterns. It looked very pretty, and it entirely
prevented any crowd in the ballroom. ; in fact, it was almost
the more popular place of the two.
Saturday, 2ist. H.E. had suggested some athletic sports,
so we went down to see them and to lunch with the Mayor.
There was a very good place for the games a smooth
field, surrounded by high grass banks on two sides, and
with houses on the third. People sat on the banks and in
the houses, and, as the day was lovely, there was an immense
concourse of spectators. ,
The hills all round, as seen from our celebrated platform,
are of the most lovely autumn colours, and, covered as they
are with red and orange trees, they really look like flames
in the distance, or like gigantic flower-gardens ; for our trees
are quite as brilliant as your best floivers, and if you can
imagine your conservatory magnified a million times, and
spread over miles and miles of hill and dale, you will begin
to understand how we do things in this Canada of ours.
Monday, 2$rd. We left Quebec to-day, and received
quite an ovation at our departure. The weather was lovely,
and we started from the Citadel at three, escorted by a guard
of honour. The streets, were hung with flags, and were
SEPT. 1872 DEPARTURE FROM QUEBEC 33
full of people. At one corner, the boys of the Universite
Laval met us, and about fifty of them each presented me
with a bouquet, so that I was half buried with flowers.
When we arrived at the wharf, we found almost the whole
of the society waiting to say good-bye to us. The Mayor
read an address, and invited us to a ball, and D. replied.
Then we shook hands with everyone, and went on board.
Every part of the town, right up to the Citadel, was crowded,
and six steamers full of people accompanied us for ten miles.
"When we got to Cap Eouge, the steamers turned back, the
people on board cheering and waving their handkerchiefs.
On the coast, too, at each little wharf, people were collected,
and at the houses far up on the shore we saw waving flags
and tablecloths. As we passed the Sillery Convent, all the
children came out with flags. No wonder we like Quebec !
CHAPTER III
ONTARIO
Tuesday, September 24th. The train left Montreal at
8 A.M., and we were in it till 11.30 at night a very long
journey. However, we had a most comfortable car, with
armchairs and sofas, and managed to sleep a good deal.
In spite of the lateness of the hour we were met at Toronto
by crowds of people and a torchlight procession. The
Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. Howland, took us to his house,
which was magnificently illuminated.
Wednesday, 2$ih. A large dinner-party and a very
pretty ball, the house and grounds being illuminated.
Thursday, 26th. At eleven o'clock, we started by special
train for Hamilton. It is a very prettily situated town on
Lake Ontario, which looks more like the sea than a lake.
All the streets are planted with trees, and there is a high
hill behind the town, from which the view is magnificent.
We were received at the station by the Mayor and Corpora-
tion, who presented an address, and drove to the Cattle Show
yard, where there was another, and D. and I walked round the
grounds and looked at the animals, while the people looked
at us. We examined prize horses, cows, and pigs, but found
the crowd so great that we resolved to return in the morn-
ing to see everything more quietly. We are staying with
Mr. Mclnnes, who makes us very comfortable.
Friday, 2?th. We were at the exhibition early, and went
SEPT. 1872 TORONTO 35
round sewing-machines, pictures, refrigerators, stoves, vege-
tables, fruit, etc. etc.
After this we drove to the City Hall and received a
deputation from the Six Nations. The chief ' Chief ' was
finely dressed, and wore feathers in a hat, and many medals
on his breast. He carried the silver pipe of peace, but also
had on a scalping-knife, a tomahawk, and a dagger ; and
he was enchanted when, in allusion to these weapons, D.
told him that he would rather have him for a friend than
an enemy.
He was a fine-looking man, and had the best of manners.
He read the address in English, the other Chiefs standing
by in plain clothes, and when D. replied, the Chief translated
into Indian each sentence of his speech. As soon as the
Indians left we had a general reception, and afterwards drove
out to a lovely country place belonging to Mr. Mclnnes.
There we lunched, and then hurried off to the train.
In an hour and a half we reached Toronto, and the grand
and official reception took place. A guard of honour and
the Mayor met us at the station, and we drove to the Town
Hall. All the streets were crowded with people, the windows
full, and the houses ornamented with flags. There were some
splendid triumphal arches, and the whole way along we were
cheered. We made quite a procession, fire-engines and
carriages leading the way for us. Another guard of honour
met us at the hall, and we went in and had two more ad-
dresses. D. did not find his written replies at the station
as he expected, so he had to speak extempore, and I think
that pleased his audience more.
After this, we again got into the carriages and drove to
the hotel through crowds, where we remained as the guests
of the city. In the evening twenty of the Corporation
dined with us. I sat by the Mayor, Mr. Sheard a very nice
man. After dinner we drove out to see the illuminations :
there were some very pretty ones, and the arches looked
beautiful.
D 2
36 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. m
Saturday, 2&th. The weather is quite splendid, and the
Corporation took us for a drive. This town is one of those
wonderful quick-growing places : the streets are very wide,
and trees are planted on each side of them. There are
some very handsome buildings and numbers of the most
charming villas. On our return, we had lunch. Our health
and the Mayor's health were drunk; and as the latter made
frequent mention of me as D.'s ' kind lady,' I am in hopes
I made an impression.
At three, D. had a levee, and after this we returned
to Government House. Another dinner of twenty to-
night.
We are thinking of spending a week at Niagara, and
wrote to the hotel-keeper there to ask price of rooms, etc.
He replied first to the business part, and then added, 'I
should like to know how many guests His Excellency will
bring with him, as I wish to give a little hop while he is
here, and I have to write for the music,' etc. etc.
P.S. 'The hop and the music will not be charged
extra ' !
We declined the ' hop.'
Monday, ^oth. We have arrived at Niagara, and I
write to you in sight of the Falls. The spray rises in
clouds and joins the other clouds in the sky, which has a
most curious effect, and there is a brilliant rainbow in the
spray, and I am not in the least disappointed with the
quantity of water, or with the size of the Fall ; but I don't
think the first view of it is so overpoweringly grand as
I expected. The Fall is so wide that it rather takes from
the height, and I imagine it is a sight the full grandeur of
which will grow upon one day by day. Sir Hastings Doyle l
is staying with us.
Tuesday, October ist. We went to a convent, accom-
panied by the Archbishop in violet. It has a beautiful
1 The late General Sir C. Hastings Doyle, Lieut. -Governor of Nova
Scotia, and Commanding the Troops in Canada.
OCT. 1872 NIAGARA 37
view of the Falls from its windows. After lunch we crossed
the bridge and Went into the States.
From that side we had fine views of the rapids and great,
rushing river, and there we prepared to visit the ' Cave of
the Winds.' I had no idea what the Cave really was,
and was surprised to find that we were expected to array
ourselves in yellow oilcloth trousers, with jackets and
hoods of the same material. Thus accoutred we descended
a flight of stairs, and found ourselves at the foot of a water-
fall. On our feet we had soft cloth shoes, which enabled us
to climb down the steepest and wettest and most slippery
rocks. The spray beat in our faces, and we could only
occasionally open our eyes to see the splendid rainbow in
the water, and the great height above us from which the
water was rushing down. We climbed in this way Over
rocks and small wooden bridges until we came to the Fall,
and walked behind it, in a complete shower-bath, but I
enjoyed it immensely. We came out at the other side,
having passed behind a portion of Niagara. We did look
a funny yellow party, dripping with water.
Thursday, $rd. We were joined by Sir Edward Thorn-
ton, our Minister at Washington, and walked to the
foot of the Horseshoe Fall, which spot, I think, gives a
greater idea of the magnitude of Niagara than any other
view. In the afternoon we drove to see the whirlpool and
the rapids below the Falls, which are very rapid indeed.
We went by train to see a great engineering work
undertaken by Mr. Gzowski. 2 He is making a bridge over
the Niagara, close to Buffalo ; the piers have to be built in
water eighty feet deep, where the stream is rushing along
twenty miles an hour. We saw the whole plan, but I will
not attempt to describe anything so scientific. Colonel
Fletcher put on a diver's dress and went down the eighty
feet, bringing us some stones from the bottom.
Mr. and Mrs. Gzowski took us for a drive through Buffalo.
2 Col. Sir Casimir S. Gzowski, K.C.M.G., Hon. A.D.C. to the Queen.
38 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL on. m
There are miles of ' street ' there, arranged with the road
in the middle, and on either side three rows of trees and a
broad strip of grass, in the centre of which there is a stone
footpath. Each house is a handsome ' villa,' with a large
piece of ground round it. One gets such an impression of
wealth and comfort that one is astonished, and this is a
' third-rate ' American town.
Friday, tfh. Sir Hastings Doyle left us to-day. We
were very sorry to part with him, he was always so cheerful
and such an amusing companion.
Toronto : Saturday, $th. We have hired a house at
Toronto, and are settling ourselves in it to-day. There is a
very bad epidemic among the horses here, and ours are
suffering from it too, which is inconvenient.
Tuesday, 8th. We had our first Drawing-room. There
were about 1,500 people present, and, as I had to curtsey
all the time, I had plenty of exercise. The room looked very
handsome when thus filled with smart people. This was
quite a new experiment in Canada, drawing-rooms not
having been held before, and it seems to be approved.
Wednesday, gth. Having recovered the fatigues of the
Drawing-room, I drove in the afternoon to see a lacrosse
match. It is almost the national game here, and is a sort of
ideal football. The ball is caught on a racket and thrown
from one side to the other. It is very pretty and amusing to
watch. The game was whites versus Indians. The latter
showed us their war-dance before we left.
London: Thursday, loth. Our train left Toronto at
9 A.M., and on our way to London we stopped at Woodstock
to receive addresses. The station at London was very
prettily arranged. Immense numbers of people were present,
and gave us a very warm reception. We drove to the
Cattle Show yard, where there were more addresses, and
where the people got over the palings and came in tre-
mendous crowds all about us, so that we saw very little.
After lunch at the Members' house, Lady Harriet and
OCT. 1872 PETROLIA 39
I returned to the hotel, where the City entertained us, and
D. went on to Helmuth College and to some oil-refineries.
We dined alone, and just as we had finished a torchlight
procession passed, throwing up Eoman candles and rockets.
Being dressed for the ball, I was requested to show myself
to the guests in the hotel, and the American mistress of
the place said to me, ' Well, missis, I must compliment you
very highly.'
The ballroom was very fine, and His Excellency danced
every dance.
Friday, nth. We started at eleven, with a large party
' on board the cars,' to visit the oil-wells of ' Petrolia,' where
we saw the oil as it comes up through the pump thick,
black, and mixed with water. We also saw the process of
looking for a well, ' sinking a shaft,' and all the machinery
used. The oil leaves Petrolia free from water, but black
and thick : the refining is done at London. The oil dis-
trict is, of course, ugly, the ground black and swampy.
Stumps of trees and wooden erections some like enormous
barrels cover the whole place, but it was very interesting
to see it. On our way back we were shown into a ' drawing-
room ' car, where we found about twenty tables laid, each
one for two people. We had an excellent hot lunch
cooked on board, and got back to London at three o'clock.
Here the party left us, and we returned to Toronto.
Saturday, 1 2th. Lady Harriet and I inspected an orphan
home, examining everything from garret to basement. On
the way we passed a large house moving to some other site.
It was on rollers, and was going slowly along the street.
A dinner-party closed the day.
Tuesday, i$th. D. and I drove to see a fine Wesleyan
church. In the same building, forming part of the archi-
tectural effect outside, but separate inside, there are Sunday-
school and Committee rooms. Then we went on to Bishop
Strachan's Church of England Ladies' School. We liked
all we saw there very much. The girls played and sang
40 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. in
and read to us, and as they had decorated their bedrooms
we had to go into each one.
Wednesday, i6ih. At eleven our duties began again,
and we visited the Normal and Model Schools. These are
the National Schools of Canada, and members of all
denominations met us, the English clergyman introducing
the E.G. Bishop. This afternoon I have been to two
orphan asylums, this evening to a charity concert.
Thursday, ijth. My children and my brother Fred 3
sail for Canada to-day. H.E. and I went out at the usual
hour of eleven, and paid a visit to Trinity College, one of
the first-fruits of disestablishment here ; it is especially a
Church of England University. An address was read and
answered, presentations were made, and we visited the
library, which is young and small. Then we drove to the
lunatic asylum and went over it. It is a very fine one, with
broad corridors, widening out into comfortable recesses, in
which the people sit. At each end of the passage is a
covered quarter-deck, barred all round, but otherwise open
to the air, where the inmates can walk, and which provides
a perfect means of airing each floor. One new feature
in this asylum is a paying department, which is of course
cheap, although it has all the comforts of a private asylum.
We had a dinner-party of twenty-four : one M.P. and
his wife, two legal gentlemen, two E.G. bishops, a Volun-
teer colonel, the editor of a newspaper with his pretty
little wife, who sang for us, some members of the Govern-
ment, and some of the Board of Trade.
Friday, iSth. D. and I drove to the City Hall to
receive an address from the ' York Pioneers ' Toronto used
to be called ' York,' and these are the first settlers here.
After lunch we went to the University, where D. gave
away the prizes, and made a speech. The hall was filled
with all the beauty and fashion of Toronto: they com-
3 Lieut.-Colonel F. Eowan Hamilton, late 9th Foot, who was with us as
A.D.C. in Canada and India. H. D. & A.
OCT. 1872 TORONTO 41
plimented me, and D. complimented them, and the pro-
ceedings went off very well. This is a great place for
presents a very friendly custom. I have fruit, flowers,
butter, fancy bread, fish, and game sent me constantly.
Nearly every day brings some offering. The Show sent me
apples and pears a few of each kind, arranged so as to
have some every day of the year.
Saturday, igtli. In the afternoon I went for a sail with
D., and in the evening we had a large party of about 1 50
people.
Monday, 2ist. This morning we inspected some Boman
Catholic Schools. The first place we went to was the
Convent of the ' Precious Blood.' I think I told you about
this order of praying nuns it is very strict, and they use
corporal self-punishments. The dress of the nuns is beau-
tiful a white dress, with a broad piece of blood-red coloured
cashmere hanging straight down both the back and the front
of it, and a black veil on the head. Their beds are boards,
and they get up twice in the night to pray. They looked
very well, and quite merry. The second place was a college
for boys, and the third a convent school. We also went to
look at the cathedral.
There happened a great contretemps this afternoon. I
was to be at home to receive visitors ; so Lady Harriet and
I sat in state, and nobody came ! At five D. returned home,
and I said to him, ' Not a single soul has come to see us.' Tea
came in, and he asked, ' Has nobody called ? ' ' Oh, yes,'
said the servant, ' but I said, " Not at home." ' We sent
for the book, and found 104 people had been, so we had to
sit down and write 104 notes to explain. I had a dinner-
party in the evening, and, luckily, no one seems to have been
offended, though our conduct did look rude this afternoon.
We had a great deal of music after dinner. All the young
ladies sing and play without their music, and are very
good-natured about it.
Wednesday, 2$rd. D. visited the National Schools in
42 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. n
the morning, and after lunch I went with him to finish the
Eoman Catholic institutions. We drove to the Loretto
Abbey Convent, where the girls were dressed in white and
blue. They gave us a little concert, and then all passed
round, each making a curtsey to us. We were laden with
bouquets, and the rooms were ornamented with ' welcomes '
and wreaths of maple. The next place was a * House of
Providence,' where old, incurable, orphans, and sick, are all
cared for. The third visit was to a boys' school under the
Christian Brothers.
Thursday, 24th. I went over the Toronto Hospital this
morning a fine building and well managed, but badly off
for funds. D. was engaged to inspect two fashionable young
ladies' schools, and is not home yet. To-night we have an
enormous ball.
Friday, 2$th. Our ball last night was a great success.
The Parliament buildings, in which it took place, were
arranged for us by the Ontario Government. We had two
ballrooms, both ornamented with a good deal of crimson
drapery, arms, and shields, which lighted up very well. The
supper-room was upstairs. I suppose we had about 1,200
guests. There was not a hitch in the arrangements, and
people looked very nice and fresh. I danced all the square
dances, and D. every dance, with a selection of celebrities.
When the programme was over, ' God save the Queen ' was
played, and we stood on the dais while the people passed out
before us.
D. had to be off to a college at eleven this morning, but
I was lazy, and reserved myself till one, when we went to
the Law Courts to lunch. The building, ' Osgoode Hall,' is
fine, and the Courts much better than any I have seen
lofty and comfortable rooms. We had our healths drunk,
and D. told them the one blot he had discovered in Canadian
affairs was the lowness of the judges' salaries ; this, of
course, the company present were very glad to hear.
Saturday, 26th. There were to have been athletic sports
OCT. 1872 SUNDA Y SCHOOLS 43
to-day, special trains, etc., but there is a steady downpour
and they have been put off till Monday. I received a good
many farewell visits, and in the evening we went to a per-
formance at the theatre for the Protestant orphans. The
theatre is small, but very pretty, and ' London Assurance '
was very well given especially the part of Lady Gay
Spanker, by Mrs. Morrison. She presented me with a
splendid bouquet in which my monogram was made in
shamrocks.
Sunday, 2jih. This morning, at ten, we visited a
Sunday-school. -Very great attention is paid to Sunday
schools in Canada, and the children of all classes attend
them. There was a separate room for infants, and the man
teaching them gave his instruction orally and with a black-
board, upon which he wrote: the children answered all
together, and seemed bright and intelligent. They also sang
hymns. The larger children were downstairs. D. made
them a little address, and we heard them sing too, which
they do extremely well. This was the cathedral school,
and the average attendance every Sunday is 500. There
is a class every week for the teachers, and the same lesson
is given all over the school.
Monday, 2%th. We left Toronto at nine, and a number
of people came to see us off, and cheered our departing
train. We had a twelve hours' journey, and were glad to
reach Ottawa.
Ottawa : Tuesday, 2gth. My poor children have had a
very long journey: they arrived at Quebec on Monday,
after a rough passage from Liverpool, and did not get here
till this evening, when I devoted myself to giving them tea,
putting them to bed, and hearing them chatter.
Wednesday, ^oth. The weather is perfectly lovely, and
the children are well and enjoying the fine day.
Mr. Coulson goes on leave, so Fred at once begins his
duties as A.D.C., but he comes in for a time of rest.
CHAPTEE IV
OTTAWA
Saturday, November 2nd. The journal here will grow
very dull, I fear. We are ' settling down,' and do very
,- little that is interesting.
Ottawa is a small town, with incongruously beautiful
buildings crowning its insignificance. A very bad road
leads to Kideau, which is a long, two-storeyed villa, with a
small garden on one side of it and a hedge which bounds
our property on the other so that at this time of the year
there is really no place to walk. When the ' road-maker,'
as they call the frost, comes, and when the ground is covered
with snow, we shall be independent of roads ; and the know-
ledge of this makes the inhabitants careless of the state
they may be in at other times of the year.
The gentlemen try to ride every day, and come back
covered with mud. I walked into the town one day with
D., and the following paragraph appeared in the evening
paper :
'Lady Dufferin. It would astonish some of our fine
ladies to see Lady Dufferin walking about the town. She
dresses plainly and sensibly, wears thick boots, and does
I not shrink from the muddiest of our crossings.'
This comes of my Irish training ! '
Monday, ^th. Directly after luncfi, Fred and I began
our duties. I was 'at home,' and he announced the
NOV. 1872 RIDEAU HALL 45
visitors and helped me to talk to them. We had 108. I
was pleased with the society, and Ottawa itself improves
on acquaintance, especially as I have discovered a nice
common and wood behind the house, where the children
will be very happy. Mr. Archibald, 1 Lieutenant- Governor
of Manitoba, and the Pattissons dined with us.
In addition to his social duties, Fred has to look after
all the stable matters, expenditure included, after the
invitations, the amusements, such as skating-rink, etc. etc.,
so he is not idle.
Tuesday, $th. The little ones, Basil and Hermie,
arrived from Quebec, looking well and merry. It is nice to
be all together again.
Saturday, gth. The weather is lovely, and I generally
walk in and out of town. After lunch, games of football,
stilts, hoops, etc., go on. We have five-o'clock tea, and
family gatherings, the babies first, and then the old children.
The house gets on very slowly : the hall door is still
boarded up, the schoolroom full of workmen who do not
work, the gas-pipes still innocent of gas. I suppose we
shall be settled by January. The Fletchers' house will, I
hope, be ready for them in a few days, and when they get
into it we shall feel more settled ourselves. At present
they are staying with us.
Sunday, loth. We went to our very small parish church
at New Edinburgh. It is very primitive, but we like the
service, and it is so much nearer to us than the cathedral.
Monday, 1 1 th. We took a walk to prepare for the
labours of the afternoon. Between three and five I received
144 visitors; Fred, Lady Harriet, and Mrs. Pattisson
helping me.
Thursday, i^th. This is Thanksgiving Day, so we went
to church at the cathedral, but (as the papers tell us) we
did it in an ' unostentatious manner.' The first snow fell.
Friday, i$th. A telegram arrived from Australia, the
1 Sir Adams George Archibald, K.C.M.G.
46 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. iv
first which has been sent direct: it arrived at 9.10 this
morning, having been sent at 10 to-night. Eather puzzling
to think of. D. replied, ' Canada re-echoes Australia's
toast our Queen and a United Empire.'
Sunday, 17 ih. A beautiful, ideal winter day : the
ground and trees white with snow, blue sky, and bright
sun. We went to church, and the children were unable
to resist some of the pleasure of a first day of snow, and
tumbled about in it as though it were sand.
You should see them all five in blanket coats, which are
made of thick blue cloth, with red epaulets and sashes, and
pointed hoods lined and piped with red. The coats are very
long and straight, and the little figures in them look both
funny and picturesque. They have sealskin turbans, and
pull up the hoods if necessary. We all wear moccasins on
our feet; they are of cloth, with indiarubber soles, and
generally with a flower embroidered in colours on the toes.
The only drawback to going out here is the amount of
dressing one has to do to prepare for it. There are over-
stockings, over-boots, over-etcs. of all descriptions to be put
on ; there are fur caps with woollen clouds tied over them
as becomingly as possible, fur coats, fur gloves, muffs, etc.,
etc. But once out it is delightful, and most exhilarating.
We have been tobogganing, though the snow is not deep
yet, and our present efforts are very amateurish. We sit,
stand, or lie on a straight board which is curled up at one
end, and slide down snow-covered hills. The children enjoy
it immensely, and have splendid exercise pulling their little
sleighs, or toboggans, up the hill again.
The ' Black Eod,' Mr. Kimber, was one of our guests
at dinner to-night. He sang us one of Figaro's songs,
acting it with great spirit, and amusing us very much. He
also sang some very pretty Canadian boat-songs. Another
guest was Miss Griffin, a lady who acted in a play with
Dickens at Montreal twenty years ago.
Wednesday, 2Oth.D., Colonel Fletcher, Fred, and Mr.
NOV. 1872 'MY FIRST SLEIGH DRIVE 47
Campbell (D.'s shorthand writer, and a very favourite
member of the Staff), went to Montreal.
Saturday, 2yd. I had a long letter from D., giving me
an account of his doings. After a long journey on Wednes-
day, they reached Montreal in the evening, and were con-
ducted by the Mayor and Sir Hugh Allan to the latter's
house.
On Thursday D. unveiled the Queen's statue, and in the
evening he danced all night at a ball, never flagging till
four in the morning, and being pronounced ' a brick ' by
the young ladies of Montreal. He had a dinner at a club
on Friday, and returned here to-day, fatigued but
pleased. We are both going to Montreal in January for a
' season.'
Wednesday, 2jih. We are gradually settling down in
our house, and are dragging from obscure packing-cases
the few ornaments that have emigrated with us. I have
set up a boudoir, and in it I put all my favourite things, so
as to have one home-like sanctum. The state-rooms con-
tinue, I fear, to have a hopelessly company look.
We had a dinner-party of twenty-six, a great number
of Ministers among them. There is no clock (going) in
the drawing-room, so my guests fidgeted off before ten,
and had to wait in the cloak-room for their carriages.
When one person moves, they all go, and it is useless to
say, 'Do stay.'
There was snow in the afternoon, and we are getting up
the double windows. Most people have not only the extra
windows, but stuff cotton wool into every crevice. Their
houses are very hot.
Tuesday, December yd. Yesterday I went for my first
drive in a sleigh. I think I shall like it very much when
there is a little more snow : it is rather rough at present.
I will tell you how we pass an ordinary day. We break-
fast at nine, then separate to our various offices and places
of business. Fred goes to the stables, and afterwards helps
48 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. iv
to write invitations, though Mr. Coulson manages the
society at present. At eleven they all go into town. We
lunch at one the children and I generally alone, the gentle-
men returning when they like. After lunch we go out : in
this weather it is a duty, but later, I think, we shall have
great fun out of doors. On our return we have tea, and
books and children ; dinner at 7.30. The Fletchers come
often, and we have either one or two large dinners every
week.
Wednesday, /{ill. I put on snow-shoes for the first time.
One's foot looks like a dot in the centre of a large racket,
and I expected to trip up on my own shoes ; but I found it
quite easy to walk with them, and very amusing. Without
them one has to keep in the middle of the beaten track on
the roads, but with them one can walk on the deepest snow.
Friday, 6th. Sir John and Lady Macdonald are staying
with us for two nights. In the morning I took Lady Mac-
donald and Lady Harriet for a sleigh-drive, and in the
afternoon we all rested for the coming dinner-party. We
had twenty-eight guests.
One of them, a senator and mill-owner employing
500 labourers all the year round at high wages, told me
that when he came here himself he earned ten shillings
a month. Mr. Tod, the librarian here, was another
guest. He is the author of the best book on the British
Constitution. Then there was a railway celebrity, a very
nice man, who got out of a sick bed to come : he brought
with him a pleasant sister-in-law and a very pretty
daughter. Sir Hugh Allan also dined with us, and Sir
Francis Hincks.
Saturday, jih. Lady Macdonald left, and I went out to
see some tobogganing. The high hill is sufficiently covered
with snow now, and the children are very brave about going
down it. They start at the top and go bumping and
jumping all the way down, sometimes tumbling over into
the snow at the bottom, and sometimes going along the
DEC. 1872 FROST BITES 49
level ground for a good distance. To-day they looked so
odd, all covered with snow, while the gentlemen's beards,
eyelashes, and hair, had the snow frozen into them. The
thermometer was 10 below zero, but the day was bright,
and we did not feel the cold at all. Toiling up the hill and
pulling the toboggan after one, is hard work.
Monday, gth. One of my exhausting ' at home ' days.
My labours began at 1.30, for I had the managers of a
concert I am getting up to lunch, and went on till six
a steady flow of visitors. It was a very cold day, luckily
for the conversation required of me, and ninety-three
varieties of ' How cold you must have found your drive ! '
did I invent. On these occasions D. comes in when all is
over and asks ' what news we have heard,' and we always
have to say that we have heard nothing. I generally keep
Monday evening sacred to repose, but to-day we were obliged
to invite travellers, and two Torontonians, the Pattissons and
Fletchers making up twelve. Our tourists came to America
for ten months, but have found travelling so very expensive
they have to hurry home at the end of four. Their bill for
ten days at a New York hotel was i sol-
Tuesday, loth. D. had invited these young men to
come and toboggan, and it made me freeze to look at their
costume: knickerbockers, no gloves, thin boots, English
hats ! when flannel, and cloth trousers, boots of cloth with
indiarubber soles, fur gloves, and fur hats are necessary.
I only hope they won't be laid up with ' pains.' One foolish
footman of ours who came out in the carriage with cotton
socks and leather boots has had a fearful attack of acute in-
flammatory rheumatism, and two Sisters of Mercy are now
nursing him. Yesterday, Terence, having a hole in one of
his gloves, came home with his finger frost-bitten, and
Nelly had two suspicious white spots in her face : they were
rubbed with snow, and are all right.
Wednesday, nth. I had half an hour's skating: the
first time we have been able to use the rink. The weather
50 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. iv
was very cold, but bright, and the snow hard and dry. I
did not do much, as we had a dinner in the evening, for
which it is necessary to be fresh.
Saturday, i^th. This has been one of our regular
Ottawa weeks. After the Wednesday's dinner a quiet
night ; then a visit from a Minister and his wife, Dr. 2 and
Mrs. Tupper, who remained the night ; and a visit the next
night from two Ministers, and one wife, Monsieur Langevin,
and Mr. and Mrs. Howe ; these latter preferred returning
home to sleep, either because they liked their own stove
side, or because the next day was Mr. Howe's seventieth
birthday. He was a violent politician, but is less active
now, and is talked of as a probable Lieutenant-Governor
for Nova Scotia.
We are working at our outdoor rink, and find it rather
troublesome to manage. An Englishman exclaims, ' Flood
it ! ' but this is just the difficulty, for the water freezes as
it touches the ice, and will not ' flood it ' ; and if, by having a
circle of barrels round the space and upsetting them all at
the same time, we do succeed in covering it with water, and
go happy to bed dreaming of beautiful ice and a capital
skate, we wake in the morning to find either that it
has snowed, or that the wind has blown old snow over
the rink, which a ray of sunshine having partially melted,
has stuck hard to our lovely ice, and there we are longing
to skate and obliged to begin ' au deluge ' again.
Wednesday, i8th. We had a ball. The room was
well lighted and looked well, the supper (by the new cook)
was very good, and I hope everyone was happy. Sir Hugh
and Miss Allan arrived for it, and remain till Saturday !
Colonel Fletcher was told that ' Mr. Hamilton- will be spoilt
here, people like him so much.'
Friday, 2Oth. A great snowstorm. I was to have
gone to a mission service in church, but I could not face
the weather. D. did go, and afterwards inspected the
Christian Brothers' school, received addresses, etc.
2 Sir Charles Tupper, Bart., G.C.M.G.
DEC. 1872 THERMOMETER 22 BELOW ZERO 51
Monday, 2$rd. This morning we visited the Grey
Sisters, and saw their school. Then I came home and
arranged my concert-room with stage, etc.
The Belgian Minister at Washington arrived in time
for an early dinner, and is staying with us. At eight the
singers arrived, and began to dress, and at 8'3O the listeners
came pouring in, were cordially greeted by His Ex. and
Her Ex. at the door, and were seated by obliging A.D.C.s
and secretaries.
The music began at nine it really was very good, and
the acting admirable ! The costumes were perfect, and
everyone was delighted with the two hours' amusement.
I allowed the three children to be present, and they
enjoyed it immensely. Terence was in fits over ' Figaro,'
and in great anxiety the whole time to understand every-
thing. We had supper at eleven, and the whole entertain-
ment was considered a great success.
Tuesday, 2^th. Oh ! this really is cold ; two ears, two
faces, two knees, and one finger frozen in our family. We
are 22 below zero, and are devoted to our clouds, in which
we wallow. In spite of this we skate, but-we are very thank-
ful to think that we are feeling the worst cold we need expect
here.
Christmas Day. Thermometer 20 below zero. Pro-
prieties out of the question must go to church in seal-
skin turbans, and must undress when we get there, as we sit
near the stove ; so that when we leave, the amount of things
to be put on is frightful. There is my cloak, and my
cloud, fur gauntlets, and woollen cuffs; there is Archie's
coat, and his cloud, and turban, and gloves. Then Fred and
D. have to be clothed; happily, everyone in the church
is equally busy muffling up. D., you will be surprised to
hear, wears absolutely less than he used to do in May at
home, and scarcely seems to feel the cold at all. Fred, too,
bears it well, with the exception of his ears, about which he
is decidedly nervous. He is always feeling them and
52 AfY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. iv
inquiring from passers-by whether they are frozen. The
children play in the snow as if it were hay, and enjoy
themselves immensely. Their nurse, Mrs. Hall, dislikes
the wrapping up, but has been consoled by a present of a
pair of skates. Their governess is learning too ; she won't
wrap up, and I really fear some accident for her : nothing
but a frost-bite will make her careful.
We have arranged a Christmas-tree, and this evening
all the children of the family assembled for it. * They came
at five, and the nine of them, with their governesses and
nurses, were ushered into the room with great ceremony.
Hermie rushed at a doll. ' There is my doll,' and kissed it
most fervently. Of course, they all got various presents,
and the big ones dined with us, and afterwards played blind
man's buff, snapdragon, etc., etc.
The pictures have arrived, and are a great improvement
to the house. In my room I have drawings of Killyleagh and
Clandeboye, and there are a few oil-portraits in the dining-
room, which make it look home-like. We shall be quite
sorry to go away next week , to undertake a long journey in
the snow, and to be a month in hotels.
Mr. Pattisson's Irish cook came to tell him that, having
had her hand severely burnt and blistered by lifting a cold
iron pot, she would go home by next steamer. He pretends
there is not one to go in.
Friday, 27th. We continue every day to practise our
skating. I can get on very well with ordinary skating. D.
can go backwards and do the figure of eight. Fred is
beginning the outside edge, and is studying the art with
great care. The children are not industrious: they find
making snow houses and tobogganing much more amusing
than lamely shuffling over the ice, so I think they will be
long in learning.
Saturday, 28th. This morning we visited the ' Congre-
gation de Notre Dame,' an educational convent, where Nelly
was shown a Christmas-tree, and told to choose what she
DEC. 1 872 SKATING AND SLEIGHING 53
liked best on it. In spite of my nudges, truth would out,
and she took a very pretty doll instead of the insignificant
present I was trying to suggest to her.
Directly after lunch I went down to the rink to receive
my skating-party. It went off extremely well. Some of the
young people skated most beautifully, Miss Patrick and
Miss Kingsford, two very pretty girls, being the best
performers. Skating is so very graceful when well done,
and the scene on the rink is so gay ; everyone moving
about so fast on the ice, and knots of people tobogganing
down the hill behind. I had on my skates, but did not
feel equal to skating before such experts.
When it became cold, we came into the house, drank tea
and mulled claret, and danced for an hour. We intend to
repeat these parties once a week. The dancing was quite a
surprise this time, but of course it will be expected now, and
parcels of shoes and various decorations will be brought
next Saturday, which were dispensed with on this occasion.
Monday, ^oth. I think the pleasures of sleighing are
exaggerated : it appears to me much the same as driving in
a cart. You have no springs, and the snow gets into hard,
rough ruts. This is treason ! one ought to be enthusiastic
over its delights. The bells and the red plumes on the
horses' backs are the best of it, I think.
Wednesday, January ist, 1873. New Year's Day is kept
here as a visiting-day. All the ladies stay at home, and all
the gentlemen visit. D. and I were ' at home ' from three
to five and received 293 men.
It was a most lovely day, warm and bright, with only
ten degrees of frost, which seems to us quite like a thaw !
With the exception of a few days at Christmas, we have
been perfectly comfortable : the , house is so warm, and we
are so well wrapped up when we go out, that we cannot feel
cold.
54
CHAPTEK V
MONTREAL
St. Lawrence Hall : Sitnday, January $th. We left
Eideau yesterday, had dinner at Prescott, and reached
Montreal at night. A very successful winter journey, for
had the snow been troublesome we might have been days
en route. The Mayor met us, and we drove to this hotel,
where we have taken rooms for a month. Our own cooks
and servants arrive early in the week and arrange every-
thing, while we go down to Quebec for a ball. The rooms
we have here are very clean, but very hotel-like, stiff and
starch, and I shall not feel much at home when I receive
my guests in them.
Monday, 6th. We went early to the Kink, which we
were curious to see. It is a great place, 250 feet long,
of smooth, dull-looking ice, which reminds one of wax, and
which is covered with scrapings cut off by the skates ; there
is a raised walk round the ice for non- skaters, and a gallery
at one end. The roof is arched. Most of the skaters were
children of four years old and upwards, going backwards
and forwards, Dutch rolling, making eights looking as if
they had been born on skates. There was only one young
lady there, very pretty and a splendid performer. Her
skating is the most beautiful, graceful thing one can see.
Skating is particularly pretty for ladies, as the dress hides
the machinery which is visible when men skate. An in-
JAN. 1873 QUEBEC 55
door rink is dull, however, I think, compared to skating out
of doors.
We went down to the station at 1 1 P.M. D. and I had two
good bedrooms, and the others had beds in a Pullman car.
Mrs. Dent had a sofa in the sitting-room, and His Ex.'s
shorthand writer, finding he was expected to occupy a
couch opposite to my fair maid, shyly jumped into it with
his hat on, which I suppose he considered gave an air of
respectability to the proceeding. Dent was giggling at him
under her rug, and was still more amused when, later, the
hat of propriety rolled off, and the little man pulled his
clothes right over his head.
Tuesday, jih. We awoke in time to have a cup of tea
at a passing station, and arrived at Quebec at twelve.
The morning was lovely, and the Citadel, the river,
and Quebec looked so picturesque, with the sun shining on
the snow. We crossed in the steamer, cutting through ice,
and were accompanied by the Mayor. We drove up to the
hotel over the most bumpy roads the snow is in great
mounds, and the jump from one hill to another is quite
amusing : it is like hunting on wheels. The warm recep-
tion we met with was very pleasant.
We went to the Eink after breakfast. The band was
playing, and there was some very good skating, but too
many children, who get in the way and make beginners
nervous.
Wednesday, 8th. This morning we again went to the
Eink, where D. is practising hard, aided by all the young
ladies of Quebec, who give him lessons in turn. In the
afternoon we opened a poultry show, and I examined each
scrubby fowl, and made the most of my home experience.
This place in winter is not suited to poultry, and their
plumage shows that they are shut up in stables.
The Citizens' Ball took place to-night. It is one given
for us by the city, and for which we were invited to return
when we left in the autumn. It was a splendid entertain-
56 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. v
ment. The room was decorated with our colours, and with
wreaths of roses, and there was a large reception com-
mittee, who took great care of me all the evening.
Thursday, gth. An excursion to Montmorency was
arranged for to-day, but I did not go. At noon, forty-two
sleighs, each driving a tandem, came to the door, and D.
got into the first in a snowstorm. The weather cleared
later, and they drove twelve miles, had lunch, visited the
Fall, and were back by dusk. They enjoyed it very much,
though they came in very cold.
D. and I dined alone, and then went off to a skating
ball. The Eink was lighted up, and hung with flags and
lanterns, and there were regular dancing programmes. It
was a very pretty sight. I can't conceive anything more
graceful than the lancers skated ; waltzing also is pretty,
but few people, even here, can do it. I had a very com-
fortable seat, and sat there with a never-ceasing stream of
figures passing before me.
D. skated a good deal at the ball, and Fred took
some turns with the young ladies hand-in-hand round
the place, but they did not dance. I went round twice, but
am not a good enough skater for these public demonstra-
tions.
Friday, loth. After some skating, I proceeded to the
grating at the Ursuline Convent to thank the nuns for
some lovely specimens of their work, which they sent me
as a New Year's gift. Then I came home and ' received'
farewell visits. All at Quebec, both in ' society ' and in the
streets, are so nice to us they are very home-like. We left
the hotel in the evening, crossed the river, and had our
special car, in which we first had tea and whist, and then
we went to bed, while Fred and Mr. Coulson attended ' a
party ' in the next carriage.
Saturday, nth. We arrived at Montreal in time for
breakfast, skated, and had interviews with the Mayor and
various officials, but our work only begins on Monday.
JAN. 1873 SNOW-SHOEING AT MONTREAL 57
Monday, i^th. D. visited a hospital, the Law Courts,
and some churches after lunch. In the evening we had a
Drawing-room. There were about 1,000 people at it.
Tuesday, i^th. We skated and visited a school in the
morning, and at night had our first dinner here twenty-
eight people : Bishop Oxenden and his wife, the Mayor and
his wife, and others. Our drawing-room is small for so
many, but they left early, as we were going to a ball at a
Mons. Papineau's the first private entertainment I have
been to in Canada. His wife must have been handsome,
with brown eyes, and white hair powdered. They have a
pretty house, and the ball was pleasant.
Wednesday, i$th. This evening we attended a snow-
shoe torchlight procession given in our honour. At eight
o'clock the president of the society came for us, and we
drove out until we met the ' snow-shoes.' They wore white
blanket coats, tight leggings, and red caps, and the sight
really was very picturesque and very Canadian: the
bright night, the snow-covered ground, hundreds of sleighs
and thousands of tinkling bells, the torches, and the gaiety of
the whole scene, were delightful. The procession walked
up the mountain, and we drove round it, watching the fiery
serpent winding among the trees. The roads were excellent,
and it was the first sleigh-drive I have really enjoyed.
In about an hour we arrived at a house where supper was
prepared, and where we had a very amusing evening.
There was a long list of toasts, and a song with a chorus
was sung after each. There was the usual amount of
compliments to the country, to us, to the Mayor, to every-
body. Canada was the finest country, the Canadians the
finest people, His Excellency worthy to be a Canadian,
Her Excellency most excellent, the Mayor admirable, the
Mayoress most hospitable, our hosts . . . words failed !
When the Mayor got up to return thanks, he said that
' As Canadians, we have one fault we are too fond of
praising ourselves ; but in this case it is sincere.' When all
58 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. v
was over, we got into our sleigh again, and the fresh air
was delightful! The snow-shoers were by this time 'jolly
good fellows,' and I found them rather alarming to our
horses and to me ; so we begged them not to accompany us
home, and I think they were not sorry to return to the
supper-room.
Thursday, i6fh. I may tell you, once for all, that we
spend the morning in the Eink.
This afternoon we visited a Catholic commercial school
really a well-arranged building. The boys have a very
good string band, and betwixt addresses we had some
music.
We had a large dinner in the evening : Sir Francis and
Miss Hincks were of the party. I fear it was not lively,
but what can one do in a small room with thirty strangers ?
Saturday, iSth. After our morning skate we came
home in a snowstorm, and then out again to a bene-
volent institution where old women and orphan children
are lodged, and the latter educated. We had tea with the
Bishop and Mrs. Oxenden. They have a very nice house,
and they had collected a little party to meet us ; but we had
rather to hurry away, as it was snowing hard, and we had
to dress for a dinner-party. It was to have been a small
one, but stretched out to twenty-four, and was, I thought,
the pleasantest we have had here.
Monday, 2oth. This was rather a hard day. Sir Hugh
Allan and M. Delfosse came to breakfast at nine, and D.
went off to be photographed for a paper dollar immediately
after. At eleven we proceeded to the Eink, and only
returned for His Ex. to receive an address from the Board
of Trade.
When that deputation was dismissed, we drove to a Pro-
testant deaf-and-dumb institution, which was a very good
one ; but it was the wrong one as far as I was concerned,
as that I wished to see was the Catholic establishment,
where the deaf-mutes are taught to speak.
JAN. 1873 MONTREAL 59
A refuge for old people was the next institution on our
list, and we only ' got home for a short rest before a big
dinner. I enjoyed the evening, and some nice people
dined with us.
Tuesday, 21 si. Miss Allan came to lunch with me,
and D. and I drove in state to M'Gill College. Here
our horses were taken out by the students, and we were
dragged up to the door. Speeches were made, and we were
shown everything of interest ; but while D. was taken to
the dissecting-room, I went to have tea with the ladies.
D. afterwards visited the Normal School by himself. We
dined with the Mayor, and as we stepped out in the snow
to get into a great, lumbering, covered sleigh, we greatly
rejoiced that the most of our Canadian gaieties are hi
our own home.
The Mayor has a nice house, and there was a splendid
display of flowers on his table ; in fact, I believe he had
bought every flower in Montreal for the occasion.
Wednesday, 22nd. I stayed at home the whole day,
and disappointed the Jesuits, whom His Ex. went to
see, and who sent me magnificent bouquets. They have a
fine church and college here, and are celebrated for their
music.
We had (of course) a dinner-party. D. took in a bride,
and I had a senator and a judge on either side of me.
Thursday, 2$rd. At ten D. went to a military school,
and had the rest of the day for amusing himself with
skating and curling. We had another large dinner : 1 30
people will have dined with us this week, most of whom are
quite new acquaintances.
Friday, 24th. There was a tremendous snowstorm to-
day, but we had an appointment to visit ' Monklands,' a
large educational convent some distance from the town, so
we had to make the best of our way there, and really ex-
perienced something of a snowdrift : in places it was quite
difficult for the horses to drag the sleigh along, and they
60 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. v
were ' floundering ' about, while the coachman was shading
his eyes from the snow, and we all had to cover our faces
and take as much care of ourselves as was possible.
' Monklands ' used to be the Governor- General's house
when the Government was at Montreal. I believe the
situation is fine, but it must have been too far from the
town for a Government House. It has been enlarged, and
now contains 22 nuns and 1 50 pupils.
After seeing the nuns and the household arrangements,
we were ushered into the 'theatre,' or schoolroom, where a
stage presented itself to our view, upon which the 1 50 young
ladies, dressed in white, were curtseying, and whence pro-
ceeded sounds of harps, pianos and harmoniums. The usual
pretty little entertainment followed, and D. and I both
answered addresses.
When this was over, poor ' His Ex.' had to visit a
college ; but, in mercy to myself, the horses, and the men-
servants, I came straight home.
We had a small dinner, and were tolerably merry. One
of our young ladies turned out to be a ' blue- stocking,' and
amused us much by laying down the law to the company.
Saturday, 2$th. I took a drive along the river to pre-
pare for the labours of the afternoon, being ' at home.' We
began to receive at three, and had a stream of visitors till
5.30. I had not much time except for shaking hands, and
all my conversation was ' How do you do ? ' ' How cold you
must be ! ' ' Good-bye ! ' A funny little American woman,
travelling alone with her maid, came and looked in at the
door to see me ; then she thought she would come in, so
she went home and changed her hat for her bonnet and
returned. She asked for ' my husband,' and invited us both
to Philadelphia. She looked small and thin enough to blow
away, and Fred found her afterwards almost fainting from
the exertion of her visit.
Monday, 2?th. After skating, I brought Miss Allan
back to lunch, and we went to a chemical lecture. It was
JAN. 1873 THE CITIZENS* BALL 61
given to ladies, and I am patroness of the association. I
then went on to the Protestant Infants' Home. D. visited
the Montreal Waterworks.
We had a dinner of thirty-six our last here. The
children arrived at midnight, looking extremely well.
Tuesday, 2%tk. We all went to visit a large convent
called Hochelaga. It is a fine building, and contains a
very beautiful chapel copied from one in Eome. We heard
the organ played and the novices sing.
In the evening there was the ' citizens' ' ball given in our
honour. There was an excellent ballroom, with an enor-
mous supper-room off it. An arrangement was made at one
end of it, like the canons' stalls in a cathedral : these were
lined with green, and decorated with the antelope and
heart, our motto, etc., etc. ; in each a chair, but only one
stall was used all the night, and that by me. The whole
room was ornamented with flags and ' V.E.s ' and ' D.s,' and
was very pretty. There was a state quadrille first, of
enormous length, reaching the whole way down the room,
and with us and the Mayor alone at the ends. I enjoyed
my share of the evening very much, and danced all the
squares before supper, leaving very soon after. An official
list of partners was made out for D., and he remained
dancing with dowagers until four o'clock in the morning.
Wednesday, 2gth. D. had relaxation to-day, skating
and curling, and I did some business, and went over the
E.G. Deaf-and-dumb Institutions.
These were very interesting, as the poor creatures are
being taught to speak, and very successfully too. There
are separate establishments for the boys and girls, and
the master showed us the whole system of teaching.
This is a cold, bright day, 20 below zero.
I spent the evening with the children, D. and staff
having gone to a night-tobogganing party and dance. The
former returned at twelve, and the young ones not till
nearly three. They enjoyed it, but thought it a dangerous
62 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. v
amusement in the dark, and Mr. Coulson had the sleeves
completely cut out of his coat by a toboggan coming down
on the top of him.
Thursday, ^oth. The fancy-dress skating ball took
place in the evening, and was a most beautiful sight,
besides being great fun.
We drove to the Eink wearing morning dress, and went
out on a balcony to look down upon the scene. It was like
a fairy pantomime of gigantic size, and was most striking.
The building was hung with flags and Chinese lanterns, and
from one end to the other there were gaily-dressed figures
of every sort and variety moving about with that easy,
graceful swing which belongs to skating. When we went
downstairs we were conducted to the further end of the
rink, where a platform and chairs at the edge of the ice
were prepared for us.
Here we stood, while the two sets of ' state ' lancers were
danced in front of us. One was a poudre set : each couple
skated in, bowed to us as they passed, and took their
places. I think I have already told you how beautiful the
lancers are whei skated, and you can imagine how the addi-
tion of costume increases their beauty : I never saw anything
half so pretty. When they were over D. and Fred put on
dominoes, and skated off too. I collected a few friends
under my canopy, the children sat on the edge of it, and
we were amused the whole evening watching the different
characters as they came before us. There was one delightful
old gentleman who passed us every round in some different
way, acting capitally the whole time. There was an excellent
and large monkey, who performed for the children. There
were Indians and Chinamen, cavaliers, etc., etc. The ladies'
costumes had of necessity short petticoats, so there was
every variety of peasant Dolly Vardens, Watteaus, etc., etc.
and very pretty they were ! In fact, to an ordinary fancy
ball you have to add perpetual motion, for no one ever
stands still on the ice. The spectators lined the walls. We
JAN. 1873 THE RINK 63
were torn away to have some supper, and after it I sat on
the upper balcony to see the general effect. They danced
another set of lancers, and ' Sir Eoger de Coverley.' I am
sure that if they had not turned the Governor-General out,
by playing ' God save the Queen,' I never should have been
able to get him away, he enjoyed it so much.
Friday, 3 is*. D. visited the blind-schools, and, from
his account of them, I was quite sorry not to have gone
with him. He was so 'touched by a little blind child
feeling his face all over with her tiny fingers to feel what
he was like.
Saturday, February ist. We went this afternoon to see
some snow-shoe races, and, for the first time since we have
been in Canada, we were all thoroughly cold, and were glad
when it was over.
In the evening some games in the Eink were very
amusing. One sport looked dangerous : it was a hurdle-
race, and the skaters had to jump over stiff barriers placed
in their way. Numbers of them caught their feet on the
top bar, and came down ; it was wonderful that they
escaped being seriously hurt. The funniest race to watch
was the barrel-race : a number of flour-barrels without ends
were placed at intervals along the course. The first row
had the same number of barrels as boys ; the second, and
the third sets had fewer, for the competitors got separated
and did not all reach the barrels at the same time. Each
boy dived down when he reached the barrel, crept through
it, and skated on, as fast as possible, to the next. Of
course the barrels rolled and tumbled about on the ice, and
some boys were much quicker at getting through them than
others. There were also backward races, and girls' races,
and boys' races, etc., all on skates. I gave the prizes at
the end.
Monday, $rd. In the morning we went to the Eink, and,
a small band of music having been obtained, there were
lancers danced, and waltzes, and everyone worked hard,
64 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. v
some because they skate for the prizes to-morrow, and some
because it was to be our last day there.
We went to an Irish concert after dinner. All the songs
were Irish, and there was a little speechifying between
times.
Tuesday, ^th. It thaws to-day, and is consequently
horrid, but we are all full of excitement about the skating-
matches this afternoon. Quebec has sent a champion lady,
and has told her she need not return to her ancient city if
she does not win the locket which D. has offered as a prize.
Later. The ladies' match was very interesting, but the
day was spoilt by two contretemps. The judges said there
were ties, and awarded the prize to two, which ended in
D.'s having to duplicate the locket he had chosen. Then,
at the very last moment, the gentlemen found fault with
some arrangement, and refused to skate, so one walked
over the course by himself !
The little girls' skating was beautiful.
When the matches were over, there was dancing till
eleven o'clock.
65
CHAPTEK VI
OUR FIRST PARLIAMENTARY SESSION
Ottawa : Friday, February i^tli. The curling-rink, out-
side our windows, was ready to-day, and the gentlemen had
a game in the morning and skated in the afternoon. We
played ' puss in the corner ' and ' friar's ground ' on skates
with the children, who were delighted with this idea mine,
I beg to say.
Saturday, i$th. Curling and skating are our exercises
every day. We have had a great consultation over our
arrangements for the ' season.' During Lent there can be
no balls, but we shall have some plays. Two pieces, ' The
First Night ' and ' To Oblige Benson,' are already in hand,
and we are to have one play each week, and each play twice.
This will give us four entertainments. After Easter we
shall give a big ball in the new room.
For the opening of Parliament we have invited Mr. and
Mrs. Howland, with whom we stayed in Toronto, to come
to us. The meeting is on the 5th, and we have a Cabinet
dinner the night before, a dinner the day after, an ice-
party on Friday, and a small dinner on Saturday.
I suppose the House will ' sit ' all through April, so
that we can ask the 280 members to dinner before they
leave Ottawa.
The children's dreadful colds are all better, but the
doctor tells me he has had over 200 cases of the same.
66 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vi
At one o'clock in the night the thermometer was 20 below
zero, and at one in the day 50 above a difference of seventy
degrees so it is not extraordinary that people catch colds !
D. continues to feel quite warm and comfortable, and
not to wear a fur coat : his turn will come in the summer,
when he will begin to wrap up.
Monday, i?ih. Fred, Nelly and I took a drive this
morning, as the day was so splendid, and as I had to remain
at home in the afternoon. I received 133 visitors, and if
the weather has ears they must have been extremely hot
when we had finished discussing it on every side.
The curling, which we have set up in a covered rink
close to our skating place, seems to be very successful, and
D. and Fred play a great deal.
The ' Witness ' publishes an account of ' Hamilton
Eowan,' mentioning me as his grand-daughter, which, they
are pleased to .say, ' accounts for the good drop in me.' This
is the paper which came to ask Fred for details of our
engagements at Montreal, and said, ' Oh ! we will miss the
ball, if you please ; we are a religious paper.'
Wednesday, igih. Such a thaw to-day ; our ice was all
under water, and we are quite afraid the winter is going.
We shall have a very mauvais quart d'heure between this
and summer a time when skating is impossible, and
walking and driving nearly so, everything dripping around
us.
Some of Lady Harriet's ' imported ' servants are begin-
ning to marry ; happily, mine are still fancy free.
Saturday, 22nd. The actors in 'To Oblige Benson'
arrived at twelve this morning to rehearse the piece. They
none of them knew it in the least. ' They ' are Fred and
Mr. Coulson, Colonel and Mrs. Stuart, and a nice-looking
Miss Himsworth. After lunch the rest of the world arrived
to skate. It was a lovely afternoon, and they practised the
lancers, while I looked on at the tobogganing, and just
missed seeing a disagreeable sight. Little Edward Fletcher
FEB. 1873 OPENING OF PARLIAMENT 67
was standing dreaming in the middle of the hill, and as a
toboggan was coming fast down upon him the people on the
top shouted to him to get out of the way ; but he did not
hear, and the toboggan, with a young lady in it, lifted him
right up in the air. She got her eye cut, and had a bump
on her forehead. It might have been a bad accident.
After the outdoor party we had a dance to warm our-
selves, and all went home at 6.30.
Sir John and Lady Macdonald, and M. Langevin, arrived,
to stay till Monday. Sir John is the Prime Minister, and
M. Langevin the Public Works, who has built our ball-
room and does all our improvements.
Monday, March $rd. To-morrow the Session, with its
duties, commences.
Tuesday, 4th. As the dancing is over for the present, I
have been busy all morning refurnishing my big drawing-
room, which has hitherto been kept as a ball-room. The
new room is nearly ready, and is very handsome. It is to
be opened as a theatre, and we are having such a pretty
stage put up. Lady Harriet Fletcher has come over to
spend a few days, for a change, and to help me to entertain
Mrs. Howland.
We had our Cabinet dinner ; all men, except Lady
Harriet and me, the two ladies of the house. I sat between
the Prime Minister, Sir John, and the Postmaster-General,
Mr. Campbell. They were both very pleasant neighbours.
All were in uniform, and all full of animation and ready for
the fray.
Wednesday, $th. In the afternoon, D. dressed in uni-
form, and drove in a sleigh-and-four, escorted by troops,
A.D.C.s, and secretaries, to direct his faithful Lords and
Commons to choose a Speaker. This did not take very
long, and on his return we went and sat at the rink in
delicious sunshine for a couple of hours.
Thursday, 6th. The opening of Parliament. Having
to dress in the middle of the day, I was lazy, and did not
F 2
68 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vi
appear at all till I was arrayed in my finery. His Ex. wore
the Governor's uniform, like that of the Queen's House-
hold : collar of St. Patrick, and cocked hat kept on all the
time. Mrs. Howland and I, Mr. Pattisson and Mr. Curtis,
went in the first carriage, Miss Blake and three children hi
the next. We arrived some time before the Governor-
General, and I was conducted to my seat by the Gentleman-
Usher of the Black Eod. The Chamber looked very well.
I sat to the left of the throne, and down each side of the
Senate were rows of ladies in full dress ; the Senators were
on the floor of the House, and the galleries were full to the
ceiling. D. drove in an open sleigh with four horses,
accompanied by Mr. Howland and Colonel Fletcher. Mr.
Holbeach followed with Fred. As they came up to the
building twenty-one guns were fired. The Black Eod met
the procession and walked backwards, bowing all the way,
His Excellency getting more stern-looking every minute.
When the procession arrived at the Senate-Chamber, we
all stood up, and waited until the Governor-General, having
taken his seat on the throne, requested us to be seated.
The Commons were sent for, and we sat in solemn
silence till they came. D. then read his speech, first in
English, and then all over again in French ; and everything
that was said was repeated in the two languages. Then
Colonel Fletcher carried the speeches to the Speakers of
both Houses, and so the ceremony ended, and we went
away as we came. The children were much interested,
but remarked upon Papa's gravity: they thought it a
proper occasion to be wreathed in smiles.
Saturday, 8th. We had rather a pleasant dinner-party
of Ministers. Mr. and Mrs. Howland seemed very happy,
and she looked very smart in blue velvet. The Speaker
of the Senate came to stay with us.
Monday, loth. The frost seemed to have returned,
so we sent out our invitations for a skating-party for this
afternoon. The day was, however, too lovely, and the ice,
MARCH 1873 ENTERTAINMENTS 69
which had been in splendid order got quite soft. It is
possible to be happy on doubtful ice here, as we know there
is no water under it, and that it is only snow sprinkled.
The skaters kept in one shady corner, and I and my guests
sat on the brink, and were quite warm and comfortable.
We had another dinner-party our farewell entertain-
ment to the Howlands.
Tuesday, i ith. Mr. and Mrs. Rowland left this morning
in a snowstorm, and we remained in the house all day.
Great arrangements and discussions go on about the coming
Drawing Eoom : Who is to have the entree ? Who is to have
seats ? Which way are these people to come in, and which
way those ? Where is Her Excellency's cloak to be taken
off ? etc., etc. Then I, not being very well, and having
meekly asked to have a tall office-stool behind me, against
which I might occasionally lean, an architect and several
carpenters have been busily engaged in making a design-
ground-plan and elevation of a complicated and splendid
erection, crowned by a vase of flowers, and covered with
crimson, which is to appear as a part of the throne, but
which is to be scooped out for me to sit on ; and a request
for my exact height has been forwarded to me, that all may
be correct. This ceremony will be in the Senate Chamber,
and both Houses of Parliament have adjourned for the
occasion.
/^We also had a discussion as to whether we could put
off our theatricals on Thursday, for Mario and Carlotta
Patti, who were to have given a concert to-day, have
been snowbound, and cannot get here till that day ; and
as 200 of the principal people here are coming to us,
both the singers and the public lose a good deal. "^Pepper's
Ghost is also tearing its hair at the number of gaieties
in Ottawa, and wrote an entreating appeal to D. to comejriin-
self on Friday, so we could not take the Ghost's day ; after
much consideration we keep Thursday, but try to get Mario
and C. Patti to sing a song here after our play ; it will be
70 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vi
very nice if they can do so. ; The arrangement of our
political dinners also requires ^some thought. We have to
study which party the proposed guests belong to : which
province, whether French or English Upper or Lower
Canada, their social position, etc., etc., so that the dinners
may be made as pleasant as possible to the guests.
Wednesday, 12th. Still too fine and warm, and ice bad.
We are sorry, as this evening two very good skaters come to
stay with us, one from Quebec and one from Montreal.
We dressed in our best for the Drawing Koom, and got
to the Parliament Buildings at nine. In spite of all the
grand arrangements we got out at the wrong door, but
everything else went off very well. The Ministers went in
with us, and we stood by the throne I with my support
behind me their wives followed, then Senators, and then
the World.
Thursday, i$th. -We had a great party to-night, and
opened our new room. The guests assembled at nine, and
after having some tea were conducted through unknown
passages to their future ball-room, where they found 300
chairs arranged in rows, in front of a very pretty little
stage, and a band dressed in the gorgeous uniform of the
Governor- General' s Guards. The entertainment began
with music, and was followed by ' To Oblige Benson,' which
went off admirably. People were particularly delighted with
Fred's performance he did the part of Trotter Southdown ;
and Mrs. Southdown was excellent, too.
Just as they finished, Mario and M. Saury, a violin-
player, arrived. They came as guests, and would hear of
no terms. After a little, D. asked Mario to sing, and the
audience were greatly delighted at his doing so\twice. The
violin-player was also a great treat. It was wonderfully
kind of both gentlemen to perform for us, as they only
arrived at Ottawa at five in the afternoon, and came direct
from a concert. This delightful music made our party
a great success. We went straight into supper after-
MARCH 1873 PARLIAMENTARY DINNERS 71
wards, and it took some time to feed and ' speed ' the
parting 300.
Friday, i^th. I kept this as a day of rest, and in the
evening despatched my young party, under Lady Harriet's
chaperonage, to see ' Pepper's Ghost.' She does not seem
to have been a good duenna, for she said ' good night ' to
the young men and maidens directly they were seated,
and slept composedly through the whole lecture.
Saturday, i$th. It began to pour with rain this after-
noon, and the roads were very bad for our dinner-party.
We had one of thirty people the first of a long series of
similar dinners to be given every Saturday for three months.
The guests were culled from all parts of Canada ; we had
representatives from the shores of the Atlantic, the Pacific,
the St. Lawrence, Lake Huron ; Upper and Lower Cana-
dians, French, English and Scotch, 'Grits' (the Opposition)
and Conservatives (the Government).
The night turned out very bad ; it blew fearfully, and
has blown in a very large window in our new room.
Monday, ijih. Another young lady, a Miss Macpherson
from Toronto, came to stay with us, so now we have repre-
sentatives of the three great towns in our house.
Wednesday, igth. We were out all the morning; but
the ice is soft and the snow wet.
Two tourists came to skate, in wonderful costumes :
striped red-and-yellow stockings, moccasins, bright blue
blanket-coats, with embroidered shoulder-pieces, and Alba-
nian scarfs round their waists. We asked them to dine
with us before the play.
People were quite surprised and delighted with ' The
First Night.' The old actor was most splendidly done by
M. Kirnber, and the singing introduced before and during
the piece was excellent.
Friday, 28th. I took a drive in the afternoon, and at
four went to the Houses of Parliament to pay my first visit
there. I have a seat on the floor of the House, next to the
72 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vi
Speaker's. The business was not very interesting, but I
was rather amused, as a number of people made very short
speeches, and one saw their ' tricks and their manners.'
Saturday, 2C)th. In the evening we had a large Parlia-
mentary dinner. One of my near neighbours was very
interesting. He is a 'working-man' member; we had met
him soon after his election, when he dined in a rough coat,
but now he wears evening clothes ; he talked so pleasantly,
and was full of information. One of our guests, a French-
Canadian, made great efforts to reach the nursery when
he heard the children romping upstairs, and told me he
was most curious to see ' le lord.' I think he imagined
Archie ' must be very peculiar.
Wednesday, April 2nd. We drove into Ottawa on
wheels. D. goes in every week to have tete-d-tete interviews
with different Members of Parliament. This evening there
was a vote of want of confidence in the Government, but
the Ministers won by thirty-three.
We had ' Benson ' for the last time ; very well done, and
much appreciated. The children helped to warm up the
audience by their shrieks of delight.
Friday, ^th. Two men dined with us : one, the Speaker
of the Legislature in Manitoba, who has lately been tarred-
and-feathered by the people, and who came to relate his
experiences of that operation. The other, a Mr. Otley a
nephew of Sir Hastings Doyle's, who has been engineering
near the Rocky Mountains has walked hundreds of miles
on snow-shoes, lived for months on salt pork, been eaten by
mosquitoes in summer, and slept and lived, unprepared for
winter, in an atmosphere 40 below zero. He came out
with us in the Prussian.
Tuesday, 8th. I went to the House, as a scrimmage
was expected. First, there was great excitement over the
Easter holidays what length they should be and then a
party motion about which there was a great deal of interest .
1 Viscount Clandeboye.
APRIL 1873 BALL AT RIDE A U HALL 73
The Opposition had asked for a Committee to inquire into
the conduct of members of the Government, accusing them
of bribery. They lost, and then the Government itself
asked for the same Committee, saying they courted inquiry.
There was a good deal of irritation about the whole affair.
Tuesday, i$th. The two Miss Bethunes arrived yester-
day to stay a week with us, and we opened our new ball-
room this evening. It is a fine room, very lofty and well-
proportioned. It has not yet been painted, so we decorated
it with white-and-blue twists of tarlatan and bunches of pink
roses. These encircled all the windows and doors, and
appeared to be twisted round the flat pillars against the
wall and across the corners. The crimson throne was at
one end of the room, and there was a place for the band at
the other. The ante-room, hall, billiard- and tea-rooms,
the passage leading up to my boudoir, and the conservatory,
looked very pretty, the latter being lighted with Chinese
lanterns. The large drawing-room and dining-room were
both arranged for supper, and seated 140 at a time. Some
650 people were present, and, they say, all were pleased.
Thursday, May ist. This week we have had lovely
weather. The sun is quite hot, and I am out all day. We
have put up a tent on the lawn, and every afternoon the
family play football, marbles, prisoner's base, and other
games, to the great delight of all.
We find Parliament is likely to sit another ten days, so
we have given up all idea of moving to Quebec at present.
We are rather afraid of the heat and the mosquitoes here,
but it cannot be helped.
Friday, 2nd. Encouraged by the lovely weather, I put
a notice in the paper that I should be ' at home ' to-day,
intending to receive people in the garden, have tea and a
band there, and at five to let those who liked dance in the
ball-room. The morning was, however, cold and miserable,
and the afternoon poured with rain ; so I had to sit in the
drawing-room. About fifty people came, and they danced
74 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vi
indoors all the time, and were apparently quite happy. Nine
children took part in the amusements, the little ones liking
the band, and getting quite at home with the strangers.
Saturday, $rd. The provoking weather was fine again
to-day, and I am under my tent once more. Mr. and Mrs.
Eyan and her daughter arrived from Montreal to stay Sun-
day with us. Mr. Eyan is a very pleasant Irish Senator,
his wife a very nice Swiss-French lady, for whom he waited
forty years, she marrying someone else in the meantime.
Thursday, 8th. I saw Lady Macdonald on Tuesday,
the day that Sir John made his splendid speech in the
House, with which Fred was so greatly delighted.
Friday, $th. I advertised that I should be * at home
between three and six ' this afternoon. Part of the enter-
tainment was to be out of doors, and part in. The weather
was very doubtful all the morning ; but we took courage,
had the tea laid on the lawn, put up a tent and down a
carpet, turned the drawing-room chairs out into the garden,
.and at three were rewarded by the commencement of a
really fine afternoon.
I received in the tent, and the company sat and walked
about listening to the Guards' band till after four, when they
went into the ballroom and danced very vigorously for the
rest of the time ; but I stayed in the garden and watched the
dancers come out to the tea, and talked to a few of the old
people, though most of them danced, too.
Saturday, loth. Mr. Coulson left us to-day. We were
sorry to lose him, and, I think, he was sorry to go. He joins
his regiment (6oth Eifles) at Halifax.
We had our last Parliamentary dinner for this Session.
The Prime Minister of Prince Edward's Island and some
colleagues of his, who are here to try and arrange about
joining the Confederation, dined.
Wednesday, iqth. Fred went to dine in Ottawa, Lady
Harriet was having tea with me, and D., the Colonel, and
the Doctor were looking for fossils, when, to my great
MAY 1873 PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND 15
surprise, Lord George Campbell was announced the Duke
of Argyll's sailor son. We sent to the hotel for his things.
Thursday, i$th. Fred took our guest a ride, and in
the afternoon they went with Lady Harriet and Miss Blake
to the House. We had a dinner-party, which was arranged
for a young lady who is going to marry an Englishman,
and who wanted to dine here before she went home. We
asked two other girls, and put the smart young man between
them ! Oddly enough, an old shipmate of his, whom he
had not seen for four years, was also at dinner.
Prince Edward's Island has come into the Confederation,
so the Governor-General's dominion is enlarged ; but he
loses one of his titles.
Saturday, i?th. A little girl was born this day, and
the Queen has telegraphed that she will be her godmother.
7(5
CHAPTEK VII
ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
Tuesday, June loth. We left Ottawa this morning very
early, going by rail to Prescott, with our whole family, the
new baby included. There we got into a steamer, and sat
all day on deck. We had a delightful cruise down the
river, and an exciting descent of the Eapids. In one place
we passed within a few inches of a wreck, and we felt quite
creepy. At Montreal we changed steamers. The children
were delighted with the grandeur of the St. Lawrence
boats, with their enormous saloons and state-cabins. When
we were at tea we heard some music the ' Dead March'
being played ; and looking out, we saw, passing slowly in the
darkness, the steamer with the body of Sir George Cartier }
on board ; it was a striking moment the chapel on board
lighted up, the band playing, and bells tolling at sea,
answered by bells tolling on shore.
Wednesday, nth. We awoke at Quebec, and found it
wet and cold. In spite of the weather and the early hour,
we had a friendly welcome from the people.
Monday, i6th. The little baby's christening-day !
A large bouquet had been sent me in the morning,
and beautiful flowers for the font, by Mr. Levi. The
1 Sir George Cartier, late member for Montreal East, had died in England.
He was a descendant of the famous Jacques Cartier who, in 1 534, took posses-
sion of Canada in the name of Francis I., King of France.
JUNE 1873 QUEBEC 77
Cathedral was full of people ; I had my whole six children
there, and they made a very good show. Lady ' Victoria
Alexandrina Muriel May' behaved admirably, and slept
soundly the whole time, in spite of a deluge of Jordan
water.
Then we registered her baptism very fully : Myself as
' Proxy for Her Majesty the Queen ' ; Lady H. Fletcher,
' godmother ' ; Sir John A. Macdonald, ' godfather ' ; Fred
and a Minister, Mr. Campbell as present.
Basil was, I am told, on the verge of being naughty, and
won all the ladies' hearts by his wicked efforts to climb over
the pew, and to knock down all the prayer-books.
We came home and rested a little, and at four I was
' at home.' The company, D., and the Fletchers went out
on the platform and enjoyed themselves, listening to the
band, but Fred and I were kept hard at work announcing
and receiving people ; we could not stir for an instant, a con-
tinuous stream coming in, and he was doubtless much
tantalised as the young ladies passed him, and left him, like
a sentry, tied to the door-post. I tried to drink a cup of
tea, but had it nearly shaken over my dress by twenty
hands, as I said ' How do you do ? ' and gave it up in de-
spair. However, the A.D.C. and I did our duty, and out-
side everyone was well entertained, and the affair went off
well. We had a family dinner, and all, upstairs and down,
drank baby's health.
Tuesday, lyth. A long day of Viceregal functions. At
twelve we ate a hasty lunch and started, with five children
and our ' suite,' to the Ursuline Convent, where I was to give
away the prizes.
There is a new Lieutenant-Governor here, and as he
has a large family, our combined movements on State occa-
sions require a deal of arrangement. The first fact esta-
blished is, that the Governor-General and I, on public
occasions, walk first ; His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor
and his wife follow. But the five Lieutenant-Princesses
78 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vn
have also to be seated in proper positions, and when (as
to-day) I take three of my family the A.D.C.s tear their
hair ! Priests met us at the convent door, and we pro-
ceeded to the room where the prizes were to be given,
which was filled with people. The nuns did not appear
at all. I found in front me of trays full of books, and as
the names of the winners were read out, with an account of
their various merits, they walked past, and I presented
them with books. There were at least 200 prizes, every
girl in the school, I am sure, having gained from one to
six ' rewards of merit.' Then I crowned six of the most
remarkably virtuous young ladies. The first three wreaths,
alas ! I put on wrong side foremost, but perceiving that the
girls managed to turn them round, I was more careful, and
was at the end complimented upon the way in which I
placed them on their heads. Between each trayful of books
we had music. The ceremony lasted two hours. One lady
fainted, but the children bore it admirably, and I took
them to a field of cut grass to refresh them when it was
over.
We dined at six, for we had to go out early to celebrate
the 2Ooth anniversary of the discovery of the Mississippi.
' Why on earth ? ' you will exclaim. Well, I don't quite
know why, but the Laval University has to find some
object for a yearly fete, and the discoverers were French-
Canadians.
The celebration was a tremendous affair. For three
hours I sat on a very hard and stately arm-chair, with my
Lieutenant-Governor beside me, on my right an empty
space, on the other side of which sat His Ex. and his Lieu-
tenant-Governess.
Friday, 2Oth. We christened a large new ship this
morning the Earl of Du/erin. The day seemed fine, but
heavy showers came on. The ship is on the stocks at present,
and I had great difficulty in breaking the bottle, as the
rope was badly hung, and when I aimed at the narrow bow
JUNE 1873 TADOUSAC 79
it would swing away. At the third effort, however, I suc-
ceeded.
In the evening we attended a concert given in aid of the
widow of a poor gunner who was killed by the bursting of
a gun the day before we arrived here.
Saturday, 21 st. We drove down to our new yacht. The
Government has fitted up a vessel for us the Druid.
Most charming cabins are arranged for me, and everything
is perfect for yachting but I have to combine sailor clothes
with garments enough for two months of Viceregal cere-
monies, which would be difficult even on the Great Eastern. I
fear Dent will go mad with the agony of crushing my things
into ' bunkers.' My cabin has a comfortable bed, a hanging-
press, and a large glass, ornamented with pink ribbon and
muslin. D. has an excellent cabin off it, and Dent another.
The dining-room is panelled with chintz and light wood, and
Fred sleeps on one of the sofas there. We have a nice after-
cabin for a drawing-room, and Lady Harriet and the Colonel
have small rooms off it. To-night baby sleeps on board
with her two nurses, and we sail for Tadousac.
Sunday, 22nd. After breakfast we went to our new
house at Tadousac. It is so pretty, with red roof, green
blinds, and white walls. We have a platform, upon which
we sit and look out upon the St. Lawrence, and on to
which all the sitting-rooms open. The children will, I
think, be very happy and comfortable here until our return,
for we do not remain here now.
The clergyman has not yet arrived, so there was no
service. We sat on the sands and paddled a little in D.'s
Rice Lake canoe the Lady May. Then we returned to our
ship to dine and sleep.
Monday, 2yd. Such a stormy morning : Dent, my
precious maid, wild about her boxes, and giving warning on
the spot; myself in despair, for she is a treasure. On
shore another valuable member of our household also in
a tantrum about something, and when I land I must
80 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vii
encounter her. Dent will, I trust, calm down, for I really
can't bear the idea of losing her.
An address was presented to His Ex. by the Tadou-
sacians on the occasion of his becoming a householder here.
We gave a house-warming, and had the Cure, and the
Squire's agent and his daughter, and our captain to dinner.
We sat on our balcony till nine o'clock, and then came on
board.
Tuesday, 24th. We started in a boat directly after
breakfast to see the salmon-fishery, and saw ten fish caught
in a labyrinth.
Wednesday, 2$th. The anniversary of our arrival in
Canada. We left Tadousac during the night, and had a
most lovely day on board, sitting out reading ; the weather
perfect. We reached the mouth of the Godbout in the
afternoon, and the owners, or, rather, the hirers, of that
river came on board to bring us two salmon, and to make
plans for to-morrow. They are Mr. Gilmour, Mr. Cross,
and Mr. Muir.
Thursday, 26th. We got up before six o'clock, and
started for the shore. In the night the wind had risen
a little, and we were in the happy position of being anchored
in a swell. However, we got safely to the river, which
was quite smooth, and the weather beautifully warm. We
breakfasted at the wooden huts, and fished all day. It
was almost too fine for the salmon; they jumped and
frisked about under our noses, and would not rise, so that
after many hours' hard work there were only three fish to
show. Fred caught one his very first throw, but did no
more after this hopeful beginning. The Colonel retired to
bed on his return to the ship ; but the swell is better !
Friday, 2?th. D. and Colonel Fletcher went off early
in the morning to fish, and Lady Harriet and I met them
in the afternoon. They had had very little sport, but D.
had some fun with one salmon : in pursuing it he fell into
the water, but held on to his fish and landed it ; he had to
JUNE 1873 THE MING AN 81
array himself in Mr. Gilmour's clothes, and when, we re-
turned to our ship we found such a gale blowing that it
was impossible to send the boat back again, so D. had to
carry off his borrowed plumes.
We bought two little beavers from the Indians, to keep
as pets on board. The crew were greatly interested in them,
and we have established them in a barrel on deck, and
amuse ourselves with giving them baths and feeding them.
A rough-looking evening ; we are to start during the
night.
The Mingan, Sunday, 2gih. Found ourselves in a
splendid harbour this morning, where we shall never feel the
slightest movement ; on one side is an island, and on the
other we see a little settlement of Indian wigwams, their
nicely-built chapel, and some houses belonging to the
'Honourable Company '(the Hudson's Bay). We had
service in the cabin, and after lunch went ashore.
A priest visits these out-of-the-way stations once a year,
and he happens to be here now. The Indians are very
obedient to him, and are religious in their way. It was
very picturesque to see them troop to church, the women
dressed in gaudy colours, with cloth caps of red and black
on their heads (something the shape of sailors' red, pointed
nightcaps), their babies and children with them. We
followed them into the chapel, and found all the squaws
squatting on one side, and the men on the other. They
sang a Canticle the women one verse, the men the next ;
the music was a melancholy wail, with very few notes, and
the voices of the singers were thin and weak, but it was
interesting and curious. I should like to have stayed till
the end, but the Chief began to get us chairs, and to bring
us into notice, so we left.
We walked across the little peninsula on which the
chapel is, got into our canoes on the river Mingan, and
paddled up to look at the fishing ground. It is at the foot
of a very pretty waterfall.
G
82 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vn
The Priest and the Captain dined with us. The former
is a pleasant man. He is just going up to the Esquimaux.
He is very ill at sea, and has before him a voyage in a small
schooner which may last three weeks. These missionary
priests have hard lives. We were told that on Saturday
he had scarcely had anything to eat, the Indians having
nothing to give him. The huts here are made of poles very
lightly covered with birch-bark ; in each of these tents seven
or eight families live.
The priest in his yearly visits to these Indians arranges
all of a suitable age in couples, and marries them ; and
there is a total absence of all love-making. They are very
moral: drink (when they can get it) and laziness being
their sins. Those we have seen here are hideous.
There is a great meeting at a place called Bersimis
once a year, and all the Indians, that can, go there ; the
greater part of the marriages take place then. The Chief
had on a black frock-coat ornamented with epaulets. He
called D. ' Brother.' The same man received one of our
Princes when they came here, and saluted him in the same
way, then showed him a medal he wore on his breast, and
said, ' Ta mere ; tu connais ? '
Monday, ^oth. We got up at six, and went in our
canoes up the Mingan. It is about an hour's paddle.
The three rods fished away, and D. caught two salmon, one
.a twenty-pound fish ; this was all the success before eleven
o'clock, though there were about ten rises. It became very
hot at this time, and we went into our tents to wait for the
cool of the day. The gentlemen bathed, and in getting into
the canoe to go to the bathing-place were upset, and wet
all their clothes.
We were just going to begin fishing again, when an
Indian canoe arrived bringing us very sad news. One
of our footmen had gone out fishing and was drowned.
We returned immediately. We saw the place where the
accident happened ; on the rocks lay a piece of bread he
JUNE 1873 THE MING AN 83
had been eating. He had got up and stood at the edge of the
water with his rod. The steward said, ' Can you swim ? '
' No.' ' Then take care, for it is slippery, and the water is
very deep.' ' Never fear,' he said, and instantly slipped-
He put up his hands to take off a mosquito-veil he had
on, and disappeared. The steward dived after him, but he
never rose at all. A boat was got, and presently the men
saw the thick end of a fishing-rod sticking up. They took
hold of it, and lifted the poor dead body up with it. He
appeared to be upright in the water, the rod fast in his
hand.
The Hudson's Bay Company overseer has arranged
everything, and the funeral will be to-morrow.
Tuesday, July ist. The priest gave us a place in the
churchyard here, and at two o'clock to-day the funeral took
place ; the flags were half-mast high, and every possible
mark of mourning and respect was shown. All the crew
attended, and the sailors carried the body to the grave. D.
read the service.
Wednesday, 2nd. At three o'clock to-day we started to
go up the river.
The fishermen are not very fortunate ; the salmon are
not rising, and the greater part of those that have been
landed have been hooked by the tail or in the back. Fred
caught five ; one weighed 23^ Ibs., and it was taken in a
curious way : the hook never touched it, but it was caught
in a noose round the tail. Colonel Fletcher got two, but
D. was very unlucky.
The morning was extremely foggy, but the afternoon
was fine, and we dined out on the rocks, and came on
board to a late tea.
Thursday, yrd. The fishermen again left in the after-
noon and went to sleep up at the Waterfall. The night
was wet, and there was thunder and lightning.
Friday, ^.th. Lady Harriet and I went up the river
after lunch with the Captain, who is to have some fishing.
G 2
84 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vn
The salmon will not rise, and it was in vain that everybody
tried every dodge to entice them ; they will not be caught.
We dined on the rocks, and left our gentlemen in their tents
for another day, coming back again with the Captain, who
was, I fear, much disappointed with his want of success.
We reached the ship in such a fog !
Saturday, $th. We spent a quiet day on board, and only
went ashore for half an hour, to visit Mrs. Scott, the wife of
the Hudson's Bay Agent. She is a French- Canadian, and
must live a lonely life here. We also went to look at the
grave of our poor man. The gentlemen returned in the
evening, and we had another wet night. They had had
very bad sport. It turns out that the foot of a waterfall
is an impossible place to fish in. The salmon do not rise
at all, but a great many get foul-hooked ; this accounts for
our ill-success.
Sunday, 6th. We had intended leaving the Mingan to-
day, but it is too stormy. We had prayers on board, and
then went for a walk on the island, and looked for fossils,
and saw a live seal, a flock of wild duck, and three tame
Monday, Jtli. After breakfast we fished for trout. I
caught six good ones, and was the only lucky person ; the
others got some tiny creatures. We returned to our ship
at three o'clock, and instantly got under way. The after-
noon was lovely, and we spent it in that kind of busy idle-
ness which distinguishes life on board ship. 3.30: Eumour
that a seal is seen ; rush to the side get out rifles, opera-
glasses, telescopes fire splash ; all right ! nobody hurt ;
seal looks up again. 3.50 : Number of sea-birds to star-
board ; fire again. 4. 1 5 : A whale ! he appears, disappears,
turns up again for nearly an hour. 5 o'clock : An island !
5.10: On the island thousands of sea-gulls sitting on their
eggs. 5.20: Fire at the island, tremendous excitement
amongst the gulls, and instant flight of the whole colony.
5.30 : Attend to the tame partridge : fetch water for her, catch
JULY 1873 GASP A 85
flies for her. 5.50: Attend to the beavers; they refuse to
come and be looked at ; are they ill ? Oh, the poor pets !
' Turn their box upside down ' no, they won't come out.
' Shake them,' ' put in your hand,' etc., etc. ' Anticosti in
sight ' ; everyone rushes to look at it. A long, low strip of
land, where we are glad to see there is nothing to be seen,
as many people wanted us to stay there. 6.30 : Dinner.
6.50: A shower. 7.30: A beautiful sunset. 7.40: Waves
getting up, passengers getting less and less frisky. 8.15 :
Assured that in five hours it will be calm. 8.30 : Colonel
Fletcher says ' good night.' 9 : Tea comes ladies won't
attempt it. 9.10: Lady Harriet disappears. 9.30: All in
bed, and, I am happy to add, asleep and well.
Tuesday, Sth. A new page in our Canadian history
Gaspe. This morning I came on deck, and found that we
were steaming up a lovely lough into a splendid harbour-
A sunny landscape : hills, and white houses, and red roofs
dotted about ; sufficient houses to make it very gay, and not
enough to make a town of it. ' Such a place for a sailing-
boat,' D. thinks, and is delighted with it.
A gentleman comes on board, and we make arrange-
ments for the morrow. We get our mail, and write our
letters.
In the afternoon a deputation appears, and reads an
address, to which His Ex. replies in ' suitable terms.' The
deputation consists of the Mayor, the Custom House
Officers, the Doctor, and other local dignitaries. They ask
if we will have a drive, and promise to have carriages ready
lor us when we like. So at four o'clock we go ashore. On
the landing-place we are met by our friends, and I find
that Gaspe driving is all to be done tete-a-tete. The Mayor
takes His Ex. in a gig, I follow with a millowner in
the next. Number Three contains the Colonel and Mr.
Eden (of whom more hereafter) ; Number Four, Lady
Harriet and the Doctor ; Fred closes the procession with
I don't know who ; but he must have been the fifth in order
86 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vn
of precedence at Gaspe. It was amusing, starting off in
this way, and we took a pretty drive for nearly two hours,
and made ourselves as agreeable as possible to our
several companions. It was rather fun, in the evening,
comparing notes as to the various items of news, and the
different opinions we had gleaned from our drivers. One
considered Gaspe the rising place in the universe, another
viewed it gloomily ; etc., etc.
Mr. Kidd and Mr. Campbell (belonging to the Governor-
General's office) dined with us, and we saw some fireworks
and a bonfire in our honour on shore.
Wednesday, gth. A very great day. Up at six, and go
ashore ; tents and baggage are packed into canoes and go
down the bay, while we drive to meet them. We are in our
gigs again ; but ours is a double one, and we are driven by
the Mr. Eden of whom I spoke before. He is the ' oldest
inhabitant,' a Custom House officer, and a most sanguine
person. He assures us we shall catch fifty salmon, and
views everything in the couleur de rosiest light. We do
have a most lovely drive. The country is like the High-
lands, and we see wild hills on one side, and Gaspe Bay on
the other. The road is through trees, and it would be im-
possible anywhere to see a more beautiful country. The
day is very fine, we drive very fast, and it is most pleasant.
In an hour and a half we meet the canoes on the Dart-
mouth Kiver, and we become most picturesque ! Imagine
six birch-bark canoes in procession ; in each two men stand
upright, with long poles in their hands, while two passengers
sit in the centre of the boat. We have three hours' journey
in this way up a beautiful river, going up rapids and enjoying
ourselves. Then we arrive at a salmon-pool, get out, and
pitch our tents. We have two bell-tents, a small one for
Fred, and a tent for the cook. The twelve canoe-men
make one of birch-bark for themselves. We hoist our flag
and take possession. Our chef is capital ; he works away,
builds himself a fire-place, gets out his pots and pans, and
soon sets before us a splendid dinner. We have soup and
JULY 1873 THE DARTMOUTH RIVER 87
fish, and entrees and pudding, and are far from ' roughing
it.' We have but two trials in life one is great, the other
small ist, the terrible flies ; and 2nd, the obstinacy of the
salmon, who do not rise. The gentlemen whip the pools and
catch nothing, and we ladies find a few trout; then we
have tea, and retire to our tents. We have a little trouble
in them at first. Mosquito-curtains have been put up,
but as I endeavour to crawl under them the whole erection
tumbles down, and it is some time before I am safe inside.
Thursday, loth. We are all up early, and breakfast at
five, get into our canoes, and proceed higher up the river.
The pools we reach to-day are very lovely, and we have
a very pleasant day at them. I catch a number of trout,
so do Fred and Lady Harriet ; and Fred got a salmon the
only one. We stopped fishing at eleven ; the men made
a bower of branches and birch-bark, and we sat and read
and ate until four, when we fished again. The last pool
was so pretty or, rather, fine. There were great cliffs on
either side, and in front a waterfall with a wall of rock and
trees behind it, the further course of the river being quite
hidden from view. At eight o'clock we left, and paddled
down to our camp, passing through some great rapids. The
worst are called the ' Lady's Steps.' Tea and bed followed.
Friday, nth. Again we breakfast at five, and begin
our return journey in exactly the same way as we came.
Finding an invitation from an American gentleman to go
up his river, the St. John, and to stay with him, we
accept ; so we go on board the Druid, wash and dress better
than is possible in a tent, and in two hours begin a new
adventure.
We drive for half an hour, cross a stream in a boat,
walk a little way, and then meet six saddle-horses. These
we mount, and ride for three hours through the forest ; five
miles of the way being through a burnt wood. The tall,
charred trunks are all that remain of the old forest, but a
beautiful fresh underwood has grown up everywhere. This
ride brings us to Mr. Curtis's 'shanty' on the St. John.
88 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vn
I could not get on with him at first, but I soon found
that he was very nice, and that it was only pre-occupation
that was the matter with him and no wonder, for it seems
that we ought to have brought blankets with us, and the
poor man is in despair, as he, of course, has a very limited
supply in the backwoods. We swear that we like doing
without blankets, and he is happy. There was time for a
little fishing, and Fred caught a salmon. Lady Harriet
and I sleep in a tent; D., the Colonel, and Fred, side by side
in the house. Off their bedroom is a dining-room, partly
covered in with mosquito-curtains, under which we dine.
The sand-flies are dreadful here, but we try to defy them
with smoky fires (called 'smudges') and curtains. After
dinner we sit out of doors before a pile of blazing wood.
You remember that I told you that a poor manservant
of ours was drowned at the Mingan. As we knew nothing
about his people, we were unable to communicate the news
of his death to them, so D. ordered any letters that might
arrive for him to be brought to himself. The first of these
which we have just received was from a servant girl he
was attached to at Ottawa, and was dated exactly seven
days after the day of the accident. In it she said, ' I have
been in my new place a week, and I like it very much, but
I had such a dreadful dream on the day of my arrival. I
dreamt that you and Nowell were upset in a boat together,
and that Nowell was saved, but you were drowned.' As
the spot where the accident occurred is in an uninhabited
region on the coast of Labrador, more than 500 miles
distant from Ottawa, without either telegraphs or posts, it
was impossible that she should have had the news of her
lover's death when this letter was written.
Saturday, i2th. After breakfast this morning we got
into canoes, and were four hours going up the river ; how-
ever, we stopped five times on our way to fish, and so the
time did not appear long. We only caught trout thus far ;
but we have reached ' Kelly's Pool,' and are told that here
salmon will surely come. D, catches one (18 Ibs.) almost
JULY 1873 PERCE 89
immediately. Mr. Curtis hooks one for me, and hands me the
rod, but in so doing off it comes ; then he hooks another, I
take the rod again, and enjoy myself immensely while I play
the fish. I landed him, and great was my joy and pride.
Colonel Fletcher and Lady Harriet each play one, but she
loses hers. Then we were carried swiftly down the rapids
home. Dinner fireside bed ! Alas ! bed is not the end.
There was frost to-night, and the limited supply of blankets
was terrible. I woke at one, very cold, got up, and dressed
in all my clothes, and lay down again ; but not to sleep. I
shivered till four, and at this early hour on Sunday morn-
ing might have been found sitting at a great wood fire out of
doors : a tent on my right, where sleeps my friend ; behind
me a wooden house, where sleep my husband, brother,
and the Colonel ; to the left a section of a tent, jutting out of
which may be seen the feet of sleeping men ; one who is
awake attends to my fire ; a dog lies by, the river rolls along
in the background. In this picture I may be represented
reading a novel ; the primeval forest extends itself on every
side "of me. The rest of the world got up to breakfast at
seven, and we rode and drove home to our ship again. Mr.
Curtis ' of Boston ' was most kind to us and very pleasant.
Monday, i^th. We started in the night, and found
ourselves next morning off Perce. The view from our ship
is quite lovely. There is the great, precipitous rock standing
out by itself, with a natural arch through it, which gives
the name to the place ; then, on the mainland, the red cliffs
rise up above the sea, crowned with green shrubs, and the
plateau on which the little town is built slopes down to the
water, and ends in another great cliff. The sun shines,
and everything is delightful. Colonel Fletcher and D. both
made sketches ; when they had finished we steamed round
the rock, and got into a boat to row ashore.
A salute was fired (by the blacksmith), and all the fish-
ing population of Perce, headed by their Mayor, Manager,
arid the Sheriff, met us, and of course read an address.
Perce is a most important fishing-station. It is princi-
90 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vn
pally owned by Jersey people who have never been to it,
and their representative here is Mr. Orange. In addition
to its beautiful scenery it has the merit of spotless purity
(in spite of a strong smell of fish pervading the atmo-
sphere). The houses and stores are all of the freshest
white, with red window-sashes and doors ; the streets are of
gravel. When His Ex. had replied to the address, we went
through the places where the fish is salted, dried, etc.
The operation is as follows : On a table on the beach
the cod is beheaded, cut open, and spread flat. He is then
brought into a large, square room, laid upon the floor, and
salted ; above him, below him, and around him, are his
fellow-cods. After remaining hi this retreat for three or
four days, he is put into a great tub and washed. From
this he gets into a barrow, and is wheeled out of doors
to a long bed of dried fir-boughs, upon which he reposes
with his neighbours and gets dried. He ought to lie there
for six days, and the Perce fishermen have to watch the
clouds all that time, and rush to lift him into a shed
should it threaten to rain. A shower would spoil him.
From this free-and-easy stage he is removed, and stacked
on the gravel, and covered over with birch-bark and heavy
stones ; this is his final trial, and he is now fit to fulfil the
object of his existence, and to be eaten.
The stacks are really works of art they are so neat and
trim. We also inspected the stores and shops of the
town. We were told there was a splendid view from the
top of a mountain or high cliff above the town, and we
started to drive there. I only got to the bottom of the
worst climb in the gig with the Mayor and Mayoress, but
the gentlemen went to the top. In the afternoon we con-
tinued our journey up the Bay of Chaleur to Paspediac,
off which little town we anchored at ten o'clock.
Tuesday, i$th. D. went ashore at 7 A.M. to look at
this place, and found a sleepy Agent, who could not rise to
the magnitude of the occasion, or comprehend that it was
the Governor-General who represented the ' early bird.'
JULY 1873 CHATHAM 91
Paspediac is another part of the Jersey fishing-business.
Here ships are built, and in them the dried cod is sent off
to its various destinations.
We were detained an hour by our engine, which had
got out of order, and so did not reach Dalhousie till five
o'clock. The scenery towards the end of the Bay was lovely,
and the surroundings of this village reminded us of Scotland.
We had not seen such high hills for a long time.
The courageous people of Dalhousie fired off some old
guns which had been found at the bottom of the river, and
it is a mercy no accident occurred.
The principal inhabitants met us on the wharf, but
His Ex.'s hand was first shaken by a black man, who
appears to be a pet jester of the neighbourhood. Later,
this gentleman perceived he had forgotten me, and made
a dive through the crowd to shake hands with me. My
gravity was rather upset by this unexpected welcome.
We walked to the Court House, and had an address
presented ; then D. took a drive, and I went up to the
house of a senator Mr. Hamilton. We got on board again
in time for dinner, and continued our journey in the night.
Wednesday, i6th. We have had a rough twenty-four
hours, and could not enjoy the deck until we were some way
up the Miramichi river. The country round here is flat
and uninteresting. We reached Chatham in the after-
noon, but a sad accident occurred in firing the salute.
An address was read, and lunch prepared at the house
of the Member, Mr. Muirhead, to which we had to pass under
an arch specially erected in our honour. We returned in
the evening to attend a concert given by the convent-school.
Thursday, i?th. We invited Mr., Mrs., and Miss Muir-
head, and two other gentlemen, to breakfast on board, and to
go with us to Newcastle, a town a short way from Chatham.
There was an address, and a drive to a new bridge which
is being built over the river, and then we set sail or,
rather, < got under steam ' on our way to Prince Edward's
Island, where I hope to receive letters.
0-2
CHAPTEE VIII
THE MABITIME PROVINCES
Friday, July 1 8th. This morning we found ourselves in
sight of Prince Edward's Island ; and very pretty it looked
in the sunshine. The cliffs are low, but they show a red
line above the water, crowned with green, and the whole
country is much more cultivated and more park-like than
anything we have as yet seen in Canada.
We anchored at ten, and got some letters from Tadousac,
with good accounts of the children ; and at twelve we
landed at Charlotte Town.
There was a crowd, and a very pretty arch, one of the
mottoes on it being ' Long courted, won at last,' in allusion
to the island having just joined the Dominion.
We are staying at Government House with Mr. 1 and
Mrs. Eobinson. They took us a drive through red lanes,
farms, trees and ferns country sights which are quite
delightful to us, who of late have only seen forest scenery.
Saturday, igth. We walked through the town, and in
the afternoon had a reception, and in the evening a dinner-
party.
Monday, 2ist. In the morning we started to take the
first trip on the first railway made in the island. About
thirty people came with us, and at a distant station we
were met by carriages, in which we drove to the seashore,
1 Sir William Robinson, Governor of Trinidad, 1891.
JULY 1873 CHARLOTTE TOWN 93
where we had lunch. Then we returned home by the same
route, and had a little rest before we dressed for a ball at
Government House.
Tuesday, 22nd. We drove out with Mr. and Mrs.
Eobinson to do some shopping, to look at a fine view of
the town, and to be photographed under the triumphal
arch. Then we went off to the Druid, and H.M.S. Spartan
manned yards as we passed. There was a regatta in the
harbour, for which D. had given prizes, and we had invited
forty people to lunch with us on board and to see the races
from our ship. We had a very pleasant afternoon, and as
soon as the sports were over we went ashore to give away
the prizes. The day was a perfect summer day.
We dined quietly at Government House, and dressed
for the ball after dinner. This ball was part of the recep-
tion which the local Parliament had resolved to give the
Governor-General.
It was in the Parliament Buildings, and the Senate
Chamber was beautifully arranged for it. From the ceiling
hung a thing like a chandelier, made of roses and moss,
which spread out into single ropes of flowers, attached
to the gallery all round the room, forming a light canopy
of flowers above us ; then there were flags and wreaths
on the walls ; so that nothing could have been prettier.
Besides a dressing-room, a little resting-place was pro-
vided for me, in which there was a large supply of refresh-
ment !
The supper-room was decorated with green, and with
a large painting of D.'s arms, surrounded by all the
Canadian flags, that of Newfoundland being still rolled up
(it has not joined the Union). The supper was a sort of
picnic, being sent by different people, and was very good.
A pretty girl with whom Fred danced said to him : ' I
noticed that you danced with all the plainest girls and the
worst dancers at Government House on Monday, and I said
to myself, " Well, really, I don't think Mr. Hamilton is such
94 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
a swell that he need dance with all the plain girls and the bad
dancers," ' alluding, of course, to the Governor-General's
partners being chosen for him. Fred immediately asked
her for a second waltz. When we left, we were accompanied
by a torchlight procession to the pier ; there we got into our
boat, and went on board the Druid. All the ladies, in their
ball- dresses, came out on the balcony of the house to see us
off ; and the arches were illuminated.
Thursday, 24th. In the morning we reached Pictou.
I must mention here that the climate of Prince Edward's
Island was very much more like England than that of our
part of Canada, and both Lady Harriet and I felt the
change. She got hay-fever and asthma, and is in bed, and
I have a cold ; however, I did not like to miss seeing the
coal-mines of the Dominion, so I went with D. to inspect
them. I saw all the above-ground part : the engines, the
ventilators, etc. The principal ventilator is called the
'Lady Dufferin,' and there are two engines which go by
the name of the 'Lord Dufferin ' and the ' Lady Victoria.'
D. went down the mine with Fred and Colonel Fletcher.
The shaft was 1,000 feet, and it took them just fifty-four
seconds to get to the bottom in a lift. They stayed down
there an hour and a half, while I talked to the managers
at the top.
We got back to the Druid in time for dinner. All night
there was a fearful noise going on ' coaling,' just over our
heads.
Friday, 2$th. Sailing through the Gut of Canso, with
the land close to us on each side, on our way to Louisburg,
where we anchor in the morning.
Saturday, 26th. There is a fog outside the harbour, so
we are caught here, but have had a most pleasant day.
I looked in a book of universal knowledge, and read
that Louisburg, in addition to its historical interest, is a
town with broad streets and stone houses ; it is, in reality,
a small village, consisting of a few scattered wooden cottages.
JULY 1873 CAPS BRETON 95
We landed at one of these, borrowed two gigs, and set off
to drive twenty-five miles to the capital of Cape Breton,
Sydney by name. D. drove me, and Fred the Colonel;
Lady Harriet remained on board.
We drove through pretty woods, occasionally getting a
glimpse of one of the several arms of the sea which cut
Cape Breton in so many places, sat by the roadside to
lunch, and reached Sydney hi the afternoon.
It is situated on a beautiful harbour, and we found
several large steamers there ; the biggest was the Hibernia,
which has just been laying the Atlantic cable, in company
with the Great Eastern. We went on board her, and saw the
machinery, and the tanks which held the cable. We had
asked to see the mayor of the town, and when a gentleman
jumped out of a carriage and accosted us, we took ifc for
granted that this was he, and accepted his offer of a pair
of fresh horses and a cup of tea. We went to his very
pretty house, where his English wife received us graciously;
and then D. heard that a deputation was waiting for him at
the hotel. There he found the real Simon Pure, and spent
an extra hour with him and the other magnates of the place ;
so that we left very late, and had a dark drive back through
the woods.
The weather was quite lovely, and the trip extremely
pleasant. At four o'clock we bought a Sydney paper, in
which we found our arrival announced. Very sharp of the
Sydney Press.
Louisburg : Sunday, 2"ji\i. We are detained here by the
fog. After church we went to look at the old forts ; there
are scarcely any stone remains, but Colonel Fletcher's
military eye easily discovered the form and plan of the
fortifications in the grass.
Monday, 28th. We started this morning, and got on a
good way before the fog came down upon us again. Fog
rain Atlantic swell !
Tuesday, 2gth. Still very foggy. W^e had great doubts
96 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
as to whether we should get into Halifax at all, and stories
of ships being kept out for three weeks were rife. However,
with great care, we poked our nose in just at the right place,
and at two o'clock appeared in the harbour, to everybody's
astonishment.
It was so wet we did not go ashore, and put off our
landing till next morning. The Lieutenant- Governor and
Mrs. Archibald came to see us, and arrangements for end-
less gaieties were made.
Wednesday, 30^. At twelve o'clock we landed, on a slab
of marble which commemorates the arrival of the Prince of
Wales on the same day, thirteen years ago.
The weather was most dull and muggy, and gave a
certain melancholy to the ceremonial of address reading.
Fred and the Colonel had been exulting all the way upon
again seeing ' real soldiers,' after all the Volunteers that
have welcomed us in other places ; but I have been provided
with a fund of chaff against them by the non-arrival of
the ' real ' guard of honour, who made some mistake,
and turned up an hour later at the Government House,
instead of at the wharf.
I received Admiral Fanshawe, his wife and daughter
and son, in the afternoon, and when the day cleared up and
the sun shone we saw that we were anchored in a very
cheerful place close to the town. Dartmouth, which is al-
most a part of Halifax, is on one side of us, and woods and
villas and large institutions are dotted round the Bay, while
at the mouth of the harbour is a small fortified island.
There is one man-of-war here, and we have just missed the
Flying Squadron.
There is a question as to whether Parliament should be
prorogued on August 1 3th or not, and the papers are advising
the Governor-General, and abusing him in advance, if he
does not follow each of their different counsels,
Thursday, 31**. Lady Harriet and I went a drive with
Mrs. Fanshawe, and saw the North-west Arm and Bed-
JULY 1873 HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA 97
ford Basin, and enjoyed the country drive ; the weather was
lovely.
In the evening we held a Drawing-room at Government
House, and had the pleasure of ' full-dressing ' in our
cabins. We got ashore in safety, and had a very successful
gathering. Everyone said, ' We did not know there were so
many people in Halifax.' Going back to the ship, we
found ourselves in a fog, and my feathers and tulle were
much the worse for it. Dent says, with indignation, ' Every
day in this yacht takes pounds and pounds off the value of
your clothes.'
Friday, August ist. This was the day of the Kegatta,
and, had it been fine, it would have been a very pretty
sight ; but as there was fog and rain, little except the lunch
took place.
We had a great dinner at the Lieutenant-Governor's,
which was long but pleasant. One of my neighbours was
the E.G. Archbishop of Halifax, a clever, amusing Irishman.
The dinner had rather a funny finale. Mr. Archibald
proposed the Queen's health, and we all stood up to drink
it ; the band played the National Air, and at the end of the
usual eight bars we all prepared to sit down. But no ; the
band went on a slight smile passed down the table ; eight
bars more the band strikes up another verse ; until at last,
after several of these unexpected beginnings, the whole of the
solemn and stately party broke out into a hearty laugh.
There was an evening party after dinner, and D. and I
walked about and talked to all the strangers till 11.30
o'clock, when we returned to our ship.
Saturday, 2nd. Early this morning we went to visit
the fortifications, and saw three different sets of forts. We
returned to the Druid at two, and had the Local Govern-
ment to lunch. They are in opposition to the Dominion
Parliament, and their papers were rather disagreeable
about our visit here ; but I am happy to say they have set
.aside all political differences for the moment, and really
H
98 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
seem as if they could not do enough for us. The result
is, that next week we have four balls, three monster picnics,
three dinners, a concert, a cricket-match, and a review. Is
it not fearfully kind ? ' What shall I wear ? ' is a question
I must debate seriously every day.
We dined to-night at Admiralty House with Admiral
and Mrs. Fanshawe, where we met the same people as last
night and a few sailors. One guest, a midshipman, was
Prince Louis of Battenberg.
Sunday, $rd. We were to go to the English Cathedral
to-day, but our coachman, after driving us to the Eoman
Catholic Cathedral, proceeded to another church, at which
we remained, and only discovered afterwards that it was the
wrong one. It was a lovely afternoon, and we sat on deck
till bedtime.
Monday, 4th. A day of Herculean labours ! At 8.30 A.M.
D. went to breakfast with Admiral Fanshawe, to see his
beautiful drawings. At ten we rowed down to the Dock-
yard to meet him, and all went on board the Royal
Alfred. She and the Spartan manned yards as we ap-
proached, and then we got on board and went into every
hole and corner of the ship. We had finished the inspec-
tion about 12.30, when we returned to the Druid, and
prepared to receive a party at luncheon, including the
Lieutenant-Governor and the Admiral. No sooner had
we finished this meal than we started for a picnic given by
the Irish Benevolent Society. D. and I sailed to it in our
own little boat. The rendezvous was at McNab's Island,
and we were received on landing by gentlemen wearing
green sashes. The President armed me up the hill by way
of helping me. He, of course, impeded my progress con-
siderably, and when he stumbled and nearly fell, told me
that it was 'the blind leading the blind.' There was a
lovely view from the door of the large picnic shed; but
we had to go in at once, and dance a quadrille. At five we
had a ' cold collation ' and many toasts. The old Archbishop
AUG. 1873 LOBSTER-SPEARING 99
was rather amusing. When the chairman, who proposed
his health, said he had known him for ' forty years,' he
groaned aloud, which made us all laugh. We returned to the
Druid at seven o'clock, and having re-dressed and re-dined,
we left her again at eight, to attend a promenade concert in
the Horticultural Gardens. We did not ' promenade ' at all,
but sat on the centre one of three stages, a bright gaslight
thrown full upon us, and an immense crowd looking on.
On one side was the band of the 6oth Eifles, and on the
other that of the 87th. They played in turns, and we
remained till the end of the performance. To-day, at any
rate, we have earned a night's repose !
Tuesday, $th. Lady Harriet and I went a little shopping
expedition this morning. At one shop I saw a poor woman
who had come 250 miles to ask me to get her husband out
of prison. I fear she did not believe that I really had not
the power to do so.
We were given a picnic to-day by the 8/th Eegiment.
D. and I sailed down to the Island about five o'clock. There
was a great number of people, and it was very pretty and
amusing.
When it was quite dark, we went out lobster-spearing,
We had two boats, and two great torches in each, and we
stood up, with poles forked at one end in our hands, and
watched the bottom for lobsters. Presently we saw one
crawling along ; I made a grab at him, but missed. Then
came a second ; this time I was more careful, and aimed
my weapon slowly at him, putting the fork right over his
back, and then lifting him, kicking, into the boat. It was
very exciting. We were only able to stay a very short time,
but we ' grabbed ' at five and brought home three.
Wednesday, 6th. A luncheon party on board, which
went off very well. Then a visit to a great lunatic asylum,
a beautiful one, so gay and clean and quiet. Almost all the
patients were out in the grounds, the band playing, and
everything and everybody happy and peaceful. It seems to
H 2
100 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vin
be admirably managed, and the view from the building is
splendid. D. dined with the Archbishop, and Lady Harriet
and I with Mrs. Fanshawe. She had the Prince-Midshipman
and some other sailors to meet us.
Thursday, 7th. We had another great lunch on board,
which went off very well, in spite of the weather being rather
wet and cold.
In the evening D. dined at the Club, and made a speech
upon the absolute impartiality of the Governor- General in
party matters (there is great strife going on now), which was
extremely well received. He ended by saying : ' As a
reasonable being the Governor-General cannot help having
convictions upon the merits of different policies. But these
considerations are abstract, speculative, devoid of practical
effect on his official relations. As the head of a Constitu-
tional State, as engaged in the administration of Parlia-
mentary Government, he has no political friends, still less
need he have political enemies ; the possession of either
nay, even to be suspected of possessing either destroys
his usefulness. Sometimes, of course, no matter how dis-
connected his personality may be from what is taking place,
his name will get dragged into some controversy, and he
may suddenly find himself the subject of criticism in the
Press of whatever Party may for the moment be out of
humour ; but under these circumstances he must console
himself with the reflection that these spasmodic castigations
are as transitory and innocuous as the discipline applied
occasionally to their idol by the unsophisticated worshippers
of Mumbo Jumbo when their harvests are short or a
murrain visits their flocks.' D. met me afterwards at a
ball at the General's, where he had to dance everything
till two o'clock.
Friday, 8th. We had a large lunch on board, and after
it went to a review of the garrison and Volunteers on the
common, and, as the afternoon was lovely, it was a very fine
sight red coats, brilliant staff, His Excellency and Fred
AUG. 1873 PICNIC AT McNAB'S ISLAND 101
riding about, cocked hats, rifles, bands, artillery, engineers,
a sham fight, a large number of spectators, etc.
To-night we had a really beautiful ball, given by the
Legislative Council, in the Parliament Buildings. The ball-
room is very lofty, has handsome cornices, and several full-
length oil portraits hanging in it. The whole of the walls
were covered with white calico, -striped with bands of pink ;
over the doors and windows were ' D.'s,' surrounded by pink-
and- white flags ; the curtains and all the windows were pink-
and-white tarlatan, and it was all very bright and finished-
looking. The supper-room was hung with real flags, and the
entrance-hall was converted into a grotto of ferns. There
was plenty of air in the dancing- room, and a very good
band, and we really enjoyed it very much (you know there
are occasionally entertainments which are more duty than
pleasure).
Saturday, gth. The political difficulties to which I have
alluded call D. back to Ottawa, and he has had a very busy
morning, writing farewell letters, and making arrangements
for the long journey, which he begins to-night. If he had
gone by rail it would have taken him at least seventy hours ;
but he luckily catches an English mail steamer on its way
to Quebec, which will take him part of the way, and will
leave him within twenty-four hours' journey of Ottawa.
In the afternoon we went to a monster picnic given to us
by the citizens. The day was lovely, and we sailed down to
McNab's Island in our boat. The Mayor, who received us,
led us to the large shed, of which I have already told you,
where all the people were waiting for us. We danced a
quadrille, and were applauded after it, and then a few round
dances. After dinner D. made a speech, in which he
' confided me to the care of the people of Halifax during
his absence,' and very soon after this we were conducted
down to the boats and returned to the Dm id.
At eight we went to Government House, and were met
there by a torchlight procession, and by a grand fire-
102 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
engine demonstration, the engines preceding us, and being
brilliantly illuminated. Many of the houses also were lighted
up, and there was an immense crowd in the town, which we
drove slowly through, back to Queen's Wharf, where a guard
of honour was in waiting, and where D. said ' good-bye.'
The torches all remained at the pier till we had reached the
Druid ; it was a beautiful sight.
D. and Colonel Fletcher got on board the Nestorian at
ten, and we watched them steaming past us ; both we and
they sent off some rockets. And now, here am I, alone for
a week, doing ' Governor-General ' at Halifax.
Monday, nth. This was a very tiring day. In the
morning I had a great many things to do for D., and in the
afternoon I had lunch with the Archibalds, which lasted
till after four ; and at 6.30 had to be at the General's 2 house
for dinner.
He was too ill to appear, and we were a small party of
eight. After dinner we proceeded to the theatre, where we
saw ' Still Waters Eun Deep ' and ' Under the Eose ' acted by
amateurs. There were some excellent actors, and I enjoyed
it very much. I received three bouquets, which I carried
together in an' enormous bunch. The best performers were
Major and Mrs. Hall, Captain and Mrs. Mitchell Innes,
Captain Wallace of the 6oth Eifles, and Mr. Poe, who is on
the Royal Alfred.
I went to supper at the Artillery Barracks, and I believe
there was dancing afterwards, but, mercifully, I knew nothing
of it, and left before there were any symptoms of such an
intention. I was so very tired.
Tuesday, 12th. Mr. and Mrs. Eobinson came on board
to say ' Good-bye,' and I had a lunch for fourteen people.
My guests were two handsome Toronto girls and two
admirers of theirs, the Lieutenant-Governor and his family
(five), and Captain and Mrs. O'Grady Haly. He is the
General's son and A.D.C.
2 The late General Sir W. O'Grady Haly.
AUG. 1873 BALL ON BOARD H.M.S. 'ROYAL ALFRED* 103
It was a lovely afternoon, and after lunch we drove
through the Horticultural Gardens to a cricket-match the
6oth Bines against the Garrison.
Then we dined with Admiral and Mrs. Fanshawe, and
went with them to the ball on board the Royal Alfred.
I did like this entertainment. The ship was close to
the wharf. The deck was divided at the mast into two
parts supper-room and ball-room, and at midnight the
partition was taken down. The funnel was beautifully
decorated with arms swords, bayonets, etc. and was
surrounded by jets of gas. The supper-tables were arranged
between it and the main mast, round which there was a
rockery and fernery, in which water trickled and frogs dis-
ported themselves. The band sat upon a scaffolding round
the mast. The whole was covered in with flags, and all the
companions, compasses, wheels, etc. etc. were ornamented
with plants. The poop made a second ball-room, also
covered, in the shape of a bell-tent, and I had a seat there,
and a good view of the ball. Those who preferred Nature
could gaze out in the opposite direction upon the moonlit
sea. I did not occupy the chair-of-state much, but danced,
and enjoyed myself.
Wednesday, i$th. I took a long rest this morning, and
was ready in the afternoon to visit some Protestant
charities.
The first was an orphan-home, and the second a very
interesting reformatory for boys. It is on a new principle
and seems to answer admirably. All the inmates are, or
were, criminals. There are no walls, or bolts, or bars, and
the boys are even allowed to go into the town ' on honour.'
They promise to return, and do.
They all learn trades, and do not leave the Home till
they are able to earn their bread. They choose one of four
trades, and are allowed to change their minds once. We
saw them hard at work, carpentering, shoemaking, tailoring,
and cabinet-making, the smaller ones cutting up firewood,
104 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
and tying it in bundles. They also do gardening and farm-
work, and have got small pieces of garden and pets of their
own, and a band ; school- work is done in the evening. The
boys looked very happy, and the few who at different times
have run away generally return of their own accord.
This evening a ball was given to us by the 6oth Rifles.
It was a most successful one. The room looked like a very
smart lady's boudoir, and was beautifully lighted with wax
candles. I danced a great deal, and liked the entertainment
extremely. We were not home till three.
Thursday, i^th. I had to leave Lady Harriet in bed with
an asthmatic cold, while I delivered myself over to the Roman
Catholic Archbishop. Fred and I visited his house and
his Cathedral, and a convent, and went on to his country
place, where he had 1 50 people at lunch to meet me. The
lunch was out of doors, and was really very pleasant. There
was a band, and little wooden platforms, on which we were
supposed to dance ! and did try to, but everyone is worn
out with past gaieties. I got back to the ship at five
(having left it at twelve), and at nine I attended the Ser-
geants' Ball.
The political excitement is fearful, and we hear that the
Opposition is going to ask for the Governor-General's re-
call ! ! So expect us home in disgrace.
Saturday, i6th. We went to Dartmouth, and visited a
rope manufactory, and a skate manufactory, where I was
presented with a grand box containing two lovely pairs of
Acme skates, for D. and me. We drove on seven miles,
by a chain of lakes, till we came to an old-fashioned inn,
where we had lunch. After this we went to a gold-mine,
and saw all the process of extracting the precious metal,
which I thought very interesting. This ended our sight-
seeing. All day we went about in a procession of ten car-
riages. I gave a dinner to the amateur actors on board
the Druid, and afterwards went to see them do Caste,'
which was very amusing.
AUG. 1873 ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK 105
Monday, i8th. We left our dear Druid early in the
morning, and drove to the train, where the Lieutenant-
Governor met us, and escorted us for about six hours on
our way. We passed through ' Evangeline's ' country to
the Bay of Fundy, where we got into a crazy-looking
steamer and sailed for St. John. Here the Mayor, Sheriff,
etc., came to meet me, and there was a great crowd on the
landing. Never was I so stared at as to-day. When D. is
with me I feel that I am only part of the show ; but alone,
I have to bear it all. At the stations people looked in at
the windows, and gazed at me while I ate sandwiches (of
all the things in the world ! ) ; when we got to the hotel, a
crowd outside eyed me, and a crowd inside stared at me,
and on the stairs Yankee visitors criticised me, ' I guess ' ;
I went to my room for a little, and on my way to dinner I
found them all still on the stairs, and they looked at me
through the hinges of the door ; when I came up again there
was a couple walking arm-in-arm in my room, and three
ladies looking into it ; but I walked by them in so stately
a manner that they sent me word they had only come to
put some flowers there. Then the crowd outside would
not go, and I had to stand at the window, and be cheered,
and hear ' God save the Queen ' (to which I have no right
whatsoever).
Tuesday, igth. D. arrived here this morning. He left
Ottawa on Friday, slept that night at Montreal, and
Saturday night at some place in the White Mountains, 3
where he found a ball going on. Sunday, he saw the
scenery, and came on here at night.
The whole day was wet, and I cannot say I was sorry
to have a complete rest.
This is a fine hotel, upon American principles. The
cooking is excellent, and we dine alone, and are waited upon
by our own servants in a 'private dining-room,' which
seems to us a very noisy one after the ship. The floor is
3 In the State of Maine.
106 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
covered with oilcloth, there are no curtains, and outside
there is always going on a racket of plates and voices.
Some kind of steam-engine thumps underneath, and car-
riages rattle down the street. We manage our dinner in a
tolerably English fashion ; but if we followed the ' mode,' we
should eat in a great room, filled with various-sized tables,
with a large ' bill-of-fare ' by us to choose from. After
each mouthful a familiar waiter would lean his hand upon
his knee, and, staring into our faces, ask ' What we should
like next ? ' Then, at every pause, and on every oppor-
tunity, he would pour us out a large glass of cold water,
and place it ostentatiously before us this even at break-
fast, when the sight of it makes -one shudder. Salt-spoons
are unknown ; you use your knife instead.
Our own sitting-room is very nice and comfortable.
Everything is arranged so that one may require as few
servants as possible ; and this is lucky, for an idiot generally
answers one's bell, and is merely bewildered by one's order.
There is a large public drawing-room, and the guests
also perambulate the passages a good deal.
Our maids enjoy themselves, as they dine with the com-
pany, and can have many kinds of food, while they fill their
heads with the fashions. Dent gave a sigh of relief when
she dressed me this morning, as she said, ' Well, I am
thankful none of them have a dress like this ! ' ' Them '
are Americans, who are all in a sort of uniform of grey,
with enormous buttons.
I was amused by seeing in the papers this telegram :
'Mackenzie has left for Halifax, to worry the Governor-
General.' Mackenzie is the chief of the Opposition, and
D. is the Governor- General.
Wednesday, 2Oth. At eleven D. and I went to some
public room, where an address was presented, and at three
the Reception Committee came for us, and took us in
carriages all about and around the city.
There is a fine harbour, and we saw it well, and visited
AUG. 1873 TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION 107
many of the pretty villas, and got, in fact, a good idea of
St. John.
We dined almost directly we came in, and dressed for
the Drawing-room, which was held in a great room in
this hotel. It went off extremely well, and we stayed and
talked to the people when the presentations were over.
Thursday, 2ist. This morning, early, we started to see
the Eegatta. I had a headache, and no sooner got on
board the steamer, which was crowded with people, than
I found that, although I might sit through four hours,
I certainly could not talk and smile through them ; so
I went to the cabin, and lay still all the time of the
races. The day was lovely, and the crowds of people on
the shore and crowded into the rigging of the ships which
filled the harbour made it a pretty sight and a most
successful entertainment. We got home in the middle of
the day, and were quiet till five, when a procession of the
schools came to the door of the hotel, and we stood on the
steps to see them.
I believe about 4,000 children were collected, and they
were to have stood around us ; but the crowd was so great it
was impossible for them all to get through. A small circle
was formed for those who were dressed up to represent the
Provinces, and they gave me a bouquet ; the other children
had to stand where they could. D. made a speech to the
sea of heads, which few of the waves heard, but which will
read well, I hope.
In the evening carriages were again ready, and we
drove through the town in a procession.
Being part of the procession we saw little of it till the
end, when our carriage stood to let the crowd pass us. There
was an immense stream of walking lights, and all the fire-
engines were lighted up, and ornamented with wreaths
and flowers. Some of the horses had high arches of roses
over their backs. The crowd was perfectly tremendous,
and received us heartily. When we got into the hotel, we
108 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
went to a window on the second storey to look down upon
the crowd, and they saw us and cheered.
Friday, 22nd. We had a long drive of fourteen miles
to Chief Justice Eitchie's house, where we were to lunch.
The drive was through a beautiful country, and we had
several warm greetings on our way. An arch was put up
at one place, and a bouquet presented. At another private
house the gate was hung with flowers, and the lady stepped
out with a second bouquet for me, while a third was brought
me further on.
We had lunch, or what was called a ' high tea ' ; but
there was no tea only champagne. Eeturning home, we
found several bonfires lighted along the route.
We reached our hotel at eight, and dressed for the ball.
This was given in a new theatre, and was got up in a
great hurry. The floor had to be laid down over the pit,
and the decorations to be done, and during the day we
heard that it was not nearly finished, and that it would be
dull and wretched.
It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise when we reached
the door and saw a brilliant room, the stage end with
' Welcome ' in gas-lights over two crimson chairs, the floor
lined with ball-dressed people, the boxes and the dress-
circle filled with spectators, draperies of red and green,
flags, plants, and cages of birds (which sang, and gave a rural
sentiment to the entertainment) , and a very beautiful string-
band playing ' God save the Queen.' Supper was in the
green-room. The ball was very successful and amusing.
There were many Americans present ; they dance in quite
a different style from ours.
Saturday, 2^rd. We felt very sleepy when we were
called this morning, but we had to be down at the steamer
at ten, and could not allow ourselves any lazy indulgences.
We drove with the Mayor to the wharf, and were met
by a great crowd, and there was much waving of handker-
chiefs and cheering as we left. Our journey was up a
AUG. 1873 FREDERICTON 109
splendid river, the St. John, with lovely scenery all the way.
About five miles from Fredericton we were met by three
steamers crammed full of children and people, who greeted
us warmly, and, having once begun to cheer, felt obliged to
carry it on the whole way.
Mr. Wilmot, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick,
met us at the landing-place, with a number of people, and
we had a most gracious reception at this, ' the ambitious
little city,' 'the celestial city,' Fredericton.
We dined early, and went to the Exhibition Building,
where the address was to be presented. It is a very fine
building, though only made of rough wood, distempered ; but
it has good proportions, and is very large. There were at
least 3,000 people present. The school children sang, and
after the speeches we walked round, and then got into a
carriage and drove in the torchlight procession. The engines
looked beautiful ; but my pleasure was somewhat destroyed
by my dread of fire. The torches were paraffin lamps, and
the way in which many of them were spilt about the ground,
and went on burning there, muslin gowns walking carelessly
close to them, made me fear some bad accident. Eockets
and Roman candles were also flying wildly about.
This Government House (where we are staying with the
Wilmots, who are both most kind to us) is a very good one ;
the river passes the house, and a very pretty flower garden
goes down to it.
Sunday, 2^th. A pouring wet day, and very stormy.
We got to the Cathedral in a close carriage. It is rather a
fine one, and is quite finished, strange to say ! The rest of
the day we spent quietly, the greater part of the time in
our rooms.
Monday, 2$th. The people of Fredericton had arranged
a picnic for us to-day, so we started off on our business
directly after breakfast. We went first to see an interest-
ing settlement, the property of a Mr. Gibson. Eight
years ago there was not a house in the place ; now there
110 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
are good cottages for the labourers, fine houses for Mr.
Gibson and his sons, a very ornamental church, and a
school. He has done everything himself, and the place is
quite a Happy Valley. His business is lumber. His old
mother, who left our neighbourhood in Ireland fifty-four
years ago, was so delighted to see someone from home.'
Her parents having objected to her marriage, never wrote
to her, and I wished they could see her now, in her son's
fine house, surrounded by every comfort that money could
buy her, her grand-daughter playing the organ, and. her
son so much respected and honoured !
After this visit we got into the train, and with a large
company of people went thirty miles up the new line, and
half-way back again, to a place on the St. John Eiver,
where an arbour of evergreens had been erected, under
which 250 people lunched.
A band played, toasts were proposed, and all went off
well, in spite of rather dull, cold weather.
In the evening there was a dinner and a party, the
principal excitement of which was that Fred and a young
lady disappeared for more than an hour into an illumi-
nated garden ; that her parents were asking everyone where
their daughter was ; and that, consequently, all eyes were
fixed upon the culprits when they returned. Fred has
had a great deal of chaff to stand ever since, particularly
as the father said ' Good night, my son,' to him.
We were told that, at the hotel where the young lady
was staying, other young ladies remarked that ' they
thought it was very bad taste in a girl thus to monopolise
an Aide-de-Camp ' !
Tuesday, 26th. We left Fredericton in the morning,
accompanied for an hour by the Wilmots, the Sheriff, etc.
etc., and proceeded on our way to Woodstock, a drive of
sixty-five miles. At a half-way house we changed horses
and had lunch. We drove all the way through lovely
AUG. 1873 GRAND FALLS 111
scenery, following the river St. John, and enjoying ourselves
very much. We reached Woodstock in time for dinner, and
directly afterwards went to the Court House to receive an
address, and to see a large assemblage of people. We finished
the evening by driving in a torchlight procession. I can't
say how many bouquets I received to-day !
Wednesday, 27th. We had a fine day and a delight-
ful drive, changing horses four times in the seventy miles.
We lunched at a charming little inn, and slept at Grand
Falls. To our surprise, we found two arches at this little
place, all the cottages illuminated, magnificent bonfires, an
address, and an assembly of people in the Court House ;
and after we had gone to bed we heard ' Eule Britannia '
being sung all round the house. There was also a very
pretty procession of birch-bark torches. The inn was kept
by a North of Ireland lady, and was perfect ! The Grand
Falls here are very fine.
Thursday, 28th. We started at eight punctually this
morning, for we have 250 miles to go, and drove on as
before, stopping to have lunch by the way, and sleeping
at a little French inn. The family got up a dance when
we had gone to bed, and we heard the fiddle going, and
our servant instructing them in a Scotch reel, during half
the night.
Friday, 2gth. We got up very early, and drove, drove,
drove on through forest nearly the whole day. We saw
one great fire in the wood, and were nearly choked as we
passed through it. We missed seeing a beautiful lake
owing to the clouds of smoke hanging over it.
We reached Kiviere du Loup about five in the afternoon,
and got a tug steamer to take us straight over to Tadousac.
There we found the whole party of children in their
dressing-gowns, just going to bed. The five elder ones are
looking so fat, and rosy, and well ; but my baby is a mite
indeed !
112 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. vm
Saturday, 30^. Our summer tour is now over, and I
return to a prosy account of home affairs. We have done
all we intended to do; and the drive of 250 miles in
four days was a very pleasant termination to our tour.
The Druid was to have met us at Biviere du Loup, but
was detained by storm, and only reached Tadousac this
morning.
113
CHAPTER IX
THE FALL, 1873
Tadousac: Monday, September ist. I seized upon a fine
morning to bathe with the children. It is rather late in
the season for a first dip, but I could not resist trying it,
though the water is at all times extremely cold here. We
prepared for the bath in our own rooms, and, covered with
waterproofs, ran down to the water. My costume is of
the brightest orange, and is very striking. We are very
quiet here, and D. very busy. He is writing the whole day
long.
Friday, $th. We went on board the Druid just before
dinner, last night, and took Nelly with us for a little holi-
day. The night was rather rough, but the wind suited,
and we reached Quebec early this morning. We found
Mr. G. Brodrick l at the hotel, and D. brought him up to
stay with us ; he is very pleasant, and gave us much English
news. I drove him to the Montmorency Falls, and just as
we were on our way to the Natural Steps we were caught
in a heavy shower, and got rather wet. These steps are
very curious. The river narrows at this place, and has cut
a regular staircase in the rock through which it makes its
way. D. did not move from his desk all day ; he was up
till two, and the clerks till four, and the steamer had to
wait half an hour this morning (Saturday) for the monster
despatch.
Friday, i2th. We gave an outdoor afternoon party on
1 The Hon. G. C. Brodrick, now Warden of Merton College, Oxford.
114 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. ix
the platform, and were anxious about the weather, which
turned out to be perfectly lovely. The amusements con-
sisted of a band, dancing, a bear, and my children (who
all arrived in the morning) to be looked at. Basil was
a splendid sight, and had the air of Henry VIII., as he sat
back in a small rocking-chair, with his sturdy form and
rosy cheeks. The others are very nourishing, and the
' family ' did us credit, particularly as I did not show my
baby, of whom I cannot yet be proud. Instead of her, we
exhibited the Queen's present to her godchild. It is a large
medallion, with Her Majesty's head in raised gold in the
centre, surrounded by rows of diamonds, pink coral, and
pearls. On the back is engraved, ' Lady Victoria Alexan-
drina Blackwood, from her godmother, Victoria B..'
Saturday, i tyli. The day was pouring wet. I had a visit
from a charming lady, a Miss Florence Lees. 2 She has
been thoroughly trained as a surgical nurse, and did nurse,
and underwent great fatigues (not to say danger) in the
Franco-Prussian War. She wears the Iron Cross, and
another order, which only three ladies possess. After
nursing twenty-two men through typhus fever before Metz,
she took charge of the Crown Princess's Ambulance at
Homburg. She has been sent out to visit the hospitals
in Canada and the States ; and all anti- women-working
people ought to see her !
Monday, i$th. I took the children to some athletic
sports, and after lunch we drove out to the Cemetery. It
is a very pretty one, and the trees are most of them
decorated with a crimson or a golden branch the first touch
of autumn.
Wednesday, ifth. A football match took place this
afternoon. The Dufferin Club were dressed in blue-and-
orange jerseys, caps, and stockings; and the B Battery
(the Citadel soldiers) wore red. Colonel Fletcher played
2 Now the wife of the Eev. Dacre Craven, Rector of St. George the
Martyr, Holborn, London.
SEPT. 1873 CONVENTS 115
on their side. The soldiers were somewhat rough, and
one gentleman had his nose broken. The Dufferin Club
won.
Saturday, 2Oth. The Stadacona Hunt met to-day, and
had, as usual, the worst possible weather. I drove out with
the children to see the meet, and they were amused for a
short time watching the jumping ; but we felt so cold that
we took advantage of a heavy shower as an excuse for
returning home very soon.
Monday, 22nd. I inspected two convents this afternoon,
which D. had visited without me last year. The first was
the ' Bon Pasteur.' The Misses Caron and some other
young ladies were there to meet us, and to take charge of
my A.D.C. The inspection was very long. First I was
introduced to all the nuns, and specially to the Irish ones ;
and I saw the novices, and the school-children, who sang
and read an address; then we passed to a large room
where the penitents were collected, and observed how they
had given up the pomps and vanities of the world, for the
most unbecoming dress possible. We looked at the beau-
tiful embroideries, and at the useful work the nuns do ;
admired the chapel, and visited the reformatory school,
besides going into every bedroom, etc.
Having thoroughly done the 'Bon Pasteur,' we pro-
ceeded to the ' Grey Sisters,' who take charge of old people
and orphan children. Here I visited three different
divisions of the schools, and in each room found a prettily-
decorated throne, songs, and a request from the youngest
child present for a holiday. The Grand Vicaire was my
spokesman on each occasion. He went round with me and
made little exhortations thus relieving me of the necessity
of finding something to say to everybody.
Tuesday, 2$rd. Such a wet day ! We just managed
to get out on the platform for half an hour, for a game of
very odd football with a brick, with the children, and had
to give up all hopes of dancing there in the evening.
116 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. ix
We had a dinner party, and then a ' drum ' ; and as the
balcony failed us, we opened our one passage, and the
young ladies promenaded up and down, and drank tea, and
cracked crackers, and had supper, and seemed to bear the
disappointment about the dancing very well.
Wednesday, 2^th. We had a bride and bridegroom to
dinner. They have been married six weeks, and are taking
an immense tour, on their way to Japan and India. I am
quite surprised at the small quantity of clothes she carries
about for so extensive a tour, and one comprising so many
climates. Two serge dresses, one ' good ' silk, cut square,
and a black silk skirt with a white ' top ' : with these, she
has entered into the smartest New York society, and is
going round the world.
Saturday, 2jih. This was a most lovely warm day, and
the weekly Paper Hunt was a very gay affair. About thirty
people were riding, and nearly twenty carriages follow-
ing. We saw the jumping very well, and the country
looked quite beautiful with its autumn-many-coloured hills,
the blue river, and the gay villages with their shining
spires and roofs. The riders found the sun almost too
hot.
Wednesday, October ist. In the afternoon I took the
children out to see a collection of birds made by Mr.
Lemoine. The trees in his place were lovely, the leaves
being now of the most brilliant colours some trees perfectly
crimson, and others orange, with yellow ones and dark green
firs all mixed.
Thursday, 2nd. We were surprised this morning to find
it snowing ; but the day cleared up, and after our dinner
the young ladies and the ' drum' generally danced out of
doors on the platform. We had a very nice party : the
dancing amused some, and the Boston Quintette Club, who
are here now, brought their instruments and played beauti-
fully to us ; we had supper, and people left after twelve
o'clock.
OCT. 1873 QUEBEC 117
Saturday, 4th. The ground covered with snow, and a
dismal snowstorm still going on. This is rather early to
begin winter, but we hope to see the ground once more
before it disappears until May.
Monday, 6th. A very wet day ; our intended visit to
the Indians, and all the sports of the week, postponed.
Mr. and Mrs. Eothery 3 arrived. He is the British Com-
missioner who is to settle the fishery part of the Washington
Treaty. His wife, George Dallas (his secretary), and a
young Mr. Eussell, are with him. They lunched with us.
Tuesday, ?th. Fred went off before breakfast to train
for the race which he is to ride. He has scant hopes of
winning, as he walks a stone over the proper riding weight,
and his horse has just come off the grass. In fact, his only
chances lie in the possible misfortunes of others.
Mr. and Mrs. Eothery dined with us, and we went to
the Sergeants' Dance, where we opened the ball with the
Sergeant-Major and his wife.
Wednesday, 8th. I visited an' asylum for old women,
and paid a morning visit to the Ursuline nuns. The
children were so astonished when a dozen cheerful ladies
dressed in black appeared behind a double grating to talk
to us. Basil and Hermie could not get over it at all, and
Nelly seemed greatly amused. The key of the room into
which we went was handed to us through a hole in the wall,
so that nothing could be seen but the hand that held it.
Thursday, gth. The weather was so beautiful that we
could not tear ourselves away from the ' home-view,' and
remained on the balcony all day.
In the evening the Lieutenant- Governor, Admiral Hill-
yard and twenty-four others dined with us, and we had a
party. As the night was perfect, our guests danced to the
light of the moon, and were much pleased with the enter-
tainment. But it began badly, for when the band was
wanted to play, it was discovered that the men were all
3 The late Mr. Bothery, Commissioner for Wrecks.
118 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. ix
asleep in bed, so there was nothing for it but to drink tea
while we waited for them to awake and dress.
Friday, loth. We were startled this morning by fifteen
guns, our guns saluting the General (O'Grady Haly), who
arrived by the Montreal boat. We sent down the carriage,
and an invitation for him to stay with us.
We have begun to prepare for our ball, and I am trying
to solve the difficulties we have to encounter in moving
from Quebec. All our servants, plate, etc. have to be at
the ball on Tuesday night. Then all has to be packed to
start Wednesday afternoon; the servants are to get to
Ottawa Thursday evening, and visitors come on Saturday.
Parliament meets on the Wednesday after.
We went to see the ' Stadacona Eaces.' I took the
General, D. rode, and the jockey (Fred), of course, was on
the course before. He wore a lilac jacket and cap, weighed
twenty-one pounds too much, and his horse was not ' fit.'
There were twelve hurdles and seven brooks to jump.
The 'favourite ' threw his rider at the first fence. The
remaining three had a good race, and the end was most
exciting, Fred coming in a very good second in spite of
all his disadvantages. He rode beautifully. The other
races did not interest us greatly, but the weather was
magnificent.
Saturday, nth. The General inspected the B Battery
before breakfast, and we looked on ; and then I assisted at
the first meeting of the ' Clandeboye Football Club ' all
boys under twelve. There are twenty members. They
had two capital games, and afterwards elected a secretary,
Archie being president.
Monday, iT,th. The morning looked bad, but the day
cleared up, and it was fine, but excessively cold.
The athletic sports were most successful, and crowds of
people were present, who seemed to enjoy themselves very
much. The esplanade was fringed with people, bands play-
ing and flags flying.
OCT. 1873 BALL AT THE CITADEL 119
Tuesday, i^tli. The ballroom looked unpromising this
morning. The decoration had yet to be done, and, worse
than all, the platform, upon which we are so dependent for
room, was covered with puddles. However, we set to work :
sailors decorating the outside, and myself and maids the
inside. Fred Ward got in three stoves which he set a-going
under the tent, and with which he successfully dried the
floor and the roof ; still, the weather looked so bad that we
got ready two of the children's bedrooms to act as safety
valves should the company be unable to use the platform.
In the dancing-room I had three hooks in the middle of
the ceiling, to use as keynotes to my ornamentation, and
from these I brought ropes of pink, white, and blue tarle-
tane, and made the room look like a tent, with a chandelier
hanging from the centre of each group of ropes. The ropes
were fastened all round to the cornice, which was finished off
with festoons and roses. It looked very light and pretty.
There was a heavy shower at six o'clock, and then it cleared,
and everything went off well. The platform was so popular
that it ended in our having almost too much room in the
ballroom. The supper, too, Mr. Pattisson managed very
well. The room only held sixty, and we were 330; but
there was no crush, and the relays were kept quite distinct,
and each sat down comfortably. The guests stayed till
2.30, having begun to dance soon after nine.
Wednesday, i$th. We took a farewell walk on the
beautiful platform before going down to the boat, where we
found many of our friends waiting to say good-bye. The
Lieutenant- Governor paid me a state visit at the Citadel.
Montreal, Thursday, i6th. We had a comfortable pas-
sage to Montreal, and were all glad of a good long night on
board the boat. To-day D. was kept extremely busy seeing
different people. We managed between two interviews to
get a little walk in the streets, and at one o'clock, he being
unable to come, I went to the Geological Museum, and was
shown part of the collection of fossils by Professor Dawson,
120 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. ix
which I enjoyed very much. After lunch we had to start
off immediately to take Mr. and Mrs. Eothery over the
'Mont Ste. Marie' convent. The nuns had only two
days' notice of our intention, but every preparation had
been made, except white gowns for the girls, so they were
in black.
After we had gone over the house accompanied by the
Sisters, the Bishop of Montreal (an old man, with long, white
hair), and the Archbishop of St. Boniface (Manitoba), we
were shown into the salle de reception, where all the young
ladies were assembled. Here we had music, and a little
piece acted by the ' Muses ' and the ' Graces,' each stating
the reasons why she was specially privileged to present the
address to His Excellency. This had of course been com-
posed for the occasion.
Friday, ijth. We travelled up to Ottawa, and found
all the children well, and the house looking so nice.
Many improvements have been made, and our principal
passages have had new crimson carpets, and white paint on
the doors and walls; so they look very gay and smart.
After all our travels, home looks very comfortable, and we
should be very happy but for political anxieties.
The Judges came to bring D. the report of the
Commission.
Saturday, iSth. I was busy all day getting the drawing-
room to look 'lived-in.' The Eotherys arrived in the
evening. The weather was wet and bad.
Wednesday, 22nd. To-night we had the Ministerial
banquet, and were thirty at dinner. The only missing
Ministers were Dr. Eobitaille and Mr. Tilly.
Thursday, 2$rd. We dressed for the ' opening ' before
lunch low gowns, feathers and diamonds, uniforms or
evening coats and at 2.30 set off in carriages: Mr.
and Mrs. Eothery, Mr. Pattisson and I in one; Lady
Harriet Fletcher, my three children, etc. etc. in others,
and the Governor-General in a carriage-and-four behind
OCT. 1 873 DEBATE ON THE ADDRESS 121
us. He opened a bridge on his way, which is to be called
the Dufferin Bridge, and then came on, and entered the
House with a very brilliant staff for he had this year a
number of officers and friends in uniforms accompanying
him. The Senate Chamber was full ; numbers of ladies
on the floor, and crowds of people in the galleries. D. read
the speech in French and in English.
Friday, 24th. At last we have a lovely day. I took
Mrs. Eothery, Mr. Brodrick, and Mr. Russell to see the
Chaudiere Falls," and we also went over a lucifer-match
manufactory.
Saturday, 2$th. I gave the prizes for some athletic j
sports. Mr. Brodrick and Mr. Eothery went to a Ministerial I
dinner, and brought us home much news. Lord Rosebery
(who came to us to-day) dined with the Opposition ; but,
although they sat till twelve, they never mentioned the
great fight which is coming off on Monday, and about
which they were all thinking, but talked instead of Shake-
speare and the musical glasses. The Archbishop of Mani
toba (Riel's protector) dined with us.
Monday, 27th. The great debate began ; but I did not
go to the House, and D. and I had Rideau to ourselves.
Tuesday, 28th. I went to the House to-day, and re-/
mained till 11 P.M. I heard Sir Francis Hincks, 4 Mr./
Macdonald, of Pictou (who is a very good speaker, but
untrained), and a Mr. Glass. 5 It is supposed that Mr.i
Blake 6 and Sir John Macdonald 7 are waiting for each]
other.
Wednesday and Thursday, 2gth and ^oth. Our thoughts
and time still occupied by the debate. The first day, two
speakers took up the whole time.
Saturday, November ist. The weather is very wretched,
4 Sir Francis Hineks, member for 8 Mr. E.Blake, member for South
Vancouver, British Columbia. Bruce, subsequently Minister of Jus-
Mr. Glass, member for London ticeinMr. Mackenzie's Cabinet, 1873.
f? * The Premier.
'
at,
"I
*J
122 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. ix
and very English- wintery. It tries to snow, and succeeds
in sleeting and being raw and dull.
I saw people, for the first time since my return, to-day :
1 34 visitors came. I had Lady Harriet and Mrs. Rothery
and the young men to help me, and the afternoon was
pleasant, and like a party.
Monday, $rd. Mr. Brodrick left this morning. We
(ladies) went to the House of Commons at three o'clock.
Before the recess for dinner, there was a little scrimmage
over His Ex.'s despatches, and at the end of this we
adjourned for two hours.
At a quarter to nine Sir John Macdonald rose, and
spoke for five hours, making a very fine speech, full of
power, lively, and forcible to the end. He did not fail in
the slightest degree while speaking, but when he sat down
he was completely exhausted, and his voice was quite gone.
Mr. Blake got up after him, but adjourned the debate in
a few minutes, and will finish his speech to-morrow.
Tuesday, ^.th. I did not hear Mr. Blake. He spoke
for five hours too.
Wednesday, $ih. I drove into Ottawa, intending to
hear the speeches and see the division, but at the Office
I was told that Sir John was with the Governor-General.
As the House would not sit without him, I remained
in the carnage, and soon we saw Colonel Fletcher taking
Mr. Mackenzie to His Excellency. Of course, we guessed
that he had been ' sent for ' ; and the groups of two and
three who stood about turned their heads curiously and
nodded in a knowing way.
We took our places in the House, and Sir John got up
and briefly announced that the Government had resigned.
The announcement was received in perfect silence.
The Opposition, directly it was over, crossed the House
to their new desks.
Saturday, 22nd. This is the family half-holiday; so
after dinner we went down to the ice, and exerted ourselves
NOV. 1873 CURLING AND SKATING 123
to learn the Dutch roll mother and children and governesses
struggling and tumbling about, but all making great pro-
gress.
Monday, 24th. There is a regular snowstorm going on.
Skating was out of the question, so we went out to toboggan.
The snow was soft and loose, and we were nearly choked
and buried in it ; but, of course, the children liked this
very much.
Tuesday, 2$th. We were inveigled down to the ice in
a biting cold wind, but were too much blown about to learn
anything.
Monday, December ist. D. had a party of Scotchmen
for curling and lunch (St. Andrew's Day), and we drank
the ' Queen of Scotland's ' health. This was the opening
of our new Curling Eink. It is close to the Skating Eink,
and the tobogganing hill is on the other side ; so we have
quite a nest of amusements there.
Wednesday, 3rd. Alas for the thaw ! our Eink was
just right, and now all the ice, and all the skating, dis-
appears ! It is in a terrible state all over lumps and
bubbles, with dead leaves frozen into it, which, as you
know, burn holes in the ice.
Saturday, 6th. Being the twelve children's half-holiday,
Saturday has now become a weekly festival. We skated all
the afternoon, and after tea had a great rehearsal of the
children's play. Mr. Dixon exhibited a magic lantern, too,
which, though only partially successful, was received with
shouts of delight.
Monday, Sth. Thermometer 1 8 below zero. The day
looked dull, but we had a most delightful skate on the
Ottawa clear, smooth ice, and any amount of space. I
found myself able to go more than a mile as fast as possible
on the outside edge. The children enjoyed it immensely.
Monday, i$th. D. went into Ottawa, and came back in
time for a short skate. In the evening we had some of the
new Ministers to dinner. I am trying to become a Grit,
124 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. ix
but I can't quite manage it. It takes me as much time as
the outside edge backwards. I sat between Mr. Mackenzie
and Mr. Cartwright : I like them both, and the latter is very
talkative, and pleasant. Mr. Mackenzie is very straight-
forward and nice, and very Scotch, in accent and in looks.
On the other side of him sat M. Letellier St. Juste, a French
Canadian, and then came Mr. Vale, from Halifax, and the
Haligonian Prime Minister, Mr. Almon. We also had the
head of a large deaf-and-dumb institution at Belleville, who
is very anxious for us and ' family ' to go down there to
see a pantomime done by his pupils, and thinks a journey
of six hours absolutely nothing for the purpose.
Friday, iQth. We attended an amateur performance in
aid of a charity. It was very good indeed. The first part
consisted of ' waxworks ' done by the beauties of Ottawa.
They certainly have a talent for tableaux, for I never saw
anything more perfectly still than they were although
they were 'on view' for nearly half-an-hour at a time.
Each one was wound up in turn, and went through its
performance admirably.
Tuesday, 2$rd. I drove into Ottawa on a Christmas
shopping expedition, skated in the afternoon, and dined at
six, as we had to go and give prizes to Protestant schools
in Ottawa. The room was very hot, but the ' exercises '
went off well, and 200 people had to be sent away for
want of space. Children read and sang. D. received an
address, and replied to it, and we did not give the prizes,
as there was not time.
Wednesday, 24th. Gawen and Fred 8 arrived this morn-
ing, both looking very well. They found me busily
arranging the Christinas-tree. Gawen began his skating,
but at present he looks very tall and shaky on the ice.
Thursday, 2$ih. The church was beautifully decorated
for Christmas.
8 My brothers, Captain G. Eowan Hamilton, late 7th Dragoon Guards,
and Captain F. Kowan Hamilton, A.D.C.
DEC. 1 873 OTTAWA 125
Lunch and a little skating filled the afternoon, and at
five the children's Christmas really began. There were ten
of them under eleven for tea, and very pretty the table
looked, with their little fair heads all round it.
The tree came next, and was a great success : everyone
seemed to get what they wished for, and the books, toys,
etc. will be thoroughly appreciated during the week's
holiday.
Saturday, 2?th. This morning we attended a perform-
ance at St. Joseph's College. The house was beautifully
illuminated outside, and we had songs and addresses, and
a little French play acted by the students. It was a good
night for sleighing, and the drive home was pleasant.
Wednesday, $ist. We had our first skating party to-
day, and I was able to perform the outside edge backwards
and forwards quite well enough for public display. About
seventy people came, but there was not enough snow for
tobogganing. After the outdoor amusements we danced in
the ballroom, and I think all enjoyed themselves very much.
CHAPTEE X
OUB SECOND SEASON AT OTTAWA
Thursday, January ist, 1874. D. had, unfortunately,
a bad cold and headache, and so I was obliged to receive
the gentlemen of Ottawa by myself. You remember that
they pay visits to all their acquaintances on New Year's
Day, and that every lady in the land remains at home
to receive them. Two hundred and seventy came to see
me, greeted me, and passed through the drawing-room into
the dining-room for tea or champagne mostly cham-
pagne ! One very odd man appeared whom I had never
seen before. He said to me, ' Ah, very sorry indeed to hear
that Lord Dufferin is ill ; he is such a great fellow, it really
would be a pity if anything were to happen to him. ... Do
I speak to Mr. Hamilton ? ' Fred got him off into the
dining-room, where he continued, ' I knew Mr. Conway '
(our other A.D.C., whose name was Coulson) ' so well that I
felt I knew the crowd, so I thought I would come to-day.
Sorry His Ex. is ill; he is such a good fellow, always
turning up everywhere. Awful bore this sort of thing, but
one is obliged to do it.'
I have been busy the last few weeks teaching the chil-
dren to act a little play, to be performed before an audience
this New Year's Day, so directly the last of my visitors had
gone, I rushed .to make final arrangements on the stage, to
visit my patient and get him up, to dress myself, and to
dress the fairies.
Every member of our two families l between the ages of
twelve years and eight months appears either in the play or
1 Ours and Colonel Fletcher's.
JAN. 1 874 NEW YEAR'S TABLEAUX 127
in the tableaux which come after it, and I only wish you were
here to see how well they all do it, and how pretty they look !
In the piece they represent imps who, clad in the
gayest attire, are invisible to mortal eye the moment they
put on certain bright-coloured caps, and visible again
directly they take them off. The fun of the play consists
in the way in which they are supposed to appear and dis-
appear, plaguing the life out of a gigantic mortal, who
either cannot see his tormentors at all, or whose frantic
attempts to catch them when he does, only lead him into
the traps they have prepared for him.
My little troop entered fully into the spirit of the plot,
and were so delighted with Fred's acting in the part of
' Grumps,' the troubled mortal, that they were really hold-
ing their sides with laughter, and there certainly was more
nature than art in their representations of the mischievous
imps.
The tableaux were equally successful, and though an
eye was occasionally opened during the ' Sleeping Beauty in
the Wood ' scene, and then conscientiously shut up again with
unnecessary firmness though one infant preferred to sleep
with his legs in the air, and another made an uncalled-for
announcement in the middle of a tableau vivant the whole
performance was most charming and successful, and actors,
parents, and audience were all equally delighted.
Saturday, ^rd. The cold has diminished, and now there
are only ten degrees of frost which is nothing. One really
does not feel cold half as much here as in England. The
house is warm throughout, day and night, so that one does
not shiver over one's dressing, or dread venturing out into
the passages, or crowd round the fires in the rooms, as one
does at home. And then, when one wishes to go out, one
knows thanks to tradition and to the thermometer
exactly what ought to be put on, and one wraps oneself up
like a mummy, and drapes one's face in an indispensable
and most becoming ' cloud,' and thus defies the weather.
128 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
We had a delightful skating party. The ice was lovely,
and while numbers of graceful performers danced over it,
other young men and maidens, to say nothing of fathers
and mothers, were sliding down hills in toboggans, children
were digging and burrowing in the snow, and nurses and
perambulators added a homely aspect to the scene. You
can't think how lively it looked like an ant-hill decked in
brilliant colours.
When it got too late for outdoor amusements, we came
in for tea, and the young people danced for an hour.
Monday, $th. The thermometer only 53 ! The most
unheard-of thaw, and the snow almost entirely gone. We
were, however, able to skate about two miles up the Eideau
a very rare chance here. In the afternoon I actually
drove on wheels into Ottawa, to begin a tour of inspection
of the Institutions there with Miss Lees. We went first
to the Gaol, which we found comfortable and well kept :
Miss Lees thought it the best she had seen in Canada.
We next went on to the Protestant Orphan Home, a small
house, with a stuffy sleeping and living room for the babies.
A better house is much needed.
Tuesday, 6th. We drove in a snowstorm to the Grey
Nuns' Convent, and were received at the ' Mother House,'
the order having about ten establishments in Ottawa, of
which this is the head. I visited the ' Community,' and
the ' Postulants,' and went into the chapel, where the nuns
were singing beautifully. From this house we walked to
the Hospital, and after it to the Orphanage, and the Eefuge
for the Old. All these Miss Lees examined as well as she
could. But she likes to turn up every sheet, and to peep
into every corner, and this is a kind of inspection to which
the good nuns are not accustomed. They like my per-
functory style much better, and I am amused when I go
about with her to see her slipping behind the scenes at
most unexpected moments, and surprising everybody by
her searching questions.
JAN. 1874 AN ICE STORM 129
Wednesday, 7th. We finished the ' Grey Nuns ' to-day
by visiting their school and an English Orphanage. Miss
Lees is going to write a book about these things, so I need
not record details.
Last night we kept Twelfth Night by practising the
' Boston Dip ' and Badminton.
Thursday, Sth. The weather is despairing. It will thaw,
and even condescends to rain, which in a Canadian January
is mean ! Think of the ground being visible ! and no
skating ! and umbrellas up ! and driving on wheels !
There was, however, a sight to-day which I am glad
to have seen. After the rain it froze hard for a short
time, leaving ropes of beautiful clear ice hanging from the
telegraph-wires, while the trees seemed to be the decorations
of a fairy play. Words really do fail to describe the beauty
of our woods while this ' ice-storm ' continues. There is a
transparent sheath round every twig, the birch-tree being
particularly pretty, with its small and well-known rods all
cased in clearest crystal, while in the distance the trees
seem to be made of silver with dazzling jewels on every
branch. It reminds me of the story of the twelve prin-
cesses who used to disappear at night, and were, after much
searching, discovered by the owner of an invisible cloak to
frequent a garden whose trees were covered with precious
stones. Like the invisible soldier, I cannot resist breaking
off branches and taking them home ; but, unlike his, my
diamonds melt.
Saturday, loth. The skating party, which had been
postponed on account of the thaw, took place to-day, but
resolved itself into an indoor party. The young ladies came
in extra smart attire, feeling that they had not got to
encounter the snow, and from 3.30 to 6 they danced. Some
of them, I regret to say, evidently rejoiced in the bad
weather ! After the dancing the children performed their
little play and tableaux again with great success.
I, i ^th. This was a most lovely day for our
K
130 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
skating party, so warm (about 10 below freezing-point), the
tobogganing hill in perfect condition, and the ice good.
I skated the whole time, only stopping occasionally to
watch the toboggans come down : once Fred was left behind
in the middle of the hill, and rolled to the bottom ; another
time, three passengers remained in the snow, while the
fourth sailed on to the bottom of the slide.
Tuesday, 2jtli. Thermometer 30 below zero during
the night about zero during the day. We skated a little,
but there was a good deal of snow on the ice. At five
o'clock the children were all ready in their fairy dresses
to act their play to about fifty of their contemporaries.
After the performance they had tea, and then games and
dancing till eight. The guests were many of them very
pretty, and all very well dressed.
Wednesday, 28th. We have lent our ballroom for a
concert in aid of our little church, and the morning was
occupied in placing the 300 chairs, and in preparing the
stage.
The first part of the programme consisted of vocal music
by amateurs. Then 'Kosa d'Erina' sang four songs capi-
tally. Three very pretty tableaux closed the entertain-
ment : The Death of Cleopatra ; the Expulsion of Hagar ;
and a group of flower-girls, Nelly being one of them.
Cleopatra was very handsome, and was beautifully dressed.
I think they will have cleared fifty pounds.
Saturday, 31 si. Saturday brings its usual skating
party. The day was very cold, and we cut short the out-
door amusements, and had a very successful cotillon indoors.
Mr. Mackenzie, the Prime Minister, arrived. At the
station he received a note, from D. asking him to come
out to us, which he did immediately, and stayed for
dinner. On returning to Ottawa he found he had missed an
ovation, which had been prepared for him after his very
successful elections. I believe his majority will be about
eighty.
FEB. 1874 MONTREAL 131
Montreal: Monday, February 2nd. We left for Mon-
treal, and had a long day in the train, but with books, and
short naps, we got through it very well.
Tuesday, yd. Soon after breakfast, we went up to the
Rink, the two Misses Bethune and ourselves being the
only privileged persons, as it is shut to the public on
account of the fancy-dress ball which is to take place there
to-night ; we had plenty of room, splendid ice, and a most
delightful skate.
At eight o'clock we went back there for the ball, and
took our places on a raised dais at one end of a great
building like Westminster Hall, with an architectural roof
and ornamented rafters, its shiny ice floor illuminated by
a thousand lights. As soon as the band changed from
'God save the Queen' into some lively strain, we saw,
from the far end, gay fancy-dressed figures gliding hand-in-
hand down the ice, and passing us in couples, till at last
the whole space was covered with Dolly Vardens, Nights,
Knights, Queens, Savages, Red-Riding-Hoods, etc. etc. D.
skated in plain clothes ; I only looked on and enjoyed the
scene.
Wednesday, 4th. D. visited the High School, and made
a Latin oration there.
Tuesday, loth. We had a band at the Rink this morn-
ing, and skated to music. We danced the lancers and Sir
Roger to their proper tunes, and then some waltzed and
some ' outside-edged ' to the ' Blue Danube.'
I must tell you the names of some of our figures, though
I fear they won't convey much to you. We execute the
' Rose,' the ' Shamrock,' and the ' Thistle ' ; the ' Ransom,'
the 'Lily,' the ' Snail,' the ' Serpent,' a chain of 'eights,'
etc. etc. I wonder if ever you will see a performance ?
Wednesday, nth. We took the Gaol by surprise this
morning, and inspected it. The women's department is
most unsatisfactory, but as a new female prison is being
built, little can be said. We found five women sleeping
K 2
.132 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. X
in a tiny cell, and three in a bed; and we saw prisoners
with curl-papers and ornamental ribbons, and one with her
hair much dressed, and with curls gummed down upon her
forehead. The men were much better cared for.
After dinner Fred Ward, Mr. Thompson, D. and I
went to see the games at the Eink, which looked very
pretty, with its shining ice floor, its lights, and a quantity
of flags. There were 2 1 1 entries for the races, and some
of them were most exciting and amusing. The barrel-races
went off with great spirit, and the boys, in all stages of
creeping through bottomless barrels, rolling and struggling
about, looked like strange shell-fish. Mercifully, none were
hurt; for it must be a dangerous game. I gave away the
prizes afterwards.
I have been elected a member of the Eink, and am the
only lady who holds that proud position, being also, I
believe, the first wife of a Governor- General who has ever
skated here.
Thursday, 1 2th. D. and I left early, and were ' seen
off' by a guard of honour composed of the students at
Magill College a fine-looking rifle regiment. We had Mr.
Bridges' car, and travelled in great comfort. We found it very
cold at Ottawa. All the children in different stages of cold.
Ottawa: Tuesday, ifth. There was a very exciting
game in the Curling Eink between D. and Mr. Gordon, a
Presbyterian minister. They play for the Club prize, and
whoever wins to-day has to play another member, and so
on, till the last man remaining gains 'the horns.' This
game was very close, ' twelve all,' and the next shot must
decide the winner. We all came in to watch the last
strokes, and D. got 'two,' and so won, and has a new
antagonist to encounter.
Thursday, igth.We had a great expedition to-day.
Our party filled two sleighs, and we started at eight o'clock
in the morning, and drove three miles along, or rather on,
the Gatineau river, and then eighteen miles through the
FEB. 1874 A WINTER'S DRIVE 133
' bush,' enjoying the winter scenery. It was a prettier
drive than I had expected, being more open, less shut up
in wood, and the horizon more varied than it usually is
here. We saw the Gatineau rapids, rushing along black-
looking through the snow ; also something of the lumber-
trade, for we met all the little sleighs full of wood coming
to market. As they were loaded, we had to make way for
them, and on two occasions we met in most awkward places,
when we all had to get out, and lift our sleigh sideways
on to the bank, and once we had to take out the horses.
Another time we were at the top of a hill, and our foe
wanted us to back down it. We asked if he could not back,
but he exclaimed indignantly, ' Why, there are enough
of you there to lift that cutter of yours right over the
mountain' this of the great family sleigh !
We arrived at last at the house of a farmer, the owner
of a cave, which cave was the end and object of our expedi-
tion. Here we lunched, and then, guided by the farmer,
we proceeded on our way two miles along a lumber snow
road, very narrow and bumpy. We left the carriages on
a lake, and climbed up a hill to the mouth of the cave,
where we took off our fur cloaks, and, each taking a lighted
candle, entered the cave.
After examining a part of it, which I may call the hall
and ante-room of this subterranean mansion, we proceeded
on hands and knees through a very low passage to the
drawing-room. We ladies had great difficulty with our
petticoats, especially when in this doubled-up position we
had to cross a pool of water on a narrow plank, and were
greatly relieved when we were able to stretch ourselves
upright again. New perils were, however, before us, and
the gentlemen were astonished to find that Lady Harriet
and I really did intend to descend the ladders which, in the
darkness, appeared to lead down to the middle of the earth.
But, as we very naturally observed to them, we had not
driven twenty miles, and crawled on hands and knees to
134 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
the spot, to be deterred by a small difficulty ; so down we
went, and saw two more large rooms in the basement of said
mansion. Of course the place requires a geologist's eye to
appreciate it thoroughly. It is made of no ; I won't even
attempt to describe its origin.
We came out from our crawling very dirty indeed, and,
returning to our carriages, drove homewards. Our sleigh
was first, and we had just descended a very steep hill
when we heard a noise, and looking back saw the second
sleigh stranded in the middle of the road, its horses gallop-
ing madly towards us. Our footman rushed in front of
them, and caught hold of their bridles just as they were
upon us : he was knocked down between them, but was not
hurt. The gentlemen all got into the broken sleigh, and
finally arrived safe home, though they were run away with
at every hill on the way back.
It snowed most of the day, and at the end of our drive
we looked ideal Canadians.
Monday, 2$rd. There was a very exciting curling
match to-day between D. and Hutchison for ' the horns.'
D. won by six points, and will now have to encounter
another player. The boys made some calculations after-
wards, in which they proved that each player had run
eight miles, had thrown four-and-a-half tons forty yards,
and had swept out the Parliament Buildings pretty severe
labour for one game !
Tuesday, 2^ih. The ' Freds ' for we have no less than
five of that name in our household played a match, the
winner to be the 'representative member' of the new
' Viceregal Curling Club.' Brother Fred won it.
He and Colonel Fletcher dined with the Ministers,
' in honour ' of the Dominion Board of Trade, and Fred
returned thanks for the ladies.
Saturday, 2$th. Colonel Strange, from Quebec, and
Mr. Plumb, M.P. for Niagara, dined with us, and we had an
' electric evening.' I don't suppose you could have one at
MARCH 1874 ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTS 135
home ; but here by rubbing our feet on the carpet, and
then touching another person, we can produce a spark,
and from any hot metal, such as the fireplace, we get quite
a shock.
Mr. Plumb showed us a very curious thing. We went
into a dark room, and rubbed the inside of the back of
a book with a fur glove, and instantly the gilt pattern on
the outside was illuminated by sparks, so that the whole
design was as clearly marked out as it is in the daytime.
He discovered this accidentally by passing a piece of fur
round his hat, when the maker's name appeared inside in
letters of light. Then we tried to light the gas, and I
had the satisfaction of succeeding three times myself. I
held a piece of wire, or a needle, in my hand, rubbed my
feet on the carpet, and touched the burner ; a spark was
emitted, and the gas instantly blazed up. The children are
extremely fond of charging at some unsuspecting victim with
a finger or a nose, which instantly emits a perfect flash of
lightning. One day I brought the baby down to the
drawing-room, and Fred (who had just been rubbing his
feet preparatory to trying an electric experiment) kissed
her, and gave her such a shock that she cried with fright !
Wednesday, March 4th. The ice still demoralised, and
everyone grumbling. Both grown-up people and children
find * walking on the boards ' a sad exchange for skating,
tobogganing, and curling.
Friday, 6th. The Ottawa Curling Club came and
played on our rink for His Excellency's medal. They
made a good score, and have hopes of winning it. Mr.
Gilmour and Mr. Mackenzie spent the afternoon here and
curled with D. The Premier brightened up very much
during the ' roarin' game.'
Saturday, Jtli. It poured, and the beginning of the
afternoon-party was trying. Skating was out of the
question, and a few ladies dropped in alone; I was in
despair, but at last the two necessaries men and music'
136 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
arrived, and we had a very nice little dance and cotillon.
Hermie and Basil contribute greatly to the amusement of
the company. She and Basil talk to everyone, and are
always in such high spirits, that the lookers-on like having
them to play with.
Nowell (D.'s valet) won the cup, and I presented it to
him ; it is to have his name, and ' Presented to the Viceregal
Curling Club,' etc., engraved on it.
Tuesday, loth. There was tremendous excitement in
the Curling Eink to-day D. playing another opponent, Mr.
Russell, for ' the horns.' The game was very interesting.
They had to make twenty-one points, and five times during
the course of the game they were ties, D. winning finally
by one a very honourable and unexpected victory, as Mr.
Russell is the ' skip ' of the Ottawa Club.
Tuesday, 24th. There was beautiful tobogganing to-
day The children went down in every sort of way, double
and single, standing, sitting and lying. Once they tied four
toboggans together, which looked like a raft covered with
people a rescue from shipwreck.
Friday, 27th. A day of much ceremony. Diamonds,
lappets, and feathers at two o'clock, when all drove to the
Parliament Buildings, the Governor-General in carriage-and-
four, and I in a quiet brougham, to a private entrance. I
went into the Senate Chamber, which I found full of gay
ladies, and soon we heard the guns which announced his
Excellency's arrival. We all stood up to receive him, as he
came in preceded by his Staff. He sent for the Commons,
and the new Speaker made a little speech, and the Presi-
dent of the Senate replied to it. Then D. read the speech,
first in English, then in French, and we departed as we
came.
On my return I doffed my finery until after dinner,
when I dressed up again, and we returned to the Senate
Chamber to hold a Drawing Room ; it went off very well,
and was quite a brilliant affair.
MAKCH 1874 ENGLISH VISITORS 137
Saturday, 28th. We turned out of the drawing-room
to-day, to have it arranged as a second supper-room.
The conservatory was hung with Chinese lanterns, and
everything that was possible done to embellish the rooms
for an evening-party.
There was a band, tableaux, and some singing in the
drawing-room, supper in two rooms, and I believe people
enjoyed themselves.
Sunday, 2gth. We had such a nice walk on the Ottawa.
The banks were lovely, clothed in icicles, and ice-grottoes,
into which we got, had been formed in places. They
were supported by enormous pillars of ice, and a fringe
of large icicles shut us in.
Tuesday, $ist. I went into the House, expecting to see
Eiel take his seat. There was great excitement outside, but
he did not appear. We heard a very amusing debate
about abolishing the sale of spirits within the precincts of
Parliament. We were very busy at home preparing every-
thing for a full-dress rehearsal of a selection from the opera
of ' Semir amide ' and the little play of ' One Hour,' in
which I myself take part. The rehearsal was successful,
the servants making up an audience.
Thursday, 2nd April. Mr. Charles Kingsley 2 and his
daughter are staying with us, and we took them over the
Houses of Parliament, and had Sir John and Lady Mac-
donald one day, and Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie another, to
meet them at dinner.
Saturday, 4th. We looked on at curling to-day, and'
saw D. beat the ' champion,' Mr. Gilmour, twice. Dr.
Grant dined with us, and he and Mr. Kingsley were very
happy over geological subjects.
Easter Sunday, $th. There was a great congregation,
and we had an excellent sermon from Mr. Kingsley, appro-
priate to the day. He does not stammer at all in preaching.
2 The late Rev. Charles Kingsley, author of ' Westward Ho ! '
'Hypatia,' etc.
138 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
The gentlemen say that in the smoking-room he is most
amusing ; but he seems shy, and is therefore less brilliant,
in general society.
Tuesday, ?th. D. walked into Ottawa, and in the street
met Mr. Laurence Oliphant, 3 whom he asked to come to us
at once, and to bring his wife. He is very pleasant, and she
is a sweet pretty little woman, very chatty. They both belong
to a curious sect, headed by a Mr. Harris. They have no ob-
jection to talking about it to us, but she tells me that in the
community they never speak of religion, that they have no
church, no services, and that every member believes, or,
rather, disbelieves, what he likes. They look upon Mr.
Harris as a ' moral doctor,' and all their efforts in a ' good '
direction are employed in conquering their own faults by
their own efforts and Mr. Harris's prescriptions ; they also
believe that their prophet actually suffers physical pain when
his followers offend, and that they know when they do wrong
themselves by a peculiar sensation in the throat. They con-
sider themselves bound to spend all they have ; not merely
to give to charitable institutions, but to distribute it per-
sonally. They live in a district where they have farms,
and the members all h,elp each other as they can.
Friday, loth. D. curled, and nearly killed Mr. Oliphant
with the exertion. I like both her and him very much ;
and certainly their faith in what they do believe, and their
conscientious performance of the same, are wonderful.
Friday, I'jtk. The great ball given by the citizens of
Ottawa in our honour took place to-night. The dancing
was in the Senate Chamber a very handsome room and a
new floor was put down for the occasion. I suppose two
thousand people were present, but there were so many
passages and promenades that the dancing was not too
crowded. We much appreciated our hosts' kindness and
hospitality.
Monday, 2?th. We were pleased to see in the morning
3 The late Laurence Oliphant, author of ' The Piccadilly Papers,' etc.
APRIL 1 874 AMATEUR THEATRICALS 139
paper that there are 900 dollars (nearly 2ool.) over, after
all the ball expenses have been paid, which are to be given
to charities.
Wednesday, 2gih. In the evening our play came off,
and was a great success. People seem to listen with eyes
and ears, and to be quite delighted. The whole company
was good, and every one knew his or her part, and it went
smoothly and with spirit.
After it was over I changed my dress in about three
minutes, and came down to supper. Stray couples walked
about the corridors, visited the conservatory, and had what
is called ' a lovely time.'
When I had shaken hands with the ' six hundred,' and
we were alone again, we had our supper, of which we were
all very glad, for acting makes one so hungry !
Saturday, May 2nd. D. and Fred went out hunting,
and had a very pleasant run.
The children tried a paper-chase. Colonel Fletcher was
the fox, and the run was most exciting, the 'hounds'
shrieking all the way, and having some delightfully stiff
timber to climb.
A Parliamentary dinner ; five expected guests failed to
come, and left a great gap at the table.
Thursday, 14^. The Lieutenant-Governor of Nova
Scotia and Miss Archibald arrived to spend a few days
with- us.
Lady Harriet is expecting her sister and uncle a great
excitement in our small world ; for, though our guests are
numerous, our home-circle is small. We have very pleasant
weather, and sit out a great deal, enjoying it ; but as yet
there are no leaves on the trees, and no plants bedded out.
Friday, 22nd. We had such a pleasant day, driving in
two carriages to visit Mr. Gilmour's place on the Gatineau
Kiver, and to see his sawmills, etc. Lady Mary and Mr.
Marsham, who arrived on Friday, went with us. The
weather was fine, and the river very full ; the rapids were
140 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
magnificent, and it was very interesting to see the lumber
go down them.
We watched the trunks of great trees turning and
twisting in the whirlpools, passing from one current to
another, dashing down waterfalls, disappearing in the
waves, and coming up again on the brink of other rapids.
We saw them reach a place where a number of men, with
poles and spikes, stood by to harpoon and mark the passing
monsters, sending those stamped with a ' G ' in one direc-
tion, and those with a ' P ' in another. After this, a further
rush down the river brought the logs to a calm pool, where
they were just recovering from their exciting voyage, when
they were laid hold of by an innocent-looking cogwheel, up
which they marched slowly and surely into the teeth of
fourteen thickset saws, which sent them in pieces on a
further sail, down a small trough of water, to the stack-yard.
In addition to the almost human interest of this tragic
performance, we had lovely scenery to look at, a good
lunch to eat, a nice drive, and a row home in boats ; so we
enjoyed ourselves much.
Monday, 2$th. The Queen's birthday kept. The morn-
ing looked bad, but we dressed ourselves up, and at eleven
arrived in front of the Town Hall, where the firemen and
engines were to be reviewed. We looked at and walked
round them the rain coming down a little listened to an
address, and then proceeded to the review-ground.
The Governor-General's Foot Guards looked extremely
well ; but the weather was dreadful, and when I came to
give away the colours it poured in torrents, so that the
feathers in my bonnet stood on end, and I had to take off
my veil and throw it away. You may imagine my mother's
feelings when I turned round in the middle of the deluge
and found that Archie was out in dancing-shoes ! We had
lunch in a large tent, and D. made a speech, which you
may read in the newspaper I send you.
Wednesday, 27 th. We made an expedition down the
MAY 1874 EXCURSIONS 141
Slide to-day. D. paddled his canoe to the foot of the
Chaudiere Falls. Colonel Fletcher rowed there, and we
took two carriage-loads, with five children all in a great
state of excitement. We found a magnificent ' crib ' prepared
for us flags and green arches over it ; and when we were
all assembled, we started at a slow and stately pace on our
journey over the Slide down to the Ottawa. It takes three
waterfalls to reach the level of the river, and going over
these is the greatest fun. We remained on our crib for
some time, and then got on to a raft for tea, which we drank
out of tins, without milk or sugar ; and we ate raft-made
bread, which was excellent.
Friday, 2gth. We went up the Eideau in a carriage for
about eight miles, and saw the Falls, which are very pretty.
Had tea there, and came back in canoes, D. rowing me.
There was a beautiful sunset, and the river was lovely the
scenery much more English-like and meadowy than it
usually is here. There were some rapids to run, and we
ladies got out, while the Colonel and D. took their canoes
down. It was quite dark when we got home.
Saturday, $oth. As it was a lovely day, and as the
mosquitoes are, so far, very harmless, had tea out of doors.
We carried the things down to the rocks, and the children
were extremely happy attending to the fire, and jumping
about at the edge of the water. The two families were
present ten old enough for picnics.
Tuesday, June 2nd. We drove about twelve miles into
the country to the borders of 'Meech's Lake,' a pretty piece
of water inhabited by swarms of mosquitoes. We drank our
tea in a cloud of smoke, to keep off the tormentors, and
then got into our canoes (which had been brought here in
a cart), and explored the Lake. ' We ' means the Fletchers,
Lady Mary Mar sham, D., and myself.
Our expedition did not end quite pleasantly. It had
been arranged that we were to get into a boat half-way and
row home. The night was very dark, and the current
142 M Y CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. x
tremendous. Presently we came up against a beam of wood
stretched across the rushing river, which we knew had an
opening in it through which boats could pass; but in the dark
we could not find the place. The Colonel, who was rowing
with D., said the ladies would have to get out, and that
the boat must be lifted over the bar. Oh, it was disagree-
able ! We knelt on the narrow plank, with the rapid stream
swirling under it, and I don't think I could have done it but
for a fortunate peg in my bit of plank by which I held on,
and which gave me a certain sense of security. Lady Mary
was so brave : she made no fuss at all. When the boat had
been dragged over the beam we got into it again ; but we
had several more alarms about steamers, rafts, etc., and I
was thankful when we got safe home without collisions or
further accident.
143
CHAPTEE XI
FISHING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE
Quebec : Saturday, June 6th. We left Ottawa yesterday
Archie, D., and I ; Nelly was up to see us off, and looked
a little melancholy at being left behind. We went by train
to Prescott, and had two hours to wait for the boat, which
had been detained by fog. We feared this delay would dis-
arrange our plans, and make us late for the night-boat from
Montreal ; but as it waited for us, we made our journey suc-
cessfully, and arrived this morning at delightful Quebec,
where as usual we met with the most friendly welcome.
People always seem so glad to see us here, and all the
way up the town faces were smiling at the windows, and
hats were off everywhere ; it is just like coming home !
In the afternoon Archie played in a football-match ' The
Clandeboye ' against ' The Kovers ' ; I need not say who
won.
D. and I had a walk in the town, and then I unpacked
the English box, which has just arrived, and which astonished
me with the new fashions it contained. I cannot yet decide
whether to put on the bonnets forwards, backwards, or
sideways.
Wednesday, loth. We went on board the Druid, and left
Quebec. The day was lovely, and as we went down the
St. Lawrence the colouring was beautiful everywhere. We
passed numbers of sailing-vessels.
Friday, 1 2th. Found ourselves in sight of Gaspe this
144 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
morning. Not a ripple on the water, and the place looking
lovely. Mr. Eden, the vivacious harbour-master, came on
board, presented me with a large Indian box which had
been made for me, told us all about the salmon, etc.
D. went into the bush to see about our fishing-box. We
have brought with us the pieces of a little bedroom and
dressing-room, which are to be put together on the site,
which D. walked eighteen miles to select.
The night was very bad rain, snow, and hail. We are
glad to be in harbour.
Sunday, i^th. Bather a fine-looking morning, but cold.
We went to church, and had a good sermon short and
plain. In the afternoon we landed on the York side of
the harbour, and drove along a good road.
We met a friend on the way, a farmer, originally from
Cavan, who has cleared, and now lives upon, thirty acres of
his own land. He and his wife have added fifteen to the
population of Gaspe. He asked us up to his house, which
was very comfortable : a large sitting-room, with three con-
certinas, books, etc., in it ; a dining-room, kitchen, and nice
bedroom on the ground floor, and everything very neat
and clean. The view from his door lovely.
Monday, i$th. Our two rooms were taken off in the
middle of the night to their destination on the St. John
Eiver, and D., Archie and I soon went after them. We made
the first part of the journey in a 'waggon,' then got on
horses, and rode at a jog-walk for three hours, when we
reached our fishing-box. We gave all necessary directions
there, and then mounted again to cross to the York Eiver.
When we reached Mr. Eeynolds's camp, which is situated
on this rushing river, I got Archie some food, and then
the poor little man had to start back again, and only
reached home at ten at night. He was very proud of
his long day, which prevented his acknowledging any
fatigue.
Our host is so pleasant and kind, and we had a very
JUNE 1874 THE YORK RIVER 145
agreeable dinner ; Colonel McNeill l and Mr. Monck are also
here. Afterwards we sat round a fire outside, and then
came in to write up the game-book.
Tuesday, i6tk.It rained early in the morning, but
was sunny, though cold, during the day. I fished for a
short time, and caught, or, rather, hooked, a ' kelt ' an
uneatable salmon, which has been in the river all the winter.
D. caught one salmon of 14 Ibs., Colonel McNeill two, and
Mr. Monck two ; but it was considered a very bad day's
sport.
This is a beautiful river : numbers of pools, a very rapid
current, very clear water. The woods have a great deal of
birch in them, and the look-out is much more open than on
most of the rivers.
On our return we had dinner, camp-fire, etc., as before.
I have such a comfortable room, with carpet and curtains.
Wednesday, ijtli. D. fished vigorously all this very
wet day with no result. The only fortunate person was
Mr. Monck, who brought home two salmon, 26 and 27 Ibs.
The others caught kelt, and were very angry over those
' unclean ' fish.
Thursday, 1 8th. We telegraphed last week to Fred and
Dr. Campbell not to come, as there seems no chance of
the fishing on the St. John beginning yet ; but to-day we
hear that they have arrived. Colonel McNeill and Mr.
Monck have most kindly gone up the river to a distant
house in order to leave room for them here, as Mr. Eeynolds
insists upon having them. The day is terribly wet.
Saturday, 2Oth. Fred and Dr. Campbell arrived here
very early, having left the Druid at 5 A.M.
We had a very beautiful day as to weather, but the river
had risen so much that there was no fishing. D. and I
took a walk, and Fred upset a canoe, and sent himself and
two men into the water.
1 Major-General Sir John McNeill, V.C., K.C.B., Equerry to H.M. the
Queen.
L
146 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
Mr. Monck came down from his house with two salmon,
one twenty-nine and the other twenty-two pounds.
Sunday, 2ist. At last we have a fine day, though it can-
not be considered a ' mid-summer's day.' We took a walk,
and sat round a ' smudge ' that is, a fire of damp wood,
which smokes and keeps the black-flies and mosquitoes off.
Monday, 22nd. Nice weather, but the salmon not
rising. The river is much too high, and the current too
rapid, I went down to the pool where D. was fishing in the
canoe, and walked back by myself ; but I am advised not to
do so again, lest I should meet a bear.
Tuesday, 2$rd. Here are the statistics of our fishing so
far at York Kiver :
Mr. Eeynolds, five fish, weighing 23, 21, 33, 28,
12 Ibs.
Colonel McNeill, twelve, weighing 24, 22, 11, 18, 24,
25, 27, 25, 24, 20, 26, 14 Ibs.
Mr. Monck, seven, weighing 25, 1 1, 26, 27, 27, 23, 1 5 Ibs.
Lord D., three : 14, 13, 10 Ibs.
Fred, two : 22, 14 Ibs.
So far we have not been fortunate. Last year Mr.
Eeynolds caught ten fish himself the first day he went out.
Their respective weights were: 47, 37, 30, 12, 19, 20, 18,
30, 30, 10, the average being 25 Ibs. This is marvellous
in the way of fishing, and I record it as an interesting fact,
though I don't suppose you will appreciate it.
Thursday, 2$th. Archie arrived to-day, and Mr. Eey-
nolds left. D. had at last a good day's fishing, and came
home with six salmon: 26, 25, 14, 13, 12, 10 Ibs. Dr.
Campbell caught one 23 Ibs., and Fred nothing. The day
was extremely cold, and we were surprised that the fish
rose at all.
Our mail arrived, and in the middle of his salmon-
catching D. sent off despatches.
Friday, 26th. Fred was given the best pool to-day, and
D. went up to the ' Little Salmon Hole ' and the ' Flat Eock '
JUNE 1874 ON THE YORK RIVER 147
pool. I walked there with him, a distance of about three
miles through the woods, and Archie went up the rapids
in a canoe. He and I then looked on at the sport, he
amusing himself between times by cutting down trees with
a hatchet and by feeding a fire with wood.
D's first fish was a very lively little one, which jumped
and frisked about, and finally took him right down the
rapids. It was 12 Ibs. The second sulked, and merely
kept a good steady pull on the line, keeping it up for an
hour, and only making for the rapids at the last moment.
It weighed 23 Ibs.
Our lunch, which the men provided, consisted of lumber-
man's fare : bread fried in pork fat, and tea. We all came
down in a canoe, the stream bringing us at a great pace.
We found that Dr. Campbell had not even seen a fish.
Fred caught two, and having just finished a struggle with a
twenty-six pounder, he came home to dinner in very good
spirits. This fish was already gaffed and in the boat, when
it jumped out again, broke the top of his rod, and had to
be played for another five minutes ; so that it was a miracle
he saved it.
Saturday, 2?th. We leave to-day to go to the St. John,
so we had all our packing to do. Besides our clothes, there
were two tents to be put up, and a sledge to be transported
over the river, for carrying our goods through the bush.
D. and Fred started to walk, and a few minutes after they
left we saw a raft coming down the stream, with a little
dog upon it, and a green tree floating over his head. Then
a canoe came in sight, with Colonel McNeill and Mr.
Monck in it, and we found that the raft contained the sal-
mon they had caught, which they sent off with the dog as
its only live passenger to astonish us. They brought home
nineteen large salmon, the average being twenty-three
pounds weight. Mr. Monck had caught eight one day, and
five one evening.
We were soon after this ready for our start. Archie,
L 2
148 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
Dr. Campbell, and I rode I with a jar of cream on my
knee. Our road was very bad, trees lying across it, and
much mud and marsh to go through.
D. met us just outside our camp, and we were all
delighted with our new habitation when we reached it.
The men had worked very hard, and had made cedar-bark
paths and fir plantations round the houses. The ' village,'
over which the Dominion flag floats, consists of two large
tents for the men, and of a wooden house divided into two
rooms. The windows have green mosquito-blinds over
them, and the bed, white mosquito-curtains. There is a
washing-table, and lots of pegs and shelves, and a little bit
JUNE 1874 OVR CAMP ON THE ST JOHN 149
of carpet, which is a great luxury in the woods. A cedar
path leads to the log-house, in which there is the sitting-
room, and two little ' cabins,' in which our guests sleep.
Opposite our door a bonfire burns, and when the flies
are bad we have a row of smudges to smoke them away.
The kitchen is in another log-house on the other side,
and from it we soon had an excellent dinner.
Nowell (D.'s valet) has made all these arrangements,
and, in spite of many bites from the untiring flies, he works
away with great good-humour and skill.
Monday, 2gtJi. The first fishing on our own river. The
fishers drew lots for the pools, and Archie and I went to see
D.'s success. He only brought two home when we returned
to dine at two o'clock. The others had not seen a fish, so
D. and Dr. Campbell resolved to go down towards the
mouth of the river, the fish being only now on their way
up. There is a little house there, in which they intend to
sleep to-night. Archie went to fish in a lake close by, and
brought home fourteen trout. Some of these we ate for tea.
Wednesday, July ist. Another very bad day, but, as
it was Dominion Day, we had several flags flying and a
great bonfire in the camp. D. and Dr. Campbell returned.
They seem to have enjoyed their trip in spite of the weather,
and if it had been good they would have had splendid fish-
ing : as it was they had fished till two o'clock in the day,
and the former caught three salmon 21, 13, n Ibs. ; and
Dr. Campbell five 21, 13, 11,9,9 Ibs.
Thursday, 2nd. D. was up at a nameless pool, and
caught five salmon before two o'clock. He was coming
home when he caught the last, so he determined to bring
it down to the house. I was hungrily watching for the
fishermen's return to dinner, when I saw the canoe arriving
with D. hanging on to a salmon. This was very exciting,
and we saw the creature brought ashore without a gaff.
D. wanted me to fish in the afternoon, so about five
o'clock we went again to the nameless pool. I stood up in
150 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
the canoe, a man at each end keeping it steady with poles,
and began to throw my fly. The fish did not come, so we
changed the bait, and tried ' Jock Scot ' and ' King Coffee.'
This royal personage was large and gaudy, and had, alas ! a
very big hook. ' A rise ! ' ' He's on ! ' Then I stand firm, and
my friend jumps several times up in the air ; but I hold him
well in hand, and suddenly he spits out my fly, and is
gone ! Again we go up and down the pool with ' King
Coffee,' and then we try the ' Silver Doctor,' and at seven
o'clock another fish is on ! This one simply tugs ; he
keeps a steady pull on all the time, and I do the same by
him, and take care to give him no rest, but wind him up
every time he attempts to lie quiet ; once he jumps, and
they say he is a large one. This game goes on for some
time, and then my friend thinks he will take me down the
rapids. I am still standing in the canoe, but keeping firm
by pressing my knees against the bar across it. We went
down half a mile hand-in-hand like this, and I began to
feel that it was a question which of us would be exhausted
first. A salmon-rod with a fish at the end of it is no joke !
I began ' to wish he were dead,' and to say to myself that I
never would go through such an anxiety again, for the fish
is never safe till he is in the boat. At last we gaffed him,
brought him safely to his death, weighed him, and found
him twenty- six pounds the largest caught here this year ;
so I am very proud of ray success. The nameless pool
is now the ' Countess Pool.'
Saturday, 4th. A wet morning again. We packed up,
and went down in canoes towards the Druid, fishing on
the way. The salmon would not rise, and we had only
three to show at the end of a long day. We left our boats
in the evening, and drove to Gaspe, where we got on board
the Druid, after saying farewell to our fishermen, etc.
We meant to start at once, but there was a fog outside,
and we did not get off till four in the morning.
Tuesday, jth. A fog, and the Druid at a standstill all
JULY 1 874 THE SAGUENAY 151
yesterday, we not knowing where we were till three o'clock,
when the mist rolled away suddenly. We anchored at night
about fifteen miles from Tadousac, and came in there early
this morning. The children were looking out for us, and
Archie went ashore to fetch Nelly and Terence for breakfast,
and to show off his steering.
We landed after breakfast, and found Hermie and Basil
with outstretched arms at the top of the stairs, waiting to
give us a warm welcome. Then we saw the baby : such a
fat fairy, so pretty, with golden hair curling all over, and
large, dark grey eyes. Such a merry, happy little thing ;
she stands at a chair, and crawls about everywhere.
Friday, loth. After breakfast we got on board the
Druid the Fletchers, Lady Mary Marsham, ourselves and
Nelly and started up the Saguenay. At two o'clock we
stopped to fish for trout, but the wind rose, and we were not
very successful.
Then we proceeded on our journey, and saw a most
lovely sunset, which turned the Saguenay hills into gorgeous
masses of purple and blue with golden backgrounds. This
arm of the sea is considered one of the great Canadian
sights ; it is a reft in the rocks, and the water is very deep
right up to the sides, but the hills are all the same height,
which is somewhat monotonous. There are two enormous
cliffs or capes, called ' Trinity ' and ' Eternity,' but it was
very dark when we passed them, and we hope to see them
better on our return.
Saturday, nth. We are anchored in Haha Bay, and
D. and Colonel Fletcher started very early for a day's
salmon-fishing in a small river near. We ladies followed
later, and found that the fishers had had splendid sport.
We were able to watch them, and we had some most exciting
and terrible moments to go through ! D. hooked a salmon
in a pool, and the creature seemed very strong and large,
and after tugging more than half an hour he insisted upon
going down the rapids. D. had on great wading-stockings
152 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
and boots, and ran or stumbled through the water over
rough, round stones. At the foot of one rapid he nearly got
the fish in, but the gaffmen were inexperienced, and made
a dash at it, which frightened the salmon and sent him off
down a second rapid ; then there was another long pause,
another attempt on the part of the gaffmen, the hook came
out of his mouth, and he was gone ! However, we brought
home seven salmon, and were all very happy, and very
hungry for dinner at nine o'clock.
Branches were being planted all along the road, in
honour of the Eoman Catholic Archbishop's visit. He
comes here once in five years. D. was able to present
each of the priests with whom he was to stay with a
salmon, which was very acceptable. The Comet, and a
splendid Aurora, appeared for us to look at after dinner.
In the night we start again.
Sunday, 12th. We reached Chicoutimi this morning.
We sent a note ashore inviting ourselves to breakfast with
the Prices, and when we were dressed found Mr. Price wait-
ing with his carriages to take us to the house. The Prices
are a happy family of four girls and six sons, all unmarried,
and all living together. We found their house charming.
As you enter the gate you see through the trees the
beautiful blue water, with large ships upon it; and the
tide, when high, comes right up to the edge of the parapet.
It is a delightful summer residence. They always have a
large party in the house, and have lovely rides and drives,
and boating excursions for their guests.
They gave us a good breakfast, which we ate ravenously,
enjoying all the country fare, and the wild strawberries and
cream ! Afterwards we walked to a waterfall, and then
returned to our steamer, and waited on board, while D.
received an address. When we left we fired two guns as
we passed the Prices' house, saluted with our flag, and
exchanged pocket-handkerchief waves ! The weather is
fine and we are enjoying our sail immensely.
JULY 1 874 MURRAY BAY 153
Before we left Tadousac an Indian came to D. and said
that he wanted to go to the Marguerite, a little way up the
Saguenay, and asked if he might go with us ; D. told him
to go on board the Druid with his canoe, and there we
found him comfortably installed; but we passed the
Marguerite and many other ' stations,' and at each he
refused to get out ; so it ended yesterday in our bringing
him back again. We were much, amused at the idea of his
coming the trip with us, enjoying good fare, and returning
home again. But when we came to examine him, it turned
out to have been a misunderstanding : he wished to offer
his services to D. as a fisherman, thinking he was going to
the Marguerite, and once on board he was obliged to con-
tinue the voyage.
In the afternoon we passed under the cliffs ' Trinity '
and 'Eternity,' and went quite close to them. Trinity
rises straight out of the water 1,500 feet high, a straight
wall of rock. D. fired at the cliff, and we threw stones,
without being able to hit it ; it looks so much nearer than
it is in reality.
We reached Tadousac at nine, and Archie was on the
sands waiting for us, Terence awake in bed, and the others
asleep and invisible.
Monday, itfh. In the evening we went on board the
Druid, hoping to sail ; but there was a fog, which con-
tinued all night, and which kept us at anchor.
Tuesday, i/\tli. We could not see our house when we
first got up, but the mist cleared away suddenly, and we
immediately prepared to start. Then there was great wav-
ing of handkerchiefs from the balcony to the steamer, and
from the steamer to the family on shore. About two
o'clock we reached Murray Bay, and went ashore to see
this rival seaside place. We took a long drive in two
carriages, D. and I leading the way, and the Fletchers and
Lady Mary following. We had beautiful weather, and
thought the place quite lovely. The ground seems to have
154 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
been cut into terraces and mounds by the action of water,
and there are the St. Lawrence, the Murray Eiver, the
mountains, and some very picturesque houses to make up
the landscape. After driving for nearly three hours, we
dined on board, and saw a beautiful aurora ; and at twelve
we started again, and found ourselves on the morning of
Wednesday, 15^/1, at St. Anne. We drove off early, in
two gigs, to see some celebrated falls. The drive was nine
miles, and we passed wood-carts almost by hundreds drawn
by oxen and horses. The weather was fine, but not clear, and
we did not see the beautiful views to their best advantage. At
the end of the drive we followed a woman who was to guide
us to the Fall. She brought us up to a pretty little one,
which we decided was scarcely worth all the trouble we had
taken to see it ; but, happily, I had been told a great deal
about the St. Anne Fall, and felt sure this could not be the
right one. We questioned the lady, and as she admitted that
there were some ' little ' falls above, we determined to go on.
The walk was tremendous up such a hill, in the bush, and
with pouring rain coming down upon us. However, we
struggled on, and were rewarded by finding ourselves
suddenly in front of the Falls. The water was rushing
from a great height down a narrow gorge, forming six great
steps or waterfalls, each one with a still pool at its base ; so
that they were six separate falls, and yet but one flow of water.
By the time we got back to our carriages we were very
tired indeed, very wet, and very ready for our lunch, which
we were to have in a cottage.
The yacht's cook's mother-in-law lived on the road, and
he begged to be allowed to give us our lunch there. Nowell
tells us that when he and the cook arrived they found the
poor people busy with their summer cleaning ; the man
had two cans in his hand, and when the cook suddenly
announced to him that the Governor-General was coming
to lunch with him, he dropped both his cans, fell back into
his chair, and shrieked ' Jamais ! '
JULY 1874 57: ANNE 155
When we arrived, we found a flag at the gate, and one
on the house, and the man and his wife he not sixty, she
seventy-two, and just married to him, en seconde noce
waiting to receive us.
The first room of the cottage was a big kitchen, with a
good cooking- sto ve ; and the room behind was also very
large and very clean. In three corners were beds, sur-
rounded by chintz curtains hung from the ceiling. There
was a large stove, some chests for clothes, and a cup-
board with glass door containing china. A table in the
middle of the room was spread for lunch.
The old lady talked to me, and seemed much amused at
our having so many people to wait upon us. The cook gave
us an excellent meal, ending with wild strawberries, cream,
and maple sugar ! We soon after said a warm farewell to our
hosts, and drove back to the wharf. We ought to have
seen a church at St. Anne celebrated for miracles performed
there, and in which about 100 lame people have left their
crutches ; but we had not time to visit it.
About eight in the evening we reached Quebec, and just
as we landed the most awful shower I have ever seen came
on, accompanied by thunder and lightning. The streets
were literally flowing with water, and every spout was
spurting forth little waterfalls.
156
CHAPTEE XII
ONTARIO AND THE LAKES
Wednesday, July 22nd. Our mail arrived at Quebec
yesterday evening, and as soon as we had read our letters
we embarked on board the Druid, and began our Western
tour. We arrived at Trois Rivieres, and the Mayor came
on board at eight o'clock this morning and took us ashore,
where we found awaiting us a magnificent array of fire-
men, some in helmets and plumes, and some in full
Zouave costume.
We drove to the Town Hall, a new and very large
room for a town numbering only 9,000 inhabitants, and
there we had an address in French, to which D. replied in
the same language ; then we went on to the Roman Catholic
Cathedral, to a House of Providence, to the Ursuline Con-
vent, and to the English Church, at the same time seeing the
town, which is very pretty, with many grass corners, some
fine trees, and a very pretty square. All this we accom-
plished by 9.30 o'clock, when we returned to our steamer, and
a cannon announced that the Governor- General had gone.
He soon after emerged from his cabin as an unofficial tourist,
and we started in three carriages to see the Waterfall of the
place ; it was twenty-four miles off, and we had to be back
at 7.30, so we had no time to lose. When we got to it,
we found a very pretty fall, though not, I think, quite
worth the journey. Close to it there is a curiosity in the
JULY 1874 TORONTO 157
shape of an enormous hotel, buried in the bush, like the
palace of the belle au bois dormant, and into which no mortal
guest has ever stepped the produce of some incompre-
hensible speculation. We rowed six miles of the way back
in a big, slow thing called a ' scow/ got into our carriages,
and returned to Trois Eivieres.
There we were met by a number of young ladies and a
pile of bouquets, and symptoms of an illumination, for
which they hoped we would stay ; but we had to be off
early, in order to reach Montreal at a particular hour.
Thursday, 2$rd. We travelled by train as far as
Kingston, and thence by steamer.
Friday, 24th. After a calm night on Lake Ontario, we
landed at Toronto this morning. We had heard of guards
of honour, etc. to meet us, but found only the hotel-keeper
of the Queen's, who said our luggage was in our rooms (it
had arrived by train the night before). He ushered us
into carriages and drove us to his hotel, where we found
very comfortable rooms arranged for us.
Colonel Cumberland, the provincial A.D.C., having made
all arrangements for us, we did not even know where we
were to go, but it now turns out that he had engaged rooms
for us at the Eossin House ; however, a friend of the Queen's
telegraphed to the proprietor of that hotel, and he came to
meet us, carried off our luggage, showed us into the Eossin
House carriages, and drove to his own rival establishment.
Our steamer was in an hour earlier than it was expected,
and Colonel Cumberland was walking up and down his
verandah waiting for the proper time, and so missed us.
D. received an address of welcome from the Town
Council, and walked about to see the improvements in the
town, and at five we had tea at the Lieutenant-Governor's.
Saturday, 2$th. Archie joined us. Directly after break-
fast we drove to the railway-station, accompanied by a
guard of honour, and there we found a very smart pilot-
engine, ornamented with flowers and branches and flags
158 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
a second one, equally gay ; then a sort of open carriage,
with a canvas awning, with red pillars, and green boughs
twisted about, and bouquets in the lamp-stands ; next
this we had a very comfortable ordinary rail way- carriage,
with chairs and sofas, but when we passed stations we
went into the open one, and smiled sweetly.
The first place we stopped at was called Newmarket ;
here we got out, and, mounting a stand, received two ad-
dresses. Then we got into carriages, and drove through
the town, passing under four or five triumphal arches, to
lay the foundation stone of a church.
All the country had come into the town, and almost
every house had decorations and people in the windows.
D. laid the stone, upon which ' Straight forward ' was
engraved, was given a silver trowel, and drove back to the
train.
The next ceremony was lunch at Allendale, in a very
fine station on the borders of Lake Simcoe. It is the junc-
tion for Barrie, of which it has a lovely view ; we went
on there in the train, and passed under a fine arch close
to the station at Barrie, to receive addresses from the.,
corporation, and one from the clergy of -all denominations
in the place. There was a great crowd, and all the people
we have seen to-day seem well-to-do ; so well-dressed, and
flouri shing-looking.
Here we left our smart train, and got into a ' special '
steamer, in which we had the most delightful voyage across
Lake Simcoe : the air delicious, and the scenery beautiful ;
green, clear water, and wooded islands, and a very distant
shore. The day warm, but this travelling was perfection.
About five we came to a very curious place, called the
Narrows, where the steamer passes under two bridges, and
through a grass cutting ; having only a foot to spare on
each side, it is necessary to go very fast so as to be able to
steer. Just before we got here four steamers decorated
with flags and filled with people came out to meet us, and
JULY 1874 LAKE SIMCOE 159
D. and I stood out on the bows and bowed, and the people
waved their handkerchiefs and cheered ; then we w r ent in
procession through the Narrows. Soon we came in sight
of the hotel at which we are now staying ; it is built on a
promontory, and is a sort of garden in the bush ; the
grounds are laid out with grass, flowers, fountains, and
with summer-houses hanging over the water. Having got
through the Narrows, we are now in Lake Couchiching, and
this is the Couchiching Hotel. We passed it, however, for
the moment, and went on to Orillia. Some Indians in
canoes came out to meet us ; their flags were larger than
their boats, and one man kept making furious gesticulations
of welcome with a drawn sabre.
Orillia gave us a great welcome ; there were four or five
arches immense erections one of them rather different
from the ordinary pattern ; it w r as castellated, and was
ornamented with wheat, and with the animals of the
country, stuffed a deer on the top, birds, foxes, etc. in
various recesses. Then there were all sorts of mottoes and
good wishes, and the name of ' Killyleagh ' appeared, having
been inspired by an old shopman from Belfast.
This place is on the edge of the settled country, and on
the outskirts of the grant now set apart for emigrants. It
is most flourishing. We drove through the town, and
received two addresses on a stand in the middle of a sort
of common. Then we returned to the steamer, and made
our way to the hotel.
We dined privately, and afterwards were ceremoniously
presented to all the people in the house; we then 'repaired'
to the larger dining-room, where there was dancing. We
also had fireworks, and a band playing till eleven o'clock,
when at last we went gladly to bed.
Sunday, 26th. We went by steamer to church at
Orillia. Towards the end of the Litany the poor old
clergyman fainted ; another clergyman finished the prayers,
and we left.
160 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
D. went to see the Rector, and found that he was dread-
fully disappointed that the sermon he had prepared had
not been read ; so we are going to ask for a copy of it. It
seems he had been ill all night, and the doctor fears
apoplexy.
Monday, 2?th. D. went out fishing before breakfast,
and brought home some pretty but uneatable sun-fish.
Fred had been miserable since we arrived, his portmanteau,
containing everything he possesses, having disappeared,
and he has been dressed in borrowed plumes; but last
night it was found in the hotel. The young ladies in a
body congratulated him, and he had to make them a speech.
There was a little regatta this morning, and an Indian
canoe-race ; I gave the winners of this last their prizes,
and afterwards we started in our small steamer up Lake
Couchiching.
The first place we stopped at was an Indian reserve
called Rama. They had put up a platform and flags, and
they fired off guns, and the chief and his * young men '
met us on the wharf, and when we got on the dais they all
stood round. The Wesleyan missionary read an address,
to which D. replied that he was glad to hear that his
children were content, and that it was the intention and
endeavour of the Government to keep faith in every particu-
lar with the Indian subjects, in whom their great Mother,
the Queen, took also a special interest, etc. Then he pre-
sented the chief, Benson, with a History of the Holy Land,
illustrated, and we looked at the babies, who were being
carried about on a novel sort of cradle. It is a flat board,
on which the child lies ; at the top of it there is a skeleton
hood, which can be thrown back in the house, while out
of doors it is raised, and has generally a shawl thrown over
it. It is a most convenient cradle, as it can be set up
against a wall, or hung up on a nail, or in a tree, the child
being quite safely tied into it. It also goes flat against
the mother's back as she walks along.
JULY 1 874 MUSKOKA LAKE 16 1
We looked at the plain little church, and went into one
of the houses and distributed pipes and beads, and then
said good-bye. They sang ' God save the Queen ' in Indian.
These are the Ojibbeway Indians. The missionary, his
wife, and two nice children came with us to the next place
Washago.
This is only a temporary rail way- station, but there was
lunch in a car, an address, a guard of honour, and a founda-
tion stone of a church to be laid. After this we got into
carriages to drive fourteen miles. We stopped twice on
the way at Severn and at Gravenhurst and received
addresses. At each place where this occurs D. makes a
speech, instead of reading a formal reply. When we left
our carriages we got on to a steamer covered with flags, and
steamed along a lovely place, called Muskoka Bay, into
Muskoka Lake, and then through a most curious, narrow
river, in which we twisted and turned round islands, and
had only just room to move ; sometimes we appeared to be
going straight ashore, and then turned suddenly to one
side and were saved. This river brought us to Brace-
bridge.
Bracebridge is an entirely new town, on the border of
the New Muskoka Grant. It has grown wonderfully, con-
sidering that eight years ago the white man had not set
his foot there. A band and a crowd met us on the wharf,
and we drove through the town, the band preceding us,
the Governor-General's carriage in front, and mine behind.
I think we passed under seven or eight arches before we
came to the dais erected for the ceremony of presenting
the address. The houses here are remarkably neat and
finished-looking, and the population is almost entirely
English.
When we returned to the steamer I had an interview
with a very charming emigrant. I was very much interested
in her, and in her husband's history and their present life.
He was valet, and she was lady's-maid, with Sir William
M
162 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
and Lady Anna Stirling-Maxwell ; they married, and made
up their minds to come here. Of course, neither he nor
she knew anything in the world about farming ; but they
took the grant of 290 acres of uncleared land (in fact, of
forest), and set-to to make a home. They have been here
five years, and have two fine boys, and she was so merry,
and so happy and courageous. They do everything for
themselves, and are getting on well. Their land is good,
and, if only the railway comes to it, Bracebridge will become
an important town.
Tuesday, 28th. We slept on board, and started at
six this morning, sailing through Lakes Rousseau and
Joseph. As we passed through the lock between the two,
D. stepped ashore to speak to the few men there, and was
followed in great haste by his A.D.C. and two reporters.
His visit was quite unexpected, but one of the men made
him a very good speech, though he trembled so over it that
he could scarcely stand.
I can't attempt to describe the delightful travelling on
these lovely lakes, or to tell you particulars of the scenery,
and I have so many facts to put down that I have no time
for details.
We stopped at Eousseau, where we visited the church,
and a poor Icelandic family, and landed at the Summit
House, where we got into carriages. The drive was seven-
teen miles long, and was right through the free grants,
where any man coming out and wishing to take up a farm,
receives 200 acres of forest free. As we drove along we
saw settlers in all stages of their existence.
First we went into a neat cottage, where we found a
County Down man ; he seemed delicate. All his sons had
set up for themselves, and I think the work was too much
for him alone.
Then we saw a Parisian jeweller the merriest man !
He was turned into a hard-working farmer, and sees every-
thing in couieur de rose. He had two very nice boys.
JULY 1874 COLLINGWOOD 163
Again, we saw a Canadian and an Enniskillen man living
opposite each other, and both very happy and content.
They all say the land is good, though there is much rock
in parts of it. The finest family we saw was that of an old
soldier from Meath. He and his wife had nine children,
all beautifully dressed in white frocks with sashes, and, in
the house, one wall was covered with books. The man
was loud in his praises of the country, and would advise
everybody to come here. The whole of this line of road is
much more thickly settled than we expected ; it is through
a fine forest, and no part of it is far from a lake.
Finally, we arrived at Parry Sound, where we had
addresses and arches, and a ' sail ' in a steam-tug ; then
we went on board the Chicora, our new home for a fortnight.
She is a very large steamer, and was formerly a cele-
brated blockade-runner known as the Letter B. Now she
has storeys of cabins built on her deck. We have her all
to ourselves. This was Archie's birthday, so he dined
with us.
Wednesday, 2gth. We left Parry Sound early in the
morning, and about twelve o'clock found ourselves off
Collingwood.
Nine steamers came out to meet us, with flags and
passengers. They turned, and followed us to the town.
There we had addresses, and arches, and a drive. Two
little girls dressed as ' Britannia ' and ' Canada ' stood at
the corners of the principal arch.
When we left, the steamers followed us out for some
way, and there was a great farewell, with cheering and
shrieking of engines, as we parted company.
Our next destination was Owen Sound. The addresses
and arches you may imagine. The feature of the visit was
a drive. I found myself behind four horses and postilions,
an outrider in uniform in front of us, and about forty vehicles
following us. We drove through the town and under the
arches, and out to a waterfall. The country is very beau-
M 2
164 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
tiful ; the finest trees we have seen in Canada, and every-
thing more park-like than is common here.
We returned on board for dinner, and during that meal
went on to Presqu'ile, where there was a magnificent bon-
fire and a string of lamps. While taking in wood we
walked to the bonfire, and were given a letter and a jar
of honey.
Thursday, $oth. We went into Killarney (the Indian
name of this place signifies ' here is a channel '), and
sailed up a very narrow passage to reach it. The Indians
were collected on the wharf, and fired a salute. One of
them made a speech to His Ex., stopping at the end of
each sentence to have it translated into English ; D.'s
reply went through the same process. We also spoke
to the women and looked at the church, and distributed
knives, pipes, tobacco and beads. There was one funny
old man with a drum, who took to dancing and singing
before us.
At one o'clock we came to another Indian settlement
Manitoulin. The Indians here seemed very poor, and the
one who made the speech spoke much to this effect :
' We are glad to see you ; our wives and our children are
glad to see you, our father. We have come far to see
you, and have brought our wives and our children to see
you; and we are hungry, for we have had nothing to
eat.' D. ordered them a barrel of flour and a hundred-
weight of pork. When he replies to the Indians, they give
a deep grunt at the end of each of his sentences, which has
a most peculiar effect.
They sometimes give me presents of their work, which
I immediately pay for. At this last place there are Episco-
palian and Wesleyan missionaries; and at Killarney we
saw a Koman Catholic priest, who came in our steamer,
greet his flock in a very affectionate manner.
The evening was a little rough, but we stopped at
Bruce's Mines for the night.
JULY 1 874 SAULT STE. MARIE 165
Friday, 3 1 si. At six in the morning we went ashore
to see the copper-mines, which are not flourishing ; though
the ground appears to be covered with the mineral, and we
picked up a great many specimens.
On our way to Sault Ste. Marie we passed through a
very beautiful and curious place called the Devil's Gap.
There are a number of islands, so close together that it is
impossible to see the way between them till you come
straight opposite the channel, and then the view down each
passage is very pretty. The one we passed through seemed
only just large enough to hold our great steamer.
We stopped a few minutes at Garden Eiver, where there
was an Indian settlement, and a fine-looking chief, who
danced for us. Then we reached Sault Ste. Marie, where
we found an arch and an address, and went some way in a
boat to lay the stone of an Indian School, and had lunch
in the carpenter's shop, which the ladies had ornamented
and made very smart.
Archie was very ill all day, and frightened us in the
afternoon. Luckily, we found a very good doctor here,
who has kindly promised to come on with us in the
steamer.
Sunday, August 2nd. We arrived at the mouth of the
Nipigon Eiver this morning, and went a little way up it
in boats to see a Hudson's Bay settlement.
The gentlemen visited a store there, and came home
dressed in white blanket-coats and red caps, looking very
picturesque. At the Fort we saw a number of most miser-
able Indians, who sat huddled together, and who were
dressing their children's hair much after the manner of the
monkeys in the Zoo. These are the lowest class of Indians
we have seen.
In the afternoon we found ourselves off Michipicoten
Island, which is supposed to be very rich in agates ; but
all those on the surface have been already picked up, and
we only saw a few small specimens. The old gentleman who
166 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
keeps the Lighthouse gave me a good one, and also pre-
sented us with three splendid trout.
Monday, $rd. Our next stopping-place was Nipigon.
We passed through some very pretty scenery in coming to
it high rocks and curious-shaped hills and anchored at
a little Hudson's Bay settlement at the mouth of the river,
where our first business, in the morning, was to rush to the
store and make purchases for our fishing and camping-
out expedition knives, blankets, tin plates, mugs, looking-
glasses, flies, etc. There were a good many Indians sitting
about, and D. did the portrait of one girl, who giggled
tremendously over it. The next thing was to pack our
canoes. We had five. Ours was painted white, with
Union Jacks on the bows ; and into it got D. and I, the
Fletchers, Archie, four men, and all our blankets, luggage,
and tents. The second held the Freds, Dr. King (who
is looking after Archie), Captain Wilson (our guide), Mr.
Dixon (Archie's tutor), and four men, with a good deal
of their luggage. There were three more canoes with
baggage.
Our journey was a good specimen of the canoe and
' portage ' journeys one reads about.
Whenever we came to rapids we landed, and walked to
the head of them, the canoes and all the things being
carried by the boatmen. We had one portage soon after
we left the Chicora, and when we again got into our
canoes we passed through a widening of the river which
made quite a respectable lake. We came to a peninsula,
with a rapid rushing past it, which we thought might
be our camping-place ; so we got out, and I began to fish,
and very soon landed a good trout with my four-ounce rod.
When the rest of the party came up, they told us that this
was not our destination, so we had to cross the rapid and
portage again. We did not quite like this camping-
ground ; it was on the banks of a small arm of the Nipigon,
and we thought it damp, so, although we ate our dinner
AUG. 1874 PORTAGES 167
there, we pitched our tents on the top of the hill. The night
was cold, and a heavy dew fell.
D. and I have an ' American officers' tent,' which is a
most comfortable one, and Archie was allowed to have a
corner in it. Colonel Fletcher has a funny little tent, which
comes out of his carpet-bag, and which holds him and
Lady Harriet. All the other gentlemen sleep in one large
marquee ; and the men have three more tents.
Tuesday, 4th. We got up early, as we had a portage to
make at once ; and after a cup of coffee we set out. All the
gentlemen had to carry things, and stumbled along with
loads of blankets on their backs.
When we got to the end of this rather long portage, we
had breakfast, and started off again. The day was very
hot, and I felt the sun rather, and was not very well ; but I
managed to get along with the others. We paddled through
some lovely places, and saw some beautiful rapids, and
had three more portages. At the end of one we found a
party of Americans three doctors who seemed very nice
people. Straight opposite them, across the river, was another
camp of Americans, with a lady in it. At the site of our
permanent camp three branches of a very pretty rapid
met, and swept down the river together. Here I stood out
upon a rock and fished. On one side of me D. was lashing
the water ; then Fred Ward, barefooted, in the middle of
the stream ; then Archie, with (tell it not in Gath !) a
spoon at the end of his rod (poaching, in fact) ; then Fred
and the Doctor also fishing. None of us made great bags,
as the fish (of which there are quantities) were perfectly
gorged with shad-flies, and had no room for our delicate
baits. Those we did catch were about two pounds weight.
The cook, who carries about iron bars and sets up a fire-
place wherever we go, provided us with an excellent dinner,
and we sat round a bonfire till bedtime.
As this was our permanent camp, we made ourselves
very comfortable. The whole floor of the tent was spread
168 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
with fir-boughs, which are laid down most carefully and
scientifically by the men, and make a most delightful
carpet and spring mattress.
Wednesday, $th. Alas ! it rains. Lady Harriet and I
spent the greater part of the day in my tent ; and D., Colonel
Fletcher, Fred Ward, the Doctor, and Captain Wilson, went
off to see Lake Nipigon, which is about sixty miles long.
In the evening we fished again, and the Lake party came
home in time to try their luck which was small.
Thursday, 6th. To-day we de-camped. We began with
a portage, and arrived at the beginning of another long one
just before lunch. You have never seen such appetites as
we all had ! We were ravenous, and cleared every plate.
Thus strengthened we started again, everybody carrying
something, and some of the gentlemen with great loads on
their backs.
When we got to the end of the portage we had to wait
some time, as the men having to carry over the canoes
had to make two journeys of it. When we got into the
canoes we ran some very exciting rapids. We camped at
the ' Alexander Camp,' which I have told you of before a
charming spot, but the fishing no better than at the other
places. I wish, however, that you could see Archie catch a
trout ; the instant he gets it ashore he hugs it in his arms,
and seems to think that the danger of losing it only begins
on land. His coat suffered greatly in these struggles. D.
and I each caught one trout, and then we dined, roasted
ourselves at the camp-fire, and slept.
Friday, ?th. Off we are again, tents and baggage, and
pots and pans, packed for their last trip in the canoe.
We had a pleasant voyage down to the Chicora, and
found her beautifully ornamented for our reception, a
triumphal arch at the top of the companion, and green
wreaths over all the doors and hanging from the chande-
liers. We lunched, devoted an hour to a tremendous wash
after four nights of camping-out, and, arrayed in a little
AUG. 1874 SILVER ISLET 169
extra finery as a reaction, went to call upon Mrs. Crauford,
a lady who had sent us a jar of most delicious fresh butter.
It is six o'clock, and we have just sailed away ; and the
ever-rough surface of Lake Superior lies before us.
D. has been doing several portraits of Indians. The
translations of their names are curious, and we made the
acquaintance of a ' Naughty little Woman,' of ' She who
cries with Joy,' and of ' The Cloud that is past.'
Saturday, 8th. There was a fog on the Lake, so we
remained at the entrance to it all night, but got off early in
the morning, and arrived at Silver Islet in four or five
hours, having to pass through a disagreeable swell on our
way there. The island itself is a mere rock, originally
seventy by eighty feet ; but it has been artificially increased
fifty- seven times that size by breakwaters and docks built
all round it. A Canadian company first began to work the
mines, but, getting into difficulties, they sold them to an
American company, who are now making a great deal of
money. There is great expense in keeping out the water, as
the ' Islet ' only just rises above the level of the Lake. We
went over from the mainland in a tug, and saw all that
could be seen without actually going down the mine. The
silver is in fern-like patterns in a sort of white quartz.
The ' Captain ' of the undertaking is a ' Frew ' from Co.
Down, and talks of going home this year to put up a
monument to his mother in Bangor Churchyard.
You see, we are constantly meeting successful people from
that renowned County !
We proceeded on our journey, and passing Thunder
Cape high basaltic rocks, in places very precipitous, a fine
piece of scenery got into Thunder Bay. We landed at
Prince Arthur's Landing, and received an address under a
very hot sun. This is quite a new town, four years old ;
it looked very pretty, every house being decorated with
green, and a quantity of flags about. It expects to become
a great city. D. went out for a drive ; but as I always
170 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xii
shirk four strange horses when I can, I returned to the
steamer.
We asked some gentlemen to dinner, and we sat on the
deck and looked at the fireworks on shore. The young
men went to a dance, and enjoyed themselves very much.
Sunday, gih. We went to church in the morning, and
afterwards to Fort William, a Hudson's Bay settlement,
where we lunched with Mr. Macintyre, his wife, and their
nice daughter. It came on to thunder and rain heavily
later, and we were glad to get back to the Chicora in a tug.
Monday, loth. We had to start at five o'clock in the
morning, having seventy miles to drive. Some of us were in
a sort of char a bane, drawn by four horses, which we changed
four times en route, and the rest of the party were in smaller
carriages. We got safely to Shebandowan, where we found
about 1 20 Indians, who had all come down from the woods
to be paid their annual stipend.
They were more savage than those we have seen before,
and, though most of them wore European clothes, they had
some symptoms of the wild man about them. They are
pagans ; and there were two medicine-men, who sat on the
ground, and drummed, or * tom-tom'd,' and sang in a
dreary, monotonous tone, winding up each song with a dis-
cordant yell. One of them was painted green and yellow,
and each wore a band round his head. Their profiles were
handsome, but their full faces hideous. The interpreter
was bad, so D. was not able to say very much to them ;
but he presented them with tobacco, pipes, knives, pork t
and flour, which they probably preferred to conversation.
We went into a wigwam made of birch-bark, which looked
wonderfully roomy and clean inside.
We then got into a large canoe, and were tugged about
the Shebandowan Lake, a very pleasant and cool way of
moving about, compared to the carriage. We did not get
back to the sleeping-place, which we had passed on our
way here, till after nine ; so we dined at once, and went early
AUG. 1874 KAMANISTIQWA RIVER 171
to bed. We slept in a cottage, and the Fletchers in a
tent.
Tuesday, nth. We were again called at five, and found
a wet morning such a wet morning ! However, we break-
fasted, and, hoping for the best, drove in our shaky waggon
for five miles to the borders of the Kamanistiqwa Eiver, where
we got into canoes to paddle sixty miles. I may say here,
that the river is evidently lovely, and had the day been fine
we should have enjoyed it immensely ; but the weather was
perfectly awful, a thunder-shower lasting till one o'clock,
which wetted us to the skin long before that hour.
During this downpour we had to get out of the canoes
eight times to make portages, and you may imagine how
miserable we were walking through narrow paths in dripping
woods, our clothes heavy with rain ! The worst bit of walk
led to a magnificent waterfall, which was well worth seeing,
even though we had to stumble over roots and trunks of
trees, and in and out of pools of water, to get to it. It is
1 20 feet high, and very grand.
At one, we lunched, and the rain ceased ; we lit a fire,
and dried our cloaks, but of course could do nothing to our
boots or underclothing. A dish of hot potatoes brightened
us up, and we got on pretty well till 7.30 P.M., when we
reached a place where a steamer was to meet us. We had been
looking forward with longing to this happy termination of our
troubles ; but when we got there, we found that the steamer
had given us up, and had left ten minutes before ! We were
in despair at the idea of a further ten miles' paddle, but the
canoe-men bore it with great good-humour, and immediately
started off to race, by way of enlivening the time, and it was
very pretty to see our five canoes shooting through the
water. Our patience was rewarded, and our misery was
soon changed into joy, for some wise friend sent the steamer
back ; and when we met her we were comforted by a cup of
the best hot coffee I ever tasted.
We had promised to visit an Indian Mission on our way,
172 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
and so we did ; but the children there had all gone to bed
when we arrived, and so we just peeped at their little dark
heads as they lay asleep.
We reached the Chicora about nine, and took off our
damp things at once. I was rather ill in the night,
but none of us caught cold or were really hurt by the
wetting.
Thursday, 1 3^/1. We reached Sault Ste. Marie early this
morning, having made a quick passage from Thunder Bay
across the terrible lake. Captain Wilson, before giving up his
post as guide, took us down the rapids here, which are very
long and exciting ; and then we bade farewell to him and to
the Doctor. We have liked them both very much, and they
have been a great addition to our party, so we were sorry
to say good-bye. Dr. King is an Englishman, but has joined
the United States Army.
We had a very pretty sail down Lake Huron, and arrived
at Mackinaw late in the evening, anchoring in a little harbour
which only just held us.
Friday, i^th. A delightful voyage down Lake Michigan.
Saturday, i$ih. This morning we came in sight of
Chicago. A tug came off with our Consul (Mr. Warwick) in
full uniform, who told us all the arrangements that have
been made for our reception. The weather is beautiful.
We lunched early, and immediately after the Committee
of Eeception came on board. The President of the Com-
mittee is from Co. Down (Mr. Dickson), and his wife was
a Miss Eeid, and was at Killyleagh the day of our mar-
riage. He is very happy here, and is pleased at being so
well acquainted with us. Another member is from Killinchy
(more Co. Down).
When D. had spoken to all the committee, we adjourned
to the immense drawing-room of a gigantic hotel ; there we
were introduced to the Mayor, who made a speech, to which
His Ex. replied ; then to the President of the Board of Trade,
to the Presidents of the St. George, St. Andrews, and the
AUG. 1874 CHICAGO 173
Caledonian Societies, who all made speeches, which were all
replied to ; also to the Governor of the State ; and I think
there must have been more, but I cannot remember them.
Some unofficial introductions followed, and then we got into
the first of sixty barouches to drive through the town. We
saw the extent of the fire of 1871, and the wonderful way in
which the city has risen from its ashes ; also the effects of
a second enormous fire last July : streets, churches, etc. all
in ruins.
What I think is really beautiful here, is a drive by the
shores of Lake Michigan : the water is a lovely delicate blue-
green colour, there is no land in sight, the beach is charming,
and the lake is covered with ships. This drive forms part
of a very pretty park, in which there are small lakes, zoo-
logical gardens, etc., and lots of people about, in carriages,
and boats, sitting, walking and picnicing the most Hyde
Park-like thing I have seen on this continent.
We next visited the Waterworks, which are enormous.
We passed twice under the river through massive tunnels,
and saw a number of very handsome new streets.
The Consul sent me some beautiful flowers and fruit.
I don't attempt much description of Chicago a guide-
book and statistics would be required. I can hardly believe
I am here, and shall certainly not realise it until I see the
celebrated pig-killing machines on Monday, of which one has
always heard.
Mr. Dickson and his wife, the Consul and his sister,
General Sheridan, and the President of the Board of Trade,
dined with us on board, and at ten we drove to the hotel
where we are to stay the ' Palmer House.'
It is a palace : marble staircases, broad passages hand-
somely carpeted, and furnished with crimson-satin sofas and
chairs ; chimneypieces from Italy, in lofty rooms also beauti-
fully furnished ; pier glasses every luxury, in fact. Each
bedroom opens into a sitting-room, and off mine there is
a bath-room with hot and cold water laid on. The bed-
174 M Y CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
room has velvet-pile carpets with Aubusson patterns, plain
crimson curtains, and chairs such as I wish I had in my
drawing-room at Clandeboye.
When we arrived we were presented to the manager,
were seated in a comfortable room, and were ' elevated ' to
our flat. The manager walked along and talked amicably
to us. Pointing out the sitting-room he said, ' This is the
young gentlemen's room ' ; and then, laying hold of D.'s
arm with both hands, added, ' I don't know whether you
are to be counted among them, my Lord.'
Sunday, i6th. Such a breakfast ! No wonder Americans
despise our efforts in the way of hotels. Being out of the
Dominion, we arranged to have our meals in the public
rooms, so we went into breakfast in an enormous hall, and
sat at a small table. There were two smaller rooms off it,
filled with tables, and quantities of black waiters to attend
upon the people, and a lengthy bill-of-fare to select from.
I must say that everything was very good of its kind tea,
coffee, milk, eggs, and cookery, all of the very best, and
it was amusing to see how it was all managed.
I went to a church which was in mourning for a bishop,
and we had a curious sermon in his praise. His industry,
his good manners, his beautiful French, the graceful way
in which he could pay a compliment, etc., were all set before
us with much gesticulation ; but, in spite of all that was
odd in the description of him, we received the impression of
his having been a really good man. Everybody uses fans
in church, and the singing was ' done ' by two men and two
women.
The manager of the Hotel has placed the most magnifi-
cent flowers in my room, ' with his compliments.'
I have, you see, lost one of my prejudices already that
against the American hotel system ; and I think their ladies
dress well ; they have quite the French knack of putting on
things. We saw some girls in the Park with the commonest
untrimmed harvest-hats, and they looked smart in them ;
AUG. 1874 THE PALMER HOUSE 175
black or grey is almost entirely worn, but the simplest
materials are made up, and put on in a successful way.
At five o'clock we went into the Park for a little. All
the German population were out, sitting on the grass,
rowing in boats, eating their dinners, and spending the
day there. A band played during the afternoon. There
is the beginning of a collection of animals : two fine elk,
a small lion, two grisly bears, two buffaloes, etc.
The drive by the Lake was crowded with carriages.
Monday, ijth. After breakfast we got the manager to
take us over the Hotel. It is a^ great concern, and was a
curious sight.
There are 200 women- and 125 men-servants, and 18
cooks.
Outside the kitchen is a carving-room, in which all the
joints are on hot plates, with their own sauces in tins before
them ; vegetables also ready to be helped there. Kegula-
tions for the servants were written up on the wall ; the
first was, ' No servant is ever to tell a guest there is none
of anything until he has first been to say so to the
manager.'
A washing-up room came next, and then the enormous
kitchen, in which were two large ' kettle-drum ' cauldrons
for soup, six broiling places, an oven for beef, one for
mutton, another for veal, etc. etc., and places in the same
way for each different vegetable. We were there between
meals, and saw the chops, cutlets and chickens being
packed in tins ready for cooking ; when ready they are
slipped into an ice-cupboard in the kitchen till required.
The store-rooms are regular shops. We also visited the
bake-room, where excellent bread is made ; the pastry-room,
laundry, larders ; and finally we inspected the bedrooms.
Even the top ones are smartly furnished, and there are
eleven miles of good carpet down in the hotel.
One drawing-room is in the Egyptian style : green and
crimson satin furniture, the chimney-piece and the corners
176 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
of the chairs and sofas carved into black and gold Sphinxes.
One bedroom is done in pink satin and black velvet, but
every part of the house is most gorgeous. The bar-room
is very large, and has ten or twelve billiard-tables in it.
They gave us the most delicious lemonade there, and I
was just enjoying it when a message came to say the 'Board
of Trade ' (to which I had not intended to go) did expect
me ; so I had to get on my bonnet at once.
The Mayor, Governor, and other officials conducted us
thither, and we met together in a small room at the Ex-
, change, which was what D. expected ; but what was our
surprise at being taken from it into the enormous Ex-
change Boom, and to find it crowded with people. D. and
I were put upon a platform before them, and the President,
knocking with a hammer for silence, said : ' His Excellency
the Governor-General of Canada will now address you.'
D., who was taken quite unawares, made them a very good
speech. He had to speak at the top of his voice, for it was
very noisy outside, and there was some telegraphing machine
passing through the room, which kept up a constant
racket ; but he was heard, and what he said was very
well received. The Governor of Illinois said a few words,
and then the President asked anyone who wished to be
presented to pass by the ' north ' side of the platform,
and we shook hands with all who came up.
We next adjourned to the Grand Pacific Hotel, where
the Board of Trade gave us luncheon.
This is another palace, and I never saw an entertain-
ment better done, or with more taste. A band was stationed
in the passage, which played 'God save the Queen,' and
other music. The lunch was cold, with the exception of
hot turtle soup and coffee.
The table was T- shape, and we sat at the top, having no
one opposite us. A row of black waiters stood at the end
of the room. They wore white aprons, black tail-coats,
and white gloves, and looked so funny ' at attention,' their
AUG. 1874 CHICAGO 177
white paws crossed over their chests ; when a signal was
given, they all marched in to serve.
Again we got into our carriages, and drove to the Stock-
yards. The machinery, into which a pig walks alive at one
end, and comes out a ham at the other, had just stopped
working, but it was fully explained to us. There were
yards full of cows waiting to be sold.
I enjoyed the drive there, and if it had not been so very
long, the drive home would have been delightful, and even
in my state of fatigue it interested me much. I was so
surprised to find nine miles of boulevards that is, of broad
carriage-drive, the edges beautifully finished off, trees
planted on either side, parts of it park-like, and parts
filled with flowers. Then there are beautiful villas and
streets, in which each house has its own bit of lawn and
garden. I had thought of Chicago only as a money-making
place, and did not expect to find so much spent on beauti-
fying. I am delighted with it the place.
I had an hour's rest after my return, and then dressed
to receive any people who might come to see us. The
manager sent Lady Harriet and me beautiful bouquets for
the occasion, and when we went into his drawing-room
the flowers were a beautiful sight. One table was covered
with bouquets, which were afterwards presented to each lady
as she came in ; the chimney-pieces, etc. all over flowers.
A number of people came, another Killyleagh man
amongst them, Murdoch by name ; he only left ten years
ago, and has ' seen nothing equal to it ' (Killyleagh) since.
He took to printing, about which he knew nothing, and
seems to be flourishing.
Tuesday, i8th. D. and the other gentlemen drove off
early to see the ' Prairie,' and Lady Harriet and I went an
expedition with the Consul's sister-in-law over the shops of
the town.
The first we ' did ' was Field & Lighter, where a most
amiable man showed us everything from top to bottom. It
178 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xtt
is a very large general shop. Gloves are los. a pair; a
muslin dress, very much trimmed with imitation lace, 30 ;
and the making of a plain dress, 6, which is not cheap.
Then we went to a china-shop (all came from England),
and to a toy-shop, where I made a few purchases for my
family. We also were shown a confectioner's, or ' candy-
shop,' and we saw the picture painted in England, and sent
by the ' Graphic ' as a memorial of the Chicago fire.
Another sight was very curious. People here often keep
their own money, instead of putting it into banks, and we
visited the safes. There are small rooms, the walls of which
are lined with pigeon-holes, each having a very strong door
and lock of its own. Persons hire these boxes, have their
own keys, and sometimes go twenty or thirty times a day
to use their money. Ladies also hire these safes for
jewellery. The outside door weighs five tons.
D. enjoyed his visit to the Prairie, or ' Perairer,' as they
call it here. He shot one ' chicken ' a prairie fowl ; the
others nothing ; but they were only there a short time, and
they saw the country, which was what they wanted.
On their return we dined, and prepared for our depar-
ture. The hotel-keeper again presented us with bouquets
and enormous baskets of splendid fruit. Mr. Murdoch
came to say good-bye to his Killyleagh friends.
We travelled all night in a Pullman car, and slept very
comfortably.
Wednesday, igth. We arrived at Detroit this morning,
which seems to be a very pretty town. D., Fred Ward, and
Colonel Fletcher went by steamer to Windsor and Chatham,
but as they had to return here I gave up the expedition.
At both places D. had very warm receptions, and Colonel
Fletcher tells me he made excellent speeches.
Lady Harriet, Fred and I, walked about to look in at
shop-windows, and at five o'clock we crossed the river in a
steamer to meet D. at Windsor.
We all returned together, and were magnificently
AUG. 1 874 DETROIT AND SARNIA 179
' received ' at Detroit. The steamer stopped at the foot of
a fine, very wide street going straight up the town ; it was
crowded with people, flags flying from most of the houses ;
there were companies of United States troops, fire-engines,
police, a military band in the streets, and people sitting in
all the windows. We drove in procession through a great
part of the town, D. going first with the Mayor, Mr.
Moffatt. Detroit is very pretty : the streets are planted
with double rows of trees ; there are squares, a fine Town-
Hall, and gardens round all the dwelling-houses. At one
place the procession reached completely round the square,
the head and the tail of it meeting and passing each other.
We returned to the Town-Hall, and there we heard a
speech of welcome from the ' Orator ' of the town, and D.
made a very good reply. Two other speeches followed, all
expressing the warmest friendship to England and Canada.
The Town-Hall was illuminated. After dinner some singers
came and serenaded us.
Thursday, 2oth. This morning, at 8.30, we left Detroit,
and getting on board a most comfortable little steamer,
went down the St. Clair Eiver to Sarnia.
Mr. Mackenzie, the Prime Minister, who comes from
Sarnia, was with us, and we had a pleasant journey through
lovely scenery, and in beautiful weather.
Mr. Mackenzie was evidently very anxious that Sarnia
should distinguish itself, and looked very much pleased
when four steamers, crammed with people, and covered with
flags and green boughs, came out to meet us.
The river here joins Lake Huron, and is at this
point very narrow, Fort Huron, an American town,
being straight opposite.
When we arrived at the wharf we found a pink-and-
white pavilion erected, ornamented with festoons of red,
white and blue ; and close by it, on the one side, a very large
stand, upon which hundreds of people were sitting ; on the
other side, two tents carpeted, and arranged for a reception.
K 2
180 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xii
D. as usual replied to two addresses, and then no less
than ten were read to him by chiefs of different Indian
tribes, to which he replied in one speech. These Indians
are more civilised and advanced than those we have seen
lately, and speak with horror of the 'disgusting' war-
dance.
We went into the tents, and shook hands with everyone
who came by, and then we got into carriages to drive
through the town. Sarnia (the ancient name of Guernsey)
is a small place, but there was an immense crowd in it,
people from the country, and a trainful from London,
being there.
The first arch we passed through had a picture of the
Queen on one side, and one of D., by a native artist, on the
other. As we passed under the second, a large cheese was
lowered into the carriage, as a present. At one house
a little stand was erected in the garden, covered with
children, who cheered and waved flags. All through the
town we received the warmest welcome.
After the drive we came a couple of miles in the
steamer to the railway- station, over which some very com-
fortable bedrooms were arranged for us. We dined there,
and some of the party went to an impromptu dance at Sarnia
in the evening.
Friday, 2ist. We ventured on to Lake Huron this
morning in a small steamer, and were punished for our
temerity. The sofas and chairs danced about the cabin,
the band rushed to the side, the reporters sat drooping upon
the stairs, I lay on the floor, and we were all glad when at
four o'clock we landed at Goderich. It is a very prettily-
situated town, on a high bluff, and after an address we
immediately drove round it, and to the house of our host,
Mr. Cameron ; and about five o'clock, somewhat giddy, and
not at all hungry, we sat down to a great luncheon. When
it was over, we again took to our carriages, and drove to
the Town-Hall. It is built in the centre of the Square,
AUG. 1 874 STRATFORD 181
and every street in the town leads to it. Here we held a
sort of reception, people passing by and shaking hands.
Then we went on to see some salt-works.
In searching for oil, they found salt, and salt of the
best quality. Salt water is pumped up into shallow iron
tanks, which are heated, so that the water evaporates, and
leaves the whitest, most sparkling salt. Of course we had,
before leaving these works, to stand over glasses of
champagne, and D. made a very successful speech to the
guests assembled there. Back again to our house. Dress
instantly for dinner, and for the ball which comes after.
Dinner is my greatest trial on these occasions, for I
really can't be hungry so often in the day.
After it we went to the ball. The Curling Eink was
arranged for the occasion, and was very pretty, and there
were numbers of nice-looking girls. I left before supper,
D. directly after, and the boys some time in the morning.
On our way to the ball we saw some fireworks and a candle
illumination in the town.
Saturday, 22nd. We had to breakfast at eight, and leav-
ing our kind hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Cameron, go on our way.
An hour after starting we stopped for ' five minutes ' at
the rail way- station of Mitchell, and heard and answered an
address.
The next stopping-place was Stratford, which town was
promised 'two hours.' Here there was a guard and a
band and crowds of people, two addresses, and a drive
sedately round the town with four horses and a large
following of carriages. We went into an Episcopalian, a
Koman Catholic, a Presbyterian, and a Wesleyan church,
so that no one might be jealous; and when we returned
to the station an address was presented by some Germans.
We looked into a refreshment-room, and left everybody else
at lunch when we again got into our train.
In a short time we reached Berlin, a German settlement.
We were met by the usual number of carriages, and by
182 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
some horsemen wearing red, white and blue sashes, who
preceded us into the town, with a band playing. All the
nouses were decorated, and all the inhabitants were out.
The address was presented under an awning in front of the
Town-Hall, and D. spoke so as to make himself heard by a
large part of the crowd. I think it was a very successful
visit. A German glee club sang ' Die Wacht am Ehein ' to us.
Guelph was our last station, and resting-place for the
Sunday. Guard of honour, band, two addresses, lunch in
Town-Hall (four o'clock), our healths drunk. D. went for
a drive, and I came up to Mr. Leman's house, where we
stay. In the evening we drove to the Town-Hall to see
the illuminations, and to hold a full-dress sort of Drawing
Koom, which went off very well. On our return we had
supper ; and this time we were really very hungry, for we
made mistakes about the hours to-day, and did not eat
when we might, and then could not when we would. I
have a most charming bedroom here, everything so pretty
and nice. The hostess is very lively and pleasant, but, not
being very well at present, her mother does the honours.
Sunday, 23rd. We went to a large, new, and rather
pretty church. You can't think how we bless the Sunday !
Monday, 24th. We breakfasted early, as D. had to be
out at nine to drive over a model farm, and see some other
Guelph sights. I remained quiet until eleven o'clock, when
I joined him at the railway-station. We had only a short
distance to go, but stopped three times on the way.
We first arrived at Preston, a German settlement, and
heard an address read with great emphasis, and D. was
presented with a native suit of clothes. Gait came next,
and our object here was to visit Miss Macpherson's Home. 1
She brings waifs and strays out to Canada, and gets them
adopted by farmers or placed as servants.
There was an address at the station, after which we
drove off with Miss Macpherson to her Home. The
1 Vide ante, pp. 1, 2.
AUG. 1874 BRANTFORD 183
children were all at the door, and looked very well and
healthy. An old gentleman took us over his house to see
a view he was very proud of, and then we got back to our
train.
We visited Harrisburg, but were not expected till next
day, so we only saw a few people. Brantford is our real
stopping-place, and there we were met by guards of honour,
both foot and horse, a band, and a very great crowd. We
drove to a square, where the address was presented, and
then to a school, where hundreds of children were arranged
round the lawn. They sang, and the mistress read an
address ; but D. could not make much reply, as we had
not known of this visit, and had only just time to carry out
our programme. Half an hour was given us for lunch at
the hotel. Our rooms are most comfortable, the people who
generally live in them having furnished them for them-
selves, and having turned out for us.
Lunch over, we started on new duties. D. turned the
first sod of a railway ; and I laid a stone of a young ladies'
college now building, and His Ex. replied to the address
presented to me in a speech about young ladies, which I
recommend to all those whom it may concern. The Blind
Asylum came next, but as all the pupils were away for
their holidays, it was not very interesting. We got home
an hour before dressing-time.
The weather to-day was lovely, and the whole of
Brantford and the surrounding country had turned out in
their best clothes ; the houses were gaily decorated, and
there was an indefatigable band, which played the whole day
and evening ; some arches were up, and everything went off
successfully. D. from his speeches is daily becoming more
known to the people, and they receive him better and better
as we go on, and that is very pleasant.
The Mayor, Clergyman, President of the Senate, Captain
of the Guard, etc. dined with us a party of eighteen.
Tuesday, 2$th. You lazy people who amuse yourselves
184 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xri
all day, can scarcely imagine how difficult it is to me to
find five minutes to write in ; I seize two or three moments
before our early breakfast, enough in which to scribble down
dry facts, but I have to leave out many little things I might
tell you if I were not so hurried, and which I long to have
a record of myself.
We were in our carriages by nine o'clock, and, followed
by forty-six other vehicles, started to visit the Indian
Eeserve 52,000 acres on which the Six Nations live.
Outside the Eeserve is the oldest Protestant church in
Canada, called the Mohawk Church ; in it is a service of
plate presented to the Mohawk Indians by Queen Anne.
The tomb of the great Indian warrior, ' Captain Brant,' is
in the churchyard. We had thirteen miles to drive, and at
the entrance to the Eeserve we found an arch ' The Six
Nations' Welcome ' on one side, and on the other, ' The Six
Nations are gratified; come again.' There was another
arch farther on, where we were met by Indian bands and
Indian people ; most of them in European clothes, but a
few with feathers, etc. The interpreter is a very clever, fine-
looking man, and he was beautifully dressed in well-made,
tight-fitting tunic and breeches of deerskin, with silver
ornaments ; the sleeves were short, finished off with fringe,
and over the rest of the arm there was a long gauntlet of
wampum ; a slouchy black felt hat finished off his costume.
He looked very magnificent on horseback.
Close to the ' Council House ' was a third arch and a
great crowd of Indians, among whom were a number of
old warriors ' got-up ' in paint, feathers, etc. ; but these
adornments are no longer natural to them and are only put
on in our honour. We waited in the Council Chamber a
good room, where several curiosities were laid out for
inspection and when all was ready we passed into an
enormous arbour erected for the occasion, which was filled
with Indians and other spectators.
We sat on a dais, and listened to an Indian speech,
AUG. 1874 THE SIX NATIONS RESERVE 185
which was translated to His Ex., who replied in English,
stopping at the end of every sentence for the interpreter
to put it into Indian. The words of the language are very
long, and the Indian speech took twice as long to deliver as
the English one.
When this was over, the old chiefs shook hand with us,
and there was a great rush of women, many of whom pre-
sented me with things. One pinned a little silver brooch
into my dress. She was a very handsome-looking person,
and wore a large straw hat and a great cloak, underneath
which one saw cloth gaiters, worked in beads.
The next ceremony was a war-dance. Seven men took
part in it ; but the shrieks which accompanied it were more
curious than the dancing. The Indians then gave us a
great luncheon and some excellent tea, and we were waited
upon by most respectable native girls, who have been to
school, and who are quite civilised.
[Here I was interrupted, and for three days it has been
impossible to write a line, so busy have we been.]
After leaving the Indians we drove on to the farm of
Mr. George Brown, editor of the ' Globe,' 2 senator, great
' champion ' of the Grit party, and amateur farmer. His
place Bow Park is so called because the river forms a
bend there. He goes in for Shorthorns, and has 300 of
them. I was amused to find that, with this number of cows,
he has not sufficient milk to make butter for his own house,
so ' exigent ' are the calves, who expect to have a wet-nurse
as well as a mother, and who, being very precious, have to
be humoured and pampered in this way. They also go on
being nursed till they are almost grown up. What sur-
prised me was to see a second crop on nearly all his fields.
That is his method : to cut the green food, and carry it to
the cows, and so to get second crops from off the whole
farm. When we had looked at each beautiful but expen-
sive animal, we adjourned to a tent, and had dinner. Mr.
- The Globe newspaper of Toronto,
186 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
Brown proposed His Ex.'s health very nicely. He was one
of D.'s opponents during the Pacific Scandal, and he said :
' There may have been a time when some of us may have
differed with and found fault with the Governor-General's
policy ; but now that we have the means of understanding
and knowing him better,' etc., etc. Everyone laughed, and
enjoyed the allusion. The drive to Brantford brought us
there at eight o'clock, and I had at once to dress for a recep-
tion at the Town-Hall, which went off very well. But you
see that, as D. says, we 'work our passage.'
Wednesday, 26th. Off at 9 A.M. as usual. We drove to
Paris, where we were received by the Mayor and the people,
and drove a mile and a half, at a foot's pace, to the railway-
station.
The town is prettily situated, and takes its name from
the gypsum in its neighbourhood, of which it makes plaster
of Paris. The station was most beautifully decorated :
at one end of a square was the platform, raised, carpeted,
covered in with flags and hung with green garlands and
bird-cages, and all the telegraph-posts down the railway-
side twined with green and joined with garlands.
Addresses, of course, were read, and then we shook hands
with numbers of people ; amongst others, with a woman who
came from Clandeboye a year ago, and who seemed almost
mad with excitement at seeing us. She asked to kiss D.'s
hand, but he said : ' I could not allow a lady to kiss my
hand.' ' Then may I kiss your face ? ' D. got out of this
embarrassing position by saying, ' Lady Dufferin does not
allow that.' Woodstock was our next destination. The
address was at the station, and we drove out to the place
of Mr. Alexander, a senator, where a great public picnic
was given in our honour. D. had to reply to an address
from the county, and to return thanks for his own and for
my health, which were proposed separately at lunch ; mine
by a farmer, who did it rather well, referring to William's
speech on revisiting Holland, when he said that the welcome
AUG. 1874 LONDON 187
would have been greater if ' Mary had been with me.'
We met here a Southern gentleman, Mr. Fearn, whom
we had known eleven years ago in England ; and the three
pretty Misses Alexander.
Then on to Ingersoll, a small town, well and compactly
built, where we drove through well-decorated streets, followed
by guards, firemen> and people, to the School. Ingersoll is a
great cheese-making place, and there was an arch made of
cheeses, the motto on it being, 'Cheese, the making of
Canada.' We drove out in procession to a cheese-factory,
and saw the whole process of converting new milk into
cheese in five hours. The Sunday milk has to be used for
butter, as for the cheese-making it must be quite fresh.
We always feel glad when we approach our sleeping-
town, and at 6.30 to-day we got to London. We had been
here two years before, but the people gave us as warm a
reception as if this had been our first visit.
It was almost dark when the address-ceremony was
over, but the streets were crowded, and we were conducted
by all the people to Major Walker's house. Over the gate
was a beautiful, illuminated arch. I had a room furnished
with the prettiest specimens of Canadian maple furniture
I have ever seen. Mrs. Walker is a German, and very nice,
and she gave us a quiet dinner, for which we were so
thankful to her.
D. had to go out to a ' concert,' and found that he was
expected to speak for the ninth time to-day !
Thursday, 2jth. We were routed out directly after
breakfast to go and open, and name, the ' Victoria Park,'
and then we proceeded to the Town-Hall, where we held a
reception and ate a lunch. It was given by the town, and
there were 'about 1,000 people in the room. D.'s health was
drunk, and he made a very good speech in reply, and we
got off to the train by 1.30. In an hour we arrived at St.
Thomas. I need not enter into all the usual reception
business arches, guards. We had a drive, and saw a
188 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xii
wonderful wooden railway-bridge, and were taken to another
rail way- station, where we were introduced to heaps of
people ; and then, just as we were getting into our carriage,
the Mayor, horror-stricken, exclaimed : ' But the lunch ! you
must come and lunch.' D. consented to run in for a
moment, and got through three speeches. On the return
to the carriages Colonel Fletcher says the Mayor was in
despair 300 or 400 dollars' worth of lunch, and nobody to
eat it. He had been there fifty-six years, and never re-
ceived a Governor-General before, and said : ' I know you
will never come back.' It was quite touching, and I really
longed to eat some of the lunch. \
Simcoe is a very pretty rural town, which we reached
in an hour's time. It had made great preparations for us
no less than nine arches, and every house streaming with
flags, and yards and yards of red and blue and white stuffs.
The Court-House was very prettily arranged with a covered
platform outside, where the address was read. We went
to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, at their charming
little country-house, out of which we had to turn after
dinner to see fireworks and illuminations, and to be intro-
duced to people on the aforesaid platform. In the night
there was a real fire, caused, I fear, by these honours to us,
and the Freds both worked hard till two in the night, carry-
ing buckets, and helping to put out the flames. When D.
next morning expressed his regrets that such an unfortunate
accident should have occurred during his visit, the Mayor
politely assured him that it was a very good thing and
would greatly improve the town.
Friday, 2%th. We drove to Waterford, first visiting the
schools at Simcoe. There, and at Dean's Corner and
Welland, we stopped for addresses from the counties, and
at four we got to St. Catherine's. It is near Niagara, and
is celebrated for mineral waters. The town is very pretty,
houses and trees being mixed everywhere.
The arches here were of new patterns. One represented
AUG. 1874 SWING BRIDGE OVER THE NIAGARA 189
a ship with the yards manned, and a large boat, filled with
people, hung from the centre of it. One was made of
carriage-wheels, one of chairs ; and across the street, in
one place, a man was slung, apparently sitting in an
umbrella. One flag had : ' Hamilton Killyleagh Castle,
County Down For Ever,' written on it. The prettiest
arches to look at were some with mottoes in very large-
headed tin nails on red cloth. The Eoyal Arms were also
done in this way, and were quite lovely.
A platform was erected in the middle of the market-
square, and D. spoke from it. Strings of green and flags
were hanging from side to side of the street.
We drove slowly through the crowd to the Schools, and
on to the hotel. Being very tired, I escaped a dinner that
was given by the town ; nor did I go to the fireworks,
which were really beautiful. D.'s arms were done, and
great bouquets of coloured ' candles ' finished off the dis-
play. When he came back, I held a reception with him.
Now I have had to write all this at once, so I have only
given you the slightest account of all our doings and of all
the kindness we meet with everywhere ; but even the short-
hand reporters have been unable to keep up with the de-
scriptions they ought to write, so you must forgive me.
Saturday, 2gth. D. went to the Welland Canal Works,
and Lady Harriet, Fred Ward, and I met him in the train a
short way from St. Catherine's, where we went to see a great
bridge which Colonel Gzowski has ' thrown ' across Niagara
Eiver.
I told you two years ago that we saw it being built.
This time we crossed over it, and on our return stopped
in the middle, and waited to see the way it opens to let
ships pass. We stood on an immense piece of it resting
on three piers ; the two ends were detached by machinery,
and we swung on the centre pier straight up and down the
river. It was beautiful to see how easily it worked, and
curious to look at our train left standing at the edge of a
190 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
precipice ; then we swung back, and the rails and all
joined together again. Opposite the Falls we got into
carriages, and drove down to see them again. The second
visit lifts Niagara in my estimation above all disappoint-
ment, and, after great experience in waterfalls, I can say
that none approach it. We saw it in beautiful sunshine,
with a perfect rainbow joining the Falls. When we had
quickly admired them, we proceeded in our train to the
town of Niagara, which is fourteen miles away.
Here we stopped at the door of Mr. Plumb, who is to
be our host for a couple of nights, and having had a cup
of tea, went on to the Court-House, which we found prettily
decorated, and where an address was read and presenta-
tions made.
Sunday, 30^. We drove to church, and went into the
Eectory afterwards to see Mrs. McMurray, who is a celebrity
in her way. There is an account of her in a book called
' Winter Studies and Summer Eambles in Canada,' by
Mrs. Jamieson. She is an Indian half-breed ; her father
was an Irish gentleman of good family, but she spoke
nothing but Indian till she was fifteen. Dr. McMurray, a
missionary, married her. She is now a very tall old lady,
with a great deal of the Indian peeping out ; but as she is
proud of her nationality, that is as well.-
We made a round on our way home, to drive through an
oak park on the borders of Niagara Elver. The quiet of
Mr. Plumb's place is delightful : it is a red brick villa, with
a Mansard roof, and a large new dining-room just added
on. He has three sons and three daughters at home. He
himself is an M.P., American by birth, Canadian by adop-
tion.
We see peaches and grapes ripening in the open air,
and the weather and climate in summer are delightful in
this part of the country.
Monday, 31**. We left Niagara in a steamer, and
crossed Lake Ontario in the most lovely weather.
AUG. 1874 TORONTO 191
The chief excitement of this trip was caused by my maid.
She was rushing to the waiting-room to fetch a parcel,
when the steamer went off without her, and she ran about
the wharf gesticulating in the most excited manner. We
put back for her, and got her on board on the verge of
hysterics. I kept safely away until she had had time to
calm down. We went to the Queen's Hotel at Toronto, and
in the evening I took a walk in the streets with D. As we
were walking along, a man looked over his shoulder, and
said : 'It is quite pleasant to see you going quietly like
that,' and then entered into conversation with us respect-
ing our tour, and especially about our reception by the
Americans.
D. and Fred went to a theatre after dinner, where D.
, was recognised, and received with cheers. The actors, who
were in the midst of a tragic part, could not imagine what
the noise was about.
Toronto: Tuesday, September ist. D. looked at a
regatta, and lunched with a rifle-club. There he made a
speech. I did nothing until the evening, when we dined
with Mr. Howland. He has a nice house, and, although
the dinner was rather long, it was very pleasant. There
was a Southern general, with one leg and one arm, who sat
by me, and told me his wife was the most distinguished
woman in the South, as she had seven children under five
years old two pairs of twins amongst them.
Wednesday, 2nd. D. went again to the Eegatta, and to
give away the medals won. In the evening he dined at
the Club, and made (people say) an exceedingly good speech
there. The hearers were quite enthusiastic, and besides
continual cheers during the speech, they stood up and
cheered for fully five minutes after he had finished.
In speaking of our tour, D. said, ' Never has the head
of any Government passed through a land so replete with
contentment in the present, so pregnant of promise in the
future. From the northern forest border . lands, whose
192 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xii
primeval recesses are being pierced and indented by the
rough-and-ready cultivation of the free-grant settler, to the
trim enclosure and wheat-laden townships that smile along
the Lakes ; from the orchards of Niagara to the hunting-
grounds of Nipigon ; in the wigwam of the Indian, in the
homestead of the farmer, in the workshop of the artisan,
in the office of his employer everywhere have I learnt that
the people are satisfied : satisfied with their own individual
prospects, and with the prospects of their country ; satisfied
with their Government, and with the Institutions under
which they prosper ; satisfied to be the subjects of the
Queen ; satisfied to be members of the British Empire.'
Thursday, ^rd. Hitherto we have been hot. To-day
we were very cold. It rained a great deal, and we had our
first experience of this sort of tour in wet weather.
When we began our journey again : Whitby was the first
place we stopped at. Soldiers held a tarpaulin over our
heads while the address and reply were being ' got through,'
and an umbrella-covered crowd stood around us. Then we
got into a carriage, and drove to a platform in front of the
High School. The poor children had taken great pains
with their decorations, and there were V.E.s and D.s in
every pane, and garlands on the walls, and children in
white standing out in the rain.
Next we went to a college about to be opened. An arch
at the entrance was very prettily done. Children in pink,
white and blue stood all round the top of it, forming a
lovely decoration if only the sun had shone upon them !
This college is called ' Trafalgar Castle,' and the house was
built as a private residence, but had to be sold. There
was another address, and presentations in the drawing-
room.
Bowmanville came next, but the rain poured so heavily
there that we hurried through three addresses as quickly
as possible.
At Port Hope the rain ceased. But as the carriage drove
SEPT. 1874 CO BURG 193
up here I conceived a dislike to the horses provided for us,
and as we went jogging uncomfortably along I disliked
them more, and D. made me get out and return to the
station. In this way I missed seeing the town, which is
very prettily situated, and also missed a sad and fatal
accident which occurred. In the Fletchers' carriage, which
was second, there were also some spirited horses. Of
course there was a great noise, a crowd, bands, escort of
cavalry, shouting, etc. ; in fact, all the things which, com-
bined with fatigue, have made me terribly nervous during
our various processions through the towns.
The carriages stopped while a school sang ' God save
the Queen ' ; and just as they were going on, a poor woman
rushed forward to look, and got between the first and
second carriages. The horses could not be pulled in, and
she was knocked down, and killed on the spot. I fear she
has many children, but the Mayor has not yet sent us
particulars.
At five o'clock we reached Coburg, and had an address
or two, I think at the Town-Hall. A Drawing-room after-
wards. The rest of the evening, wonderful to say, was
unemployed. We are in a most comfortable hotel.
Friday, ^.th. We left the house at 8 A.M., and went
by train for half an hour to Eice Lake, where we got into
a steamer.
Kice Lake is very pretty indeed, and is so named because
of the wild rice which grows there. We had one address
on the way, as we passed through the lock at Hastings.
The reeve there was a most amusing old man, and told
us he had been waiting fifty years for a nobleman to come
and see him.
The final object of our expedition was an iron-mine, and
we had to go a short way in a train to reach it. I did not
expect to care the least about it, we have seen so many
untidy, stony, barren places called mines ; but this one
was really an interesting sight.
o
194 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
We found ourselves at the top of an enormous hole or
cavern (these words are too small for it), 140 feet deep,
and large in proportion, perfectly open, and light as day.
The men looked like imps as they worked below, and it was
a sort of thing one sees represented, in miniature, in a
fairy play. The sides were walls of iron ; but, alas ! the
coal is in the States.
When we returned to the steamer we found a barge
tied to its side, covered in with green a floating arbour
in which lunch was laid ; and very glad we were of
it, as we breakfasted at 7.30, and it was now past two.
The managers of the mines, steamers, etc., are Americans,
and we were their guests. Colonel Chamblis and General
Fitzhugh, with their wives (two sisters), were our hosts;
they live in the hotel, and are charming Southerners.
There was great anxiety about the time of our return,
as a banquet and a ball were to follow. From the beginning
I had said I would not dine, and I withstood very severe
sieges upon the subject ; but I was glad I had refused
when I found we did not reach Coburg till 7.30, after eleven
hours' outing. We were met by a torchlight procession,
and as my carriage was drawn by men, and not by wild
horses, I enjoyed it. The firemen presented me with an
enormous bouquet as I got out of the carriage.
All the other ladies had to rush home to dress, and Lady
Harriet and I enjoyed a quiet tea.
We went down to look at the dinner-table, which was
beautifully arranged (in the hotel). It was shaped to repre-
sent the deck of a yacht, and two pillars which supported
the ceiling of the room acted as masts, the rigging being
properly arranged from them. There was a tiller and a
bowsprit in fact, the idea was completely carried out,
and in front of D. stood a cake, on which was inscribed
the word ' Foam.' 3
D.'s health was drunk, and the company were delighted
s The name of the vaght in which Lord D. went to Iceland.
SEPT. 1874 BELLEVILLE 195
with his reply, which brought all the guests to their feet.
The dance was in the same room, and was very pretty and
successful. I was at it for a short time.
Saturday, $th. At our posts again at 9 A.M. A tender
farewell to Coburg, and a warm 'How do you do?' to
Belleville.
The station was three-quarters of a mile from the town,
and we had a slow march all that way, and all through the
town to the place where the addresses were read. Then
out to a great institution for the deaf and dumb. The build-
ing is on a fine site, and is most airy and cheerful. The
pupils were collected in a large room, and on the wall, in
green letters, was written, ' Accept our silent welcome.'
Dr. Palmer, the head of the institution, brought forward
some untaught children just arrived, and showed us how
he began to teach them so as to give them their first
ideas. It was very interesting to see their expressions
of dawning comprehension. Dr. Palmer then showed us
other children in various stages. One little girl, who
had just returned from the holidays, having got a little
rusty during her absence, made the most curious faces
of disgust with herself when she made a mistake, and
the most piteous sort of sound, between a laugh and
a cry.
A deaf-and-dumb teacher next came forward to show
us the sign-language, and in pantomime told us a story ;
it was a wonderful piece of acting. He afterwards (in the
same way) told the story of Christ stilling the storm ; and
I don't think that the reading of the passage could be more
impressive than the way in which he conveyed the narrative
to us by signs. I thought, when he began, that, coming
after the comic story, it might seem irreverent ; but it had
a most solemn and reverential effect. D.'s speech was
interpreted into signs as he spoke it, so we saw the method
well. No word is spelt ; every sentence is in signs. They
all ' did ' ' God save the Queen ' in this way before we left.
o 2
196 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
This interesting entertainment made us unpunctual for
the first time during our tour, and we had to run in and
out of Miss Macpherson's Home, and to cut Napanee very
short indeed, so as to get to Kingston at the right time
that is, about six ; and after the address we had to drive
some way, and go in a steamer to Mr. Cartwright's, where
we stay.
I felt very unready to go back to Kingston after dinner
to hold a reception ; but it had to be done, and through
rain and lightning we returned there.
There were a great many people in a brilliant room, and
after we left the ' young things ' danced, but I have not
yet seen them to hear about it. I have forgotten to mention
that Brother Fred left for England on the morning of
the 3rd.
Sunday, 6th. Kingston is prettily situated, almost at
the beginning of the Thousand Islands ; and sitting under
the trees here and resting is delightful.
Monday, jtli. We have had a lovely journey through
the Thousand Islands, the weather being beautiful. We
had a comfortable steamer all to ourselves, one full of
people following us. When we came in sight of Brockville,
a hundred small row-boats came to meet us ; each one had
a lady in it, and a flag, and it was a very pretty sight.
When we landed we got into a carriage, and the horses
immediately stood upon their hind legs ; and as continual
experiences of the sort have spoilt my nerves, I got out,
and took a lower place behind two lambs ; these, however,
had the misfortune to run their noses up against a flag,
and shied fearfully ; so I was really delighted to think that
this was my last drive.
Here D. made a speech, in which he gave some account
of our reception at different places, and said, ' During the
six weeks my tour has occupied, I believe that I have re-
ceived something like one hundred and twenty addresses,
every one of which breathed a spirit of contentment, loyalty,
SEPT. 1874 BROCKVILLE 197
and kindness. In fact, from first to last, no harsh, despond-
ing, or discordant note has marred the jubilant congratu-
lations of the nation. But the demonstrations with which
we have been honoured have not been confined to mere
vocal greetings. It would be impossible to describe either
the beauty or the variety of the triumphal emblems which
have glittered on either hand along our way. In addition
to the graceful and picturesque decorations of evergreens,
flags, tapestry, and prismatic canopies of colour from
window to window, with which the towns were gay, we have
passed under a number of the most ingenious and sugges-
tive arches. There was an arch of cheeses, an arch of salt,
an arch of wheels, an arch of hardware, stoves, and pots
and pans, an arch of sofas, chairs and household furniture,
an arch of ladders, laden with firemen in their picturesque
costumes, an arch of carriages, an arch of boats ; a Free-
trade arch, a Protectionists' arch, an arch of children, and
last of all an arch no, not an arch, but rather a celestial
rainbow of lovely young ladies ! Indeed, the heavens them-
selves dropped fatness, for not unfrequently a magic cheese
or other comestibles would descend into our carriage. As
for Lady Dufferin, she has been nearly smothered beneath
the nosegays which rained down upon her, for our path has
been strewn with flowers.'
We had a reception in the Victoria Hall, and then
returned to the train. We stopped at Smith's Falls, where
there was a charming little reception, though we did not
go farther than the station. We also stopped in the same
way at Carleton Place, and D. made his last speech. Two
Ministers, M. Letellier and M. Fournier, met us at Smith's
Falls, and at Ottawa all the Ministers came to the station.
They are all pleased with the success of the tour, and de-
lighted with the Toronto speech.
A fine guard of honour met us at Ottawa. The Governor-
General's guards looked splendid, and even our Colonel was
satisfied.
198 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xii
We gave a sigh of relief when we got home. The house
looked so nice : a cheerful little fire (merely for the look of
the thing) in the drawing-room ; Fred's office grown, and
with a fine glass side to it ; my bedroom re-papered and
new-carpeted, and looking so large after all the various rooms
and cabins I have slept in ; the quiet so charming, and the
idea of not having to catch a train in the morning, of not
having to reply to an address, of not having to visit three
or four towns before we go to bed again, and of having
' got through ' with flying colours delightful !
We asked our faithful reporters and Colonel Cumber-
land to dinner, and we congratulated each other all the
time.
So ended our tour of 1874, which has been very de-
lightful, though I am so glad of a rest now.
199
CHAPTEE XIII
WINTER AND SPRING, 1874-75
Ottawa-. Tuesday, September i$th. We opened the
Dominion Eifle Match, and I fired the first shot, and am
said to have made a bull's-eye which some people won't
believe, in spite of my having received an engraved silver
tablet in commemoration of the event !
Saturday, October $rd. D. went out hunting. They
had a very good drag for about twenty minutes, and then
a bagged fox was let loose ; but he sat quietly looking at
the hunt, and refused to stir. The man near gave him a
kick, upon which he ran at him, and after him with open
mouth; and at last he bolted into a wood, and so was
altogether a failure.
Saturday, loth. We have received invitations from
New York : one to D., from some of the principal men there,
inviting him to dinner on Monday, iQth ; and one from
Mrs. Wilson, asking if she might issue invitations to meet
me on the same afternoon.
Monday, i2th. We set off on our journey to New York,
leaving about ten in the morning and travelling all day and
all night till we got to our destination the next morning.
Tuesday, 1 $th. When we arrived the town looked gay
and bright so many creepers and trees, and bits of gardens
and lawns ; but the day was dull and cold. We had visits
from some people, made some engagements, and took a
good walk down Broadway. Mr. Duncan sent us a box for
200 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xm
' Madame Angot,' to which we went, and enjoyed it much.
We are at the Brevoort House, which is comfortable, but
very dear. Our rooms and one fire are $18.50 a day,
and the servants' board and lodging will be (#5) il. a day
each.
Dinner is made disagreeable to me by the menu having
a price attached to each thing. I do not like, when eating
my soup, to know that my share of it is 75 cents, and that
my potato costs 30 cents, and that ' some more ' will go
down as another order on the bill. Seeing the prices enables
one to be economical, if one wishes, but it makes that virtue
even more disagreeable than it usually is.
Wednesday, itfh. Mr. Sam Ward called, and I believe
some engagements are made with him. I went to do a little
shopping, wanting, among other things, a dark parasol. I
was asked 61. for a very ordinary black one, with a little
silver at the handle.
In the afternoon I set out on a round of visits, and found
the distances immense. I had to go to 74th Street, which
is miles away, and D. started to walk there, and pitied him-
self very much. In the evening, having had an opera-box
given us, we took the Fletchers to see 'Buy Bias.' The
performers were not of the Patti order. The house is fine,
though too bare-looking. It wants some more boxes and
more shade. The box we had was very open, and had none
of the privacy of an English one.
Thursday, i$th. This evening we went to a theatre
owned by Mr. Stuart, and were very much amused by a
thoroughly American piece from Mark Twain's novel of * The
Gilded Age.' The house was very full, and the people seemed
especially pleased at jokes which alluded to the corruption of
their own Legislature. The heroine shoots her false lover with
a revolver, and the last act caricatured a Yankee court of
justice, with its appeal to the feelings of the jury, and its
verdict of ' Not Guilty,' though the murder was completely
proved. The principal actor was excellent Eayrnond by
OCT. 1874 NEW YORK 201
name and the woman was good in the tragic parts, but
looked much too wicked in her innocent days at the begin-
ning of the play.
Mr. Stuart told me he made 2o,oool. a year by his
theatre. He is getting up Sunday concerts, to ' relieve the
loneliness of the Sabbath evening.'
Ladies go to theatres in bonnets, and were not very
smart at the opera.
Friday, i6th. I saw Sir Edward Thornton, who called,
and at the appointed time D. and I started for General
Wilson's house in 74th Street. I was in a morning gown
and bonnet, but found my hostess in a low dress ! Everyone
else, however, was like myself, and only those took off their
bonnets who (I suppose) looked best without them. I had
to do duty, standing at the door all the time, and shaking
hands with everyone, for two hours.
Mr. Sam Ward sent me a most lovely bouquet of pink
and yellow rosebuds for this reception.
Saturday, ijth. We drove through Central Park to
Jerome Park, where the races took place. We were in
the Jockey Club stand, opposite the Grand Stand, and the
horses passed twice between the two, so that we saw both
the beginning and the end of the race very well.
Sir Edward Thornton dined with D. and me, and we
took him to a theatre in which we had been given a box.
We had not been there three minutes before we found it
was such a piece which we could possibly not stay to see.
Imagine the history of the temptation and fall of man in
burlesque upon the stage !
Sunday, i8th. We went to an unsatisfactory church to-
day : little service and much sermon. I walked home, and
met all the world doing the same. As a crowd, the Americans
are better dressed than we are, but I do not think that they
excel our best-dressed people, such as appear at Ascot or
Goodwood ; and they are not, to my mind, so pretty. We
dined with Mr. A. T. Stewart, a Belfast man, who came out
202 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xin
here at sixteen, and must be very rich. His palace is
entirely of white marble. In our honour the dinner was
at six instead of at three. A silver dish- cover lay before
Mr. Stewart ; at each course it was removed, the dish of
food put in its place, to be looked at for a minute, then
taken away to be helped, and the cover replaced. When it
was over we saw the picture-gallery and the house. I liked
Mrs. Stewart she seemed very simple and natural. We
sat in each room in turn : a little in the drawing-room,
a short time in the library, a few minutes in the billiard-
room, a little while in her bedroom, etc. The latter is very
beautiful, and I suppose it is slept in, but it does not look
as if it were.
There was a lady there who was just like a conven-
tional Yankee on the stage. She announced, first, that she
had told her husband she would never put on black for
him, as she meant to marry again as quick as ever she could.
Then she informed me in a light and cheerful manner that
she had had convulsions every Sunday since January, and
that this was the first occasion upon which she had not been
ill ! She next proceeded to tell her domestic troubles, and
how she had had to get a policeman to turn her cook out of
her house. When she got so far, a more fashionable person
came up, and would talk ' opera ' to me, so I heard no more.
Monday, igtli. I walked in the streets, and paid a
number of visits, and in the evening I went to the opera
with Mrs. Stevens. It was ' Euy Bias ' again, as Albani,
who had just arrived, was too unwell to sing yet. C. Yznaga
was the young lady of the party, and there was a stream of
young men passing through all the time. No one seemed
to dream of listening !
D. was dining with thirty gentlemen at Delmonico's ; the
dinner went off well, and there were no speeches.
Tuesday, 2Oth. D. had a breakfast given to him by
Mr. Sam Ward, which he liked immensely, and in the
evening a dinner, which he also enjoyed.
OCT. 1874 NEW YORK 203
Thursday, 22nd. We started off before nine in the
morning to a railway-station, where we were met by Mr.
Dudley Field, and went by train to Parrytown.
There a coach-and-four, driven by Mr. Dudley Field,
junr., awaited us. We were glad to see the country ; there
were pretty villas all along, and a capital road. The view
ought to have been lovely, but a fog hung over the
Hudson, and hid its opposite bank. We returned by road
to Irvingstown, where we saw Washington Irving' s ' Sleepy
Hollow,' passed in front of Cyrus Field's house to see the
view, and then stopped at Dudley Field's, junr., for lunch,
or rather breakfast, for we had only had a cup of tea
before starting. Everyone was very kind, and we enjoyed
it very much ; then we drove back to the station and re-
turned to New York.
Friday, 2$rd. Another country day. This time we
took the ferry, and went over to Orange Valley, where Mrs.
Yznaga lives. She gave us Spanish and Cuban dishes ;
the first, ' gumbo,' a curious gelatinous soup, with oysters,
chicken, sassafras leaves, and red pepper in it. Then a dish
with rice and tomatoes in the middle, grilled chicken and
fried bananas round ; then various sorts of light pastry, and
chocolate to drink. We returned about four o'clock. Our
party consisted of Miss Stevens, Madame van Hoffman, and
Bret Harte.
We dined with Mr. and Mrs. Morton, and met Mr. and
Mrs. Duncan, Mr. and Mrs. Eandolph Eobinson, General
Taylor, and Consuela Yznaga. We dined at 6.30, as we
were all going on to the opera. They gave us a very nice,
pretty dinner, and we only missed the first act of ' Lucia,'
and enjoyed the rest very much. Albani, who sang for
the second time here, was very well received, and we are
proud of her as a Canadian.
Saturday, 24th. We went with Mr. Duncan to see Mr.
Belmont's picture-gallery, and on to the house of a gentle-
man who is rich, and collects pictures. D. then went with
204 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xm
Mr. Bierstadt to see his pictures, and afterwards made a
round of galleries.
In the evening we saw ' The Eomance of a Poor Young
Man ' acted by Mr. Montague, whom the young ladies here
call ' a lovely man.'
Sunday, 2$th. D. had to leave for Washington before
nine o'clock, so we dined quietly with some very nice
people. It amused me to observe in what way their dinner
differed from one we should give. Their house is handsome
and comfortable, and they are very rich ; but their table was
large for the number of people, and had absolutely nothing
on it not a bonbon, a flower, a bit of china, a candle,
a bit of food so it looked very bare. We had oysters,
soup, fish, an entree, cold beef as a compliment to the
Sunday and a hot pudding. The cloth was then taken
off, and we sat at a mahogany dessert-table once again.
Monday, 26th. D. went to Washington, where he
arrived at six in the morning, and was just settling down to
a quiet sleep in his train-bed, when he heard Sir E. Thornton
had come to meet him, so he had to jump up at once. Sir
Edward gave him a cup of tea, and took him a walk, then
breakfast, and then a drive to all the sights. He saw the
President, who was very civil and called upon him, and Mr.
Fish, and then started for Baltimore, where he slept.
Tuesday, 2jih. D. returned, and when he had had a
cup of tea we paid a few visits in different directions;
after dinner he attended a political meeting at Tammany
Hall, which interested him.
Wednesday, 2&th. In the morning Mr. Cyrus Field came
for us, and we went to see the Normal School. We sat
upon a platform with the teachers, and at nine precisely
music struck up, and 1,200 girls marched in, and in about
two and a half minutes were seated. Of course, this can
only be done by the most perfect arrangement, and is quite
a military manoeuvre. A chapter in the Bible was read,
and a hymn sung. The President got up and said : ' Young
OCT. 1874 NEW YORK 205
ladies, I present to you the Earl of Dufferin, Governor-
General of Canada, and his Lady ' ; and D. said a few ap-
propriate words. The President then said : ' The young
ladies of the First Section will repeat their quotations '; and
one after another a number of girls got up, and repeated
something they had learnt. This is a voluntary exercise,
and is intended to give them confidence in speaking before
a number of people. These girls are all being trained as
teachers. After this a chord was struck, and they all rose,
and to music marched to the various class-rooms. We
followed to the exercise-rooms, where we saw a hundred
or so doing gymnastics. Then we peeped in at chemistry,
geology, drawing, and Latin classes.
Our next visit was to a common school, and the children's
department was very interesting. There were 1,150 col-
lected in one room, and they marched in at a much slower
pace than their elders, and with an air of solemnity that
was most amusing. The second half of the room had the
seats raised towards the back, and a view was painted on
the wall which finished the scene admirably. At a signal
from the mistress the 1,150 heads went up in the air ; at
another, there was clapping of hands ; at another, singing ;
and so on. We also saw the big boys and big girls. There
are 2,500 children at school in that one building.
Friday, $oth. D. dined with Mr. Stoughton last night,
and I went about eight o'clock to fetch him. The landlord
of our hotel went with me, and sat by me in the carriage,
and then I realised how wanting I had been in not shaking
hands with him when I first arrived at the hotel.
We travelled all night, and though the beds themselves
were comfortable, the night was not. The engine kept up
a perpetual shriek, and the train went more like an animal
than a machine in jerks and with varieties of speed.
When we reached our destination the Eivere House,
Boston I rested, but D. put off his nap, and took a walk.
Later we drove in an open carriage through the town.
206 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xn
The streets are narrower than those of New York, but appear
to be very busy and full of people and vehicles. There
are some handsome buildings, and the 'residences' seem
very nice. There are pretty public gardens, and a common,
on which a great many good houses look out. We visited
Bunker's Hill and Harvard College. The Memorial Hall,
built to the memory of the former students who were killed
in the War, is where the young men dine, and is very hand-
some. We saw one student's private room, plain and com-
fortable. Then we visited Mr. Longfellow, and found him
in a nice old-fashioned house, where Washington was living
when he took command of the American Army. The poet's
study is a plainly-furnished room, with a large orange-tree
standing in one window. He is a most charming and
loveable old man ; he gave me one of his poems as a
souvenir of my visit, and he invited D. to dine at the Club
dinner to-morrow, so we remain for that. Just as we were
going out of the house his daughter Alice appeared, and
he introduced her to us.
We have our meals in the American fashion here, in a
public room : there are numbers of small tables for ten
people ; sometimes we are alone, sometimes there are other
people at our table ; at every meal the first ceremony always
is to place a glass of iced water before us.
In the evening we went to the Boston Theatre a
fine one, with spacious entrance-hall. The theatre itself,
very large and beautifully decorated, finer than any we
saw in New York. The piece was ' Belle Lamar', a story
of the War, and was very interesting and well put upon
the stage. Here they have a farce both before and after,
while in New York there was only one piece given in each
theatre.
Saturday, 3ist. We drove this morning to Dorchester
Heights, and to see some more of the city, and at 2.30' D.
went to his Club dinner. He has been very lucky to be
here for it, It takes place only once a month, and he met at
OCT. 1874 BOSTON 207
it Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Dana, Dana junr., Holmes
(the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table), etc. They have all
promised him books as a remembrance of the occasion.
I took a walk in the town, and in the evening D. and I
went to the Museum Theatre. It is not so fine as the
Boston, but it is uncommon in one way : you pass through
a museum to it statues, pictures, stuffed animals, etc.
The play was ' Ark Wright's Wife,' by Tom Taylor very
good indeed. The heroine was pretty and graceful, and
all the parts were well filled.
Sunday, November ist. We tried two churches before
we could get a seat, and the third we attempted to enter
turned out to be a Universalist church. It is one of the
Old-English chapels, and the service was our Liturgy very
slightly altered, and a sermon upon All Saints' Day. This
service is intended to suit everybody, whatever their opinions
may be ; and in many places in Canada where they cannot
support a number of different sects, they have these Univer-
salist churches.
We drove afterwards, and saw a great deal of the neigh-
bourhood. The villas are very pretty, and the country is
English-looking.
We had to dine at four American system ! However, it
will enable us to go to bed early, and prepare for thirteen
hours' railway to-morrow to Montreal.
Monday, 2nd. The day passed much more pleasantly
than I expected, and we really enjoyed the journey. We
had a very comfortable compartment to ourselves, passed
through beautiful scenery (seeing the Green Mountains
and several rivers), and had two most excellent meals.
Generally they only wait ten minutes for dinner, but, thanks
to our ' high office,' they gave us half an hour.
Ottawa : Saturday, jth. I have had nothing particular
to relate since our return here, but to-day I took Mr. Hep-
worth Dixon, who is staying with us, his son, and Lady
Harriet, to the steeplechases.
208 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xrn
Four horses started in each race; the first was for
the Governor-General's Challenge Cup, and the only fall
was that of a man of fifty-seven rather old to do 'jockey.'
His horse swerved at a pole, and the rider lay still for
several seconds on the ground and frightened us ; but he
got up and walked about all the rest of the day. We saw
the same horse ridden by a jockey proper in the last race ;
he swerved at the same place every time he came round
to it, and so lost the race. There was constant variety in
this race, for the order of the running changed every few
seconds.
Wednesday, iSth. Colonel Fletcher got his recall from
England to-day, and I fear they will all have to leave in
February. Lady Harriet will be a terrible loss to me ; she
has been my constant companion, and was always ready to
do everything and to enjoy everything with me ; the most
sympathetic person I have ever met. We had many things
in common, and I cannot bear to think of her departure
yet.
Saturday, 2\st. The new General, 1 Selby Smyth, and
his A.D.C., Mr. Miles Stapleton, came to stay till Monday.
The A.D.C. looks very 'jolly,' and will be an acquisition
to Fred, I think. But the really exciting question is : ' Does
he look as if he would dance. the Boston? ' which all the
young ladies have been practising.
Colonel Barnard and a very big and pleasant Chief
Justice Begbie, from British Columbia came to dinner.
The latter has been out there sixteen years, and has, I
believe, succeeded in making the law respected by Indians
and other ' wild men.' He gave us an amusing description
of the difficulties which occur from the Indian plan of
families and property descending in the female line.
Saturday, 2&th. A heavy snowstorm during the night
and nearly all day. The children, with the help of Colonel
Fletcher, Mr. Dixon, and a ladder, have erected in front of
1 The General Commanding the Canadian Militia.
NOV. 1 874 OTTAWA 209
my window an enormous and hideous snow-man, who will
remain an eyesore to me the whole winter, unless some kind
friend assassinates him. I was threatened with a wife for
him, but I am in hopes that a judicious suggestion I have
made as to the appropriateness of making the pair stand
as spectators over the Skating Eink may induce the
builders to model the statues there. The creature has a
carrot nose, and lips of the same material, coals for eyes,
and an old hat on his head ; he is eight feet high, and
stands right in my way, hiding my view of the Parliament
Buildings. In the evening he was illuminated with red
and green fire.
Tuesday, December i$th. There was some very good
tobogganing to-day. The new slide is most exciting, for,
the natural hill not being considered sufficiently steep, a
great addition has been made to it. A long flight of stairs
now leads to the top of a high wooden slide, and, as this
is almost perpendicular, the toboggan starts at a rapid rate
down it and its occupant has both the length and the
excitement of his slide greatly increased. To-day the
wooden part of the slide is a sheet of ice, so the toboggans
rush down it at a tremendous pace.
Friday, iSth. Gwen and Katie 2 arrived about five
o'clock, looking extremely well.
Christmas Day, Friday, 2$ili. An ideal Christmas Day
the weather lovely, twenty degrees of frost, and a bright
sun. The children had received presents from their
governess and nurses in the morning, and were in great
excitement. After breakfast they came down, and we
introduced Nelly and Herrnie to a dolls' house, which
delighted them. Hallie had dressed a number of inhabitants
for it, and it is a charming toy.
In the afternoon, everyone, except me, went out and
had a very pleasant afternoon skating and tobogganing.
I found plenty of work at the Christmas-tree, which was
2 My sisters.
P
210 M Y CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xra
ready directly after tea. The only contretemps of the day
happened just as the children were jumping with excitement
to go in to see it. The gas went out, and we had to wait
more than half an hour for it to recover. In the meantime
we got up a dwarf, who amused them much. The tree was
next lighted up, and was greeted with cheers. The fifteen
children the eldest eleven years old were all perfectly
delighted, and were much too pleased with the treasures
they had received to feel inclined to play games afterwards.
They simply sat on the floor absorbed in their new posses-
sions, with sighs of perfect happiness. The youngest of
the party was one of the happiest ; she ran about the floor
pulling a sheep after her, and looked such a pretty little
dear. The big people also went away laden. We were
fourteen at dinner, with governesses, secretaries, etc., and
in the evening we played games.
Friday, January ist, 1875. We were more or less busy
in the morning making the arrangements for the children's
play, and from 2.30 to 4.30 His Ex. and I were ' at home '
to receive visitors. We had 211 gentlemen, who said 'How
do you do ? ' had a glass of wine or a cup of tea, and passed
away.
We refreshed ourselves with a little tea when the recep-
tion was over, and then I dressed for the evening, and
helped to paint the actors.
The play took place upon a small stage erected in the
anteroom to the ball-room. Mr. Dixon wrote the piece
and painted the scenes. <* Pussy-cat, Mew-mew ' was the
name of the play, and it went off very well. Fred was
excellent in the part he undertook, and was well made-up,
with red stockings, red knickerbockers, a brown blouse, and
red wig. Fred Ward was the master-magician, in a dressing-
gown covered with mysterious signs. Nelly looked very
pretty in white tarlatan and gold, a crown on her head, and
a wand in her hand. Archie was a prince in green and silver ;
Terence, the ' Man in the Moon,' in red. Hermie, a pink
JAN. 1 87 5 CHILDREN'S TABLEAUX 211
fairy ; and all the others in the same style of costume in
different colours. Terence's first appearance was through
the full moon, and he did his part very well. All have very
much improved in acting since last year.
The tableaux were very pretty. I had to be behind the
scenes, and so only managed to see one myself, which I
will describe to you.
The foreground of the stage was painted in dark colours
to represent a cavern, and the back opened, displaying a
brilliant grotto in gold and silver and red. Hermie stood
on a raised rock of gold at the top ; beneath her sat three
little ones, with baby in the centre, who was enchanted
with her position. Terence lay at their feet in his red
moon-costume, and grouped beneath were Archie, Nelly,
Maud, Edward, etc. They were lighted up with various
coloured fires. Baby amused us so by giving three cheers
in the middle of the performance. The other tableaux were
scenes in a tournament: the Encounter, the Eesult, and
the Coronation of the Victor.
Friday, 22nd. D. played the final game of the curling-
match with Colonel Fletcher, and won a cup presented
by me.
We had a large children's party, and we repeated the
play. Directly it was over we had tea for sixty-five children,
who seemed very hungry and very happy, and after that
dancing and a few games till eight, when the little people
left.
Monday, 2$th. D. started* for Montreal. I copy the
following out of his letters :
' We had not left Ottawa ten minutes before the train
came to a stand, and all our sweepers had to jump out.
By their exertions we got on another few hundred yards,
when a second stop occurred.
' This kind of business went on for nearly an hour, at
the end of which time the Parliament Buildings were still
in sight. After a little, however, matters improved.'
p 2
212 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xm
' On arriving at Montreal we found our rooms looking
very cheerful, and a nice little supper ready, for which
those marvellous ladies 3 were again quite ready.
' Tuesday, 26th. We started at eleven o'clock for the
Kink; found the Bethunes, Miss Campbell, Mr. Maxwell,
and a couple of nice Englishmen. With these playfellows
we passed a couple of hours very pleasantly, and executed
a brilliant lancers.
'At 2.30 the two Freds and I and Nowell went to
have a game of curling, preparatory to a match to-morrow
with four of the oldest members of the Montreal Club, whose
united ages, I believe, are to amount to something like 350
years. We did not play well, and got a bad beating, though
we ended by whining the two last ends, the latter of which
was an end of four. The girls went out walking with Colonel
Fletcher. Maxwell and the other two young men I have
mentioned dined with us, and at ten we went to the ball.
It was a nice large, square room, with beautiful music,
excellent parqueterie, and very jolly. Gwen looked very
well, and I liked her dress. As you may suppose, she got
lots of partners.'
Monday, February ist. The great event of the day was
the opening of the new theatre here the first one at
Ottawa. The house is really very nice, and the state box
a very comfortable and convenient one.
Tuesday, gth. A great curling-match was played be-
tween our club and the Eenfrew Club, for a medal presented
by the Caledonian Club. Four of ours had to go to
Kenfrew, and four of their men came here ; so the winner
could not be announced till the two games were over. The
two Freds and Messrs. Baker and Dixon went early to
Kenfrew, and D., Nowell, Colonel Fletcher and Kobertson
were the team who remained here. The game began at ten,
and they had to play for three hours. The V. R. C. C. were
at one time five behindhand, but they finally won by one ;
3 My sisters.
MARCH 1 87 5 OTTAWA 213
and an hour later we heard by telegraph that at Renfrew
they were ties, so we won the medal by the one shot.
This is the first public match our club has played. The
boys got home to dinner, and we talked curling and played
whist all the evening.
Friday, i2th. We had a large dinner-party to-day
married Ministers and their wives. A great division was
expected in the House ; so they went off there after dinner,
and they amnestied Kiel during the night.
Wednesday, March ^ist. My baby-boy 4 is now five
weeks old, so I was able to be present at the second repre-
sentation of the ' Maire of St. Brieux,' of which the first
performance had been extremely successful. It is an
operetta, written by Mr. Dixon, whom you know well by
name, and composed by Mr. Mills, the organist in Ottawa.
The music is very pretty and the whole play excellent ; it
is very interesting to bring out a new thing on one's own
stage, and even the author and composer must have been
satisfied with the actors and singers who played in it. The
prima donna, Mrs. Anglin, both sang and looked charmingly,
and the Maire himself, Mr. Kimber, was quite perfect.
I asked the actors to keep on their costumes during the
evening, and they made the party look very gay and pretty,
the girls' coloured petticoats and high, white caps, and the
men's bright-coloured clothes, being very effective.
Wednesday, April 2ist. There was a severe frost last
night, so we determined to have some skating on the Curl-
ing Eink rather late in the year for my first skate !
Sunday, 2$th. Baby was christened by the name of
Frederick Temple.
Tuesday, Ma A i th. We leave for three months' holiday
in England, ana had quite a sad parting with the seven
little ones. General Selby Smyth met us, with his A.D.C.,
at the gate, and at the station there was a crowd of people
to wish us adieu and bon voyage. The day was lovely.
4 Lord^Frederick Blackwood, born a6th February 1875.
214 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xm
At Montreal we were met by General O'Grady Haly, 5 who
is to be Administrator during D.'s absence.
Wednesday, i2th. A torrent of rain falling all day.
We left Montreal early, and spent ten hours in the train,
reaching Quebec about six in the evening.
Friday, itfh. A very stormy night, slates blowing about,
and we go on board to-morrow !
Saturday, i$th. Such a dreadful morning : snow, rain,
and cold wind of the bitterest description. D. sent to beg
the Mayor not to bring the steamers out to accompany
ours, as it was impossible for any ladies to go in them.
The Lieutenant-Governor came for us, and drove us down
to the Polynesian. One steamer did go with us for a little
way with a band on board. They played ' He is a Jolly
Good Fellow ' and ' God save the Queen,' and cheered us
when we parted. This was about i P.M.
At three we stopped suddenly, and on sending out to
inquire we found we were ashore ! We got off soon,
but at four we were stuck again ; this time we were told
we could not get off till high-water, at two o'clock in the
night. We have a very comfortable sitting-room on deck,
with a warm-water stove in it, and next to it the smoking-
room, in which we have our meals privately. Our sleeping-
berths are comfortable.
Sunday, i6th. Awoke to find ourselves stuck. No hopes
of getting off till 4 P.M., at high-water. One of the boats
went out to do something or other, and could not get back ;
another was sent after her, and now both, with a large pro-
portion of our crew, are gone. I suppose when we do get
off we shall go after them.
Tuesday, i8th.In the afternoon we sighted a field of
ice, which looked very pretty hi the pfcsy evening. Some
small pieces floated round the vessel, and during the night
we got into quite a thick part of it, and had to stop.
Wednesday, igth. Loose and large pieces of ice all round
s The General Officer Commanding H.M. Forces in British North America.
MAY 1 87 5 ICE-BOUND AT SEA 215
us some, dirty brown-looking lumps, others white, and all
rough and ragged. A fog over all, a wet deck, a ship
stopped on its voyage such are the pleasures we find on
this May day. About five o'clock we began to move slowly
through the ice. It was a fascinating employment, that
of watching the great ' Juggernaut ' we were in cutting
and pushing its way through this field of ice. Sometimes
we went through great pieces, just as a knife cuts through
a wedding-cake, sometimes the piece resisted us to a certain
degree, and we had to push it slowly aside before we could
get on.
Thursday, 2Oth. I awoke about five in the morn, hear-
ing the vessel crunch up against the ice ; at ten we were
free, but in a fog ; the steam-horn blew all day.
As soon as we got far enough south we turned the
corner of the ice, and went on our way rejoicing, in spite of
a great deal of fog, and fog- whistling.
216
CHAPTEK XIV
AN UNEVENTFUL SEASON, 1875-76
Friday, October 22nd. I sent you a post-card from
Londonderry telling you that we were off on our return to
Canada after our holiday at home. We got on board on a
very disagreeable evening, but we thought the wind was
lessening, and -that we should probably have a calm pas-
sage. We talked of seeing land on Thursday, and made
up our minds to reach Quebec at the latest by Tuesday.
Thursday, however, found us very near Ireland, in a regular
storm, which lasted two days and two nights, during which
time we scarcely made any progress. In twenty-four hours
we only made forty knots, and the captain said he had
never been so delayed in his life before. We were obliged
to remain below, and I can't tell you how dreary it was,
rolling perpetually for two days and two nights in one's
berth. Later on we saw some beautiful icebergs ; and now
that I have seen field-ice, icebergs, fog, and a storm, I do
not wish for any new experience of life at sea. We got to
Quebec this morning, and found the weather beautiful, but
very cold. One steamer, which left the Monday before us,
arrived yesterday with her bulwarks washed away, and having
lost three boats. Our Prussian received no damage ; she
is such a good sea-boat.
The General, Lieutenant-Governor, etc., came to meet
us, and our landing at this lovely place was very pretty.
It is so gay and sunny, and the Canadian air does feel so
OCT. 1 8? 5 OTTAWA 217
exhilarating. The children sent letters of welcome to meet
us at Father Point, begging us not to stop on the way
anywhere. We go on by the boat this afternoon, and reach
Ottawa at four to-morrow.
Tuesday, 26th. Colonel and Mrs. Littleton, 1 - who have
come out with us in place of Colonel and Lady Harriet
Fletcher, reached Ottawa yesterday, and are at the hotel
there. They came to lunch, and to see their house.
Thursday, 28th. Lawn-tennis, and a drive. The
Littleton children came to tea, and quite won the hearts of
mine. They expected to see ' the King of Canada ' in a
crown and train, and still think that at some future time
he will appear in full dress.
Wednesday, November yd. The new tennis-court has
been begun. It is to serve the purpose of a supper-room
as well.
Saturday, i$th. We are proposing later in the season
to give a fancy ball, and are already deep in millinery-talk.
Thursday, iSth. We skated for the first time this
year, on the Eideau, where we had swept a place.
We had a great dinner to-night for the Judges of the
Supreme Court (sixty-two guests), and had a large J-shaped
table spread in the ball-room for it.
Monday, December 6th. Lovely day, and the skating-
ice simply perfect. We have had a man from Montreal to
teach us to flood it properly, and the result of his instruc-
tions is excellent.
Thursday, gth. There was great excitement at receiving
a box directed to me from ' the Queen.' It contained a
pretty doll, dressed in the smartest blue velvet gown, for
Victoria. She was delighted, and carried it about all the
evening.
Saturday, i ith. We asked Miss Kingsford, Miss Patrick
and some of the other good skaters to come to-day, that we
might practise our figures. This was a real, true skating-
1 Lord Hatherton, G.M.G., late Colonel, Grenadier Guards.
218 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
party, with no temptations to toboggan or dance, and it was
very pleasant. We worked away at roses, double roses,
thistles, lilies, snails, etc., and then we came in, had some
tea, and talked about the fancy ball.
Monday, 2Oth. On Saturday we had the same people
as last week, but as the thermometer was about 20 below
zero, skating was a doubtful pleasure. Sunday was still
colder, and to-day the weather is no milder.
Tuesday, 2ist. During the afternoon a sudden and
comfortable change in the weather. They say there was a
jump of 76 in the twelve hours ; and certainly it became
very warm, and a complete thaw set in after a very ' cold
snap ' indeed.
Friday, 24th. The snow is quite off the tobogganing-
slide, and the Skating Eink is spoilt for the present ; but it
has begun to freeze again. I was very busy all day with
Mrs. Hall, arranging the Christmas-tree. At five o'clock
Gwen and Eussell 2 and Fred Ward arrived. They met
at Prescott. Gwen looks extremely well. During the severe
frost in Montreal her hot-water pipes burst, and she was
nearly frozen.
Saturday, 2$th. A wet Christmas Day in Canada ! We
went to church under umbrellas ! However, it cleared up
afterwards, but was at no time a nice day. At five o'clock
the Littleton children came, and after tea the tree in the
ball-room was lighted up, and the shrieking ' brats ' were
admitted to it. The tree was very successful, and really
looked very pretty. It was placed just in front of the
Throne. Its natural eccentricities of shape were concealed
by ropes of many-coloured crackers and glass balls, and it
was covered with small presents, and surrounded on the
floor by larger ones, the whole being bounded by a paling
of gaily-ornamented curling-brooms. On the floor were
also to be seen four toboggans, presented by His Ex. to
different people one very lovely one for me. When the
2 My sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Eupert Stephenson.
DEC. 1875 OTTA WA 219
first excitement had a little subsided we began to take the
things off the tree, and I am happy to say the children
appeared well pleased with their presents.
Wednesday, 2gth. There was a great deal of curling
to-day : in the morning a match between D., F. Ward
and Kussell Stephenson, Mackenzie, Fred and Colonel
Littleton. We also drew for the match for my cup.
I anticipate great amusement in seeing Mrs. Littleton
and Gwen watching their husbands play : they are both
very excited over a game, and both offer much advice, and
groan and triumph alternately the ladies, I mean.
Saturday, New Year's Day, 1876. We received our
visitors between twelve and two to-day 225 gentlemen.
The day was very mild : rain in the afternoon, and no
curling or skating most sad and un-Canadian ; but at any
rate the weather was decidedly interesting to talk about.
My children had invited all the workpeople and their
children to come to tea and to see their play, 'Little
Nobody,' written by Mr. Dixon. He has taken great pains
with the scenery, which is quite beyond that of a mere
amateur stage. There is a street and a castle, with a back-
ground of sea and sky, followed by a magnificent transfor-
mation scene, in which a silver-dressed fairy stands behind
a star of many colours, the rays of which gradually part
and open, leaving her supported on each side by minor
fairies of the female sex, while two male fairies sit in cars
underneath. This is the last scene of the play, and while
this gorgeous sight is in the background the active per-
formers in the piece are grouped in the front. We had
an appreciative audience, filling the room.
Tuesday, nth. A very important curling-match took
place in our rink, between the four ' Fredericks ' of the Vice-
regal Club and the four ' Jameses ' of the Ottawa Club. Alas !
the Jameses won by one. There was tobogganing and
skating after lunch. A lovely day about zero.
Wednesday, i2th. The married men of the Curling
220 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
Club had a match against the single ones. The best
bachelor was absent, and ' little Campbell ' (who is very
short-sighted, and never plays) took his place. He was a
great element of amusement ; for, in the first place, he made
by accident two most beautiful shots, then he fell in front
of a stone while sweeping, etc. The bachelors were beaten
by 1 8 to 2. There was much tobogganing in the afternoon,
and a frightful upset, Fred and Colonel Littleton coming
in with their noses scraped by the icy snow upon which
they fell.
Thursday, i^tli. The bachelors determined to try and
regain their laurels to-day, and marched in procession to
the Eink. They were dressed in white blanket-coats, wore
white kid gloves, and orange-flowers in their button-holes.
Their fate was, however, as sad as yesterday.
Monday, ijth. We had a large children's party in the
evening. When the fifty-five children and their mammas
had arrived and seated themselves, ' Little Nobody ' began, and
went most successfully till near the end, when in the middle
of the last beautiful fairy transformation scene there was a
fire, which might have been very bad. The man attending
to a lime-light held a candle under an indiarubber pipe
containing gas. The pipe melted, and the gas, of course,
burnt furiously ; there were people rushing about, water
flowing, and a great scrimmage going on, during which the
imperturbable queen of the fairies continued her speech.
Darkness ensued, and then we lifted the curtain and threw
a rose-light over the scene ; but of course the grand effect
was spoilt, and the author and the carpenter burnt their
hands a little.
Wednesday, igth. We begin to feel that the fancy ball
is near, and are making arrangements. I have been writing
out the programmes. There are to be singing-quadrilles,
valses, and lancers. The dancers have to learn and to
rehearse their parts, and we expect this will be a very pretty
- feature in the ball.
JAN. 1876 MONTREAL 221
Tuesday, 2$th. Spent a great deal of time over a most
troublesome business that of getting 150 parts copied
for the singing-quadrille ; that is, thirty copies of each
figure. You may imagine the confusion and the difficulty
of arranging all these separate bits of paper. Fred Ward
does the hardest part ; but I help and dream of it.
Saturday, 2gth. The thaw was so decided this morning
that we gave up all idea of outdoor amusements. At two
we rehearsed ' School,' which is to be our next play, and as
soon as the people had collected afterwards we danced. I
got up a tempete, and made the elderly people join. I
took a judge for my partner, who was very much astonished
to find how hard he had to work, and received, I fear, a
shock when he found that, having conducted him down to
the bottom of our long room, I intended to take him up
again at the same pace. After this came more waltzes,
and a cotillon, which wound up the day.
Sunday, 302/1. The Comte Louis de Turenne arrived,
and we took him a snow-shoe walk.
Monday, 3ist. We all D. and I, the Littletons, the
Freds and the Comte de Turenne started in a private car
for Montreal.
Wednesday, March 1st. A very stormy, snowy day,
extremely cold, and no admittance to the Kink. In the
evening there was a fancy dress ball on the ice. The
Count, the Littletons, and those who had not seen this
before, were delighted with the sight. It was bitterly cold,
and I was glad to skate a little in a domino. I danced a
set of lancers and some other things with D.
Thursday, 2nd. Some good skating in the morning,
then a grand lunch at Mr. Kyan's, which our three
Fredericks had to leave early, as they were going to join
the fourth Frederick in playing against four Jameses. We
meant to go and see the game, but when we arrived at the
door of the Rink we met our party coming out, victorious
and radiant.
222 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xi
Saturday, 4th.- We left Montreal by the morning train
taking with us the Comte de Turenne and Gawen. 3
Tuesday, Jth. The Marquis and Marquise de Bassano
arrived this afternoon, just as we were finishing a laborious
rehearsal of part of ' School.'
Wednesday, 8th. A cold, windy day ; however, we went
out and skated. The Comte de Turenne is working hard
at the outside edge. The Cabinet dinner took place to-
night, and the new Ministers came for the first time in
their uniforms. The dinner was in the ball-room, and we
had a band to play during the evening.
Thursday, gtli. In . the morning we had some skating
and curling ; the day was beautiful and mild. After lunch
we went to the opening of Parliament.
On our return the energetic gentlemen had a great
afternoon's tobogganing, but Madame de Bassano and I
rested, as we had to dine at seven, and be present at the
Drawing-room afterwards. I never saw so many people
at one before, and I must have made an enormous number
of curtseys. The boys went to a dance after the Drawing-
Room.
Friday, loth. A complete thaw, with pouring rain.
The Bassanos left ; and in the afternoon we rehearsed the
first two acts of ' School ' very successfully. Mr. Kimber
and Miss Fellowes remained for dinner, and in the evening
the other twenty-eight singers arrived, and we rehearsed the
singing- quadrilles, lancers, and waltz. The lancers went
beautifully, and the waltz is very pretty.
Saturday, nth. This was such a lovely day, so bright
and so mild that it was doubtful whether there would be
any skating. Guests kept telegraphing from Ottawa, ' Can
I bring my toboggan ? '
Fortunately, we were able both to skate and to toboggan,
and as it was very pleasant for the lookers-on, we remained
out till past five, and had a most successful party. This is
3 My brother, Colonel Gawen K. Hamilton.
MARCH 1876 BALLS AT OTTAWA 223
the last we can have before our ball, which now draws
near.
Our new supper-room, with its red-and-white tent, let
down inside the tennis-court, and the shields bearing the
arms of the various provinces hung round its walls, will be
very pretty. The ball-room is wreathed in roses.
Wednesday, 22nd. The American painter, Mr. Bierstadt,
and his wife are staying in the house with us, and he has
begun to paint me a picture as a remembrance of his visit.
It will be a nice thing to have. We went out, and saw
the great curling-match of the year, for His Ex.'s medal.
Montreal won it. The sixteen players had lunch with us.
We dressed for the fancy ball at nine all our household
in costumes of the same period and walked in procession
up the room. The dresses of our guests were beautiful,
and there was great variety in them. The singing- dances
and the new supper-room were much admired, and when
people went away at 4 A.M. they seemed extremely pleased.
Saturday, 25th. It snowed hard in fact, I have never
seen the snow round us so deep. The Littletons have to
be almost dug out every day, and the road to their house is
on a level with the palings.
Monday, 27th. The French members of the Commons
gave a beautiful ball in the new Library at Ottawa, to which
we went. The room, an enormous round building, was very
well lighted. I believe 1,500 people were in it, and there
was no crush at all. We enjoyed it very much. Numbers
of people wore their fancy dresses.
Wednesday, 2gth. The Comte de Turenne arrived for
the play. The actors dined early, in D.'s room. Then I
went to dress for Mrs. Honey ton, in the ' Happy Pair.'
Then the * School ' arrived, and began to dress in one room,
and the men had another, and the guests came crowding in,
and got off their things in the school-room, and there was
painting and curling and excitement going on everywhere.
Fred and I began the performance with 'A Happy Pair,'
224 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
and had a very warm audience, which was pleasant.
' School ' is a very difficult piece for amateurs ; but I must
say that it was an unequivocal success. Every part was
well done, and it was quite new here, so the audience liked
it immensely. I was really surprised when I came into
the supper-room to see how handsome it looked, and it
certainly is a much-needed addition to the house, enabling
us to give supper to a large party at once. Afterwards I
went into the drawing-room, and said good-night to all the
beaming crowd.
Tuesday, April nth. Such a lovely day. We play
tennis, walk, lunch, practise some music, drive into Ottawa,
and go to a birthday-party of the Littletons, where there was
to be a magic lantern. I took six children, and Victoria
enjoyed her first party immensely, and applauded every
slide. When a somewhat undraped statue was exhibited,
she exclaimed that ' Hallie would pip (whip) her.'
Monday, i?th. Gwen, Miss Abbot and I drove into
Ottawa in the morning, and after lunch walked to the river
Eideau to see the ice coming down. We stood for some
time watching great blocks go over the Falls, and then
went to look over a bridge a little way off ; but after a little
we saw such masses of ice rushing towards the Falls, that
we returned to our original place, and when we got there
found that a new bridge immediately over them, upon which
we had been standing a few minutes before, had been partly
carried away. We sat down where we could have a good
view of the river, and saw such a smashing, and heard such
a crashing of timber. There was great excitement on the
spot men and horses hard at work cutting and dragging
away what could be saved from the wreck.
Thursday, May nth. The waters .of the Ottawa are
six feet higher than they have been for years, and there is
much more ice to come down ; there are floods everywhere.
Tuesday, i6th. The weather deserves to be recorded,
for it really was fine, bright and sunny, and unlike anything
JUNE 1876 RIVER PARTY 225
we have had before this month. A few mosquitoes were
able to appear, but they are not strong enough either to
buzz or to bite.
Thursday, June ist. 103 in the shade. I was 'at
home,' and received my visitors in the garden from four to
six, when it was cooler and very pleasant. They looked at
a game of tennis, and seemed to enjoy the garden.
Wednesday, yth. D. and I, Nelly, the Smyths, and
Littletons, left by a steamer at seven o'clock in the morn-
ing, and landed at Buckingham at eight. There we saw a
lovely waterfall. The river Le Lievre, a large tributary of
the Ottawa, rushes at this place through a very narrow
passage, and after falling a few feet the incline becomes
more gradual, but the water tumbles over rocks and stones,
and looks like a very steep rapid, unlike anything I have
ever seen before, and very beautiful. This sight was only
en passant. Nelly was delighted, and kept up a fire of
joyful exclamations, which helped us to like getting up so
early.
After driving through the village of Buckingham, which
was gaily decorated with flags and arches, we got out at a
wharf, and found a small steam-launch ready to take
us up the river. We had twenty-five miles to go, and
were to be four hours doing it. There were some swift
rapids in the river, and when we came to the worst
ones we were told that the steamer was too heavily laden,
and that some of us must get out. We had a good
deal of trouble landing the gentlemen, D. only remaining
with us.
The small engine puffed away, but we made no progress,
and we got very frightened. The bell-rope which the pilot
used for giving his orders had been burnt through, a lace
curtain having caught fire early in the day, and when he
called out his orders the stoker did not always seem to hear.
D. tried to reassure us, but when we looked out and found
that we remained exactly in the same place off a great rock
Q
226 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
we ladies were in an agony of terror. Then the boat
began to turn round, and the gentlemen on shore were
frightened too when they saw this manoeuvre. They were
powerless to help us, and they feared that if we were to touch
a rock, or the branch of a tree, while we had this powerful
stream broadside on, we should be toppled over. By this
time Nelly and I were both in tears, and it makes me laugh
now to think of Nelly's face, the tears pouring down, as she
exclaimed : ' Oh ! it will be so horrid to be drowned.'
However, we turned safely, and did get to the shore again,
and there we landed, so that the steamer was light enough
to get up the rapids, while we walked, and got into her
above them.
We had all lost our appetites through fright and they
had been good for we breakfasted at six, and it was three
o'clock before we landed, still trembling, and had lunch on
the shore. After that we had to walk a mile and a half to
see the Fall, the object of our expedition.
The walk was rough, and we had some climbing and
some steep places to go down, and there were a great many
mosquitoes on the road, so that after our adventure we felt
that the waterfall must really be fine to compensate us.
When we arrived our first impression was that we could not
see the waterfall for the foam, but it really was a splendid
sight, and perfectly unlike any fall I ever saw or imagined.
We stood on a rock about half-way down the Fall, and
could neither see the breadth nor the height of it, but
only the thickness of it. A river with a rapid stream
passes through a very narrow passage here, and issues like
a wall of water from between the rocks. I felt as if a puff
of wind might topple it down over me. We went lower
afterwards, and saw more of it ; it is very high and very
broad.
About six we returned to our boat, and when we asked
for something to drink we found that everything had dis-
appeared from our basket. Lucky for us that drinks had
JUNE 1876 OTTAWA 227
been preferred to silver spoons ! Nelly and I rather
dreaded the descent of our friend the rapid, but we got
down safely in three hours.
We found a large bonfire burning at Buckingham, and
a crowd of people. There we got into the carriages, and
prospered till we came to a steep hill with a precipice on
one side, in the middle of which our horses jibbed, and
when they got us well to the edge of the ' precipice,' Nelly
and I escaped through the window (a large one). The horses
were led down the hill, and D. reproached us for leaving
him alone in his peril.
It was rather cold all day on the water, but warm when
we landed. We got back about eleven, very tired ; but, in
spite of all our troubles, we were glad to have seen those
splendid falls.
When we undertook the expedition (invited by the
owner of the steamer) we did not think it would take so
long, and, in fact, knew little about it. The steamer has
only been on that run for a few weeks, and scarcely anyone
has seen this Fall ; but I think it is a most magnificent
sight. A reporter was present, and it depends upon what
he thought of the rapids whether other people are encour-
aged to go or not. As he was not in the boat, and had no
friend to be alarmed about on board, his view will probably
be cheerful.
Monday, i 2th. Packing day ! Very hot, and everyone
melting and busy. Boxes and bags yawning all over the
house. A holiday for the children.
Thursday, i$th. We started early in the morning by
train to Prescott, there got into the steamer, and had a
pleasant voyage to Montreal, where we changed from one
steamer to another, and came on to Quebec.
Quebec: Friday, i6th. Arrived early, and landed at
eight ; the Lieutenant-Governor and a guard of honour
came to meet us, and we found the children waiting break-
fast. It was very hot, and we did not go out till the evening.
Q 2
228 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
D. and I then walked over the scene of the late Fire
desolation over a large space.
Saturday, ijth. We went to see the temporary accom-
modation arranged for the sufferers : charities have taken in
some, and drill- sheds and barracks hold others. Poor people
who have lost their all bore their misfortunes wonderfully,
I thought. Very hot all day. In the evening we went to
see the ' Busy Bees ' perform. They are the officers and
soldiers of the B Battery, and represented on this occasion
the Christy Minstrels, singing songs, etc.
Monday, igth. Three strangers dined with us: a
Frenchman, an Austrian, and an Englishman. D. enjoyed
it very much, as he heard something of European politics.
I was ' at home,' and saw many old friends in the after-
noon.
Tuesday, 2Oth. At ten o'clock there was a parade on
the Esplanade a review on a small scale, with the B Bat-
tery as performers. Then D. presented some medals and
prizes won by the Battery. The weather was beautiful,
but directly after a series of heavy thunder-showers came
on, which lasted all day.
Wednesday, 2ist. The citizens of Quebec gave a great
dinner to the Governor-General to-night. The room was
most beautifully arranged, and the stage, at the far end of
it, looked like a garden, with real flower-beds in the fore-
ground, and a painted shrubbery behind them.
There was one long, straight table, at which the principal
guests were sitting, with the Governor- General in the middle;
and four more long ones ran down the room towards the
gallery. About 200 gentlemen were present.
D. and his speech were immensely well received, and he
spoke very well. He began by saying, ' I cannot help re-
membering under what various conditions, in how many
vital emergencies, at what supreme epochs in its history,
during the last 300 years, my illustrious predecessors must
have had occasion to harangue the citizens of Quebec. In a
JUNE 1876 QUEBEC 229
thousand vicissitudes of fortune, in perpetual alternations
of triumph and despondency when hordes of savages were
lurking round your palisades ; when famine had prostrated
your strength, and the unaccustomed rigours of an Arctic
winter had benumbed your faculties ; when novel forms of
pestilence devastated your homes, crowning your clergy and
your sisterhoods with the aureole of martyrdom; when
foreign leaguers assaulted your independence, and hostile
cannon threatened your battlements Viceroy after Viceroy
has appealed to your patience, your fortitude, your charity,
your patriotism ; and never once, whether in good fortune
or ill fortune, as your history tells us, has the appeal been
made in vain.' At the end he proposed the toast of ' Pro-
sperity to Quebec.'
Friday, 2$rd. We visited the Sillery Convent, and
then walked into a place belonging to Colonel Ehodes. He
has underground gardens, which supply flowers, mush-
rooms, winter salads, etc. The Colonel, who entertained us
most hospitably, has made quite a name for himself as a
practical gardener here. The view from the house is lovely.
On our return home we had a long visit from the
Bassanos, who were delighted with our platform. After
dinner the soldiers had some very good theatricals.
Saturday, 24th. D. went down to the steamer to say a
few words to the Canadian rifle-team, now starting for
Wimbledon.
I was ' at home,' and the lovely morning turned into a
very bad afternoon. Thunder and showers and wind came
on, and though I had many visitors, they were all uncom-
fortable. Some feared for their gowns, some disliked
thunder, and some thought it would frighten their horses ;
and I sincerely sympathised with them all.
Monday, 26th. We went to the High School, and from
it saw the procession of Jean Baptiste pass through the
town on the way to the church. This is the great festival
at Quebec.
230 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
We spent two hours at the Ursuline Convent in giving
prizes to the pupil-teachers, D. made a speech to them, and
commented upon the disrespectful way in which young
ladies are alluded to on this continent, instancing the case
of ' Nellie Grant.'
We returned home in time to see Gwen and Eussell off
to Montreal, and Gwen was obliged to continue waving her
handkerchief to the children for several miles down the
river.
In the evening we attended a concert given by the Jean
Baptiste society. An address was presented to D., a great
bouquet and gilt china jar to me, and fireworks were sent
after us as we departed.
Tuesday, 2?th. A very busy day, preparing again for
departure. I made time to call upon Lady Belleau, and
took four children to see the Ursulines. It is a great treat
to them to visit the nuns in their cage, and to receive maple
sugar through the bars.
Wednesday, 28th. We got off in the Druid ; a lovely
day, and everything on board very comfortable and nice.
We enjoyed sailing calmly up the beautiful river. Mr.
Gregory, the official who furnishes the yacht, presented me
with a key and with a list of goodies, which he bought for
my special benefit, and had locked up for me.
Friday, $oth. Arrived at Gaspe at eight o'clock, most
fortunate in having had so good a passage. Bad news of
our river : they say it is much too high for fishing. We
went up to it, however an hour's drive and three hours on
horseback Archie being the only one who really enjoyed
this. Our servants had made our huts look very nice, and
after lunch we went out to try the river ; but the news was
too true the water was much too ' heavy.' We returned
home to dinner and mosquitoes. Let me say at once
that these torments are ever present, and are quite in-
tolerable.
Saturday, July ist. Having no hope of salmon here,
JULY 1876 THE YORK RIVER 231
D. and Fred went off to the York Eiver, where they had
been invited to fish, and which is an earlier river than
ours. I sat all day in mosquito-armour reading, Archie
took charge of smudges, and occupied himself in various
small devices for killing time, and at eight o'clock D. and
Fred returned. D. had caught five salmon and a grilse, the
average weight of the salmon being 24 Ibs., the largest one
28 Ibs. Fred had one salmon of 26 Ibs., and a large trout
of 5 Ibs. His salmon had been foul-hooked, and took him
two hours to kill.
Monday, $rd. As it has rained again, and there cannot
be any fishing here for some days, we resolved to return to
our comfortable and mosquito-less Druid. Archie and I
came off in the morning, and in spite of the long ride I am
quite glad to be away from those torments. D. and Fred
went to the York. D. this time got one, and Fred five.
The largest of his was 32 Ibs., and all were over 23 Ibs. It
was quite late when we assembled on board again, and we
had not finished dinner till nearly ten.
Tuesday, tfh. The greater part of the fish yesterday
had been caught at a pool called Miller's Landing, and as
D. found we could drive over there quite easily, he sug-
gested that I should try my luck. We started directly
after breakfast, and three hours' driving and walking
brought us to our pool. We immediately set to work, but
not a rise was to be got, and I feared my expedition was
going to be fruitless. We gave up this ' good ' place, and
went lower down the river, and I very soon had the pleasure
of a rise. I stood up in the canoe to throw the fly, and sat
down to manage my rod when the fish was on, for it would
be no joke to upset the boat in these swift rivers. I landed
my victim with success, and he weighed 21 Ibs. I tried
once more, and caught another 24 Ibs. D. and I then had
lunch, and I returned home at four, while he fished on, and
brought two more salmon home in the evening. Fred was
fishing higher up the river, and we hoped he would have
232 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xiv
had a good day; but he had not a rise till five o'clock,
when he came down to the place where we had been in the
morning, and immediately had three. He got the third on,
and was just happy, thinking it secure, when his reel broke,
his fish went, and he had to come home.
We had a very jolly little dinner when we met again,
and enjoy being comfortably on board after our experiences
of the ' Bush.'
The owner of this river, with his party, caught fifty- seven
salmon, averaging 23 Ibs., the first week he was up here ;
but, hoping for more, he went a long way higher up to camp
at the ' Narrows,' and we have just heard that after four
days there they have only caught three salmon. Mr.
Eeynolds will regret this expedition when he sees what
good fishing we have had close to his house.
Wednesday, $th. This was a lovely day, and we are
assured that two or three days ' of this ' will set our river
right. We went ashore 'to shop,' and D. visited two
schools, and after lunch we fished for ' Tommy cods.' We
all sat in a boat and fished over the side. The excite-
ment was in the variety of the game sea toads, blue
fish, flat fish, Tommy cods, smelts. We brought home
a bucketful.
Sunday, gth. We went to church in the morning, and
in the afternoon took a most lovely walk. The weather
was beautiful.
Monday, loth. This morning Fred and Archie started
for the Bush, and D. and I went to fish the lower pools,
intending to sleep here, and to follow them to-morrow.
D. went on foot taking with him a little boy to act as
guide. On the way, this boy told him that his father had
been drowned two months ago, about twenty miles up the
river, having slipped into a rapid as he was pushing some
felled wood into the stream, and that his body had never
been found. To-day, when fishing from a canoe, D. hooked
a salmon, and the man had actually gaffed it, when it
JULY 1876 THE ST. JOHN RIVER 233
wriggled over the stern of the canoe back into the water.
Knowing that the salmon was a dead fish, D. paddled slowly
over the pools below. All of a sudden, as he was looking
over the side of the canoe, he saw lying at the bottom of
one of them, in about fifteen feet of water, the body of
the poor man. It was in the same condition as on the
day of his death, having been preserved in the ice-cold
water.
I had a canoe and two men to myself, and began the
day well by getting several rises and three salmon. I
thought I was going to do wonders ; but salmon-fishers
are never sure of an hour's ' luck.' D. came from his pool
to meet me, with four fish, and we landed, and were de-
voured by mosquitoes during lunch. I began again, and
whipped the waters, without even a rise, till 6.30. On my
way home I tried a new pool, and got fast to a salmon, which
gave me very hard work and the greatest anxiety for half
an hour, for we were on the brink of a very troublesome
rapid, and I wanted to keep him away from that. Then
some parts of the pool were very deep, and in others there
were logs and traps of all descriptions ; so that I never felt
sure of my fish till he was landed in the boat. The salmon
on our river are smaller than those on the York, but they
are very strong and lively. This one kept rushing off with
the line, and jumping up in the air so far from me that I
could scarcely believe he was my salmon. D. had eight
salmon, and I four a great day's fishing.
Wednesday, 12th. D. did not go out this morning, and
sent in his stead our captain, a nice old man, who has never
caught a salmon in his life. He returned at two o'clock
highly delighted with a twenty-pounder he had landed, and
which we have sent off to his wife.
Mr. Eeynolds and. Mr. Middleton, who left their river
to-day, came on board, and had lunch before embarking for
Quebec. Mr. Keynolds gave us his score, which I copy for
the sake of those it may concern :
234 MY CANADIAN JO URNAL CH.XIV
Salmon- Fishing on the York River, 1876.
Salmon Ibs. Average
His Excellency .... 8 197 24!
Lady Dufferin 2 45 22^
Captain Hamilton .... 6 148 24!
Mr. Molson '. 14 326 23!
Mr. Middleton 50 1,094 2 iff
Mr. Eeynolds 29 633 2 iff
Mr. Grant i 27 27
Total . .110 2,470
General average, about 22^ Ibs.
We are rather afraid that, now we have come down, our
fish have gone up the river.
Saturday, i$th. I went up the river with D. and Fred
to catch trout. D. was very anxious to make up his forty 4
salmon, but he was only able to capture a grilse. When we
returned to the ship we dined, said good-bye to all the men,
and started for Tadousac.
Monday, i?th. We were in sight of Tadousac about one
o'clock, and immediately shrieked from our steam-whistle
to report ourselves to the children. They came down to
the beach to meet us.
4 York Eiver.
Salmon
Ibs.
His Excellency ....
. 8
197
Lady Dufferin ....
. 2
45
Captain Hamilton
. 6
148
Total
. 16
390
Average, 24 T 6 g Ibs.
St. John.
His Excellency ....
3
546
Captain Hamilton
H
217
Lady Dufferin ....
4
53
Our Captain ....
i
20
Total
. 49
8 3 6
Average, 17 Ibs.
JULY 1876 OTTAWA 235
Tuesday, iSth. We keep Archie's birthday to-day, so
a haycart, a buck-board, and a horse were ordered, and
D. and I, five children, and Mademoiselle packed into the
cart. Archie rode, and Fred, Mr. Dixon, and the provisions
came in the buck-board. We drove to a place where
there is a small waterfall and a mill, lunched there, stayed
till it was time for a cup of tea, and then mounted our
carts and drove ' round the Concession.' The buck-board
broke down, and we had to borrow a cart. As the road
home was very rough, the fun of the expedition consisted
chiefly in the fearful bumps we got ! All our plates and
cups were smashed, and I felt much bruised and shaken ;
but the children enjoyed it immensely.
Thursday, zoth. We left Tadousac to-day, and had to
say good-bye to Archie, who now goes to school in England
so the first break in our home circle is made. Parting
with him took off rather from the distress of parting with
the others ; though even from them we shall be away some
time. We left in a great shower and thunderstorm, and had
to anchor some hours in a fog.
Ottawa : Monday, 2$th. Delighted to get to Eideau in
the evening. Found the weather cool enough for fires.
2$th-29th. The week has been spent in arranging for
our departure for the Grand Tour. A great difference of
opinion exists as to what we shall want en route. Some
say take provisions, others say don't. We decided, how-
ever, in the first place, to have a box made to hold plates,
cups and saucers, knives and forks, tea, salt, etc. Then we
take cases of preserved meats, a basket of eggs, some butter,
Devonshire cream, and jam, and we have a refrigerator in
our baggage-car. So we shan't starve, as we can add our
own delicacies to the tough antelope -steaks we are to get on
the way.
Mr. Eeynolds has taken the greatest pains about our
comfort in the railway carriages. Fred Ward arrived
Saturday night, so we are now ready for our departure.
236
CHAPTEE XV
ACROSS THE CONTINENT AND ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST
Sunday, July ^oth. I must begin my account of this
Grand Tour one day before its actual commencement, be-
cause upon this Sunday, when even our rugs were rolled
up in their straps, and only finishing touches remained to be
put to our piles of luggage, a blow fell upon us. Dr. Grant
called to inform me that Mrs. Littleton was ill, and that in
bed she must remain for at least ten days.
I went over to see her, and found her dreadfully disap-
pointed, but a little comforted by the hope of following us
when she recovers. To me, and indeed to us all, as a party,
she is a great loss she is always so cheery, and so ready to
enjoy everything.
Monday, 31 st. We breakfasted comfortably, and went
to the station at 10.30. There we were received by the
Governor-General's Guards, and by a great many friends
who came to wish us ' good-bye.' We have a whole Pullman
to ourselves, and ' two drawing-rooms ' ; these last are
small, square cabins, where four berths can be made up.
My lucky maid inherits Mrs. Littleton's, and as it can be
opened into mine I also have some additional space. The
three gentlemen Colonel L. and the two Freds l sleep in
the Pullman, and we all live in it by day, when the top
berths shut up and disappear, and the under beds turn into
seats for four.
1 Captain F. E, Hamilton, A.D.C., and Captain Fred Ward, A.D.C.
JULY 1876 OUR REPORTER 23?
At Prescott we lunched in the station, and then returned
to our ' house-upon- wheels,' and really began to live the life
that is to be ours for seven days. Here I was introduced to
the American reporter, a very nice young man, who comes
with us to give an account of our tour in one of the New
York papers. During the day he became so enthusiastic
over the delightful prospect before us, that he made known
to me, through Fred, his desire to invite a charming young
lady of his acquaintance to share his enjoyment of the trip,
assuring him that, if only I would lend her the shelter of
my name, no more active chaperonage would be required
of me ; and that her mother too delicate to undertake such
a journey herself would be perfectly satisfied with this
arrangement for her daughter. He proposed, with my ap-
proval, to telegraph at once and to arrange for the girl to
join our special train at some station on the way. Hard-
hearted, prim Englishwoman that I am, I felt obliged to
discourage the scheme !
Our next amusement was our five o'clock tea. Mr.
Eeynolds had made us a most ingenious ' portable kitchen,'
and we all sat and watched our kettle boil, and were ex-
tremely particular about scalding our teapot, etc. We had
an excellent cup of tea, in spite of the watching and the
number of cooks ; so we set two proverbs at defiance with
impunity.
I have a comfortable chair (between the rail way- couches) ,
and I sat in it, did a little work, read and talked till eight,
when we reached Coburg, where we had supper or dinner,
whichever you like to call it. The evening is the least
pleasant part of the day ; the light in the cars is not suffi-
cient to read by, and we do not always feel inclined for
games.
Tuesday, .August ist. We slept pretty well, though
often awoke for a moment by the unusual sounds and shak-
ings. We crossed in our train to the American side by
means of a ferry opposite Sarnia.
238 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
When we were dressed, and our carriage turned into
its day condition, we got ready our breakfast ; the public
had theirs at Sarnia. A most excellent meal we had :
fresh-boiled eggs, which Fred Ward superintended ; tea,
Mr. Keynolds's home-made bread, our own butter and
Devonshire cream, potted meat, a cold chicken, rasp-
berries, and jam! We enjoyed it all very much, which
accounts for my telling you so much about it.
We were so warm and so dusty by the end of the day,
that the sight of Lake Michigan, and the pleasant fresh air
from it, as we passed close to it into Chicago were very
delightful. Crowds of people were bathing, and we longed
to join them. When we arrived at the Palmer House Hotel,
we were shown into the most gorgeous suite of rooms : a
drawing-room with marble statues, satin curtains, em-
broidered chairs, gold and carving and pictures ; a dining-
room furnished with very pretty light wood, oh, so smart !
a bedroom too splendid to sleep in, and with a magnificent
satin cover over the bed ; a bath-room off it, and a large
room, with two ' unique ' beds in it, for a dressing-room.
We settled into these magnificences as well as we could, but
I think we rather agreed with my maid, who said that at
the end of a long day in a train one did not feel inclined
to be ' bothered with so much splendour.'
Wednesday, 2nd. The Count de Turenne breakfasted
with us, and drove with us to the station. Mr. Palmer took
a tender farewell of ' Mr. and Mrs.' Dufferin, as he called us,
and Mr. Forrest and his daughters (old acquaintances) also
saw us off, and I was introduced to Mr. St. John, the ' Globe '
reporter. The Chicago morning paper speaks of me as ' Her
Royal Nibess,' and says that I do not wish my ' hubbie to go
and see the " Nausty " man,' Brigham Young. It also re-
ports that we went to bed early to ' save gas,' and that ' if our
money holds out ' we shall go to the Centennial.
We had rather a pleasant day : it was less dusty, some
of the country very rich and well cultivated, vineyards to
AUG. 1876 OMAHA 239
be seen, and nice little homesteads ; we saw some prairie
land, and in the evening stood outside our car to cross the
Mississippi. There is a beautifully light bridge over it,
2,260 feet long. It is a sensation to see this river, of
which one has heard so much ; and a great river can't help
being striking, but there is nothing grand in the scenery at
this point.
We lunched and dined at stations, Burlington being the
principal one at which we stopped. After dinner we played
whist, and all agreed that we had got over the day very well.
The people we have seen travelling so far get out looking
very dirty and crumpled, and one is quite tired of the sight
of brown holland ; everyone is attired in it ; you might think
it was a livery.
Thursday, ^rd. We had a very bad night stopping so
constantly it was almost impossible to sleep and I was not,
therefore, in good condition for trying the ' hotel car,' which
was put on. There seemed to be an excellent meal pro-
vided ; but the room was hot, and smelt of food, and I
longed for our own little quiet breakfast.
At ten we reached Omaha, and crossed the Missouri
such an extremely muddy river, it excites no desire to bathe
in it. Carriages awaited us here, and we drove up to our
hotel, and chose our rooms ; they really are very good for
this last point of civilisation, before the prairie begins.
D. and I took a drive to see the town, and we sat on the
steps of the High School while he made a sketch of the view :
low hills in the background, the Missouri twisting about
through muddy-looking plains, and the small town in the
foreground.
We took another walk later in the day, and saw our
first Chinaman a neat young man, all in black, with his
coat cut after the fashion of his country. The streets of
Omaha are very new, with bridges of loose planks between
the footpath and the street, and the houses are low and
square-looking ; but there is a fine post- office.
240 Mr CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
The Mayor called upon D., and one resident Canadian
presented an address.
Friday, 4th. We left Omaha in the morning, and had
a most delightful day. The weather was perfect: warm
enough to sit with every window open, and yet fresh and
pleasant ; no dust, and a most exhilarating atmosphere.
We are rising all day, going slowly over the Eocky
Mountains ; the train moves at an easy sort of jog-trot,
and we thoroughly enjoy everything. We passed through
the Platte Valley, the river Platte running at some distance
from us all day. The scenery, if not beautiful, is interest-
ing : a great sea of land, very flat, but with a good soil,
and giving one an extraordinary idea of the capabilities of
the country and of the room in it.
We lunched at Fremont, and dined at Grand Island.
There is a difference of opinion as to the food at these
stations. My idea is that it is excellent ; the reporters and
my maid think it is disgusting. This difference of opinion
can be explained. If you require a meat dinner, you will
find it bad ; but I want neither meat nor wine, and can
live upon the things which we get good everywhere :
tumblers full of iced milk, good bread, butter, eggs, fish,
and iced cream ! the latter, at the most unpromising-
looking stations, rivals Gunter. We generally have a table
reserved for us, and at Fremont a very smart negro, with
a beautiful peacock- feather fan, brushed the flies awaj
while we lunched.
Saturday, 5/i. We slept much better last night, and
I did not even awake when we were stopped by the
grasshoppers ! They get on the rails, and, being squashed
there, oil them, so that the engine 'can scarcely pull the
carriages along, as the wheels don't bite.
When we did awake, we found ourselves on the Eocky
Plains, a delicious wind blowing, and not bringing the dust
to us.
I got out at the station, where the people were break-
AUG. 1876 CHEYENNE 241
fasting, and looked about a scene of desolation ; and yet
when we look back from the train it does not appear so
desolate : great plains of dull-coloured grass, broken up by
rocky mounds, which present a white appearance to the
eye ; in fact, a part of the Eocky Mountains. We have
risen 3,600 feet since we left Omaha, and I suppose the
delicious air makes everything appear couleur de rose. We
have seen flocks of cattle, and four antelopes. The curious
thing is, that you see cattle apparently quite near, but on
consideration you realise that they must be very far away,
as you cannot make out the details ; a man on horseback
that you fancy quite close, looks like a stone moving. There
are no trees or houses, or any object by which to judge
distances, and the atmosphere is wonderfully clear.
This is very like being at sea : the wind whistles round
the car, and the land round us is flat, with white-crested
waves of rocky sandhills, while the air is most exhilarating.
But I must not, under its intoxicating influence, fill up my
journal with rhapsodies.
We lunched at Cheyenne, and were met there by the
Governor of the territory, Mr. Thayer. There is a large
hotel at Cheyenne, and it is ' quite a place.' After leaving
it the scenery became lovely. First, we had the interest
of the plains, with its little prairie dogs to watch, the
gophers a sort of ground-squirrel and an occasional
antelope; then the plain broke up into undulating hills
and heaps of rock, a few scattered trees, and the magnificent
range of Eocky Mountains, with patches of snow relieving
their blueness, in the distance. Some of the ' heaps of
rock ' look like ruined castles, for the stones are piled one
upon another. The ground is much broken. Altogether,
I think the views enchanting, and I breathe the air with
pleasure. At Sherman we reached our highest point
(8,263 feet), and soon after leaving it we went over a very
awful-looking structure a sort of skeleton bridge, without
a parapet, across a ravine.
R
242 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
The wind, of which there is a good deal, blew off the lid
of our precious kettle, but luckily we stopped a moment
after, and it was rescued.
Sunday, 6th. The scenery early in the day was ugly :
sandy, desolate plains ' the Artemisian Desert,' it is called,
or ' the Alkali Plains.'
Breakfast and lunch, at Evanston, was served by 'John
Chinamen.' They wore clean white blouses, loose blue
trousers, and stumpy embroidered shoes, their long pigtails
twisted round their heads and fastened up. Their height,
their dress, their hair, and their singularly mild expres-
sion, make them very feminine looking. At Evanston there
were some very Indian Indians hideous brown squaws,
dressed in brilliant rags, waiting at the doors of the
railway carriages for gifts of food, and a number of boys
with arrows standing about with them. The Colonel set
up a coin on a stick for them to shoot at, and one split the
stick. He also knocked the cork off a bottle without touch-
ing the bottle.
The guide-book told us that after leaving Evanston we
were to watch with ' full breath and anxious heart ' for the
magnificent scenery now about to burst upon us as we
pass through the Echo Canyon, or valley. Accordingly,
we sat out on the edge of our baggage-car, and if we were
a little disappointed at first, by the evening we were well
pleased, and felt that we had really seen a most curious
and (part of it) beautiful place. We came down hill
through the valley, starting from a great upland of the
Uintah Eange of the Eocky Mountains. The railroad seems
to divide the country into two parts, for on one side, rising
immediately from the track, were green, sloping banks,
while on the other were gigantic hills of rough, red
stone, twisted and tilted and tumbled into every sort of
strange form castles and pulpits, monuments, all kinds
of devices seemed to stand before us. We remained
the whole afternoon watching the views develop as we
AUG. 1876 THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 243
passed the various points, the beautiful part was when we
distanced the details, and when the green and the red
and the curious shapes become a broken mountain range,
opening now and then to show us miles and miles of moun-
tain and plain below.
For several hours we had a little stream close to
us, and as the day became very hot, the river seemed
most refreshing, and added a foreground of fresh green
to the magnificent views in the distance. We passed
the Thousand Mile Tree, 1,000 miles from Omaha, and
close to it ' the Devil's Slide,' a curious geological forma-
tion : two natural walls of rock down the side of a hill,
with just sufficient room between them for ' Him ' to slide
through.
A short time before we got to Ogden we came, as it
were, through the Eocky Mountains, passing quite close to
patches of snow, and looking back upon a very much more
rocky appearance than the mountains have from the other
side. Now, do you understand that from Omaha the
country gradually slants upwards towards these mountains,
and that the railroad mounts to a height of 8,242 feet,
after which it suddenly descends ? Do you realise that now
the rivers flow the other way, and that we have crossed
the Great Range ?
An American general came to have tea, or rather iced
water, in our car, and stayed till we reached Ogden. We
part from our car and our two conductors here. The
guard (as we should say in England) and the porter by
name and by nature Mr. Brown belong to this particular
Pullman, and have been most attentive to us on the way ;
but the lines of railroad change here, and we have to get
into another car.
We had arranged to sleep at Ogden, and on arriving
there, at six, we visited our rooms. They were frightfully
hot, for the weather is very warm. The village is in a
valley, and there are stony hills straight opposite the
K 2
244 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
house. This is on the way to Salt Lake City, and this
place is almost full of Mormons ; so, of course, when Fred
and I took a little walk, we fancied every two women we
saw together were colleague-wives, and every house to us
seemed to have several entrances for the various ladies of
the family.
Monday, 7th. We had every door and window of our
rooms open, and so spent a tolerably cool night.
All the morning we sat on the platform of the station.
The thermometer was 99 in the shade. In the after-
noon, D. and I went for a drive up the Ogden Canyon,
the same thing, in miniature, as the Echo Canyon, through
which the railway goes.
Our driver gave us much information as we went along,
showed us the house of a bishop who owns eight wives and
forty children, one of the wives busy clothes-washing at the
back door. Our reporters went to Salt Lake, and inter-
viewed Brigham Young. The American found that the
Prophet had married a relation of his, for on hearing his
name, and where he came from, Brigham Young said : ' Oh,
I must have married your father's sister, but I had forgotten
all about the family.' This reporter thinks no name bad
enough to apply to his new relation.
Ogden has no time of its own, but keeps ' East ' time
for one train, and ' West ' time for the other. A perpetual
sum of mental arithmetic goes on, and we were constantly
forgetting by which time we ought to go, and trying to
remember whether the ' left-hand clock ' or the ' right-hand
clock ' was ours.
We left in the evening, and found our new carriage
very comfortable, though it has only one ' drawing-room.'
We sat at the end of it the last of the whole train
and passed by moonlight along the banks of the Salt
Lake.
Tuesday, Sth. We are going through the Alkali
Plains, and the dust is dreadful : a large, rough dust,
AUG. 1876 ROUNDING CAPE HORN' 245
covering everything in a second, and very painful to the
eyes. As I write this my paper is like a ploughed field,
and, the wind being very high, one can only see a few yards
for the clouds that surround the carriage.
The only thing that grows on these plains is sage, and
a ' sage-bush ' here is the worst name one can apply to any
vegetable growth.
Wednesday, gth. We got up at six this morning in
California, the sandy desert changing into a mountainous
district covered with pine and oak, parts of it laid bare like
a great quarry by the mining for gold. As one looks back
upon the country through which one has just passed, it
seems perfectly impossible that the railway should really
have made its way through such steep and perpendicular
rocks, which seem more fitted for the Alpine traveller with
his helpful stick than for an immense long train like ours.
The point of interest is ' rounding Cape Horn.' There
is a ' path ' just wide enough for the railway round a pre-
cipitous rock, and one looks straight down upon the valley
far beneath. This is very fine, but I find the skeleton
bridges very trying to the nerves ; one can see through
them, and they make no attempt at having sides, and are
so very weak-looking, and so high from the ground.
Nowell expressed our sentiments when he kept saying, as
we went over the last : ' A very light bridge,' ' A very weak
bridge,' ' We are over it,' 'A very good bridge.'
The country now begins to look rich and park-like, and
at the stations the most enormous peaches are offered to
us at twopence apiece.
The Colonel was talking to a certain man on the
train yesterday, and we hear that this morning the said
man has been arrested for murder. He and others set
fire to a Chinese establishment, and shot the wretched
people as they came out. The murdered were ' only '
Chinese, so it is supposed that a small bribe will get the
assassins off.
246 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
We lunched, very badly, at Colfax, where there was a
grizzly bear at the station, and then returned to our
carriages for a hot, dusty afternoon. However, we felt that
our long journey of nine days was near its end, and
packed up the things in our ' house-on- wheels ' ready for
our arrival at San Francisco.
Mrs. Littleton telegraphs that she can't come at all. I
am so sorry.
Having washed off the dust, and made ourselves as
smart as possible, we prepare to ' land ' at a small station
called Oaklands. Captain Chatfield, the captain of H.M.S.
Amethyst; Mr. Booker, the English Consul; and Mr.
Walkem, a British Columbian, came 'on board,' and
escorted us to our hotel. We got into a large ferry-
steamer, which took us over to San Francisco. Our hotel
is the ' Palace,' and is enormous ; it is built round a court,
which, by the way, is loaded with American flags ; there must
be at least five hundred of them hung about. Our rooms
are very nice, smart and clean. We took a walk while our
baggage was being brought up, and looked at some shop-
windows ; but oh ! it was so cold. I had on my light
' train ' garments, and the wind blew through and through
me. I saw many ladies in furs, and have now ordered out
mine. The climate is treacherous that is to say, that of
San Francisco, for it is a promontory, and its climate is
different from the rest of California. We went home after
seeing some second-rate shops and quantities of Chinamen.
We shall not be able to visit the Chinese quarter on this
occasion, as the small-pox is very bad there.
Captain Chatfield, who has kindly made every arrange-
ment for our comfort on board the Amethyst, dined with
us, and we went to the play, and saw the ' Geneva Cross.'
The theatre is a very good one, and we enjoyed the
play ; though I, at any rate, began to feel the effects of
having risen at six and travelled day and night for many
(fays.
AUG. 1876 SAN FRANCISCO 247
Thursday, loth. Breakfasted in the enormous dining-
room, and were very glad of a fire in our sitting-room.
Eeceived visits from Mr. Bradford, the artist; Captain
Chatfield ; and a lovely basket of flowers, with ' Welcome to
California,' from an old North of Ireland friend.
At one o'clock D. and I, the Colonel and Fred Ward,
drove off to see the sights. We went to Woodward's Gar-
dens to see the sea-lions fed, but were too late for this, and
so, after looking at an aquarium, we resolved to go at once to
the Cliff House. This is an hotel overhanging the Pacific,
and is a great resort of the people here. To get to it you
drive through the Park, a place which has been reclaimed
from a sand-heap, specimens of the original desert being
plentiful on all sides. Every morsel of earth has been
carried to the spot ; a beautiful road has been made, and
trees and green grass are actually growing on this un-
promising place. The balcony of the Cliff House, over-
looking the Pacific Ocean, is charming. Close to the
hotel there are some great rocky islands, upon which sea-
lions are basking in the sun, and pelicans stand combing
out their feathers.
I counted seventy-one sea-lions to be seen at once ; some
were dry, and of a real lion colour, others which were still
wet looked quite black. They made a noise very like that
of hounds in a kennel, and it was most amusing to watch
them climbing about the rocks, jumping in and out of the
sea, and enjoying themselves generally. The pelicans, too,
were flying about, and taking headers into the water.
There was a haze in the distance, which prevented our
seeing the land view. We lunched at this hotel upon its
celebrated fare : oysters, ' Porter-hall steak,' and omelette,
and then drove home. San Francisco is built on the side
of a hill, and everywhere there are other very steep hills,
and our driver beat ' down some of them, going from side
to side all the way. Most of the houses are built of wood,
and have small gardens in front, and creepers growing up
248 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
them ; the streets are pure sand, and there are windmills
for pumping water everywhere ; you see ten or twelve of
them in two or three streets.
One curious thing here is a car in which to go up and
down hill without horses. There is an engine on the top
of the hill, which winds and unwinds a wire rope, and
this is attached to the carriages ; as the rope is invisible,
this unexpected movement of the carriages has an odd
effect.
General McDowell, the hero of Bull's Run, dined with
us, and we took him to a special performance of ' Brass ' in
our honour. We had a good box, and enjoyed that very
ridiculous play.
D. and I took a walk, and on our return we found a
most staunch old man from Killyleagh. He is connected
with both our families, having been called Hans after D.'s
grandfather, and having been taken on board my grand-
father's ship when he was thirteen. It is extraordinary
how he remembers everybody of that day the very old
times. He put me through such an examination as to my
great-aunts, uncles, and cousins, that I felt some self-
satisfaction at having passed it. He thought me like my
family, but said the ancestors did not come out so clearly
in Fred.
This man has been mining for forty-five years, and now
declares that he is going back to the ' old place ' to buy a
little property and die there. I dare say ' going home ' is a
dream of his, and that he expects to start by every steamer ;
but the gold-fever is difficult to shake off, and, even if he
does go, I fear matter-of-fact Killyleagh will be dull after
years of Californian gambling.
This interview ended, we had to begin to prepare for
departure. The gentlemen had to get into their uniforms,
and there was great agitation over a missing bit of uniform,
and a frantic rush to the tailor to make up the deficiency.
We breathed again, and were all gloved, booted and spurred,
AUG. 1876 H.M.S. AMETHYST 249
the luggage and servants gone, when I peeped into HisEx.'s
room, and discovered an enormous bath-sponge unpacked !
Fred and I were in despair over it ; we ungloved, and
wrung it, and squeezed it, and reduced it to its smallest
possible compass, and then we did not know what to do
with it. Could I in state, could he in uniform, carry a
vulgar paper parcel? Could we march on board H.M.S.
Amethyst with the consciousness of a damp, unwieldy
sponge about us ? No ! drops of water oozed through the
paper at the very idea. Happy thought ! Push the sponge
up into the arm of His Excellency's fur coat, and carry
it so : ' It might drop out just as the salute is being fired ; '
' it does look rather gouty for the arm of an empty coat,
but still, what better place can we find for it ? '
We carried out our brilliant idea, and- were satisfied
with our ingenuity. D. came in, and I told him that on
no account must he put on his fur coat ; but the despotic
ruler of the Canadian Dominion declared that not for all
the sponges of the sea would he consent to be cold with a
fur coat at hand; and after all we had to submit to a
vulgar newspaper parcel. It was lent the shelter of the fur
coat at any rate till we got to the boat, was received with
respect by a gentleman in uniform, was laid with care by
His Excellency's side in the man-of-war boat, and was ex-
tricated during the voyage to the ship by one of his Aides-
de-camp, who managed to leave it lying innocently upon
the seat when His Excellency stepped on board the Amethyst,
whence it was conveyed to the proper quarter by one of
Her Majesty's seamen.
We sent two men-servants on by the mail steamer,
so the party on board the Amethyst consists of D. and I,
Colonel Littleton, the Freds, Miss Alexander 2 (my maid),
and ' John.'
The captain has taken a large slice off his cabin, and
2 Mrs. Dent returned with me to Canada as my housekeeper, and Alexan-
der was my new maid.
250 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
divided it into two ; if I were not afraid of using a wrong
mathematical term, I should say that the slice is an equi-
lateral triangle, that a small angle at the top or point is my
maid's room, and that D. and I, two iron beds, and a large
chest of drawers, inhabit the base of the said triangle.
Captain Chatfield has been so kind in making everything
nice pictures on the walls, muslin-covered dressing-table,
etc. We remain at anchor till the morning, and are, conse-
quently, very bold and brave and perky, and dine below,
and play whist and enjoy ourselves.
Saturday, 12th. ' A change comes o'er the spirit of my
dream ' : it appears to me that the Pacific is a nasty ocean.
I get on deck, and lie and sit and doze all day ; the men look
pale, and are not in good spirits.
Sunday, i$th. The Pacific is even a nastier ocean than
I imagined, very much nastier than the Atlantic, and the
Captain's cabin the least nice place one could possibly be in.
The screw thumps and vibrates directly under it, and the
pitching is longer, and in it one has to perfection that
delightful sensation of being held in mid-air which is so
very trying to the inner man.
Monday, i^th. Got on deck, and lay in a cot swung
under a tent of flags ; everyone better, but not well not
by any means. I should have felt very low about myself,
had I not heard the Captain say that we ' shipped green
seas ' nearly the whole way over ; so I feel that I had a
right to be ill. Alexander got very much upset by the
screw, and I awoke in the night to hear her cry that she
could not stay there, and to see her advancing into the
Captain's cabin. D. helped her in there, and as the
Captain did not awake, she lay herself down on the floor
under his cot and slept.
Tuesday, i$th. Things look better. I dress, and sit
down and eat, and soon begin to walk, and to look about
with pleasure. We coast all the way, and there are
strange, dangerous, isolated rocks sticking up out of the
AUG. 1876 ESQUIMAULT 251
sea. About three we arrive at Cape Flattery, and directly
after passing it come to a narrow channel (ten miles) between
Vancouver and the mainland. We have the sun, smooth
water, and before us a splendid snow-capped range of
mountains.
We reached Esquimault at nine, dropped anchor, and
the screw ceased, so that we shall have a quiet night before
encountering British Columbia. The mail steamer has not
arrived, and they say we are twenty-four hours sooner than
we were expected.
Wednesday, i6ih. After a peaceful night I came on
deck, and found myself in a beautiful harbour, very small,
but very deep ; two men-of-war besides our own, gaily
dressed with flags ; flags and banners on land, beautiful
mountains in the distance, charming weather.
The early morning was spent in waiting about, messages
coming and going ; some anxiety felt about the mail steamer,
which is two days late ; however, at twelve she arrived with
our servants, who are announced as the ' Hon. F. Nowell
and the Hon. G. Dame, Aides-de-Camp to His Excellency.'
If they had arrived first, as they should have done, I believe
they would have been received by the whole city.
We were to land at one, and at that hour the Staff went
off in one boat, while we followed in another, and remained
a short way from the ship while the salute was fired.
Then we stepped ashore, and were received by Sir James
Douglas and a number of residents, and got into the
carriage which was to drive us to Victoria. We grew into
an enormous procession before we reached that city (it is
three miles distant), numbers of carriages and riders joining
us. At one point along the route there rode out from the
wood a party of magnificently-dressed archers, such as you
have not seen off the stage : green-feathered hats, green
velvet coats, breeches, big boots, bows, arrows really very
handsome-looking people. They formed an escort the rest
of the way. Further on we picked up a band of horsemen
252 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
with red ribbons across their breasts a company in green
bands some militia an army of small boys, each
carrying a bright-coloured flag my ' bodyguard.' The
men who wore the coloured sashes saluted in a curious
fashion, by putting the hand to the mouth. We went over
two bridges, both ornamented with green and with various
flags and devices, whence we saw a number of the Indian
canoes, which here are shaped like gondolas, full of people,
and covered with flags ; the Indians were singing, and we
were sorry we could not stop to look at them longer and
to see them nearer.
Then we passed through the Chinese quarter of the town,
and saw a number of the men and a few of the very funny
little women. The Chinese put up their own arches, and
they were very prettily designed ; they hung up lanterns
in some, and on one there was quite a houseful of little
images. When we entered Victoria there was an address.
D. replied from the carriage. At present the feeling here
is British, but anti-Canadian, on account of the rail-
road, which can't be made yet ; so it is not all plain
sailing. We were told that on one arch there was written,
' Our Eailroad or Separation.' The Governor-General was
obliged to refuse to go under it, though he said he would
do so if the ' S ' were turned into an ' E ' ; and one man
who found we were making a turn to avoid the street
with the obnoxious arch jumped about as if he were mad,
and when he met us above the arch he jumped again, and
shrieked, ' Three groans for Mackenzie.'
I think every one of the 5,000 inhabitants of Victoria
must have been out in the streets, and we drove at a foot's
pace to the Government House, 3 which has been lent to us
during our visit here ; the drive lasted 2\ hours.
When we got to the door, we stood while the procession
passed, and D. had an opportunity of stopping a carriage
3 The Hon. Mr. Richards, having been only recently appointed
Lieutenant- Governor, had not yet occupied Government House.
AUG. 1876 VICTORIA 253
full of Chinamen, and thanking them for their reception of
him. At last everybody was gone, and we looked about.
The house is very nice and comfortable : there is a good
ball-room, small drawing-room, large billiard-room, and
excellent bedrooms. We have a Chinese cook, who is, I
grieve to say, highly British, having cooked for six
Governors, but he is very good in his homely style ; Ah
Sam is his name. Then I have a very comfortable sort of
housekeeper, a housemaid with a Chinaman under her, our
own four servants, a coachman, and a gardener but I
have had to write so much to-day that I will finish my
description to-morrow. We were very tired at night, and
were glad to go early to bed.
In the evening the Chinese quarter of the town was illu-
minated, and all their houses were opened ; people went in
just as they liked, and were given tea and sweetmeats.
Thursday, ijth. This Government House is built on a
rock, but a nice garden has been made ; the drawback to
it is the want of water. Every drop, both for house and
garden, has to be brought in barrels ; so there is not much
to spare, and the grass is all burnt up. From the windows
there is a view of a magnificent range of mountains, a little
wanting in variety of outline, but extremely high. Mount
Baker stands by itself, and really is a very splendid sight.
Between us and them there is the sea.
D. interviewed people from ten till five. They are
very angry with Canada, and he has hard work. About
five I got him to come and take a little drive. We called
on the Lieutenant- Governor Mr. Eichards drove through
the city, and as our drive was unofficial, went under the
obnoxious arch, and round the ' park,' Beacon Hill ; from
the coast-road there is a very fine view of the mountains.
Captain Chatfield came to stay with us. There is a bright
sun, but a cold wind. It seems to me a trying climate,
and the many changes of temperature and food, and the
long journey, have rather knocked me up.
254 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. xv
Chief Justice Sir Matthew Begbie dined with us. He
is a very big man, very amusing, and the whist-player
of British Columbia ; however, on this occasion D. and I
beat him thoroughly. His mind was, I suppose, distracted,
for I found afterwards that he had planned to serenade us,
and had arranged for some young ladies to come up at 9.30
to sing with him at our windows ; so he was all the time
listening with one ear for the sound of wheels, while he
was attending to the trumps with his eyes. At last D.,
who had just gone away to do some business, heard voices
in the garden, and with well-feigned astonishment rushed
in to tell me. We brought the singers in, and gave them
tea.
Friday, iSth. We had a dinner for the Lieutenant-
Governor and his wife. The other guests were Mr. and
Mrs. Bunster (he is the Dominion M.P.), Mr. and Mrs.
Eoscoe, Senator and Mrs. Macdonald, and the local Prime
Minister, with his wife, Mrs. Elliott.
Saturday, igth. D. kept busy till within ten minutes
of dinner-time. He is working very hard. At five o'clock
I gave him up, and took the Commodore and the boys a
drive. We went to the Gorge. The roads here are good,
and the drives pretty.
In the evening we had a Drawing-room at the Parliament
Buildings. The officers of the fleet helped to make a bril-
liant Court, and it was very largely attended, and was most
successful. Six Chinamen came, and their names greatly
tried the gravity of the A.D.C. who had to read them
aloud.
Monday, 2ist. I walked for an hour with D., and the
whole of the rest of the day he was shut up with various
people. One deputation stayed from two till six. I was
' at home,' and the Commodore helped me to receive my
visitors, for Fred was deep in invitations, and the others
were with D. In the evening we had a dinner Mr. and
Mrs. Trutch, Mr. and Mrs. Crease, Mrs. Grey, Mrs. O'Beilly,
AUG. 1876 VICTORIA 255
the Ministers Smith and Vernon, and the Mayor (Mr. J. S.
Drummond) .
Tuesday, 22nd. As usual, the morning was spent by
D. in seeing deputations and visitors of all kinds.
We had an afternoon -party, and I received the guests
in the garden. We had a band there, but in a very short
time we adjourned to the house, and danced. D. was re-
leased about four o'clock, and was able to lead off the ball.
Six Chinamen came, and looked on with great interest.
The party broke up at 5.30, and we had a dinner, beginning
at 6.30, and had afterwards to attend a concert held in the
theatre.
Wednesday, 2$rd. I have just received such a funny
visit. Our cook, Ah Sam, has been lately married, and
said he would like me to see his wife ; so she came this
morning. The door opened, and in walked a Chinese
lady, dressed in black satin, wearing bracelets and rings,
and with her hair wonderfully done ; and supported by
her came a little creature with a baby face, who evidently
could not walk alone on account of her tiny feet, her hair
very much dressed, and ornamented with what appeared to
be a cap of many-coloured cut papers ; she wore a blue
tunic with embroidery on it, black satin petticoat, bracelets,
and earrings, and had rings on her bits of hands. This
was the bride. We got her into a chair, for she seemed at
first incapable of even shaking hands without help, and for
some time she appeared to be on the verge of tears, and
half covered her face with a red silk pocket-handkerchief.
It was a little embarrassing for us all. Ah Sam kissed my
hand, and brought in a tray full of presents : two packets
of fireworks (which will be awkward to travel with), some
gimcracks they use in their churches, a Chinese crepe
handkerchief, and some shell frames. We looked at these
and thanked him, and then he went away, and we began
to talk to the bride, who by this time had somewhat re-
covered. She was really a very pretty little thing, with a
256 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
bright complexion, pretty eyes and teeth ; and she an-
swered us very nicely in English, and quite understood D.'s
jokes as to the respective merits of her hair dressing and
mine.
toor baby that she is, she has only been married a
week, and has not known Ah Sam, who is an elderly and
very ugly gentleman, much longer. When leaving, she
kissed my hand, and then made a set curtsey at the door,
just like a child who had learnt its lesson.
At twelve o'clock we went in carriages to see a regatta,
which was to be held at the Gorge an arm of the sea
which spreads out like a small lake, narrowing at each
end ; its shores are rocky mounds and wooded banks, and
on them there were knots of people in every direction.
Across one end there was a string of flags, which, with the
background of mountains, wood and water, looked very
gay ; a number of boats were dotted about, and arranged
in three groups were twenty large canoes, filled with
Indians, and covered from stem to stern with flags. It
is impossible to conceive anything more brilliant than the
scene was, with a bright sun shining over all. As soon as
the Indians saw the Governor-General approaching, they set
up an extraordinary howl, and jumped about, stamping and
clapping.
We got into a man-of-war's boat, and rowed about
amongst them, being greeted by each set with fresh contor-
tions and acclamations. There were about seventeen people
in each canoe. Most of them had their faces painted, bright
red being the favourite colour. Some had a streak across
the face, others patches on their cheeks, some were almost
covered with it. Some had down sticking all over their
heads, and looked as if they had slept inside a feather-bed.
They also wore coloured handkerchiefs tied on in every sort
of fashion, most curious to behold.
There were some excellent races, four or five of the large
canoes in a race, the men rowing, or rather paddling with
AUG. 1876 NANAIMO 257
all their might eighty strokes a minute leaving quite a
sea behind them.
There was, too, a most exciting squaw race. We rowed
alongside most of the way, and saw the women well ; one
crew consisted of rather nice-looking young ones, but
these did not win.
Many of the squaws wear handsome silver bracelets,
and a certain young lady, Amanda by name, has promised
to try and procure me a pair.
The Commodore came home to dine with us, and we
had a party. We were obliged to dismiss our guests rather
early, as we embarked after they left. We drove to Esqui-
mault, and when we got into the boat the three men-of-war
suddenly illuminated. At the end of each yard a blue-light
burst into flame, and every port was lighted up ; there were
also some rockets.
Thursday p , 24th. I was awoke about seven by the thump,
thump of our screw, and found we were again on our travels.
We passed through the Georgian Bay, and had all day the
most lovely scenery. One part of the time we were in a
very narrow channel, and could almost touch the rock on
one side. About four we reached Nanaimo, and anchored
in its harbour. We went out to fish for salmon, and being
unsuccessful, we stopped a fishing-boat to ask if they had
caught anything, and the owner immediately introduced
himself as a County Down man. He ran away as a boy,
and now turns his hand to anything here. He pointed to
a half-breed girl on board, who, he said, was his daughter ;
adding, ' Of course, she's not like any of us, but she is a
very good girl.'
Friday, 2$th. Directly after breakfast we landed at
Nanaimo ; it is a small place, but the inhabitants gave us
a very kind reception. A large square place was built up,
and decorated with flags and evergreens, and at one end of
it the school-children were placed. There was an address,
and then a song, written for the occasion, was sung.
258 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
We went to the coal-mine, looked down it, and came on
board our ship again.
We left at one o'clock, and proceeded on our journey
north, reaching Tribune Harbour in three hours. The
gentlemen rather expected to get some shooting, and
directly we anchored everyone appeared in sporting-clothes.
D., the Captain, and I went in one boat, and landed where
there was an Indian house. The inhabitants promised to
show us grouse and deer, but directly they had put us in
the track they went off at a gallop with their own guns,
and we suppose they intended to kill a deer, and to bring
it on board to sell.
We tramped on through the narrow path, climbing over
fallen trees, our only pleasure being the beautiful view as
we looked over the bay in which the Amethyst was anchored.
When sunset was approaching, we turned back. D. and
the Commodore had just unloaded, when three grouse rose,
the first we had seen. One of them perched upon a tree,
and sat there, so we said, ' for the pot,' and the Captain
loaded and shot him ; however, he was lost in the thick
shrubs, there being no dog to find him. The rest of the
party had no better sport, but they were much pleased with
themselves for having bought some fish from an Indian ;
they found, however, upon their return to the ship, that
they had purchased the refuse of what had already been
offered on board, and that a great supply of better and
cheaper ones had been laid in.
Saturday, 26th. We started in the middle of the night,
and when we came on deck in the morning we found our-
selves in Bute Inlet. The scenery here for forty miles is
perfectly lovely. The channel between the outer belt of
islands and the mainland is narrow, and the water very
deep. On every side rise high pine-covered hills, exhibiting
the greatest variety of form and outline, and some of them
capped with snow.
Unfortunately the weather was bad, and got worse
AUG. 1876 BUTE INLET 259
every mile we went, so that sometimes we only saw the
tops of the mountains for a few moments before the mist
descended upon them and they were lost to view.
Bute Inlet is expected to be the terminus of the Canadian
Pacific Eailway, so the Governor- General came out of his
way to see the harbour. The water is the most beautiful
green. We saw several glaciers and cascades coming down
the mountains. Directly we anchored we set out to fish.
I never saw so many fish jump so very close to one before ;
however, they would not look at our tempting spoons, and
we caught nothing.
On shore we saw the most picturesque figure. There
was an Indian wrapped in a scarlet blanket, and with a
conical hat on his head, perching upon a large stone, his
arms clasped round his knees. He looked like an enormous
robin redbreast. D. went to speak to him, and when he
got up we saw that the red blanket was almost his only
covering. He produced an old sock, from which he ex-
tracted with pride a written paper, signed by an English
admiral, which informed the reader that this Indian was
a decidedly bad character, but that he had behaved better
than usual on some particular occasion.
He was in the act of making a ' dug-out ' a canoe
carved out of a tree which lay on the shore in its un-
finished state. D. looked into his hut a miserable place
open at two sides; a woman and three children, and a
quantity of dried fish, were in it. We gave the man what
tobacco we had in the boat.
Sunday, 2'jth. Another misty and rainy day. We had
a very nice service on board at ten o'clock, with good singing.
We at this time were still in the Sound, and the scenery
was very fine, but for about three hours in the afternoon
we were in the open sea, and there were doubts whether
we should not have to keep out to sea for the night, to avoid
a very nasty bit of navigation in the 1 dark ; but the good
ship Amethyst went very fast, and we had the pleasure of
S 2
260 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
anchoring at eight in Safety Harbour, and having a quiet
dinner.
We found our tender waiting us here.
Monday, 28th. We started as usual about daylight, and
again passed through narrow channels and most beautiful
scenery. At ten we had some gun-practice, and saw shot,
shell, and case fired at the rocks on shore. The latter is
used for firing at boats, and as it leaves the gun it breaks
lip into small pieces, and powders the water all over with
scraps ; a boat coming off could scarcely escape being hit.
The sailors equipped themselves for war, with swords and
pistols, and the doctors prepared for broken legs and various
wounds.
We arrived at our anchorage about four o'clock, and, as
usual, this sporting community prepared to fish and to shoot.
We were surrounded by steep, high, pine-covered hills, so
Fred Ward, Mr. Eowe, and a half-breed, determined to shoot
for us a deer or a bear. The Commodore, D., and I went
fishing, but another boat-load made for the little river
before us.
The bear-hunters shot a goose, the large boat-load
caught six trout, and the Commodore and D. took a
tremendous walk through the bush, and succeeded in get-
ting to the top of a very pretty waterfall, which stopped
their farther progress. They saw tracks both of deer and
of bear. It rained, and I remained in the boat, and did
nothing.
Tuesday, 2gth. There is very little to tell of to-day, for
the weather has been desperately bad pouring rain, and
much fog. We have seen nothing in the way of scenery,
and had it not been for having our tender to pilot us into
Metlacatlah, we should have spent the night at sea ; how-
ever, here we are safe at anchor. I saw one little sea-beast
to-day ; it jumped clear of the water several times, and
showed itself plainly a sea-otter.
AUG. 1876 METLACATLAH 261
Metlacatlah is one of the most successful of Indian
missions. It is entirely the work of a Mr. Duncan, who
when he came here found the Indians in a most savage con-
dition. He has lived entirely amongst them, and is regarded
by them as their father and their friend. I hear that the
influence he has, and the real good he has done, is won-
derful.
We fired a cannon directly we arrived, and Mr. Duncan
came off to see us. He is very pleasant bright and
enthusiastic, good and clever quite a model missionary.
Coming to these Indians in their most savage and debased
condition, he has Christianised and civilised them ; he has
not only taught them their religion and the three E's, but
has himself shown them how to build, taught them how to
trade, to make soap, to sing ; is their chief magistrate, and,
as I said before, their father and friend.
He came to Metlacatlah from Fort Simpson with fifty
Indians, setting up a new village on this spot ; now there are
eight hundred living here. When he first came the Indians
were some of them cannibals, and all exercised the most
horrible heathen rites and ceremonies, dressed in blankets,
wore painted masks, had several wives, and knew no law.
Now Metlacafclah is quieter than a white village of its size ;
the Indians themselves are police, and they form a council,
which settles all their local matters.
Mr. Duncan amused us by telling us how he once
bought a schooner to take furs to Victoria ; he started as
its captain, and his crew were Indians. Neither captain
nor men knew anything about the sea, and the voyage is a
most difficult one, and somewhat long, for they were out a
month.
Wednesday, $oth. It was delightful, after yesterday's
rain, to find a lovely morning, and to see the beautiful
scenery of this place to perfection ; but I must tell you
to-day about our visit to the Indian village of Metlacatlah.
262 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
We started in boats directly after breakfast, our Staff
being dressed in red, to please the Indians. As we ap-
proached the shore they (the Indians) fired off two cannons,
and when we landed we found a very respectable guard-of-
honour ready to present arms ; a boarded place had been
prepared on the grass for us to stand on, and round it were
all the inhabitants of the village.
They had received no notice of our intention to visit
them before our arrival last night, so the greater part of
the inhabitants were absent on their summer fishing-tours,
and we only saw about a hundred. These, instead of being
scantily clothed in blankets, were all men, women and
children remarkably well dressed, the men in cloth clothes,
the women in neatly-made prints, with bright-coloured
handkerchiefs on their heads and shawls over their
shoulders. They and everything we saw here were quite
Dutch in their cleanliness.
Mr. Duncan presented me with a silver bracelet, made
for me by the Indians, and two silver napkin-rings. He
gave D. a lynx robe and a beautiful black wolfskin, with its
head and teeth perfect. The animal was shot outside his
door in the winter.
His assistants, Mr. and Mrs. Collinson, gave us some
spoons carved out of horn, Indian rattles, and a carved box
with a set of teeth, and green eyes staring out of a face on
its side ; so I had quite a cargo of gifts. Mrs. Collinson
teaches the girls and trains them for servants, or rather
for wives. We next saw the ' Council Koorn,' and in it a
peculiar fireplace, which they have in all the cottages, and
which D. would like to put into some large hall somewhere.
It is a good-sized square, in the very centre of the room,
with the chimney directly over it. Everyone in the room
is thus able to get an equal share of the fire, and it looks
most cheerful with people sitting all round it.
In this room Mr. Duncan and his Indian colleagues
AUG. 1876 METLACATLAH 268
carry on the business of the place. Outside, there are
gymnastics for the boys.
The Prison stands opposite ; it is a funny little tower,
painted black below and white above. It is divided into
two rooms, the ' black ' prison being more disgraceful than
the ' white.' On the top of this building there is a stand
for the band ! The Church comes next, and is quite new,
having been built entirely by Mr. Duncan and the Indians.
It is 1 20 feet long by 60, and is 50 feet high; it is made
of cedar and cypress, and is, I suppose, the only building
of the kind to be seen anywhere made by people so lately
savage. It holds 1,200 people, and is very handsome in-
side. Of course it is made of wood, and is perfectly
simple, but the proportions and the simplicity together
give quite a grand effect.
The School is another very good building, and round its
walls there are texts and pictures. The pupils all learn to
read English, which they prefer for reading to their native
tongue their own words are so very long. They translate
what they read into Tschimchyau.
Mr. Duncan has succeeded in educating them up to the
idea of having separate bedrooms, and houses to them-
selves, instead of living five or six families together in one
room ; and the first of his new houses has just been put
up. We went into it, and were received by the master and
mistress ; the former presented me with one of the masks
they used to wear in their dances. The house was very
nice, the floors and part of the walls covered with a kind
of native matting.
After making the tour of the village we returned to the
platform. The people collected round, and sang ' God save
the Queen,' and some English sopgs, and then a song about
Metlacatlah, composed by Mr. Duncan, and set to the air
of ' Home, Sweet Home ' ; also some English and Tschim-
chyau hymns. An Indian then read an address in
264 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. xv
English, and the chiefs signed it in our presence. D.
replied, Mr. Duncan taking down his speech, and translating
it afterwards. He speaks their language perfectly, while
many Englishmen only learn a jargon called Chinook, which
is a sort of 'pigeon English,' intended for trading pur-
poses, and quite unfit to explain the mysteries of a new
religion.
Close to the wharf there is a large, empty room, which
is used for stray Indians who arrive here, and who may
have sickness among them. Mr. Duncan has put up a
saw-mill, and I think I told you the Indians make soap ;
the traders used to ask them a dollar for a piece the width
of a finger ! This manufactory is not working at present,
and the Indians came off in canoes to the ship, and asked
for soap, instead of money, for furs. Great exchanges were
made by the men on the ship furs for old clothes.
We were obliged to leave this most interesting place at
one o'clock, as we were to visit Fort Simpson, the most
northern station of British America on the Pacific coast.
We went there in our tender, the Douglas. Fort
Simpson borders on Alaska, and that country lay before us
as we entered the harbour. The view from the Fort is most
beautiful.
Unfortunately, the Governor of the Fort and the mission-
ary were both away, and few of the Indians were at home.
Most of them are Christians here, but they are not nearly
so civilised as at Metlacatlah.
The Fort is surrounded by a sort of enclosed court, and
Mrs. Crosbie, the missionary's wife, took us through the
village, where we saw for the first time some extraordinary
monuments put up to Indian chiefs. The subjects are, I
suppose, symbolical, but to us they appear grotesque.
The most curious one we saw was an enormous bare
pole, on the top of which was carved and painted in gigantic
size a grinning head. The body was that of a bird with
AUG. 1876 FORT SIMPSON 265
its wings spread out, and on each wing and on its breast
a naked baby or imp ; underneath was nailed a longcloth
apron ornamented with buttons. Another pole had a dog
at the top and a queer face carved below. These poles
are said to cost the Indians about 300^. apiece that is to
say, they will give away blankets to that amount for the
privilege of putting one up.
We went into some of the houses ; they consist of one
very large room, with the square fire in the centre, the
rafters being made of the most enormous trees. His Ex.
spoke to the Indians, and they made a reply, which Mrs.
Morrison (who is a half-breed) translated.
We had a very short time to stay here, and were soon
in the Douglas again, on our way back to Metlacatlah.
Mr. Duncan and Mrs. Collinson dined with us. An Indian
chief came with them in order to present D. with the hat
his father used to wear in the feasts and dances. It is
3 feet high, made of strips of thuja-bark plaited together ;
and jointed so as to sway about with every movement of
the dancer. The man valued it very much, and Mr.
Duncan told us that, although he has known him for
years, he never saw the hat before. He says many of the
others had presents ready for us, but we had not time to
go to the houses.
Thursday, 31 si. We were to have started at daybreak,
but there was a thick fog, which only lifted at 9.30 ; after
that the day was beautiful, and we had a splendid passage
over to Queen Charlotte's Islands. I suppose this is the
wildest place I shall ever be at. It is solely inhabited by
Indians, and as yet there is no missionary amongst them ;
but Mr. Collinson is coming here from Metlacatlah.
We anchored opposite a village which, in the distance,
looked like a forest of bare poles. These poles are heraldic,
and are the monuments to chiefs that I told you of before.
Every house seems to have one and, as I think I said,
266 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
they are highly valued as symbols of rank. Some are
carved the whole way up with grotesque figures and faces,
some are painted ; and in many houses the door is a part
of the pattern of the pillar, and is an oval hole, through
which you see the picturesque Indian figures appearing.
When a man dies, his friends destroy his house, leaving the
framework and the pillar, and make a little hut for the
dead body to lie in, with a blanket nailed before it. We
saw one with two canoes outside, ready to take the owner
across the ' silent lake.' On one house were two figures
with tall hats and frock-coats missionaries, evidently.
Friday, September ist. D. and the Commodore started
at six in the morning, with some Indians, to try and get
a bear, but they saw nothing. The Freds and I went to
a little trading settlement, where an American is buying
oil. The Indians were in tents and lying about the shore ;
the day was lovely and warm, and we had great fun
bargaining, buying silver bracelets and carved bowls from
them. They have a market at Victoria, and ask a good
deal, but the American knew what we ought to give ;
and when we came back to the ship, and exhibited our
bracelets to an Indian who was trading here, he did not
seem at all pleased, and would not let me have another
bracelet which I wanted so cheap. It was so amusing on
board to see all the buying and selling going on, furs and
bracelets, old clothes, soap, tobacco, and biscuits being
exchanged, while hideous faces, painted black or red, looked
up from the canoes.
The people here all seem to paint their faces, and they
wear blankets, which they, unfortunately, buy white, so that
they are generally very dirty-looking. D. is rather sorry
now that he did not stay and see more of the fun here.
He returned at 2 P.M., and we are off again. You may
see by my writing that the screw is at work.
Saturday, 2nd. We had beautiful weather, and were
able to enjoy the evening ; but the night was somewhat
SEPT. 1876 ALERT BAY 267
rough. A fog this morning, and many doubts as to
whether we could go on at all, or whether we should have
to go out to sea a very unpleasant prospect. We had just
turned back, when we met our little friend, the Douglas,
and, as she draws less water, she undertook to show us the
way. We were off Vancouver Island, and wanted to pass
between it and the mainland. The fog came on very thick,
and we lost sight of the Douglas, and stopped again ; then
the mist suddenly lifted, and we were immediately able to
go on at full speed a great delight and relief to us all.
There are two things I forgot to say about the Indians.
One is, that at Metlacatlah they are rapidly increasing in
population, whereas in most other places they are diminish-
ing in numbers. Then, I don't think I told you about the
hideous way in which many of the old women have their
lips stuck out, by means of pieces of wood, which are put
in when they are babies, and changed for larger bits as
they grow old ; so that sometimes the tablets are the size of
a spoon, and are used as such. In the case of too hot a
morsel, it is laid down upon this convenient dumb-waiter,
and is tipped up into the mouth when cool. Other women
have a hole in the lower lip, through which a silver pin
appears ; this is a movable ornament.
The fog this morning detained us so long that we found
it impossible to get to the harbour, in which we had in-
tended to stop the night ; so it was suddenly determined
to anchor in Alert Bay, which we accordingly did. We had
an hour to spare before dinner, so we landed to see the
Indian village there. We found a great number of people,
sitting in front of their houses large buildings, with white-
washed fronts. They were wrapped in blankets, with
handkerchiefs tied round their heads. We walked straight
through them to the last house, which was the chiefs.
Oh, the smell ! This house had a very Egyptian-looking
painting in black all over it, and when we went in we found
a great square room, with fires in three corners, and three
268 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xv
sets of people sitting round them. In the centre was a
wooden figure of a man, holding out his hand to welcome
visitors. We went up to one group and saw the chief, who,
however, appeared to be stupid ; and his son was lying on
his back playing an accordion. The other people were
eating berries and flour-and-water round the fire; they
showed us some masks, but did not appear much interested
in us, though they had fired off two cannon on our arrival,
and had whitewashed their houses on the chance of our
coming.
The trader who lives there soon explained it all. They
had been having one of their most savage orgies, and had
been singing, dancing and feasting for six days. This very
morning their ' medicine-man ' had been out on the ram-
page, and in his tantrums had bitten six people. On these
occasions he rushes out of the house naked, and all the
people are bound to run away ; but, if caught, they stand
still to be bitten, as they consider it a great honour. The
trader said : ' If you had come two hours sooner you
would have seen the most terrible phase of savage life ' ;
but I don't think we should, for the moment the man-of-
war came in sight they quieted down, hid their drunken
people, and allowed their medicine-man to escape into the
woods.
Drink is at the bottom of much of the misery. In
Canada there is a fine of #500 for selling spirit to Indians,
but here they get it from American traders.
Sunday, $rd. We had a lovely day, and after morning
service went through the last danger on this route the
Seymour Narrows. There are several whirlpools formed by
a rapid tide in this very narrow channel, and an American
man-of-war was lost in them not long ago.
We anchored in Tribune Harbour, and took a nice walk
over the cliffs, returning in time for dinner.
Monday, 4th. This is the last day of our voyage in the
Amethyst,
SEPT. 1876 BVRRARDS INLET 269
When we arrived at Burrard's Inlet we saw the Rocket,
and the sight of her told us that our mail was in. Not
having heard for a long time, we were all delighted. In
the evening, by another steamer, two more mails arrived,
and when I went to bed I had quite a headache from
reading letters. I had forty myself so many from the
children, etc.
270
CHAPTEE XVI
BRITISH COLUMBIA, CALIFORNIA, AND THE SALT LAKE CITY
Tuesday, September $tli. The repose of a sea- life is
over; posts and telegrams, addresses, replies, arches, bands
and salutes are alive again.
Almost before we had finished our breakfast we were
hurried into boats, and put on board the Douglas, and in
her we steamed along for an hour, reading up the news
in the papers. Later we got into boats and canoes, and
landed in the bush, where we went to see a great tree cut
down. Our time being short, our host, Mr. Raymur, had
chosen a tree near the water, and he made many apologies
for its small size ; but as it was 250 feet high, and about
6 feet in diameter, we thought it enormous. It had been
partially cut through, and we stood by to see its overthrow.
Two men were working at it. They stood each upon a
spring-board, on either side of the tree. These boards
were narrow planks stuck into holes about 1 2 feet up the
trunk (for they say the lower part of the trunk is too hard
to repay the labour of hacking through it) ; the spring-
board gives the workman great power with his axe.
In about ten minutes the monster began slowly to bend
to one side, and then a crashing and a great thud upon the
ground announced its downfall. According to its rings it was
400 years old, and planted in the reign of King Edward IV.
We set off again in our boats to the Amethyst, where
SEPT. 1876 NEW WESTMINSTER 271
we had a lunch still more hurried than the breakfast. The
Douglas towed us in the ship's boats, and as we went very
fast, and the water was full of pieces of timber, we had
quite an exciting voyage, trying to avoid a blow from one
of these.
We landed at a wharf, and got into carriages, which
took us eight miles over a corduroy road through the
primeval forest. Our destination was New Westminster,
and when we arrived within the precincts of the city we
were met by the Mayor, a guard of honour, and a band,
and passed under arches decorated with flags. There were
some very pretty devices, and two rather amusing ones.
D.'s motto was very happily combined with the great
political question of the day ' which route the Pacific
Eailway is to take ' * Per Vias Eectas, The Fraser Valley.'
Another had ' Speed the Eailway ' written upon a board,
above which a little train moved along as we passed.
We had a short way to drive, and turned up a grass hill,
at the top of which a series of platforms were arranged,
covered in with flags, and decorated with evergreens ; the
view over the Fraser Eiver, the town, and the distant moun-
tains was quite beautiful. The whole town was out, and
there was besides a great assembly of Indians. After
various varieties of white men had presented addresses and
been replied to, and after numbers had been shaken hands
with, we looked down the hill, and saw a mass of flags
marching up ; the bearers of these gay banners were all
Indian chiefs, or great men, followed by a set of Indian
Volunteers, who had got themselves into a very smart blue
uniform, and were commanded by the owner of an old red
coat and a pair of epaulets. The chiefs formed into a
circle, while the army remained in a column, and stood
facing the platform. D. went down and shook hands with
the chiefs, and then returned to the platform and listened
to the speeches of four of them, every sentence of each
being translated by an interpreter into English.
272 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
When it was his turn to reply, D. spoke one sentence,
which was taken up by five interpreters, who each, in
turn, put it into some new Indian tongue. The process
was long, but it was interesting. These poor people have
been waiting here for the Governor-General for nearly
three weeks, and have taken great pains to get themselves
up for the occasion.
There was lunch in a tent, and after it we walked down
to the river, and saw three very good canoe-races. One set
of boats had twenty-one Indians in each. At six o'clock
we made a move to go to the steamer upon which we
sleep. On our way we passed under a Chinese arch, and
got out of the carriage to speak to some of the people
about. After parting with the officials, we amused our-
selves in our own fashion, and seeing a great sturgeon at
a fishmonger's, we went in to look at it ; he showed us
more than a hundred salmon he had in store, and asked
us if we should like to see some caught that night ; which
invitation we accepted.
D. had a long talk with various gentlemen on business
before dinner. After it we stood on the roof of our drawing-
room on the steamer to see a most beautiful torch-light
display by the Indians in canoes. We steamed up a little
way, and then back, the canoes following, their torches
looking very brilliant in the darkness and reflected in the
water. Some men on foot, also with torches, ran along
the banks, and the town was illuminated. Before the
lights disappeared there was cheering, and ' God save the
Queen.'
After this we retired into private life, and prepared to
go out fishing. Conducted by our friend the fishmonger,
Mr. Herring, we got into a boat, Mrs. Herring coming with
us to do the honours. We followed Mr. Herring, who, in
a second boat, put down a great net, which we saw him
take in. We caught six fine salmon and a sturgeon, and it
really was great fun. When we landed we walked under
SEPT. 1876 THE FRASER RIVER 273
the Chinese arch again, and were amused by their lanterns,
which had little animals going round and round inside,
jumping and moving their legs so cleverly managed. Sir
Matthew Begbie joined us here, and goes with us for some
way. All glad to get to bed.
Wednesday, 6th. Our steamer started at night up the
Fraser Eiver. She is a stern-wheeler, and has capital
accommodation.
The scenery of the Fraser is lovely. I am quite tired
of writing this, and it is impossible to convey an idea of
the liuxe of beautiful views there is in this country.
Until we reached Yale the only event of the day was to
be called out to see some magnificent one. We stopped a
few minutes at Hope, a charming little place, and got to
our destination Yale in the afternoon. A coach-and-six
(in which we travel for a week) took us up to Mr. Oppen-
heim's house, where we are to sleep. On the way we
stopped to receive a Chinese address, written on pink paper,
and an Indian one. The decorations were wonderful for
such a small place ; the most original being a live horse,
which was placed in the way, with a cloth over it, on which
was written, ' Good, but not iron,' in allusion to the cele-
brated railway.
The Oppenheims had a banquet for us, cooked by
a Frenchman from Victoria very good, but so plentiful
that Nowell managed to suppress some dishes behind the
scenes.
Mrs. Oppenheim, though French, is like a motherly
English woman, and I liked her very much. They have a
very nice house and no children, but have a nephew living
with them, and I was so surprised when I asked her what
profession the young man was; she said 'a blacksmith.'
He did not dine with us, but with the servants, who did not
know who he was until my maid discovered his photograph
hung up in my bedroom.
Thursday, 'jtli. After breakfast we started on our
T
274 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
journey. Unfortunately, it rained on and off all day, but
except that the views would, most of them, be prettier in
sunshine, the wet was not sufficient to damp our enjoyment.
Just before leaving, an Indian woman brought me a pin
made of a gold nugget.
We set off in a large carriage, which held six inside
and three on the box ; the servants had gone before us,
and D. and I, the Commodore, the Chief Justice, the
Colonel and the Freds, went in this coach, drawn by four
horses. We had forty-four miles to drive, and the road is a
wonderful piece of engineering : a wall of rock on one side,
and a great precipice upon the other, almost the whole way,
with every now and then a sharp turn round some fearful
bluff, where, looking forward, the road seemed to end, and
there was nothing but the river to be seen, a hundred feet
below. We were following the Fraser all day. The river
itself is muddy, but very rapid, with mountains almost
precipitous on either side.
It was very curious to see the little Indian fishing
establishments on the way. Wherever there was a rock
rising a little above the water, there you were sure to see
a scaffolding, upon which were hung rows and rows of
dried fish, and near it a sort of spring-board jutting out
into the water, upon which a man stood over the stream,
and dipped a net, shaped like a snow-shoe, into it ; we saw
one man bring up a large trout, and cheered him from the
carriage. Another curious thing we saw was a sort of
house in which the Indians winter. A large hole is cut in
the ground, and covered over with a round roof ; in the
top of this there is a hole, through which a notched pole
is stuck, and by this the people go down and through it
the smoke comes up.
We lunched at a place called Boston Bar, and D. took
several portraits of Indians there. They were a different
type from those we have seen before : instead of very fat
faces, they have thin ones, and large, but not coarse,
SEPT. 1876 THE FRASER RIVER 275
mouths. As we approached our camp we saw a most
beautiful mountain view ; down the sides of the pre-
cipitous hills there were streaks of light green, the rest
being very dark fir ; light clouds of mist floating about, and
the river, far below, flowing rapidly along. We got out at
one place to look at Hell's Gate, where the Fraser rushes
through a very narrow pass. We passed several teams of
sixteen oxen, and some with twelve mules, drawing two
waggons fastened together.
When we arrived at our sleeping-place, which had been
arranged by Captain Layton, a village came in sight ! Our
tents are on the side of a hill, 800 feet above the river, and
when we walked up the little path made to them, we found
a large dining-room tent, carpeted, the walls hung with
chintz, and ornamented with green ; and out of this my
bedroom, fitted with every luxury ! Outside the dining-room
a row of ten tents one for each gentleman, to sleep in
and a public dressing-room.
A great camp-fire is burning, the Chinese cook is at
work at another fire, and a lovely view lies before us.
I was a little tired after the long journey, and was very
glad of the good dinner we had. After it we sat round the
fire ; the Indians joined the circle, and passed a stone pipe
from one to another.
I have retired from the fire to write this, but it is im-
possible to do justice to the day so hurriedly. I have not
mentioned a waterfall, perfectly straight, down an enor-
mously high cliff. The road really is rather awful, and I got
great credit for my courage in driving over it.
Friday, 8th. We breakfasted in our spacious camp at
seven o'clock to the tune, alas ! of a pattering rain and
in half an hour set off on our drive. The rain kept on all
clay more or less, the weather luckily being least wet at the
most important moments. The road was, I thought, rather
worse than before, being equally precipitous and narrow,
T 2
276 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
and much softer and more slippery-looking. Before we
reached Lytton we met a great assembly of Indians, who
had built an arch close to a little church they have there.
There were about 500, of whom 200 men and women were
on horseback ; numbers of foals were following, and the
neighing and excitement among the horses was as great as
that among the men. An Indian had met us about three
miles from the town, and said, 'Tayee?' (chief). 'Yes,'
was the reply from our carriage, and off he started on his
way to tell them we were coming. Such a motley and
picturesque assembly : every sort of colour and dress ;
curious caps, made of handkerchiefs tied on in every possible
way ; fur caps, made apparently of a whole animal, though
some were merely a strip of fur tied round the head ; and
every face a study. The women rode astride, but had a
blanket so neatly laid over the knees, and tucked into the
stirrup at each foot, and sat so well, and were so much at
home on their saddles, that they looked charming. Some-
times there were two on a horse, and many a mother and
child sat together on one. The men's saddles were often a
good deal ornamented.
The missionary read an address, and ' God save the
Queen ' was sung in Indian. We visited the Church, and
shook hands a good deal, and then rode on, the troop after
us, to Lytton, where D. ordered beef and flour for the
Indians. Here the whites had an address and an arch,
and we stopped a few moments.
After we left it the Indians followed for some way, and
we handed out tobacco to the women who came nearest,
young and old being glad of it.
You can't think what a pretty sight it was ! We were
two large coaches-and-four, and a great procession of these
curious riders, talking and laughing, following after us.
Their horses are very small, but very good, have plenty
of work, and are never ill. Just before lunch we met
another, smaller troop of horse-men and women ; one girl,
SEPT. 1876 ON THE THOMPSON RIVER 277
with a yellow handkerchief on her head, was very tall, and
looked very handsome as she rode along.
We have now left the Fraser Eiver, and are on the
Thompson. I must tell you about some Indian graves
we saw on the way. One was a lean-to shed, under which
the body or bodies were laid, and in front of the grave
were three tin pans ; outside the shed, facing the road,
stood three wooden figures, a man and two women, dressed
up in the clothes of the deceased. On a tree close by hung
a quantity of horse-skins. When a man dies, his friends
eat a few of his horses, and hang up their skins, so that he
may ride upon them to the Happy Land. Another grave
we saw was surrounded by a paling, inside of which was a
figure of a woman, dressed, a small cross by her side. 1
We arrived at Mr. and Mrs. Cornwall's house after
a twelve hours' drive, and in a pouring rain, rather tired.
I am sorry to say Mr. Cornwall is not at home, having most
unfortunately had a very bad accident on his way here to
prepare for us. His horse shied on the road over which we
have just come, and he went over a precipice, happily in one
of the least dangerous places to be found on the way. He
broke his leg, while his companion rolled down twenty-five
feet, and escaped with a few scratches. Mr. Cornwall had to
be taken back to Victoria to have the leg set. Mrs. Cornwall
has a very young baby, and her brother and sister-in-law
are helping her to do the honours. They have made D. and
me very comfortable in their house, and were most kind.
The rest of the party are lodged elsewhere.
Saturday, gth. We left the Cornwalls' before 10 A.M.,
and again embarked in our coaches. At last the sun shone
upon us, and we were able to dismiss from our minds all
thoughts of umbrellas and waterproofs. The country here
is very curious : there are low hills and rolling plains
which to a stranger look barren, but which really support
1 We heard afterwards that these figures had had new cotton dresses
put on them in our honour.
278 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
cattle all the year round, and certainly produce the best
beef and mutton I ever ate. One carries away from this
district the idea of a great sandhill of a yellowish tinge, cut
into terraces, valleys, mounds, and apparently carved all
over by ancient watercourses. Could it be irrigated, the land
would be very valuable ; but as it is there is scarcely any
cultivation, and the only crop is bunch-grass. Though it
produces such good beef, I can't tell you how many acres
it requires to feed one cow, and the animal has quite a walk
to take between one tuft of grass and another.
We had not left our starting-point long when all the
colours of the rainbow on horseback appeared before us,
and, with shouts and drums and neighing of horses, we
were surrounded by a cavalcade of Indians. The next
half-hour was one of the greatest excitement. I never saw
anything so delightful as the sight of these men, women,
children, waving their flags, horses and foals galloping up
and down the low hills, around us, while our two coaches
drove steadily along the road.
Some of the figures were most interesting to watch.
There was one man with a square drum, which he beat as
he galloped along, his legs keeping time, and his body
dancing on the saddle. The chief was a remarkably hand-
some old man, with a majestic air and a fine seat on horse-
back. He wore a red uniform, and the whole costume was,
strange to say, complete, and unspoiled by any vagary of
his own taste. Another wore a blue coat, deer-skin leg-
gings, and a fur cap, and carried a sceptre mounted with
silver. Several women had babies before them, and bigger
children tied on behind ; and you may imagine how the
baby's head wagged as its mother galloped along ! The
people ride splendidly, and I did so enjoy seeing them
scampering over the ground.
After much cantering and skirmishing we arrived at an
inn and a shop, where we got out of the coach to speak to
the people, and to buy them flour, sugar and tobacco.
SEPT. 1876 KAMLOOPS 279
These Indians are very bright and intelligent-looking.
We shook hands with a great many of them, and particularly
admired the ' British General ' the handsome chief I told
you of. I looked to see if the babies' heads were all right,
and I found one poor old lady who had been galloping
along in this furious fashion with her hand and arm
swelled with rheumatism. I got her a warm shawl at the
store. The whole assembly followed us a mile or two
farther, when they collected on the top of a small hill,
waved their flags, and disappeared. Four of them a
woman and three men came on the whole way to the
Lake.
After passing through arid plains, we suddenly came
upon a glassy sheet of water, into which, and out of which,
the river Thompson flowed. We got on board a steamer,
and as usual found every comfort and luxury surrounding
us : pictures in our cabins, books of poetry on the tables,
rocking-chairs, and good beds.
We steamed along for three hours, when we arrived at
Kamloops. On one bank of the river we saw a quantity of
white men and Indians on horseback, and just as we were
going to land our attention was called to the other bank
(we had got into the Thompson), where about five hundred
wild horses were being driven down to the water. D. landed,
and drove up in a carriage-and-four to a platform, where
he found me (I having walked up) and some other ladies.
The platform was close to an arch, and the carriage was
surrounded by all the people on horseback. I was presented
with a bouquet by a young lady who had been a school-girl
at Clandeboye when I was married. She and some aunts
and uncles live here, and our meeting was quite exciting.
There were addresses, etc., and D. went a short drive,
and then returned to the steamer, where the Indians fol-
lowed him, and stood on the banks chanting a sort of
Psalm.
A deputation kept His Excellency for some time, and
280 , MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. xvi
Ah Sam (our cook) got so impatient, and so fearful that his
dinner would be spoiled, that in spite of everyone he
sounded a gong (upon a tin pan), as a hint to the people
to go.
I must tell you that a lady at Kamloops was warned in
a dream to give me a beautiful pin, made of a nugget
(not the one I mentioned before), which she accordingly
did.
Sunday, loth. We had prayers before breakfast in the
cabin, and soon after steamed across to the opposite shore
to visit the Indians.
There was rather an interesting ' Pow-wow.' They have
had a land grievance in this province, which is serious
to them, and they set it before the Governor- General in a
very grave and dignified manner. They seemed pleased to
have the opportunity of seeing him, and, although he made
them no promises, I think they felt that they had secured
a friend at court. The conversation over, D., Fred and
Colonel Littleton mounted some of the Indian horses in
order to visit the Eeserve, and although they did not find
the Mexican saddles at all comfortable, they enjoyed their
ride very much. ' Louie,' the chief, showed them all his
carrots, onions, potatoes, etc., and, once the ' Pow-wow ' was
over, became very cheerful, and made them gallop along at
a great pace.
They returned for lunch, and afterwards rode again on
the Kamloops side of the lake. D. got a long way up the
hill, and had a good view of the country, and the remainder
of the party walked. Mr. Dewdney and Mr. Vernon dined
with us.
I must tell you a story of Ah Sam. Captain Layton
had slept on shore last night, but as we start very early
to-morrow he wished to have a cabin in the steamer, so he
said to Ah Sam : ' You take your mattress, and put it on
the floor somewhere, as I am going to sleep here to-night.
' Oh,' says Ah Sam, ' me workee hard, Captain Layton no
SEPT. 1876 THE ERASER RIVER 281
work ; me want good bed ; if Captain Layton get in first, he
have it ; if me get in first, me have it.' So at nine o'clock
the whole saloon was disturbed by the snores of Ah Sam,
who retired very early indeed to make sure of keeping the
bed. He is a great character, and always takes his boots
off in the coach, lest he should be made to walk up the hills.
Monday, nth. I was awoke by the stern- wheel, which
is immediately behind my cabin, and which shakes one
more than any screw. We were starting, and about seven
we stopped at a place where most of the party landed to
shoot ; the steamer went on, and the Commodore and I
breakfasted at nine, and went out fishing at Savernagh's
Ferry, in the Thompson Kiver. The trout were only just
beginning to rise when the steamer whistled for us, and we
had to go back. The sportsmen had had a beautiful walk,
and brought home five and a half brace of the ' sharp-tailed
grouse,' and we all enjoyed our morning very much.
We embarked at noon in our coach, and parted with
the Chief Justice at Cache Creek, on his way to Cariboo.
I then got on the box (or ' fore-top,' as we call it, having
just come from the Amethyst] to see Mr. Tingley drive ;
this was an easy part of the road, so I thought it a good
place to take a front seat.
We got to Mr. Cornwall's at six, and all dined there,
D. and I remaining to sleep. We had a most lovely
day.
Tuesday, 1 2th. We got away early ; a beautiful bright
morning. On the road we met many Indians, and gave
away much tobacco and shook hands a good deal. The
old ladies are so animated ; they shake both hands before
you, talking all the time, and continue the motion with
head and hands, when you give them tobacco, saying,
or rather making a noise like, ' tu-choo.'
At Lytton we caught up the second coach ; some of the
passengers had felt the heat so much that it made them
sick, but we did not mind it at all. D., the Colonel and
282 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
the Commodore stopped and bathed in the Thompson. We
are returning the same way we came, and are enjoying the
beautiful scenery in the fine weather. Having plenty of
time to spare, and passing one of those fishing-stations I
told you of, we scrambled down the bank to see the man
at work. His implement was like a very long landing-net,
and he stood on the most rickety little spring-board platform
over the rushing stream, and put his net into the water,
drawing it down stream as far as he could reach ; when he
felt a fish in it, he let go a string, which allowed the net to
run down the frame, and to shut up the fish in a regular
bag. Our gentlemen tried to do it, but they nearly tumbled
into the river, and could not manage it at all.
I again got on the box, and drove over the worst piece
of the road such awful turns, and such a precipice at the
edge of the narrow road ! It certainly requires good driv-
ing, and the coachman has to work hard all the time. We
reached our camp at six, and in an hour were at dinner and
a splendid camp-fire.
Wednesday, i $th. I got up at six to look out at a curious
effect of fog. We are about 800 feet above the river. The
morning was bright and lovely, all the mountains clear,
and an extensive view lay before me ; but when I looked
down at the Eraser, instead of its muddy stream, I beheld
a beautiful river of soft cloud ! This layer of fog must have
been 200 or 300 feet thick, as we could tell by the trees on
the banks, and it was the prettiest thing I ever saw in the
way of mist.
We had a very successful journey back to Yale, and D.
and I sat on the box for the last hour of the way. The
driver and all the Yaleites were delighted that we had en-
joyed the trip, and were not frightened ; and the coach-
man's testimony to my courage during the perilous drive to
Kamloops was ' that I hadn't a scare in me.' We drove
down to the steamer Eoyal City, and had the Oppenheims
to dine with us.
Thursday, i^th. The stern- wheel awoke us about 6 A.M.
SEPT. 1876 VICTORIA 283
It gives the most odious motion to the steamer. About
eleven we got to New Westminster, which D. thinks should
be the terminus of the new Pacific Eailway, and the Mayor
came on board, and presented me with photographs of all
the arches. The Commodore left us here, and we went on
a little farther to join the Douglas, upon which steamer
I have been scribbling this.
We had a very smooth passage of about twenty miles
to Victoria, where we found it raining heavily. This only
made our drawing-room, with its fire and lights, look more
than ever comfortable after all our travelling ; and then the
delight of finding a mail waiting, and a nice quiet hour for
reading our letters !
Friday, i$ih. Fred Ward, who is * housekeeper,' has
ordered up the prisoners from the Penitentiary to ' pluck
chickens ' for the ball ; it is the custom here, and this morn-
ing, when we walked into the ball-room, we found six pri-
soners, with chains to their legs and an armed man stand-
ing over them, polishing the floor.
D. was, as usual, shut up with some argumentative
Victorian till 4.30 P.M., when I got him out for a little drive,
and we walked home.
Saturday, i6th. After lunch we went to a rifle-match.
His Ex. gave away his medals, and we saw some ' com-
pany ' there. The Commodore joined us, and we walked
home. In the evening we attended an amateur concert.
Monday, iSth. Prisoners all busy, preparing for the
ball. Fred brought the head gardener into the drawing-
room to give him some directions about flowers, and was
about to take him to the dining-room, when he said : ' I
can't leave that man here ; he's a convict.' There was a
storm last night, and the weather looks bad.
We visited the High School, received an address, and
replied. D. presented some medals for competition, which
were unexpected, and gave great pleasure. We then called
upon the ex-Governor, Mr. Trutch, to see his mother, an
old lady of seventy- seven, who is dying to come to the ball,
284 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
but cannot get her doctor's permission to do so. I rested
in the afternoon, and at seven we had a very merry little
dinner in a small room. There was a rumour that the
great Ah Sam was drunk, and that the supper would be very
bad ; but the dinner was all right, so we felt some hope.
The guests were invited at 8.30, and soon after nine D.
and I came down to open the ball. The room is a very
nice one, and we had had all the windows taken out,
and a sort of corridor tent of canvas, lined with flags, put
up the whole way round the outside, which added greatly
to the available space. I must say I enjoyed the ball very
much, and I think everyone else did. We all danced from
9.30 till three without intermission, and as fathers, mothers,
daughters and sons are all equally dancing-mad here, and
as we had a great number of naval officers, and were in
ourselves an element of novelty to the Victorians, and they
were new to us, there was a great deal of spirit in the ball.
When everyone else had gone, we had some more supper
and a talk ; the former was very good, and Ah Sam had
been maligned.
Tuesday, igth. We breakfasted at eleven, and had to
start immediately after for the Esquimault Dockyard ; the
Commodore went on first, and received us there with the
officials belonging to it. D. was to drive in the first pile of
a new dry dock ; and when this ceremony, which was per-
formed by the aid of steam, was accomplished, we went
over the stores, and then to lunch. The croquet -ground
was covered in with sails and flags, and the tables were
laid on it. Our health was drunk, and D.'s reply was very
successful, containing a little chaff about the way in which
he has been shut up every, and all day with the male
portion of the population of Victoria which amused them
immensely.
When all was over we went to see the Rocket a gun-
boat and then drove home, the Commodore returning to
the Amethyst.
SEPT. 1876 SAN FRANCISCO 285
Wednesday, 2Oth. Such a day of labour ! D. very busy
from 7 A.M. preparing for a very important speech ; at
eleven the deputation came, and he spoke till 2.30 ; then
lunch, and off to the Cathedral to attend the christening of a
baby ' Frederick Temple Cornwall.' Then on to a public
picnic on Beacon Hill ; there were numbers of people there,
and we stayed an hour, and said good-bye to all we knew.
Fred and I then came on board the Amethyst, and D. went
back to Government House to see that the speech was
ready for the Press. Some mistake had been made in
reporting it, and he found it in such hopeless confusion
that he did not get away till quite late, missing the dinner
on board, and half the performance which was given for
us. The officers had got up some songs and glees, and
afterwards we had some Christy Minstrels, which were very
amusing.
Thursday, 2ist. The morning was lovely, and D.
having finished his business, was able to enjoy himself.
The Commodore took me for a row, and he went on board
the Douglas, where there was a party to see us off. We
started at twelve, accompanied by the little steamer, and
had much waving of handkerchiefs before parting with her.
I regret to say that I was not able to appear at dinner,
and that, one by one, those who sat down disappeared from
the table. We had a very rough night, and half the officers
and sailors were ill.
The mail steamer Dakota started an hour after us,
bent upon beating us.
Saturday, 23rd. Beautiful weather, and all decidedly
better.
San Francisco : Sunday, 24th. Anchored at 7 A.M., and
have won the race against the Dakota. We stayed on board
for church, and then said a temporary ' good-bye ' to the
ship and her officers, and came ashore to the hotel.
Monday, 2$th. At twelve o'clock we went on board the
Amethyst again, the ward-room officers having asked us to
286 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
lunch with them. They are all so civil and kind, and received
us most hospitably ; we are sorry to part. After our farewells
were made to our hosts, we set off again, accompanied by
the Commodore, on another little expedition. General
McDowell met us, and we went by train with him south-
wards for an hour ; at the station we had a carriage-and-
four, and drove to the house of a Mr. Mills. This was to
show us a Californian home ; and certainly, after passing
through the sandy hills, it was refreshing to come upon a
little oasis of brilliant green, and tropical plants. The
house was as nice a show-house as I have seen : some good
pictures, and bedrooms really liveable in, in spite of mag-
nificent monograms in the centre of each pillow-case. All
the country round looks burnt up, and yellow and sandy,
while the place itself is fresh, green, gay with flower-beds,
and dignified by very handsome evergreen oaks and enor-
mous bay-trees. We had to hurry away from it, and get
into our carriage, to drive to Mr. Sharon's.
It was too late for us to see the grounds, but I am now
in a position to tell you something of a Californian mer-
chant's home, and society.
The house was built by a certain Mr. Ealston, and on his
death it became the property of his partner, Mr. Sharon, who
was a miner, has twice been a millionaire, and twice has
lost all, this being his third enjoyment of a great fortune.
He owns a gigantic hotel, another almost as big in San
Francisco, a large house in town, this country place, and a
big house at Washington, not to mention various little mines
and railways ; and he is here considered as the merchant-
prince of 'Frisco.
We were shown into the hall, which at first gave the
impression of a small house, though opening into large
corridors; it seems as though originally there were two
sitting-rooms, and that a ball-room and supper-room, a place
for the dancers to flirt in, and a corridor, had all been
added.
SEPT. 1876 A CALIFORNIAN BALL 287
Everything opens into everything, with sliding, muffled
windows ; and nothing is imposing. The ball-room is a good
room and pretty, but the nicest feature of the house is a sort
of sitting-room upstairs, on to which the bedrooms open.
We were immediately taken there, and told not to dress for
dinner (our servants had brought on our ball things) ; so
we were soon down again, and were introduced to the com-
pany in the house. The guests are General Sherman, a
very pleasing man, and Mr. Cameron 2 and his daughter, a
ladylike and handsome girl. General McDowell does most
of the honours, and he marshalled us in to dinner, I going
with our host, Mr. Sharon, a very quiet little man. I
told him I liked his hotel, and I tried to look as if
14,000,000,000 dollars a sum he named conveyed a de-
finite idea to my mind. There was no plate, no ornament,
no china on the table, no luxury whatever here. No table
could have looked less wealthy, and the dinner itself was
simple. I only saw part of it, however, for I was suddenly
told to go and dress, and accordingly off we ladies went to
prepare for the ball.
The ball guests were coming by train, and nothing was
done until they did come, which was an hour and a half
after I was ready, so Mr. Cameron gave me an arm, and
walked me up and down the corridors, and sat me down
occasionally, and took me up again and round again.
The train did at last arrive, and with it the company
ladies first. I observed a great latitude as to the style of
dress worn. There were low dresses and square dresses,
velvet, merino, morning silks, and regular ball gowns ;
everyone seemed to appear just as they pleased. There
were girls who would have been pretty but for the paint
and powder, which was laid on thick, and sprinkled over
the hair just in sufficient quantities to spoil it. I asked
someone afterwards whether she considered that paint
was de rigueur here, as I saw it was so much used,
2 Mr. Cameron, at that time Minister of War in the United States.
288 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL en. xvi
and she told me it was used by girls to a great extent. I
said, ' Do they acknowledge that they paint ? ' She said,
' Not paint ; powder.' There is no deception about it,
however, for it is thick.
The dancing is different to ours the square dances an
improvement, I think much more lively, and much delight-
ful curtseying and bowing going on. I danced the opening
quadrille, and was much amused ; the bandmaster stood
close to me, and called out the orders, ' Ladies' chain, set to
partners, cross,' etc., in a loud voice. The waltzes are slow,
and there is a particular way of holding your partner, which
I don't admire.
There was no tea-room ; the only refreshments were for
the gentlemen a large bowl of punch, brandy, gin, and
champagne ; the table was in one of the recesses of the
corridors, and the men sat and drank and smoked there.
At twelve Mr. Sharon came, and told me it was time ' for
lunch,' and I went with him into the dining-room, to the
top of the table, where a small round one and a chair were
placed for me ; the others stood. The only ornamentations
on the table were sugar ships.
Everyone was most kind to us, and Mr. Sharon took us
in his carriage to the train, in which we returned with the
rest of the company to San Francisco. When we got into
our carriage at the station, we had a good laugh. It was
a large sort of coach, but four was the number intended to
be inside. We sat three on a seat : D., the Commodore, and
I on one, and three people opposite to us, when, to our
astonishment, an extra bench was put down between us, and
two ladies came in and sat, one partly on His Ex.'s knee
and partly on the bench ; the other, after trying my lap,
happily moved on to the Commodore's.
At Mr. Sharon's my maid met some Clandeboye and
Bangor people ; one maid-servant told her she should go
home as soon as she could sell out her Stocks ' at 100. She
had bought in at 18, and now they are 85.
SEPT. 1876 THE CHINESE THEATRE 289
Tuesday, 26tk. After breakfast Fred Ward and I went
to church for the purpose of standing as godfather and
godmother to Francis Ward's baby, who was born the day
we reached 'Frisco.
When we met the baby in church her name was not
chosen ; but they wanted one to go with May, and when
I suggested Muriel they were delighted ; so Muriel May
she was called. I held her the whole service, and as she
was awake I had to nurse her, and to do the ' goose-step,'
all the time.
Mr. Miller, navigating-lieutenant of the Amethyst, came
to lunch with us, and brought the charts, in order that we
might choose some anonymous places to which we might
give names. You will be interested to hear that future
maps will show the ' Dufferin Eange ' and the ' Countess of
Dufferin Kange ' of mountains, ' Dufferin Island,' ' Chat-
field Island,' 'Hamilton Cape,' 'Littleton Cape,' 'Ward
Cape ' ; and Mr. Miller is to be immortalised, too.
There are ' no end ' of mountains, and the ranges had
no names before.
We asked our reporters to dine with us, and they, our-
selves and the Commodore had a most delightful evening.
D. and I quite agree we would have come the whole
journey for the sake of seeing the Chinese Theatre.
We went there with the necessary appendage of a
policeman, and had a box next to that of Generals Sherman
and McDowell. The theatre itself is quite unornamented,
and is what some people might call dirty ; but I am too
much pleased to be critical. The pit was quite full of
Chinamen, as was the gallery, with the exception of a small
place set apart for women, where about fifty ladies sat.
Our boxes were opposite to them. The stage ran right
across the theatre, and was innocent of side-wings or scenery,
There were two doors, with a curtain in front of each ;
the band sat between these doors, and the actors played in
front of the musicians. The two ends of the stage seemed
290 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
to be used as sitting-rooms for anyone who chose to
' walk up.'
I don't know whether you are aware that a Chinese
play is not an affair of hours, or of days, but of months,
and that you can have about six hours a night of it as long
as it lasts. We went for half an hour, and stayed two, and
even then we left most reluctantly.
The music is of the bagpipe order, but not so loud,
and D. was charmed with the minor key and the barbaric
tunes. It went on almost the whole of the play, one
musician at a time taking a smoke and a rest, while the
actors performed.
When we arrived the stage was occupied by a com-
pany of aristocratic Chinamen, and it was evident that an
important council was being held. The councillors were
magnificently dressed in gold and embroidered satin and
various- shaped head-dresses, and their manners were
splendid. The acting we might consider stagey, but it seems
to suit the dress and the people, and it was delightful to
see them walk or move their arms, and, above all, sit down
they did it with such an air ! One gentleman wore two
enormous drooping feathers in his hat, which he twirled just
as if they were moustaches. There was a discussion, partly
sung, between the dignitaries, and I ' guess ' that there was
rebellion going on, for when they rose the party divided
and went out at separate doors, returning again with soldiers
under their respective leaders.
A fight then took place, with a pirouette between each
blow. The soldiers were plainly dressed (black Chinese
tunics with sashes), but their chests were bare, and in the
second part of the performance one gentleman showed so
much of his manly bosom that I really thought that, in
his ardour, he would get out of his sleeves.
After these political scenes the drama became more
domestic, and a lady (a man dressed as such) came on.
She had the most modest of manners, and a great affecta-
SEPT. 1876 A JOSS HOUSE 291
tion of refinement ; she begged her husband not to join the
war, but, in spite of her prayer and that of his mother-in-law,
he went, and then the story began to resemble that of
' Faust.'
Having torn ourselves away from the theatre, we went
to the cafe opposite, which had lanterns hung outside. We
found music and gambling going on upstairs, and a few
women and men about, who instantly offered us chairs,
and began to speak English to us. They asked if we would
have tea, and as we ' would,' they took us into an adjoin-
ing room, laid a table, and all collected round us talking.
The tea was delicious, drunk without cream or sugar (the
latter they greatly object to), and we had also ginger and
sweetmeats. The women came behind me, and touched
my things, and were especially interested in the jet on my
cloak. We saw opium-pipes and water-pipes, and looked
at the women's nails ; and the men laughed and said, in
allusion to their length, ' They lazy, never do anything.'
We offered to pay, but ' No, no, we treat you ' ; so we
effected an exchange of cards, and are to have and give
photographs. D. shook hands with a lady, who instantly hid
her face and fled.
Our guide next took us on to see the ' Joss House,' or
Chinese church. We passed through a dark passage, and
mounted a winding stair outside a house, till we reached the
top storey, where we found the place of worship. We saw
it by the light of two candles and three night-lights burning
in front of idols. It is not at all imposing, being small, and
crowded with things ; no seats, and very little standing-
room. The ' altar ' stretches across the building, and is
occupied by three miserable gods in separate divisions ; a
few gimcracks are placed near them offerings from their
worshippers. The only thing at all handsome is a beautiful
piece of carved wood, gilt, which evidently portrays an
allegorical subject, and which stretches in front of the
entrance-door, and partially screens the idols.
u 2
292 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
This ended our last day at San Francisco, and to-morrow
the return journey begins.
We said good-bye to the Commodore (Captain Chat-
field, B.N.), who has been very kind to us on board his
ship, and a very pleasant addition to our society ashore.
You will see that I was not bewildered with the mag-
nificence of San Francisco, and was surprised when Mr.
Cameron, a Cabinet Minister (but a man who has not been
to 'Europe), told me that when he was asked ' what he
thought of San Francisco,' he replied : ' I think nothing ;
I am simply dazed.' Of course the town is wonderful, be-
cause it is built on impossible sandhills. Chicago is to me
much more splendid and magnificent ; but in reply to this
opinion I am told, ' Oh ! but then, so far West ! '
Wednesday, T.'jtli. We had to leave the hotel at San
Francisco early, and to cross in a ferry to the railway-
station, where we found our Pullman ready for us.
The day was very warm and dusty, and the grizzly bear
at Colfax looked intensely miserable with the heat. He
received grapes thankfully. Enormous bunches here are
to be had for five cents.
Thursday, 2%th. On the Alkali Plains ; weather plea-
sant, but the acrid dust disagreeable to the eyes.
Friday, 29th. We breakfasted at Ogden, and said good-
bye to Fred Ward there, he being the first deserter from our
party. Then we started for Salt Lake City. The journey
of two hours is a very pretty one. Salt Lake was in sight
almost the whole way, and was of a deep, bright blue ; while
on the other side of the carriage the hills were red and orange
and brilliant yellow, autumn having already put the sumach
plant into her gorgeous livery. We had arranged to dine
at the hotel, and to sleep in the rail way -car ; but I may
tell you at once that the mosquitoes took possession of it
early in the evening, and that we accepted our defeat, and
spent the night at the Gentile Hotel, which is the very best
for food I have been in on this continent.
SEPT. 1876 THE SALT LAKE CITY 293
The city is certainly a wonderful creation. The streets
are very broad, so that the tramway which runs down the
middle of each one does not interfere with one's carriage-
wheels. At the side runs a little open stream of rapid-
flowing, clear water a most refreshing sight in a naturally
very dusty place. Green trees grow along the banks of
this artificial ditch, and the watering of the arid plain is
the greatest work the Prophet has performed.
As we drove from the station to the Walker House, we
passed a pretty villa, with a garden and lawn and fountain
in front ; and this afterwards proved to be the house of our
friend that is to say, the gentleman to whom we had
brought a letter of introduction. D. and I went there
later, and found a good farmer kind of man living in this
fine house. A wife, a daughter, a friend and a son came
into the room, and I became very impatient when I found
that nothing but European wars and trifles of that kind
were to be talked of; we could not even make out whether
our host was a Mormon or not ! At last I managed to
suggest to D. that we ' really must be going,' and then our
host asked if we wished to see the Tabernacle, and if we
wished an interview with Brigham Young ; this last honour
we declined. D. declares that it made me quite irritable
even to be in his vicinity, and I think it did.
Our friend drove, and a nephew of his wife's went with
us to fetch Fred and the Colonel, and when some bright
particular Mormon star passed the carriage stopped, and
D. was introduced. The gentlemen jumped out for these
presentations, and it was when left alone for these few
seconds that I picked up some scraps of information. Her
Ex., in a violent hurry, to young man : ' Hem , is Mr. J.
a Gentile ? ' Young man, smiling : ' No, but I am.'
Second opportunity : ' Has Mr. J. more than one wife ? '
' No ; she is my aunt.' Tfris may be called an evasion, for I
find that he had two, and has eighteen children ; but the
second lady died, and the daughter we saw was her child.
294 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
I was introduced to a few people too, and met George Q.
Cameron, an M.P., a polygamist, an apostle (he is building
a very fine house for some favoured lady) ; and Olson Pratt,
the man who led the Mormons to the Promised Land, and
who is one of the cleverest of the apostles.
The first thing to be seen was the Tabernacle, in front of
which a temple of granite is being built. The service
will be held there when the congregation is small ; but
it seems to be intended principally for church offices of
different kinds, and I suppose they will have a new En-
dowment House in it, for the place in which the marriages
are now performed is a miserable little building.
The Tabernacle is a huge and hideous edifice with a
great flat dome. There is no support to the arch inside, of
which fact the Mormons are proud. It holds 12,000 people,
and we found it decorated with garlands and hanging
bunches of flowers. There is an enormous organ, which
we heard played ; and from Brigham Young's pulpit you
can see every seat in the vast circular room. The acoustic
properties are perfect.
We next visited ' Zion's ' co-operative store, a very large
place ; indeed, the shops of the town appear to me to be
remarkably good. Amelia (Brigham's most powerful wife)
was in the shop, but unfortunately we did not know it at the
time, and, being with Mormons, we were not told any gossip.
Our driver took us past the Amelia Palace, a fine house
which Brigham is now building for the favourite. Opposite
to it is the Lion House, where she and other ladies now
reside, and the Beehive, also the abode of the Mrs. Youngs.
A wall is built in front of this harem, so it is only when
the various gates are open that a peep in is to be had. The
only real evidence of polygamy to be seen by the stranger
is the multiplication of doors to a gentleman's house ; the
Mormons are certainly shy of the subject with ' gentiles,'
and only say, ' that is Mr. Cannon's house ' ; ' that is
another house of Mr. Cannon's.'
SEPT. 1876 THE SALT LAKE CITl 295
We visited the Theatre and the Town-Hall, and then
returned to dine at our hotel. I believe our one friend
here is a ' wet ' Mormon, and at his house, where we spent
the evening, we only met one-wifed men. The Governor
of the State and his wife went with us, and on arriving
there we found everyone sitting in a circle close round
the walls of the room. We took our places in this very
stiff row, and I kept mine all the time. D. managed to
lift his chair and to change his position a little. There
were some officers of the U.S. Army, and some of our
host's two families, also a Mr. H., whose daughter has just
married one of the sons ; the parents, when they found
their children had been to the Endowment House, showed
their want of faith by carrying them off to a registry office,
and insisting upon their going through a legal marriage.
Miss H. has only one father, but she had four grand-
fathers. We had Mormon fruit, Mormon cake, and
champagne, handed round by a Mormon daughter of the
house.
Our hostess was quiet and rather melancholy-looking
the shadow of a possible colleague over her ; she has not
been out of the town for twenty-two years, though her
daughters have been to Europe, and go to New York ; I
suppose Mormon husbands think, 'where ignorance is
bliss,' etc.
Saturday, ^oth. We had to leave very early in the
morning, and were, as our hotel-keeper playfully remarked,
' sent off with fireworks,' the illumination being the burning
of a rival inn. The whole roof was on fire, and the goods
were being thrown out of the window.
We breakfasted at Ogden, and then, in our comfortable
' house-upon- wheels,' began to ascend the Eocky Moun-
tains.
Sunday, October ist. It was difficult to believe that this
was Sunday, for when we arrived at Cheyenne all was
bustle at the railway- station, and in the town the shops
296 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
were open. The only ' Sabbath ' look was given to the
place by the laziness of the men, who sat about and drank
beer. The ' West ' seems to me to be very careless in
religious matters, and the only church we could discover
in this town was a Roman Catholic one. We and our two
cars were left here.
Monday, 2nd. We slept ' on board,' and started at
five in the morning. About nine we reached Denver,
where, unfortunately, we had arranged to sleep before we
knew of the quiet night at Cheyenne. It is an un-
interesting town, surrounded by mountains. It has some
good shops, and is planted all over with fresh little
green poplars ; but we found twenty-four hours too much to
spend in it.
In spite of its uninteresting character, it has its own
little political excitements, and a torch-light procession of
Democrats marched past our hotel this evening ; while a
Republican one formed close by, and set off in the opposite
direction. It is wonderful how these rival processions are
managed without collision.
A curious man with long hair sat by us at meals, who
turns out to be a great hunter ; he offers to take D. and
me across the Rocky Mountains.
One falls into very bad manners at these hotels. The
dinner is before one in little dishes, and one dips a fork
into each dish, and takes bits of this and of that in the same
plate, and uses one's knife promiscuously for salt, butter,
and the whole dinner. The cloth is generally somewhat
dirty, and there is a clatter going on in the room that is
bewildering. The service is excessively slow, and it is use-
less to try and get anything from any waiter but your own.
At Cheyenne we had a most sympathetic black, who said,
with the utmost feeling, that ' he was so sorry ' when we
expressed an inability to eat any more ; we almost over-ate
ourselves to oblige him !
I saw numbers of negro men and women on horseback
OCT. 1876 57: LOUIS 297
to-day, and there was a white lady riding about in a pea-
green habit.
We heard of a young man who came down from the
mines a week before with i,9oolbs. weight of gold, worth
about 1 6s. an ounce. He had an escort of twenty men, to
each of whom he paid $200 (4oZ.). We were shown a
nugget weighing about 145 ounces.
Tuesday , $rd. We were very glad to leave Denver this
morning. D. had a talk with the hunter, who is known as
Oregon Bill. He gave us his photograph, in which he is
depicted with an Indian scalp hanging from his belt.
We travelled through the ugliest country it is possible
to conceive : a flat plain, without the smallest variation in
it the whole day. Our only excitement was seeing a calf
dragged along by a lasso, and numerous prairie-fires at
night, illuminating the landscape in every direction.
Wednesday, qth. The country still ugly, though when
we got to the Missouri a few trees and some castor-oil plants
were to be seen. I think we found this almost the longest
day of our tour.
Thursday, $th. Arrived at St. Louis early, and found
that it is the day of the year to be here the best day of the
Great Fair. The town and hotels are crammed, and some
residents good-naturedly turned out to give us their rooms.
We found two mails awaiting us, and after reading them
went off to see the show.
There is a very fine, uncovered amphitheatre, where we
saw trotting-horses and four-in-hands ; a band played, and
the seats all round the course were filled ; there must have
been 30,000 people there, and crowds outside and all
through the grounds. It is a great holiday here.
D. took me a walk through the town, which is one of
the nicest I have seen in the States solid-looking, and
with very handsome residences. The hotel is very good
and comfortable.
Friday, 6th. We left St. Louis early, and stood outside
298 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvi
our train to examine the great bridge over which we had to
pass. It crosses the Mississippi and the Missouri, the two
having joined into one muddy river. The bridge is built on
three piers, and is, I believe, a wonderful piece of engineer-
ing work. The carriage-way is over the bridge, the railway
through it. The whole looks very light and airy, and sug-
gestive of a ' smash ' ; but it is, of course, really very strong.
We read our newspapers, and I went for the third time
through all my letters ! Letters are never more appreciated
or spelt through than when one is travelling.
Saturday, jih. Soon after breakfast we crossed the
St. Clair in our train, on a large boat built for the purpose,
and being now in Canada, the ' Grand Tour ' ends.
D. and I spend Sunday at Toronto ; on Monday morning
I go to Montreal, and he to Philadelphia. Friday, I hope
to see my children, and am planning holidays and ' great
larks.'
299
CHAPTEE XVII
OUR FIFTH WINTER AND SUMMER IN CANADA
Friday, i^th October. The 'Grand Tour' being over,
I quite forgot I had still to keep up a Journal, and, suddenly
remembering it, I find myself at the end of a week with no
notes, and the necessity of remembering how I have spent
the time. We arrived at Toronto last Saturday night, and
were very hospitably received by the Macdonalds at Govern-
ment House. I liked them all very much.
On Sunday D. and I went to church in the Cathedral,
and in the afternoon a few people came to see us Lady
Macdonald, old Mr. Chapman, etc. The Howlands, Mowats,
Colonel Cumberland, and Mr. Crooks, dined.
On Monday morning I had to be up at 5.30, to catch
my train to Montreal, and D., whom I left behind, started
at eleven en route for Philadelphia. In spite of our recent
long tour, Alexander and I both thought this the longest
journey we ever made. We got to Montreal at 9.30, Mr.
Mackenzie having been with me as far as Prescott. Eussell
met me at the train, and I found Gwen in her own house,
looking very well, and all her surroundings so pretty and
comfortable. Gwen and I spend quiet mornings together.
One afternoon we went a lovely drive up the mountain.
We visited her chief friends, having tea with Miss de Eoche-
blave 1 and Mrs. Stephens, 2 and driving with Miss Allen to
the Eaces.
1 A French-Canadian lady who has very many friends in England.
2 Lady Mount-Stephen, one of my sister's best and kindest friends.
300 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvn
We breakfasted early this morning, and I left by the
train for Ottawa.
Friday, 2oth. Two days of Indian summer ; such
lovely weather. We drove in the afternoons, and remained
in the garden till five. The Council and Ministers are
making arrangements to give D. a grand reception on his
return ; we expect him on Monday or Tuesday.
Tuesday, 24th. Sunday was wet and gloomy again, and
so was Monday, on which day D. returned. Four aldermen
went to meet him at a station thirty miles off, and when
he arrived at Ottawa there was a platform, a guard of
honour, an address, and a carriage and four to bring him
to the Government House. The children were very happy
listening to the guns and watching for the four greys, and
we all stood at the door to receive the Governor-General.
He was so surprised at the sight of his baby, who is
much grown and improved, and admired Victoria, whom later
in the evening Nelly dressed up in the most artistic manner
as the ' Queen of Sheba.'
Wednesday, November ist. The Count de Turenne ar-
rived this morning to pay us a visit. He returns to France
next month.
At three o'clock we went into town a large party :
seven children, accompanied by three parents, a nurse and
the Count to see Tom Thumb. We filled two boxes, and
the delight of the children made it very amusing. Basil
jumped up and down, pounded the cushions, shouted
' hurrah,' and roared with laughter ; and they all clapped and
cheered in company with the rest of the spectators, who
were mostly children. The dwarfs did some little plays,
one having a man in the part of a ' mischievous monkey '
in it, who once made a dash at our box, and was received
with shrieks.
The Littletons dined with us, and the Count told us
funny stories about his tour. The weather is very bad
almost pitch-dark, and wet.
NOV. 1876 OTTAWA 301
Sunday, $th. We were surprised when we got to church
to have the sermon first ; it was explained in the evening
that this was a hint to people who came late ; and it was
rather unfortunate that on this day it happened that the
Governor-General was two or three minutes late, and of
course he could not imagine what had happened when he
found us in the middle of the sermon.
Tuesday, igth December. The children did their Christ-
mas shopping. I think it is the event of the year they like
the best, and they each go with a few shillings, and with
a list of about sixteen people, for whom they expect to buy
handsome presents.
Christmas Day, 1876. The children's voices are heard
very early, rejoicing over presents they have received from
their nurses.
The whole family, except the absent Archie, dined at
our lunch, Baby and Victoria for the first time. The Little-
tons came to tea, and there was a round table with ten
very happy faces at it. Then came the tree, which looked
very brilliant, and gave universal satisfaction. Everyone
seems to have got just what they wanted, and the clamour
of musical instruments resounding through the house ever
since sounds cheerful, if not pretty. When the pleasures
of the tree were exhausted we had snapdragon, and then a
'Yorkshire wassail-bowl,' in which we all drank Archie's
health with cheers.
Sunday, $ist. Gwen's baby was christened to-day.
Monday, January ist, 1877. A hard day. At ten the
children rehearsed their play ; at twelve His Ex., the
A.D.C.s, and I, having dressed ourselves smart, sat for two
hours receiving all the men in Ottawa.
Exhausted by two, we lunched, and I then packed off
my family to bed, promising faithfully to call them at four.
At three a servants' children's party commenced, and
mine joined them for tea ; after which they acted a little
play with great success.
302 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvii
Friday, $th.I had my annual children's party to-day.
Seventy-eight of them came at five, and mothers besides.
After the play, which was acted again, there was tea : two
long tables down the dining-room, and one outside for the
grown-ups. The magic lantern came next, and then we
cleared away the chairs, and the children danced about, and
amused themselves very much.
Saturday, 6th. We had a skating-party, and final repre-
sentation of the children's play, ' Fifine, the Fisher Maid,'
which went off extremely well. They like the appreciative-
ness of a grown-up audience.
Victoria was very funny : she would run on to the stage
and exhibit her shoes, bracelets, etc. to the spectators ; at
last I had to draw her back, as she was taking the interest
off from the real performers. When the curtain was drawn
up again at the end, she came forward and made a very
nice little curtsey, and said ' Good night, everybody.'
There was a scene in the play in which all go down to
the bottom of the sea. I managed this by having green
tarlatan, upon which fishes were pasted, drawn up slowly
in front of the children to a certain height above their heads,
showing the depth of the water.
Toronto: Wednesday, loth. We left Ottawa for Toronto
yesterday, on the most lovely Canadian morning, to stay with
the Macdonalds. After lunch to-day we set off for the Town
Hall, and had an address from the Mayor and a reply from
His Ex. This was the one about which one of the aldermen
said, when discussing the question of our reception, and the
expense of it, that ' a nice little speech from the Governor-
General would cost nothing.'
People were presented to us after it, and then we went
to tea at the Macpher sons'. There was a very pleasant
dinner of thirty people here in the evening.
Thursday, nth. D. and I went to the Mechanics' Institute
to receive an address. A ball given in the evening was very
JAN. 1877 TORONTO 303
nicely managed, and handsomely done. We received the
guests with Mr. and Miss Macdonald, and then walked
through the room to the dais prepared for us. I sat there
most of the evening talking to different people, and His Ex.
danced everything till early next morning.
Friday, i2th. After breakfast D. and I visited the rooms
of the Art Union Society of Toronto, and in the afternoon
we went to the Curling and Skating Eink, where an address
was read, to which he replied in very happy terms. They
presented him with curling stones and brooms, and me with
a beautiful pair of skates.
I skated a little, and D. curled. He had a dinner at the
National Club, and made a very amusing speech. Allud-
ing to his duties as a constitutional governor, he likened
himself to ' the humble functionary we see superintending
the working of some complicated mass of chain-driven
machinery. This personage merely walks about with a
little tin vessel of oil in his hand, and he pours in a drop
here and a drop there, as occasion or the creaking of a
joint may require ; while his utmost vigilance is directed
to no higher aim than the preservation of his wheels and
cogs from the intrusion of dust, grits, or other foreign
bodies.' The 'Grits' being the party now in power, this
joke on their name was much appreciated.
The weather is very cold ; there is so much wind we feel
it more than at Ottawa.
Sunday, i^th. Before church we visited the Sunday-
school, and then had a very long service in the Cathedral.
After it we drove out to see Mr. and Mrs. Gzowski in their
pretty house ; then lunch here ; and after it Fred and I
drove out with Mr. W. Howland to the General Hospital.
It is a very fine one, and we went all over it, and on to tea
with Mrs. Howland.
Monday, i$th. We four ladies Miss Macdonald, her
sisters, and myself dined alone, the gentlemen being at the
304 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvn
Club dinner given to His Ex., where he made another im-
portant speech.
Tuesday, i6th. Such a lovely day at last. In the after-
noon there was a very pleasant little skating-party at Govern-
ment House, and in the evening we went to see ' Arrah na
Pogue ' at the Theatre. When the play was over we drove
back, changed our dresses, and went off to the railway-car,
where we meant to sleep. We remained in the station all
night, but there was such a noise that we could not sleep,
and in the morning we started for Ottawa.
Thursday, February 8th. In the afternoon I attended the
opening of Parliament. The Senate Chamber was crowded,
and all the dresses, etc. looked very handsome. The Speech
was a rather long one.
In the evening we had a very large Drawing-room in the
Senate Chamber. There must have been 800 presentations,
and the room got quite crammed.
Thursday, i$th. We had an evening rehearsal of some
plays we are getting up, and all the actors came to dine
first. Of course there were several things to be improved :
the gas did not go out when it should, etc. ; but by working
hard we got it all right.
Friday, i6th. We had the dress-rehearsal. Both pieces
were immensely successful. D. was delighted ; the dresses
capital, and in ' Our Wife ' very pretty.
.The ' Loan of a Lover ' came first, Mr. Kimber and his
sister doing the principal parts, and doing them admirably.
Colonel Littleton and I, Mr. Brodie and Mr. McLean, did
the smaller parts. The songs were all well sung, and we
put in a few additional ones. The two Freds looked very
magnificent in 'Our Wife.' Fred Ward acted extremely
well; his part is most amusing, and suited him exactly.
Mr. Kimber was at his very best ; indeed, we had a very
strong cast for the whole play.
Saturday, ijth. A rehearsal of ' The Scrap of Paper'
after lunch, and then a skating-party. There was no snow
FEB. 1877 OTTAWA 305
on the top of the slide, and consequently no tobogganing ;
and it was too cold for much skating, so we began to dance
early.
Wednesday, 2ist. The day of our theatricals. The
weather is beautiful, almost too warm. Great misfortunes
happened to-day. Miss Lea, 3 who is staying with us to do
a picture of me, took hartshorn by mistake, and nearly
choked herself. Then D. got a bad headache ; and at
seven we had no gas at all ! I was in despair. The order
was given to collect all the candles and lamps in the house,
and our cook, who was preparing a supper for 400, was left
in sudden darkness. His wife was furious, and of course a
couple of lamps had to be returned to him. You may
imagine my feelings : all the passages and dressing-rooms
in a miserable light ; for by eight o'clock only a glimmer of
gas had appeared. The stage was lighted up with candles,
which dripped over us, and had to be replaced between
each scene. It was so depressing.
People declared they were delighted ; and certainly they
did not mind the want of gas half as much as I did. At the
end I felt much more tired than usual, owing to the worry.
Wednesday, March 7th. I have forgotten to say that on
Friday, the 2nd, there was a great curling-match between
our club and Belleville for a medal ; it was very exciting,
the V.C.K. being behindhand at first ; but we finally won
by two points. We have to play once more before we can
keep the medal.
Saturday, loth. Such a magnificent day. The trees
sparkle like diamonds, and every twig and branch is en-
tirely cased in ice. Against a bright blue sky they are too
lovely. A large Parliamentary dinner in the evening.
Wednesday, i^th. D. went into town, and after he
got out of the sleigh he slipped upon the icy pavement,
and fell very heavily on a step. Some men picked him up,
and put him on his feet ; but he could not stand, and fell
1 Mrs. Anna Lea Merritt.
306 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvn
again. They then carried him into a shop, where he lay
on the floor for quite twenty minutes before he could re-
cover his breath at all. Two doctors came, and bandaged
him up tight. They said no bones were broken ; but he
was very severely bruised and shaken, and in the evening
suffered great pain if he moved.
Of course he had to go to bed, and he missed the ' Scrap
of Paper ' : it went off very well, and people were delighted
with it. They were so interested in the story, and they
thought everyone very good in their parts. There were no
hitches at all ; the only drawback was D.'s absence.
Friday, i6th. D. very poorly all day, and quite unable
to move. Colonel 4 and Mrs. Hewitt came for the large
military dinner which we gave. There were fifty- four at
dinner, and the room looked very well. D. so disappointed
to miss it.
Wednesday, 2ist. About n P.M.Mr. Brodie drove up
to say that he, General Smyth, his son, etc., had been
burnt out, and had lost everything two theatrical suits
for Saturday into the bargain !
Saturday, 24th. We had the last performance of the
' Scrap of Paper.' D. was able to be at it, and in the
house we had the Stephensons and Hewitts. There was a
very large audience, and the piece was a great success.
Between the acts we had some very good singing and
playing.
Monday, April ^oth. D. and I were the recipients of
a great honour to-day. The cabmen of Ottawa, having
benefited by the gaieties at Government House this winter,
got up a testimonial and an address for us, which they pre-
sented themselves.
They came at two o'clock fourteen very respectable-
looking men. They read an illuminated address, and then
presented D. with a handsome stick with a gold top and
4 Colonel Hewitt, E.E., at this time was Commandant of the Military Col
lege at Kingston, Ontario.
APRIL 1877 OTTAWA 307
inscription, and me with a silver card-case on which is
inscribed: 'Presented to Her Excellency the Countess of
Dufferin by the Hackmen of the City of Ottawa, as a token
of esteem. April, 1877.'
When the presentation was over, D. showed them the
house our sitting-rooms, etc. and gave them dinner in
the ball-room. Directly the wine was poured out they all
stood up and drank the Queen's health.
Saturday, May 12th. "We left home, D. on his way to the
Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, and I to pay a visit
(with Fred) to Gwen at Montreal. We had Mr. Eeynolds's
car, and parted from D. at Prescott. We had four hours
to wait, but passed the time very pleasantly, walking and
sitting by the riverside.
Saturday, igth. After a very delightful week with Gwen,
Fred and I returned to Ottawa to-day, and the baby came
down to see us off, as merry and amiable as usual.
Monday, 2ist. In the evening Fred, the Littletons,
and I walked to the Eeynoldses', and sat out on the steps at
their house watching the procession on the water in honour
of the new Pope (Leo XIII.). There were a quantity of
canoes with torches, which were very pretty, and the Roman
Catholic houses in town were illuminated. The night was
fine, and we enjoyed the walk and the fine view from Erns-
cliffe (the Reynoldses' house).
Tuesday, 22nd. D. arrived from New York at 1.30,
and we spent the afternoon out of doors.
Saturday, June 2nd. Mr. Ford 5 came to stay till Mon-
day.
Thursday, jih. Before lunch an assembly of eccle-
siastics arrived : ' His Excellency the Apostolic Delegate to
Canada,' the Bishops of Ottawa, Newfoundland and Prince
Edward Island, with all their acolytes.
The first-named is Bishop Conroy, of Ardagh, and is
sent here by the Pope to arrange various matters in this
s The present Ambassador at Madrid, Sir Francis Clare Ford, G.C.B.
308 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvn
country. He is a very pleasant man, and after ' doing '
a quantity of institutions, he came with all the others to
dine here, and he and his chaplain remained the night.
We dined in the ball-room, and were about fifty-five
people Ministers, Priests, Supreme Court Judges, etc. The
Delegate has been feted and worked so much in Canada,
that he seems to be longing for privacy and rest.
Friday, Stk. The Bishop was off at 7-30 to have Mass in
town ; he returns to lunch, goes back to hold a levee, and
then dines here.
Tuesday, igth. All the last week we have had most
delightful weather, and not a mosquito to destroy our
pleasure.
We left Ottawa to-day and had to be up early, and to
breakfast soon after seven. The children were all dressed
in time to see us off. Our travelling-party consists of
Nellie, Fred, ourselves ; Mr. Johnston, who comes as far
as Montreal ; and Colonel Stuart, whom we take with us in
the Druid for a few days. We reached Prescott at ten,
and then got on board the river-boat and spent a very
pleasant day, the weather being delightful.
The Druid as nice and comfortable as usual. Nellie
sleeps in the cabin next to us, and originally intended for
my maid. Fred and Colonel Stuart have the two cabins
in the fore part of the vessel.
Wednesday, 2oth. We got to Quebec directly after lunch,
and as soon as D. had dismissed the guard of honour, we
went to the Citadel, and returned to dine on board the
Druid. Dinner being over, we again started on our journey.
Gaspe : Saturday, 2$rd. A fine but cold and windy day.
D. and Fred went off for a little fishing, and brought back
two salmon and three trout. D. was the lucky one. The
men say we are a week late (always the case with salmon-
fishing ! ) ; so we shall have to go up and live in the bush,
instead of in our comfortable ship.
Monday, 2$th. Mr. Keynolds, Mr. Middleton, and the
JUNE 1877 FISHING 309
Molsons came to see me in the afternoon, and after dinner
D. and I went over to their yacht. They expect to sail in
the morning, and are leaving the fishing in disgust. Mr.
Eeynolds has only caught five fish, and Mr. Middleton
nine.
The only lucky person has been Colonel McNeill; he
got thirty-three salmon in the York, and last night there
came a letter from him to say that he had just reached
the Metapediac, and in one evening's fishing caught four
salmon, averaging 29^1bs. in weight.
Tuesday, 26th. D. and Fred have gone up to the house,
so we shall not see them till we get to them to-morrow.
Colonel Stuart is fishing down here, and will dine on
board.
Wednesday, 27th. All the morning preparations for our
departure were being made, and at two o'clock we got off.
We drove in a buggy for two hours, and then got on to
horses. We only go at a foot's pace, but Nellie enjoyed it.
We arrived at five o'clock at the camp and found the
river very low, but the water beautifully clear. We had a
good account of the fishing. Tuesday afternoon D. caught
six salmon and Fred four, and yesterday D. caught four
and Fred six ; besides, they have several trout. Nellie and
I welcomed them home about eight o'clock, and saw the fish
displayed on the rocks ; then we dined, and sat at the camp-
fire till bedtime. Nellie amused herself making ' smudges,'
and filling saucers with moss and violets.
The flies are not so bad as usual this year.
Saturday, $oth. D.'s morning's fishing produced three
salmon, and Fred came home with two, and thirteen beauti-
ful trout. After lunch we again went out in the canoe.
At one moment I was to be seen standing on a small rock
in the middle of the river, Nelly upon another, and D. on
a chair, which we had brought with us and planted in the
stream. We were all lashing the water, but were most un-
fortunate, and only brought home one trout between us.
310 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvn
Tuesday, $rd July. I went out with D. and while
fishing for trout had quite an adventure with one. I
hooked him at the same time that D. had on a salmon. I
was standing on a small rock in the middle of the river, and
had neither landing-net nor salmon-killer with me, as D.'s
man was to bring the net to me when I wanted it. The
salmon, however, wished to go down the rapid, so D., his
men, and his canoe, had to pass under my rod, and between
me and my trout. When I had tired the fish out, the
difficulty was to capture him ; but I managed to get him on
to my rock, and to unhook him ; and I had another on
before D. came back.
He had arranged to go far up the river and sleep, so he
started off at eleven o'clock, and after lunch Nelly and I
went out with Fred. As the salmon would not rise, we both
fished for trout, and had great fun. To our surprise, on
returning home we found D. ; no fish had arrived so far up
the river, so of course he did not stay, and we arranged to
go ' out ' to-morrow.
Wednesday, 4th. All busy packing. D. stayed at home,
and I went out for an hour, and caught ten trout one
3 Ibs., and the others smaller. I fish with a beautiful
little bamboo rod which with the reel only weighs six ounces.
It was a lovely day ; 1 was quite sorry to leave our camp,
as I enjoyed it very much this year, and we were less
troubled with flies than usual. We had the Captain to dine
with us, and started immediately after dinner.
Thursday, $th. A beautiful day, and a lovely sunset
and double rainbow. 'A rainbow at night is a sailor's
delight,' so we hope it will be very fine to-morrow, when we
ought to reach Tadousac.
Friday, 6th. Arrived about eight in the morning ; a
most beautiful day, the children all well, and enjoying the
seaside very much. We sat out on the balcony, and
walked on the rocks.
Sunday, i$th. We have spent a very pleasant ten days.
JULY 1877 T ADO US AC 311
The weather has been lovely, and we have sat out the most
of the day. We were able to bathe occasionally, although
the water is always very cold here quite icy.
D. drew a good deal, and had finished some very nice
sketches, which yesterday met with a sad mishap. We
went on a fishing expedition up the Saguenay, taking the
Gillespies with us in the Druid. We breakfasted on board,
and then had a very pleasant voyage of two hours to the
fishing-grounds. When we got back, D. found he had left
all his sketching things and finished drawings below high-
water mark at the fishing-place. He sent a man in a
canoe to look for them, who found them, soaked and spoilt.
We are now returning to Ottawa to prepare for a tour
in Manitoba, to which we are all looking forward with great
pleasure.
312
CHAPTER XVIII
THE NOETH-WEST
Monday, July $oth. We left Ottawa this morning in
good spirits and in smartish clothes, which we put on for
the guard of honour and the friends who come to see us
start. Once really off, we arrayed ourselves in cooler and
more suitable travelling garments.
The day was not so hot as we expected, and when bed-
time came we all acknowledged that the time had flown.
The maids, who are travelling more luxuriously than any
ladies on board, grumble at having to sleep in the ordinary
Pullman. Nellie and I have a cabin together.
Tuesday, 31 si. The train behaved in an extraordinary
manner during the night. It rushed along at a furious
pace for a couple of miles, pulled up with a frightful bump,
stopped to shriek, went on again after three or four jerks,
and in this way kept us thoroughly awake for what appeared
the whole night, but was, I suppose, less than half of it. I
felt a little the worse for the night's shaking, but a good
breakfast in our own car and an hour spent outside of it
in the fresh morning air quite revived me.
We had such a dusty day : five minutes sufficed to cover
tables, sofas, our faces, hands and hair with the dirtiest
powder ; and it was quite useless to wash, for we became as
bad as ever immediately after. We were so glad when we
arrived at Lake Michigan, and felt the cool breeze from
JULY 1877 ST. PAUL 313
over its surface, and saw hundreds of people bathing in the
refreshing water. At Chicago we got into carriages, and
drove rapidly to the luxurious Palmer House, where we
dined, and enjoyed the quiet and the cleanliness, after the
jolting and the noise and the dust of the railway. We had
an hour at the hotel, and returned to our Pullman much
the better for our outing.
Wednesday, August ist. We had rather a pleasant day
in the train, passing through a good deal of ' bush ' and
half-settled country, and as we got near to St. Paul we
crossed a very pretty lake, and then came in sight of the
Mississippi, on which the town is built.
At the station a dozen gentlemen came on board, and
took us to the hotel in carriages ; and we enjoyed a night
' on shore ' very much indeed.
Thursday, 2nd. We breakfasted at 8.30, and almost
directly after held a little reception. A great number of
gentlemen were presented to us, and then one made a
speech, to which D. replied. They told me afterwards they
were ' more than delighted ' with his ' remarks.'
This affair was scarcely over when I was hurried off to
make a tour of the country. In the first carriage D. and
I, General Johnston, and Mr. Eice went. They were both
pleasant men, citizens of this town ; the latter had been for
many years in Congress, and was a person to whom every-
one appealed for every sort of information.
The second carriage contained General Terry and the
Littletons. General Terry is the officer who was in command
when General Ouster attacked the Indians, and lost his life.
Four more carriages followed, with Nellie, the A.D.C.s, and
more gentlemen.
We drove to Minneapolis, through a flat country, some-
times bush, sometimes prairie, and sometimes beautiful
cornfields. Minneapolis is younger than St. Paul, the latter
being about thirty years of age ; it is, I think, more flourish-
ing-looking, and the residences in the town, each surrounded
314 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
with lawns and flower-gardens, look charming and comfort-
able. The hotel where we lunched is a very fine one.
We soon set off again, and went to see the St. Anthony
Falls. They consist of a series of rapids and an artificial
' slide ' ; the water was wearing away the rock, and the hand
of man has intervened to keep it in check, and to prevent
the lumber interests being injured by Nature. Then we
went over a flour-mill, the flour here being a great specialite.
This mill turns out a thousand barrels a day, some of a
peculiar, very white quality, which makes the most delicious
bread ; it contains the most nutritious parts of the wheat,
and is made by a newly-invented process ; but I will not
attempt to describe this, any more than I have the engineer-
ing works on the river.
Into our carriages again, and off to see the Minnehaha
Falls. ' From the waterfall, he called her "Minnehaha"
"Laughing Water." ' The season has been very dry, and
there was very little water coming over the Fall ; but I am
very glad to have seen it, as Longfellow's poem is one of
my earliest recollections. When we returned to our
carriages we changed company a little. General Terry
came with us, and we went with him to the Fort.
It is beautifully situated on a very high cliff at the
junction of the Mississippi and the Minnesota. As we drove
into the court formed by the barracks, we were saluted by
soldiers, and found the troops and the band arranged
(what an unmilitary expression !) on the grass, looking so
gay with their uniforms and colours. The band played,
and we walked about, and then the officer in command
took us into his house, where we were introduced to his
sister and to another lady, and through the house on to
the top of a tower, at the corner of the fortification, looking
over the rivers. It was covered overhead, and there was a
balustrade round it, ornamented with flags. Such a pretty
place ! We enjoyed sitting out in the cool, refreshing air,
and looking at the lovely view.
AUG. 1877 ON THE PRAIRIE 315
When we left we crossed the Mississippi in a sort of
ferry-boat, which was made to go backwards and forwards
by the current of the river itself ; the flat boat was pulled
in a slanting direction, so that the stream acted upon it,
just as the wind does upon a sail, and moved it across.
We reached St. Paul about eight o'clock, said good-bye to
our very kind entertainers, and were introduced to Mr. Eice's
daughters, who appeared to be very nice girls the only
ladies we have had an opportunity of seeing here. Nellie
came home in tremendous spirits. In her carriage there
was a doctor, who had laid himself out to amuse her, and
whom she thinks very ' witty ' and delightful. At the Fort
she was much interested at hearing there was an officer
with a wooden leg ; so when one came up to speak to her,
she looked at him, and having decided that he at any rate
was all right, she asked him to show her the gentleman
with the wooden leg. He replied that he was the one, and
in her confusion she could only think of asking him if it
hurt still.
After supper we were serenaded by a band, and an
attempt was made to induce D. to speak to the crowd ; but
he declined. Everyone has been so kind and civil to us
here ; we have enjoyed our day very much.
Friday, yd. We left the hotel early in the morning,
and once more got into our train. We journeyed on all
day, through swamps, lakes and prairie-lands. In the
evening we went through some burning woods. They
must have been on fire in about a hundred places, but the
flames had not yet joined together into one devastating
sheet.
Saturday, ^th. I was awoke by the most disagreeable
bumping and jolting, and soon discovered that we were
off the line. It took us two hours and many shakings
before we got on again. We were now travelling through
the flattest of flat prairies, very ugly and very green.
About ten o'clock by the new time for our watches are
316 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
called upon to change their opinions as to the hour at
every place we get to we found ourselves at Fisher's
Landing, and the steamer ready to take us up the Bed
Eiver.
We have to leave our house-upon- wheels, and to embark
upon the boat, which friendly hands have decorated with
flags, wreaths of leaves, and flowers. She the steamer
is a stern-wheeler, such as we had on the Fraser Eiver ;
she draws very little water, and certainly has an extra-
ordinary passage to perform. The river, which to all
intents and purposes is the Bed Biver (the first few miles
it is called the Bed Lake Biver), is very muddy, very
narrow, and extremely sinuous. I can scarcely convey to
you an idea of the extraordinary manner in which it
twists and turns itself about ; think of a braiding-pattern,
or of a zigzag path up a very steep hill ; or imagine sail-
ing through hundreds of small ponds all joined together,
the second being concealed by the curve of the first, and
you may form an idea of it.
I can only tell you that we go from one bank to the
other, crushing and crashing against the trees, which grow
down to the water-side; the branches sweep over the deck,
and fly in our faces, and leave pieces behind them. I had
just written this when I gave a shriek as I saw my ink-
bottle on the point of being swept overboard by an intrusive
tree ; and D.'s hat was knocked off his head by it. The
consequence of this curious navigation is that we never
really go on for more than three minutes at a time : we run
against one bank, our steam is shut off, and in some
mysterious manner we swing round till our bow is into the
other ; then we rebound, and go on a few yards, till the sharp
curve brings us up against the side. Our stern wheel is
very often ashore, and our captain and pilot must require
the patience of saints. I told you when the last branch came
on board ; well, I have been writing as fast as possible
since, and now we are ashore on the other side ; so you
AUG. 1877 ON THE RED RIVER 317
may easily believe that we travel seventeen miles for two that
we make, and were it not a lovely day, and had we not a
delicious air, I don't know how bad our language might
not become.
We were told at St. Paul that we should be eaten with
mosquitoes; that no oil, no veils, no gloves, no leggings
would keep out the devouring monsters ; fancy our delight,
then, to find there are none, and that we are able to sit
gloveless on deck and write.
We breakfasted early, and were hungry for a one-o'clock
lunch, which was more elegant than substantial. Sardines
were the piece de resistance, and ice-cream the most attrac-
tive dish to be procured. I hope dinner will be more suited
to our appetites.
This exceedingly twisty river is the ' Red Lake River ' ;
it is forty miles to travel, though the distance is only twelve
from point to point. When we reached the Red River itself,
we found the stream wide enough for us to go straight down
it, less sinuous, but quite as muddy and uninteresting.
Trees come down to the water's edge, and one can see no-
thing beyond them ; behind stretches out the prairie, and
every now and then we were just able to see how thin the
screen of trees really is between the river and the plains.
Alas ! alas ! towards evening the mosquitoes appeared,
and bit us horribly. At dinner (a very good one) we were
eaten while eating, and were very glad to leave the lighted
saloon, and sit on the bow of the "steamer in the air. The
night was very dark, and the river looked gloomy and
mysterious, and we sat there and watched the black re-
flections in the water. Our steamer whistled, and in the
distance we heard it answered. Slowly we turned a point,
and saw another boat approaching us. It looked beautiful
in the dark, with two great bull's-eyes, green and red
lamps and other lights on deck, creeping towards us;
we stopped, and backed into the shore, that it might pass
us. It came close and fired off a cannon, and we saw on
318 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
the deck a large transparency with the words ' Welcome,
Lord Dufferin ' on it, and two girls dressed in white with
flags in their hands ; then a voice sang Canada, sweet
Canada,' and many more voices joined the chorus, and
they sang ' God save the Queen ' and ' Kule, Britannia,' and
cheered for the Governor-General as they began to move
slowly away, and he had only just time to call out a few
words of thanks before they disappeared into the darkness.
It was very striking, and we scarcely recovered from
our surprise and bewilderment before the thing was gone.
Sunday, $th. There was a very heavy shower of rain
this morning, but happily it cleared up before we reached
Pembina; there the American troops were drawn up to
receive us and we went ashore, and up to the Fort, where
we saw four ladies and some manoeuvres, and spent about
an hour. A little way further, and we passed the line, and
found ourselves in Canadian territory again. The first
town we came to was Emerson, and we landed there. It
seems the people had put up some very pretty arches, but
the storm in the morning knocked them all down. We
found a platform with carpet on it, and flags all round it,
a very good guard of honour (militia), and a very strange
one of Indians. Some of the latter were in red coats, some
in blankets, some with painted faces, feathers in their hair,
beads, medals, etc. ; others were more quietly got up, but
altogether they formed a most picturesque and curious
group. All the ladies of the place were on the platform,
and D. received two addresses there, one from the Indians.
We walked down and looked at the women and children,
and a second Indian speech was made, and answered. The
first described them as very happy and prosperous, the
second named some grievance to be redressed.
D. also spoke to the Mennonites (Eussians) : they are
getting on very well, and want to have many more of their
people out here. D. explained to them that as far as we
are concerned we should be very glad to have them, but
AUG. 1877 FORT GARRY 319
that it was impossible for us to take any steps to bring
them from their own homes. They are very good settlers,
and in addition to the virtues of sobriety and industry they
add the advantage of bringing money into the country.
In the afternoon we had prayers on board, and the
gentlemen bathed in the Eed Eiver ; they seemed to enjoy
it very much, and stayed in so long that the mosquitoes on
shore found us out, and came on board.
We were stationary all night, as we did not want to
reach Winnipeg till a reasonable hour in the morning. At
five o'clock the gentlemen got up, and went out duck-shoot-
ing, and shot four birds.
We have been very comfortable on board, though our
sleeping-cabins are extremely small, and there is scarcely
room to turn round in them.
We heard Nellie describe her papa to a girl, who asked
her to point out the Governor- General, as ' the gentleman
in the chimney-pot.' She was very anxious to get Colonel
Littleton to tell her the Freemason secrets, and, failing,
said, with a sigh of relief, ' Well, I dare say when women
get their rights we shall know them.'
My only difficulty is in keeping her at all smart on these
occasions, for no sooner is she dressed than she visits the
coal-hole, or climbs into some unthought-of place, and
returns to me, each of her exploits marked by stains and
smudges.
Monday, 6th. We left our anchorage early in the
morning, and came in sight of Fort Garry about ten o'clock.
The Eed Eiver appears to divide the town in two, but we
left it, and turned into the Assineboine, round the corner
of which we found the wharf. We had two hours to wait
before landing. Some people came on board to see the
Governor- General, and he arranged for me to start half
an hour before him, and to go to the City Hall, where we
ladies sat till the noise of bands and shouting announced
his arrival in a earriage-and-four.
320 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
The town of Winnipeg is rapidly increasing, and to-day,
with its decorations of transplanted trees and flags, it
looked gay and pretty. A very large number of people
assembled round the platform, and came along the streets
with D., and some very handsome arches had been put up.
Addresses were read and answered, the soldiers inspected,
and then I got with D. into the carriage, and drove to
' Silver Heights,' where we are to live.
It is quite five miles from town, along a prairie road,
which is a little rough when the weather is dry, but which
is simply impassable when there has been rain. The mud
here is, from all accounts, fearful. The Lieutenant- Governor,
Mr. Morris, told us it once took him nine hours to go eight
miles, and two days to do twenty-two miles.
' Our house ' is a cottage, and lent to us by Mr. Donald
Smith, who met us at the door, introduced us to his
daughter, and showed us our accommodation. The A.D.C.s
are in a smaller cottage close by, and the men-servants
sleep in tents. A fine reception-room, and two ante-rooms,
carpeted, papered, and furnished, have been added to the
house for us, which we regret, as the place is really too far
away to entertain in ; nor have we the china, or the knives
and forks, wherewith to give a ball or a dinner !
We are near the road, and on the other side of it is the
Assineboine River ; we sat on its banks, had tea on the
balcony of the house, and spent a very quiet evening.
There is a long programme for this week, but it shall
develop itself.
Tuesday, 7th. We went into town to call upon Mrs.
Morris, the Lieutenant-Governor's wife. The Government
House is surrounded by a wooden palisade, and has a brick
gateway, which forms a nice old-fashioned court in front of
the house.
In the evening we went to a 'Parlour Entertain-
ment' songs, speeches and change of costumes very
well done, and amusing. Driving back we realised even
AUG. 1877 WINNIPEG 321
more fully than we had done before the disadvantages of
living so far from the town. The road is a sort of track on
the prairie, and we soon found that we were off it. We
asked the other carriage to go first, and the driver replied
that he had no lights ; our man said his lamps dazzled him,
so finally the other carriage did go first. It took us over an
hour to get back, and if the four other nights on which we
have to go into Winnipeg are dark or wet, I don't know
what we shall do.
Wednesday, 8th. We had a visit from an Indian. He
was sent by a chief, who lives twenty-six miles away, to ask
when the Governor- General would visit him. The mes-
senger was a fine-looking man. His hair was long, and
he wore a fillet round his head with eagles' feathers fastened
into it. He had a red cloth tunic embroidered with beads,
with quantities of ermine tails hanging down from all the
seams, each tail sewn into the centre of a circle of beads.
Eound his neck he wore a large necklace of bears' claws,
moccasins on his feet, and European trousers, which were
generally hidden by a large blue blanket, which he pulled
round him in very graceful folds. We had rather a long
talk with him, and gave him some breakfast ; he eat a few
mouthfuls, and then asked for paper in which to wrap up
the rest. Mrs. Littleton asked him about his religion. He
said he had none that the Indians were here from the
Creation, that there was one Great Spirit, but that he found
' religion ' cost money, and so it was better not to have any.
He was given a pound of tea, one of tobacco, his passage
home in a steamer, and an order for some provisions on
the way.
We drove into Winnipeg to see some games, and were
sitting on a platform, and rather enjoying ourselves, when
the most desperate shower came on. Our covering was
soon soaked through, and we bundled into our carriage as
quickly as we could, but not before we w T ere very much
damaged ; feathers out of curl, dresses dirtied. The people
Y
322 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvin
were wonderfully good-tempered ; the whole crowd seemed
to be in a fit of laughter, and it was amusing to see some
holding a bit of sail over them, soldiers with wheelbarrows
on their backs for shelter, and others sitting under the shade
of a big drum. One sergeant went about in the funniest
way, holding a bit of wood over his head, and pretending
he could not see from under it. Happily, we had not to go
into town again in the evening. Mr. Campbell dined at
Winnipeg, and lost his way on the prairie coming back ; he
got up to his knees in mud, and at last made for a light,
and got a shake-down for the night in a farmer's cottage.
Thursday, gtli. We started off after breakfast to visit
the Archbishop on the other side of the river, at St.
Boniface. He and his clergy received us at the Palace,
where two addresses were read. Then we saw the church,
and went on to a convent.
The Grey Sisters have about thirty children under their
care ; in these thirty there are representatives of eleven
different nationalities. Each child had a little flag with
4 Welcome ' written in her own tongue upon it. There were
Canadian French, English, Irish, half-breeds, and different
Indian tribes,
The weather was really nice, and we sat on the balcony
until it was time to dress for the ball at Government House.
We were asked at nine o'clock, and went punctually, but
' in honour of us ' the other people were late, and we stood
about for a long time before the dancing began. A fine room
had been put up for the occasion, and everything went off
very well.
All the ladies were well dressed, and the dancing as at
Ottawa or London. Six years ago, at a ball here, ladies
would have come in moccasins, and danced nothing but the
Eed Eiver Jig. This state of society would have had some
charm for us, but the change shows how rapidly the place
grows, and how quickly outside ideas make their way in.
The Jig was danced for us : it is exactly the same as an
AUG. 1877 WINNIPEG 323
Irish Jig. The supper was good, and the table prettily deco-
rated with flowers. The fruit had to be imported, as none
grows here yet. The Koman Catholic and English bishops
both came to the ball for a few minutes.
The drive back was very dark in spite of a fine display
of lightning on the horizon. The second carriage drove
up against a post, and broke a spring, and Captain Smith
had to jump down every now and then to see if we were on
the road, and the driver kept ' wishing he was at home.'
Friday, loth. We held a reception at the City Hall at
three o'clock. It did not last very long, but as we had to
attend a concert in the evening we decided to dine at the
hotel, and not to drive out to Silver Heights. The hotel-
keeper insisted upon giving us our dinner free.
Mrs. Littleton and I went over the Fort, and through
the Hudson Bay Stores. The shop is a very good one, and
I purchased a hat for my rough expeditions, and a jacket of
white cariboo skin, embroidered in silk by the Indians. We
also saw the furs. The room full of buffalo robes smelt
horribly ; but I bore it, being determined to see all I could.
I believe the smell is not altogether from the skins, but is
mixed with the odour of the Indian camp. Another place
was full of various skins : wolf, grizzly bear, cinnamon bear,
foxes of all sorts, etc. etc.
The concert was ' classical,' and its great merit was the
shortness of it.
Nellie spent the afternoon at the Government House,
where there are three children, but she dined with the
grown-up people, and enjoyed herself very much.
Saturday, nth. There were races to-day at Buffalo
Park, and happily the changeable climate did not spoil them.
They were held in a large piece of prairie, walled in by a
stout paling ; numbers of people were there, and we had a
capital stand for seeing everything.
The races were the least interesting part of the perform-
ance, though they were rather lively, for the riders shouted
324 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
as they galloped ; there was no such mystery as ' pulling,'
and everyone went as fast as he could.
What we most enjoyed seeing was a man lassoing a wild
cow. He rode beautifully, and sent the lasso round her
horns ; after holding her thus, and riding about a little,
he laid her gently over on her side, unable to get up. Then
he let her go, but left the lasso fastened to her horns, and
as he rode fast after her he stooped to the ground and
picked the end of it up. Once he took hold of the cow's tail,
and held it for some time. He put the animal down again
in front of our stand, and a quantity of men rushed for-
ward to undo the cord which was twisted tight round her ;
the people gathered in about them, and as soon as the cow
was loose there was such a stampede ! She knocked over
two men, but they were not hurt, and there was great
laughter.
Three buffaloes were on the field in a state of semi--wild-
ness ; these were cantered round to exhibit themselves, but
the owner would not allow them to be lassoed lest they
should turn savage. We were surprised to see how fast
they could run, and how well they could jump, for their
big heads do not give them a very active appearance.
Sunday, i2tli. Went to church, and arrived there in
time to escape a tremendous storm of rain. I never saw
such a climate : one may be wet through on the finest day.
Monday, i^th. We drove over to St. Boniface to see a
rifle-match. The day was perfectly lovely when we started,
not a cloud in the sky, and such a hot sun ; nevertheless, I
took my waterproof and umbrella, and sure enough the
clouds gathered, and a thunderstorm came on with rain !
We were received in an arbour erected for the occasion, an
address was read, and I fired a shot, which was off the
target, but which was marked a bull's-eye, and then the
match began. In two or three minutes after we had been
baked in the sun, the rain came on, and we had to retire
into a large shed, where we lunched, and D. replied to a
AUG. 1877 WINNIPEG 325
speech proposing his health, and then, as the rain continued,
we drove home.
In the evening we had a visit from eight or ten Indians,
who came to dance and sing before us. Their faces were
most elaborately painted, and they came up the road utter-
ing the most extraordinary cries. The men were fine, good-
looking and tall, of the Sioux nation. They all came over
from the States fifteen years ago. They had feathers in their
hair, and we are told that each white feather represents a
white man's scalp taken by the wearer, and a coloured
feather stands for an Indian's scalp. When they reached
our door they sat down on the grass and hung their
drum upon some stakes they brought for the purpose ; then
half of them sat down, and the others danced round, while
the sitters beat the drum, and the whole company shouted.
They kept this up for a few minutes, and after a little rest
began the same thing over and over again. We dismissed
them when we had seen enough, but D. promised to go to
their camp in the morning.
Tuesday, i^.th. We had to leave home immediately after
breakfast, as His Ex. had to lay the foundation-stone of a
ladies' college. On our way we stopped at the Indian en-
campment, one large half-covered tent, with twenty men
and women sleeping in it. The men did not seem to have
completed their toilet, and were still putting on their feathers,
and having their hair plaited. There were some new devices
on their faces. D. promised them some powder and shot,
and then we drove on.
The Bishop of Eupert's Land is building a girls' school.
He is already the head, and entire manager, of a very suc-
cessful college for boys, and after the usual ceremonies
attendant upon laying a stone we drove to see it. A very
nice set of boys received us at the door, and showed us into
the house, which, for this country, is a very old-fashioned
one. It is on the banks of the Red River.
The Bishop gave us lunch, and then we returned to
326 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
the hotel at Winnipeg, where we dress for the ball given by
the citizens to-night.
We dined with the Governor, and were escorted to the
ball by a torchlight procession. The city hall was beauti-
fully decorated, and a large supper-room was built for the
occasion, and made to look like a tent, with red, white and
blue material. The room and floor were very good, the
ladies well dressed, and the whole thing most successful.
Wednesday, i$th. We have had a very pleasant day on
the prairie. We managed to shake off our sleepiness after
the ball, and to be quite ready for an early start. D. and
I got into a small phaeton, Mrs. Littleton, Nellie, and
Alexander into an ambulance waggon, and our three gentle-
men mounted their horses, and off we went, with a twenty-
eight-stone-weight gentleman in a buggy to guide us. We
went through Winnipeg, and drove past the Bishop's College,
where we were yesterday, and so on to the illimitable prairie.
It is covered with long grasses and wild flowers, and
is flat as the sea, parts of it so swampy that our horses
seemed to have difficulty in pulling us through it. It
has a peculiar smell, and there is a delightful air upon
it, and one begins to feel the freedom-of-the-savage raising
one's spirits. We drove in this way for three hours (the
servants following), our only adventure being the fall of
Captain Smith's horse, and his narrow escape of being run
over by the ambulance.
Have I told you that we are bound for the Penitentiary
at Eockwood ? The building is erected on ' the big, stony
mountain,' which is really only a rise of eighty feet above the
level of the prairie. It is limestone rock, and descends quite
suddenly on the other side like a precipice back to the
great plain-level.
When we got within half a mile of the place, we were
met by some gentlemen, who said they wished us to arrive
in a vehicle peculiar to the country namely, a Bed River
cart. These are made entirely of wood, and this one was
AUG. 1 877 ROCKWOOD PENITENTIARY 327
ornamented with boughs, and was drawn by eighty oxen !
D. and I, Mrs. Littleton and Nellie got in, and our eighty
beasts, each conducted by a man with ribbons round his
hat, began to move off. It was such fun, and looked so
very pretty and picturesque. Sometimes an ox would
become a little troublesome, but he was soon brought to
order, and I felt like a barbarian princess as I drove along
in this carriage of primitive magnificence.
We passed through a beautiful triumphal arch, made
of grain, with a spinning-wheel, plough, and other agri-
cultural implements on the top of it. D. here got out, and
answered the address, and then we returned to our
triumphal car, and drove . on, attended by a crowd, to the
doors of the prison. A very handsome arch had been
put up about a hundred yards from it, and fifty yards
nearer to the house was another : these two were connected
with chains of green rope, hung from poles with flags on
them, and a new road ran between the two, which is the
first part of a road to Winnipeg. I was asked to open it,
and was presented with a spade. I emptied some earth
out of a smart little barrow, and then we all went in to lunch.
Our hostess is a half-breed lady, pretty, and very nice,
and her husband, Mr. Bedson, is the warder of this prison.
They gave us an excellent lunch, and the usual toasts. In
his speech D. told them that he much preferred going to gaol
in a cart to leaving it in one.
After this, we walked on the prairie, to breathe the
delicious air, and looked at the snake-hole, where, Mrs.
Bedson told me, they had killed 360 snakes in three days
in the spring ! It seems to be a rendezvous, where the
snakes appear suddenly, half frozen with the winter cold.
We looked at the prisoners' garden, but when I proposed to
look at the prison I was told all the people were asleep.
We were dreadfully sleepy ourselves, and were actually
in the enjoyment of ' forty winks ' in our very comfortable
bed-rooms when our dinner was announced, about nine
328 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
o'clock. The guardians of the penitentiary had arranged
some fireworks, and we sat upon the prairie watching them
until bedtime.
Thursday, \6tli. At eleven o'clock last night there was
the most beautiful cloudless, starlit sky, but I was awoke
by a terrific thunderstorm, peals of thunder, and flashes of
vivid lightning. The driver of one of our waggons was
knocked down by the shock of one crash, and on our way
to St. Andrews to-day we came across the body of a cow
killed by lightning. It was enormously swollen, but the
mud in its hoofs was quite moist.
We breakfasted at eight, and went over the building. It
is quite new, and the men's department is beautiful to look
at. At present it is very expensive, as there are fourteen
officials to fourteen prisoners. The women's cells are not
nearly so good as the men's, and I felt the more sorry for
this as the one inmate was a wretched lunatic.
We said good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Bedson and drove off
over the prairie again. The storm had passed, and the day
was lovely. About two we reached St. Andrews, one of the
oldest settlements in the province. It is on the banks of
the Eed Eiver, and is very prettily situated. We found an
arch, or rather bower, there, made of branches, flags, and
coloured cloths ; the platform inside it was circular, so all
the people could see us. D. replied to the address, and
then we shook hands with everyone, and Nellie and I
were presented with bouquets in pretty Indian ' roggins.'
A very good lunch, on the teetotal principle, was given
us, and our healths were drunk in water. Two mottoes
in the luncheon-room were : ' Kit Atumiskatinan,' which
means 'we welcome you,' in the Cree language; the
other was
Native, or English, Canadian we,
Teuton, or Celt, or whatever we be,
We are all of us loyal in our welcome to thee.
AUG. 1877 LITTLE STONE FORT 329
The young lady who presented me with the bouquet
made me a long speech in Cree, trembling violently the
while, and a girl in the school who read a poem of welcome
was almost speechless with fright. Then I gave the prizes
at a ladies' school, and after this we got into our carriage
again, and drove five miles more along the banks of the
Eed Eiver to the ' Little Stone Fort ' where we slept. A
very sad thing happened here last Dominion Day (July ist).
Owing to the explosion of some gunpowder, five children
belonging to the Fort were killed, and our hosts, Mr. and
Mrs. Flett, lost two, so they are very depressed. I hope our
visit and the consequent bustle and change may do the poor
woman good.
This is one of the Hudson's Bay stores, and is quite
a fortified place. We all enjoy the air so much, and
have had another very pleasant day. I have written
this out on the balcony while our rooms are being pre-
pared. We have our own cook and provisions, so we are
not such an invasive army as we appear. D. is drawing,
Nellie climbing up everywhere to look into everything, the
others walking about seeing the sights. It is a very
restful evening after our journey.
Friday, i?th. We got into our waggons directly after
breakfast, and started on our way, rejoicing in the beautiful
weather.
When we had gone about five miles, we came to signs
of festivity: flags flying, and sounds of music, Indian
warriors dancing in time to the band, and uttering their
own extraordinary shouts. They were curious-looking
creatures ; most of their legs were naked, though so covered
with paint that they looked clothed. One had his legs of
a dull white colour, with large black bands spread over
them. Another had black stripes. The upper man was
variously dressed : either a cotton shirt, or coloured pieces
of cloth, or shawls were worn ; the heads had feathers stuck
about them, and the faces were elaborately painted. The
330 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
most striking decoration I saw was a large green caterpillar,
painted crawling up a man's cheek, and losing itself in his
eye. The chief wore the coat which I described to you in a
former letter, and which he had then lent to one of his
followers when he sent him to ask us to come and see him.
This band of brethren are pagans (from economical
motives), and are not very good friends with the Christian
Indians we are on our way to see.
From the place where we met this strange assembly
we went slowly, followed by the crowd, through the town of
Selkirk, to the place where another large arch, surmounted
by railway implements, was erected ; for this is the spot
where the Great Pacific Eailway is to cross the Eed Kiver ;
then we got on to a platform, and had an address, and
looked at all these Indians, and went through the regular
business of presentations, etc.
We next drove on towards the Indian Eeserve, and at its
entrance were saluted by a large deputation, who came to
welcome us there. One was a splendid man, with a large
necklace of feathers, bare legs, and squares of beaded cloth
gracefully covering the rest of his body. He had in his
hand a standard, like a gigantic hand-screen: it was a long
pole with a stiff fringe of feathers the whole way down it,
and red cloth setting it off as a trimming.
We stopped for lunch soon after this, and spent a couple
of hours very pleasantly sitting about on the grass, before
we walked on to the grand ' Pow-wow ' place. The chief is
called by the unromantic name of ' Henry Prince,' and is a
gentleman in a fine red coat, and with two enormous
medals on his breast. He received us in an arbour-platform,
and gave D. a very pretty address, which he answered, each
of his sentences being translated. This over, the chief
asked to speak, and then he made a long oration, telling
all his grievances. D. told him to write them down, and
send them to him on paper. We went into the school, and
heard a hymn sung and saw a canoe-race. We walked all
AUG. 1877 WINNIPEG 331
round the camp, to visit the women and children. The
little babies have their legs packed in dry moss, and are
then tied up tight in a sort of back-board. D. had two
guns and two watches to present to chiefs, and on his own
behalf he gave four bullocks for a feast, so we left them all
ha good spirits, while we had a pleasant drive back, get-
ting to Stone Fort at six o'clock.
Saturday, iSth. We had a long drive home from
' Stone Fort ' and got to Silver Heights in the afternoon.
Sunday, igth. The Bishop of Kupert's Land preached
at Winnipeg, and came back to lunch with us.
Monday, 2Oth. Another expedition ! The first thing we
heard this morning was the sound of rain, and when we got
up the day looked most unpromising ; however, we started
about ten, the four gentlemen riding, Mrs. Littleton and her
maid, Nellie and I in the ambulance drawn by four horses.
We got on very well for the first three hours, when we came
to some fearful swamps. Our horses plunged through water
and mud, the wheels of our carriage sinking, first on one
side and then on the other ; two or three times the horses
in the carts sat down in despair, and once they sunk so
deep in the mire that the whole caravan had to stop
and help to pull them out. The rain came on in
torrents, and there was thunder growling overhead.
Altogether it was not a nice day for camping out. We
expected to reach our destination at two, and to lunch
there, but owing to our adventures in the bogs we did not
get there till five, and we were all wet and famished. The
Lieutenant- Governor had arrived before, and he gave us
shelter and some tea, which revived us ; then the rain
cleared off, we made up a nice fire, and things began to look
better. Our cook had been in the most unfortunate cart,
and had been over his knees in water most of the day, but
the moment he arrived he lit his fire, and made us a dinner
of good soup, mutton chops and potatoes. It was next dis-
covered that three tents had been left behind three out
332 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
of six ; however, we managed very well without them. D.,
Nellie, and I had one tent, Mrs. Littleton and her maid
another (our maids take the expeditions in turns mine
came last time), and the three gentlemen the third. We
had stretcher-beds, with buffalo-robes and blankets on them,
and dry hay on the floor, so we were really very comfort-
able. Our camping ground is near water, half river, half
swamp, and as we can get wood, water, and milk, we shall
return here for another night on our way back. I rather
dread going through those bogs again !
Tuesday, 2ist. We were awoke rather early by the
noises of camp-life ; wood being chopped up, conversations
going on in every tent, etc., and I had some difficulty in
keeping Nellie in bed till the. orthodox hour of seven, but,
as I am very much afraid of her being over-tired on this
expedition, I have to insist upon this. The weather was
much better the sun shone, but the wind was very cold.
It was nearly ten before everything was packed, and we
were on our way to the Mennonite settlement. Four of
these men met us on horseback, some way from their farms,
and rode before us through their Eeserve. You know that
the Mennonites have left Eussia for conscientious reasons, in
the same way that they left their native land, Germany,
and settled in Eussia, because they will riot fight, and these
two countries require that their subjects should serve in
the army. The Mennonites are most desirable emigrants ;
they retain their best German characteristics, are hard-
working, honest, sober, simple, hardy people ; they bring
money into the country, and can settle in a woodless
place, which no other people will do. Necessity (in Eussia)
has taught them to make a peculiar fuel cakes of manure,
mixed with straw which is kept a whole year to dry
thoroughly, and which looks exactly like turf ; with this they
get through the long Canadian winter without wood or coal.
They speak nothing but German, and are Lutheran, to which
form of religion they add the Quakers' non-fighting doctrine.
AUG. 1877 MENNONITE SETTLEMENT 333
They dress in the plainest and least decorative fashion ; the
women, from their birth to their graves, tie up their heads
in coloured handkerchiefs fastened under their chins, and
wear dark-coloured stuff gowns, the baby's being made
after the same fashion as its mother's. The men shave,
and wear black stocks round their throats. Partly in con-
sequence of this unbecoming costume, all the people, men and
women, are plain. One hundred and twenty families arrived
in Canada three years ago and settled on this bare prairie
one autumn day. For a week they had not a roof to cover
them, and slept under their carts ; then they dug up the
sods, and with them made rude huts, in which they lived
through one of our long and severe winters. This is, there-
fore, their third year here and now I will tell you how we
find them situated.
We drove about five miles through their Reserve, which
is eighteen miles square, and in so doing passed through
five or- six villages of farmhouses ; they are not in streets,
each house being surrounded by land. The houses are
cottages, very plainly built, roofed with very thick hay
thatch, the walls wooden, but covered with plaster. Next
to, and opening into the living-house is a large building
in which the cattle spend the winter.
Everything looks very neat ; home-made wooden furni-
ture, flowers in the windows, nice gardens, etc. Each family
is given 160 acres of land, and the way in which they work
their farms enables them to do so very advantageously.
Supposing there are twenty families in a village, they
put all the land together, and mark out the different spots
which are best suited to particular crops ; thus, all the
pasture is in one part, all the potatoes in another, and so
on. Each man, however, works his own share of each
crop, and has his profit to himself. Their church is most
simple plain deal forms without backs, and no ornament
anywhere.
After driving through these prosperous-looking villages,
334 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
and passing through great corn-fields, we saw before us on
the open prairie an arbour erected, and in front of it at
least 700 people. The men stood on one side with spe-
cimens of their farm produce before them, corn grown
from Eussian seed, from Canadian seed, flax, etc. The
women on the other side showed their garden produce.
The babies and children were out too. In the arbour were
three girls, with lace handkerchiefs on their heads, and
trays with glasses in their hands, ready to offer us some
Eussian tea, which was most refreshing after our cold
drive. The arbour was very prettily hung with garlands
of flowers and bunches of corn mixed with poppies,
and there were tables all round it, and little Christmas-
trees on which hung bouquets with some German lines of
welcome wrapped round each, the whole most charmingly
done. Mr. Hespeler, the Mennonite agent who arranged
the whole of this immigration, was with us, and acted as
interpreter. The Mennonites' most learned man read, and
Mr. Hespeler translated, a very nice address, and D.
replied in a speech which delighted them greatly.
They never cheered, but when anything pleased them they
lifted their caps. In allusion to their peculiar tenets he
said : ' You have come to a land where you will find the
people with whom you are to associate engaged indeed in a
great struggle, and contending with foes whom it requires
their best energies to encounter. But those foes are not
your fellow-men, nor will you be called upon in the struggle
to stain your hands with human blood a task so abhorrent
to your religious feelings. The war to which we invite you
as recruits and comrades is a war waged against the brute
forces of nature ; but those forces will welcome our domi-
nation, and reward our attack by placing their treasures at
our disposal. It is a war of ambition for we intend to
annex territory but neither blazing villages nor devastated
fields will mark our ruthless track ; our battalions will
march across the illimitable plains which stretch before us
AUG. 1877 THE MENNONITES 335
as sunshine steals athwart the ocean ; the rolling prairie
will blossom in our wake, and corn and peace and plenty
will spring where we have trod. ... In one word, beneath
the flag whose folds now wave above us, you will find
protection, peace, civil and religious liberty, constitutional
freedom and equal laws.'
We walked round, and muttered a few lame German
sentences, and were as speechlessly polite as we could be.
This being over, after a song from the school-children,
Mr. Hespeler asked us over to his camp-fire, where we had
Ehine wine and German cake, and where he gave hot coffee
to the women who had come from a distance. Nellie made
love to all the babies, and having nursed one for some time,
its mother presented her with a cucumber. It was very
pleasant sitting by the fire and seeing the people enjoying
their coffee on the grass. After an hour and a half spent here
we walked to our camp, a quarter of a mile off. Some women
showed us their houses, and then we dined, and sat round
our own fire. Presently we saw fireworks rising from the
other camp, and so we got up an enormous torch, which
was seen and responded to by a distant cheer, and one line
of ' He is a jolly good fellow.'
The only other thing I have to say about the Mennonites
is that the great proportion of those here are young, and
that everybody has at least six children. Think what a
gain they are to this country: in three years to have
eighteen square miles of country settled by such people.
Wednesday, 22nd. Our camp is on good ground, and
we all slept very comfortably, and longer than we did the
first night. We were packed up about ten, and set off to
drive through some more villages. Mr. Hespeler took us
into one house, and showed us the domestic arrange-
ments. The only fault to find with these is that the stables
open into the living-rooms. The inhabitants will gradually
leave off this nasty plan, but it is their devotion to their
cattle which makes them wish to have them so near. The
336 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xvm
village herd and the village schoolmaster are the only two
paid labourers in the Mennonite vineyard : the clergyman
receives no pay. School is not kept during the three
summer months.
We reached our new camping-ground early in the day,
and the gentlemen went out shooting ; they got a mixed,
but not a good bag prairie chicken, snipe, plover, duck,
and a bittern, the latter quite delicious to eat. In the
evening we sat over our camp-fire, and Mr. McKay told
us some very interesting stories of his life. I must intro-
duce him to you, for he is (to use a very Yankee expression)
the ' boss ' of our party. He arranges everything for us,
provides the horses, carriages, tents, beds, etc.
The Hon. James McKay, M.P. (in the local Parliament),
has been a mighty hunter in his day, but as he now weighs
320 Ibs., he leads a quieter though still a very active life.
He has a pleasant face, and is very cheery, and a thorough
' good fellow,' but so enormous ! It is curious to see him
filling up his buggy, and driving on before us, steering us
through the bogs, and making signs to our driver to avoid
dangers on the way. His boy of eleven rides on a pony
with him, and promises to be as large. I never saw such a
fat boy.
Mr. McKay is a half-breed. His parents had some
French blood in them, and he speaks the three languages,
but I believe he talks Indian at home. He has lost
one thumb, and besides this gun-shot wound he has had
several other very narrow escapes of his life. One day
he and an English gentleman killed seven grizzly bears :
there was a bag ! Mr. McKay shot four, and the Englishman
three ; but what seems to me the most wonderful feat is that
he once killed a mother and two young cubs with a lasso.
He had no gun with him, and the great bear came towards
him on her hind paws ; he threw the lasso over her head,
and, turning his horse quickly away, pulled her over on
her back, and strangled her ; then he killed the cubs too.
AUG. 1877 WINNIPEG 337
He said he thought nothing of it, as he had killed a
black bear with a lasso when he was fourteen years old.
' Jemmie ' (his fat boy) is always practising picking things
off the ground when he is on horseback, with a view to
future excellence with the lasso. Mr. MsKay knows a great
deal about the Indians, and it was very interesting to hear
him talk of them.
Thursday, 23rd. We had about twenty-five miles to
drive home, and as we got a good deal shaken we were very
tired at night and ready to go very early to bed after reach-
ing Silver Heights. The younger gentlemen, however, having
gone to Mr. McKay's to see about some shooting, found
dancing going on, and amused themselves by trying to learn
the Bed Eiver Jig.
CHAPTEE XIX
MANITOBA
Saturday, August 2$ih. Mrs. Morris and her daughters
lunched with us, and we had a visit from an American
Professor, who has come here to study the manners and
customs of the ' hopper.' As I have not a great deal of
personal interest to tell you about to-day, I will try to instruct
you in Manitoban zoology and entomology. You have of
course heard of the grasshoppe'r plague which devastates this
country year after year. The creature is simply a hideous
grasshopper, but he comes in such extraordinary numbers
that he literally clears all before him crops of all sorts, bark
of young trees, leaves, buds, flowers, window-curtains, ladies'
dresses. Nothing escapes his great appetite and ostrich-like
powers of digestion. He flies into your face, he climbs up
your garments, he sits upon your food, he lets you walk
upon him, drive over him, slay him by thousands, but
still he forms a thick covering over your palings, and
darkens the air with his devouring presence. He has but
one merit no, two : he does not bite you, and (if you can
make up your mind to eat him) the Professor declares he is
good to eat.
The creature is supposed to be brought here by one
' prevailing ' wind and taken away by another. For two
years (after fourteen of annual visitation) the people here
have had a rest from him, and the crops are flourishing.
AUG. 1877 INSECT LIFE 339
The common fly is a great nuisance too. We call him
the ' house ' fly, but he also swarms on the prairie. He
wakes us in the morning, assists at our breakfast, worries
us while we write, and makes himself thoroughly objec-
tionable, as a fly well knows how to do.
In speaking of the mosquito I must change my pronoun,
for the Professor declares that it is only the fair ladies who
bite. She is a real plague in this country, but we are for-
tunate enough to have escaped her almost entirely. An
Englishman came out last year for pleasure, but after three
days' journey into the land he turned back, finding only
pain, and literally defeated by the attacks of the mosquitoes.
I am told that they often kill animals by choking them,
and that when so killed, a great ball of mosquitoes will be
taken out of a cow's throat. This may be too interesting
a fact for you to digest : stay-at-home people are so in-
credulous.
Cows and horses have even a more fearful enemy in
what is called here the 'bulldog,' but what we call the
' horse-fly.' They really do kill horses by the irritation
they cause. Mr. McKay told us that by scraping his
hand along the back of his horse he has taken off 173 at
once (don't smile !) and he described to us the mane of a
horse standing on end with the crowds of flies in the hair,
one on the top of the other, all struggling for blood.
These nasty things come into the houses too, later in
the year. I am very happy to add that the Professor
says that blood is injurious to all these creatures, and
that they are punished when they give way to their un-
healthy appetites.
There are no rats and no earthworms in Manitoba,
but there are squirrels which come into the houses, and I
am told that mice are plentiful, and are particularly fond of
making a nest in one's best gown.
Oxen are much used as beasts of burden, and one sees
a few mules.
z 2
40 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
Monday, 27th. The gentlemen went out shooting for
the whole day, and came back well pleased, though they
were unable to find half the birds they shot. It came on to
pour in the evening, and they lost one good hour's sport.
We ladies lunched with the Morrises, and met Mr.
Macpherson and Mr. Campbell, who have come all the
way here by water (three weeks in canoes) ; we are going
over part of the same route, so they were able to give us
some hints. Mr. Macpherson did not like it, and three
weeks of pork and canoe-made bread made him ill. They
fortunately had lime-juice with them.
Tuesday, 28th. We drove through rather a pleasant
country, a wooded prairie, making our way towards the
Winnipeg Kiver, and did twenty-nine miles in the day. Our
camping-ground is on the banks of a winding stream, and
we were just settling down when we heard that one of the
horses had fallen into the river. We went to look at the
poor brute, floundering up to his neck in mud ; he was
getting very much exhausted, and we were almost afraid
the men would be unable to save him, but they did
manage to get him out. Another misfortune was that a
cart, containing the men's food and bedding, broke down
on the way, and did not arrive till very late ; and a third
that my maid is ill. She has been so for a few days, but
said nothing, and to-night she has a fearful headache.
Wednesday, 2gth. Alexander is still very ill, and
naturally thinks everything very horrid, camp beds too
hard, tin cups nasty ; she touches everything with the
points of her fingers, and makes a face over everything she
tastes ; she really is ill, and I hope she will like this life
better when she is well.
We expected to go through a number of swamps, but
the weather has been so dry that happily there were none
to speak of. We had not gone more than two miles when
a whole cavalcade of horsemen met us. They wore red
sashes across their shoulders, and rode on Indian saddles,
AUG. 1877 ST. ANDREWS 341
much embroidered with beads. There was one little boy
on an enormous horse, which nearly pulled him off when it
attempted to eat, which it did often. The horses are not
trained much, and have very hard mouths. These riders
were French half-breeds, and looked very Indian. They
rode beautifully, and galloped by us for over two miles,
firing a feu-de-joie every few minutes. When we got near
to St. Andrews we found that the people had made an
impromptu avenue of trees fully a mile long, and at the
end of it an arch decorated with arms and welcomes. This
settlement looks very flourishing and well cultivated. The
people read a French address, and D. replied in the same
language. Then an English one was read, and answered.
After this we went on, accompanied for some way by our
cavaliers, and after they left us we halted and had lunch.
About five o'clock we reached our camping-ground,
having driven thirty miles, and having had one little in-
terval of prairie-shooting on the way. When the horses
were unharnessed we all set to work: the gentlemen
pitched the tents, we picked up sticks, and made two fires,
and then I made four beds, and plucked a duck for dinner !
This meal was highly appreciated by us all, and we sat
round the fire and listened to some of Mr. McKay's stories.
The gentlemen were made very angry by hearing that
at seven in the morning a bear was seen quite close to
our camp ! The men thought of telling them, but did not,
and it was so close they could easily have got it. Was
not that provoking ?
The prairie-fowl shooting is very odd. The birds
remain in the grass quite close to the sportsman, and stare
at him till he makes them get up, and then sometimes they
flop down again before anyone can shoot. Yesterday, the
mother of the brood which had been ruthlessly shot down sat
calling for her young, and looking about quite close to us.
Thursday, ^oth. Travelling on the Dawson route. A
hot day, and the road dusty and extremely rough. We
342 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
were very tired by two o'clock, when we stopped at a sort
of half-way house to rest and have lunch. The hostess
was a Norwegian, with five children four most charm-
ing, pretty little girls, the fifth, a baby, seven days old !
She, poor woman, had got up to decorate her room for us,
and to make flags. She seemed such a nice person, and
she wept bitterly when we left. Of course she was very
weak, and she lives in a very lonely place, and was glad to
see some one to speak to ; her prospects are not good, as
her husband is delicate, and does not seem to get on. They
are just going to move to the Pembina Mountains, where
they have taken up a farm of 160 acres. Neither he nor
she knows anything of farming, and when they reach the
place they will have to build a house. We named the
Norwegian baby Frederica. The other children had made
a train in the yard, with a piece of stone for an engine,
snow-shoes and boxes for carriages, etc. When D. saw it
he asked for tickets, which one child instantly produced,
and which everybody, entering into the spirit of the game,
bought. They immediately took the money to their mother,
and we were able to please them with some little necklaces
we had for the Indians. Johann Nord is the father's name.
During the afternoon-half of our journey we passed
through a bush fire, but not close enough to the actual
blaze to be very much annoyed by the smoke. We did not
get to our camping-ground till six, and then we had some
new experiences, for there was no water and no food for
the horses. We had to dig for the former, and Mr. McKay
tried to take his horses somewhere for better grass, but
they would not leave the carts, where they hoped to find
corn.
This part of the country is wooded, and there is no
scenery at all.
We are in Keewatin now. It is governed by a council,
and has not a Lieutenant-Governor of its own, though
Mr. Morris is what is called the ' Administrator.'
AUG. 1877 LAKE OF THE WOODS 843
Friday, 31 st. Before lunch we did about seventeen
miles, and as the road was rough we were glad of the rest
in the middle of the day. When we started again, we
were told that we had only nine miles to go, and thought we
should have such an easy afternoon. It proved a very hard
one. We had five miles of swamp, and a road made with
rough-hewn trunks of trees. When first made this sort of
perpetual bridge is not disagreeable, but when time has
worn furrows in it the jogging of the ambulance waggon
upon it is not to be described !
When we had been knocked about as much as we could
bear we got out and walked a couple of miles ; but almost
our whole journey was over corduroy road, and as we had
to go at a foot's pace, it was very fatiguing.
As you may guess, a ' corduroy' road is a Brobdingnagian
imitation of the material worn by rough little boys, and
when an occasional ' cord ' has broken away altogether,
when another has got loose, and turns round as the horse
puts his foot on it, or when it stands up on end as the wheel
touches it, the corduroy road is not pleasant to drive many
miles over ! In consequence of our slow progress, it was
quite dark when we reached our camping-ground, and the
cook did not arrive till half-past seven.
Saturday, September ist. Ten or twelve miles of rough
road brought us to the North-West Angle, where we found
a beautifully decorated steamer on the Lake of the Woods.
There were a few Indians about : one who is always
called ' Colonel Wolseley,' because he was guide to Sir
Garnet, on the Eed Eiver Expedition.
We had got up at six in order to do our steamer voyage
by daylight ; but our horses wandered away in the night,
and it took some time to catch them, so that it was one
o'clock before we had done the twelve miles, and packed
our things into the boat. We had to part with Mr. McKay
here, and to put ourselves into the hands of twenty-six
canoe-men. They all came on board at the North-West
344 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
Angle, which is a morsel of the United States mixed up
with our land.
We had such a pleasant afternoon in the steamer. The
Lake of the Woods, about which we had heard nothing,
proved to be quite lovely : islands innumerable, rocky and
wooded, a great variety of shapes and sizes, sometimes
far away, and sometimes so close to the steamer as quite
to darken it. We lunched and dined on board, and did
not land till it was dark, and the setting-up of our camp
was most difficult. We could only get three tents up,
and I had to be one of four in mine, so we were rather
crowded.
I found that we were close to the house of one of our
Ottawa brides, who has come out here with her husband.
She was a Miss Ashworth, and he a Mr. Fellowes. We
went up to see her, and found her very happy and cheerful.
She has one neighbour nine miles away, and a second
eighteen miles off.
Sunday, 2nd. We had such a pleasant day after once we
had got into our canoes and were well started. The weather
was lovely, and the Eiver Winnipeg beautiful. We have
two large and two small canoes. The first big one carries
D. and Nellie and me, and eight men, and a good deal of
luggage ; the second, Colonel and Mrs. Littleton, and eight
men. The first small one had the two A.D.C.s, Nowell,
and six men ; and the other small one held three servants
and six men that is to say, there ought to be six men
in the two small ones, but two left us, so our servants take
it in turns at the paddles. We were most comfortable, and
lay back reading and looking at the scenery, and occasionally
doing a little sleeping. Sometimes the men sang the Cana-
dian boat- songs which sound so delightful on the water, and
sometimes they cheered themselves up by racing the other
canoes. Our tents, luggage, and provisions are distributed
over all the boats. In the middle of the day we landed to
lunch, and at five we stopped on a piece of ground where Sir
SEPT. 1877 THE WINNIPEG RIVER 345
Garnet Wolseley and his troops once camped. Nellie and
I had a nice bathe, and returned to find our camp full
of activity ; our twenty-four men, and four gentlemen and
three servants hard at work chopping wood, putting up
tents, mending canoes, cooking dinners, and making beds.
The latter is a most important office. The bed-maker
gets a quantity of dry grass and small branches of fir,
which are laid one over the other so as to form a spring
mattress. A buffalo-robe goes over that, and then blankets
ad libitum.
We had a dinner of hot soup, curry, stewed beef, duck
and prairie chicken, and a blueberry pudding, our cook
having got up early to pick the blueberries. The soup and
the beef were carried here in tins, the game has been shot
on the way. Monsieur Beselin, our cook, has done so well.
When we were driving he used to arrive sometimes long
after us, when it was quite dark, and in five minutes' time
he would be hard at work, and our dinner well under way.
Mr. McKay, who is a great traveller, said he never saw a
man who could produce a dinner so expeditiously, and get his
things packed up again so quickly. In addition to this, he
is always in a good humour, and in the daytime now he
paddles away with a beaming countenance.
Strange to say, though on the banks of a splendid river,
we have no good drinking-water, and are obliged to suck it
through a sort of baby's-bottle filter ! In the matter of
drink we are badly off ; we have brought no wine so as to
lessen our luggage ; we have no milk (except preserved
milk), and, as I said before, good water is hard to get.
Tea is our principal beverage, but without milk it is not
very nice. We also have chocolate (which makes us
thirsty).
Monday, $rd. Up at six ; lovely morning ; the gentle-
men bathed, and we got off on our travels by 8.30. We
had another delightful day. We made two portages, and at
the end of the second we lunched ; a waterfall, which we
346 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
escaped by our portage, was really a very pretty and im-
portant one ; and after lunch we went over such an exciting
rapid : it was a great dip, the upper part of the water being
quite smooth, and we seemed to slide over it, and then to
plunge into a stormy sea, the canoe gallantly rising to the
waves. At this one there were great cries of ' Back water ! '
and energetic signs made to the canoes behind us to avoid
a certain rock on the way. Later on we had another very
exciting descent, where the stream carried us at a fearful
pace sharp round a rock ; we were all covered with water-
proofs, and some of the canoes shipped a good deal of
water.
The scenery is beautiful : the Winnipeg seldom looks
like a river, but nearly always like a lovely lake full of
islands. They are rocky and wooded, and sometimes there
are steep precipices of rock." The foliage is varied (not
all pine), and the delightful weather helps to make it all
charming.
We camped at five, and the usual busy scenes were
enacted. I watched the way the men kneaded their bread,
and then I made a loaf ; they use a little baking-powder, and
pour the water actually into the sack of flour, and do all the
kneading in the top of it ; then they spread the dough out
in a frying-pan, and put it before a good fire. A very nice
sort of cake is the result. Pemmican soup is another of their
dishes, and really it is not at all bad, and it is very (excuse
the word) ' filling,' which is a great advantage.
It is wonderful how quickly these men put up our tents,
especially as they have to cut down trees to make room for
them. I don't think they were half an hour getting them
up to-night, lighting all the fires, and unpacking all the
things. Each crew has its own cook and mess.
We stopped at a small Mission we saw on the way, to
get some milk. It is called the ' White Dog Mission,' and
a half-breed clergyman lives there. His wife has been ill a
year, has never seen a doctor, and is now on her back in a
SEPT. 1877 PORTAGES 347
birch-bark tent, where she thinks she has more air than in
a house. I went in to see her : she can speak English a little,
but did not seem to have more comfortable surroundings
than an Indian. We were sorry we had no doctor with us
to help the poor thing, and such cases make one realise
the hardship of living in these lonely parts.
Tuesday, $th The weather and the delights of our
journey have been much the same as on the last two days.
The only events were the view of one most lovely waterfall,
and some fine rapids. At the fall the river was about half a
mile wide, and the fall stretched the whole way across.
It is really an enormous rapid, but, except in height, it is
one of the finest waterfalls I have seen. We portaged
across, and got into our canoes again at the foot of it.
RAT PORTAGE
There was one rapid which D. went down but would
not allow me to try, as there was some danger that one
might be swept into a whirlpool and upset ; but all the
canoes got safely through it.
We have just camped at a portage for the night. We
landed at one side of an island, and the canoes and all our
goods were carried to the other side of it ; there we found
ourselves (to use geographical language, without really
studying the points of the compass) ' bounded on the north '
by a waterfall, flowing from us ; on the south by a great
348 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
rapid and a wood ; wood on the east, and an island filling
up the space between the Eapid and the Fall on the west.
To-morrow we have to row across the little basin, and portage
to the bottom of the Fall.
This Winnipeg surpasses all rivers I have ever seen, being
so much more beautiful than the other large rivers and
lakes I have been on. We enjoy our days immensely, and
are sorry we have only two more of this delightful life.
D. is so industrious about drawing ; he has made a
quantity of pretty sketches.
Wednesday, $th. I tried to describe to you the situation
of our camping-ground, and I hope I made it clear that we
had just to cross a small bay to the head of a waterfall,
and to portage there, getting into our canoes again at the
bottom. The crossing was very exciting, for we approached
the Fall as if we were just going over it, and at the last
moment we turned into an eddy, which swept us into a
quiet landing-place.
From the bottom, these great rapids are really beautiful ;
they appear like one great wall of water, stretching the
whole width of the river, and divided into four by islands
covered with trees.
After we got into our boats we had a very short way to
go before reaching another portage, and here the rapid
went round two sides of an island, and we got in at the
quiet side (the third), and came round to the front of the
Fall, where we could look up at it. The weather continues
to be perfectly lovely a bright sun, not too warm, and
everything is so gay and pleasant.
The third portage we made was about three-quarters
of a mile long, but we could not see the danger we escaped
until we were some way from it ; then we looked back on a
very fine fall. At the fourth portage we crossed an island
which divided an immense rapid, and came to a place
which looked worse to go down than anything I have
hitherto seen ; the two rapids met here, and there was such
SEPT. 1877 ON THE WINNIPEG RIVER 349
a bubbling and boiling that the uninstructed eye could not
see the way out of the difficulty. We appeared to start
straight for a great hole, and then to be borne away from
it by a back current, and I was very glad when I found
myself safe at the bottom, and when we landed at a very
pretty camping ground.
Indians have put up on a post the skull of a bear, to
show other Indians that they have killed bears here, and
we have taken the teeth as souvenirs of the place.
We came down another long, rough rapid, and then
down some pretty little ones, and stopped rather early to
camp, because the place was so beautiful we wished to stay
at it.
It is at the mouth of the Birch Eiver, which here flows
into the Winnipeg ; and the two are flowing in opposite
directions round an island. There are five or six other
islands in sight, but the ground itself is not very good for
camping : the rock shelves into the water, and we have to
cut places in the wood behind for our tents.
Thursday, 6th. We have been going down quite a
chain of rapids this morning, and have had five portages
one after the other. At the bottom of each we looked up
at what this country calls 'rapids,' but what any other
would dignify by the name of waterfalls. Some of us came
down one that really was a precipice ; there was a descent
of quite four feet, almost perpendicular, so that our canoe
slanted head foremost down, and then rose lightly on the
waves.
The whole afternoon we had a fair wind, and sails were
improvised in each canoe ; with them we went very fast
through the water, and landed at five much nearer to
Fort Alexander than we had expected to get. On one side
of us there is a roaring rapid, and another one lies before
us, for to-morrow morning. My tent is in a most pictu-
resque spot : I am in an arbour of trees, and I look
across the lovely little bay, and down the river summer
350 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
lightning enabling me to see the view every now and then.
Nellie's tent is behind mine, and she rejoices in the noise
of the Fall, which she thinks a delightful lullaby.
Friday, 7th. We finished all our camping without
having had a drop of rain, but this morning the sky looked
gloomy, and we had our waterproofs ready to put on. We
got up at six, and had only a cup of chocolate and a
biscuit, so that we might get off quicker ; for when we have
a more elaborate breakfast we have to wait so long while
the dishes are being washed.
The consequence of our frugality was that we got over
' the long portage ' by 8.30; and very long it was, more than
three-quarters of a mile, hilly and slippery ground, and
hard for the men to carry the heavy canoes over. This
day we made five portages, and as the rain did come on a
little, and as the sky was cloudy, they seemed more tire-
some than usual. At one of the portages a canoe fell, and
an immense hole was made in it. The men set to work
and mended it quickly : they got balsam-root, with which
they sewed the birch-bark over and over, and then with rosin
they covered the stitches up, and the canoe was ready for
the water again.
There was only one shower in the morning, but as we
were approaching Fort Alexander in the afternoon it began
to rain pretty hard. The sight of their destination set the
men a-singing, and we had all sorts of boat-songs, and
rowed our four canoes up to the quay to the triumphant
tune of ' En roulant ma boule.'
Gunshots were fired off from various cottages on the
banks as we passed them, and when we landed we found
arches prepared for us to pass under.
The hostess at this fort is the daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Flett, of the Stone Fort ; her husband is a Mr.
Mackenzie, and she has one dear little boy, and a baby.
We had expected to meet our steamer here, but it has
not arrived, so Mrs. Mackenzie is going to let us camp in
SEPT. 1877
FORT ALEXANDER
351
her house. As it is raining, it is very pleasant to be under
a roof, and we enjoyed a cup of tea with ' real ' milk very
much, though certainly we have not been able to complain
of our food on this expedition ; it has been excellent, and
it was for the first time yesterday that we had to do with-
out bread, and take to sailor's biscuit instead.
Saturday, 8th. A great disappointment awaited us this
INDIAN GRAVE AT FORT ALEXANDER
morning the unaccountable non-arrival of our steamer.
She ought to have been waiting for us days ago, and we are
shut up here until she does come. There is neither tele-
graph nor other communication with the outer world,
and we wonder how we shall ' kill time.'
We went to visit the house of an Indian who farms on
a neighbouring reserve, and found there the old chief to
whom D. gave a watch at St. Peter's, and a few of his
352 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
friends. The house is very well built, but it has only
one room ; and I hear that, however large their families
may be, the Indians have not yet begun to wish for more
accommodation.
D. looked about, found fault, praised, and gave good
advice and a parcel of tobacco. We wound the Chief's
watch for him, showed him how to wear it, and conversed
with his brother, who is a pagan, painted, and less civilised,
but a very jolly old gentleman. He is trying to build a
house, but finds it much 'more difficult to make than a
wigwam ' ; and if the truth were told, he would probably
consider it less comfortable when finished. The Chief
told His Ex. that he was 'very hungry' (they all say
this), and D. said, 'and I am starving, my steamer has
not <jome in, and I have eaten all my provisions ' ; upon
which the Chief laughed immensely, and was quite satis-
fied.
We visited a curious grave a coffin raised far from the
ground on four posts.
Thus did we spend the day, and we were just going to
sit down to dinner when in walked Mr. Campbell, carrying
a mail-bag ! Of course we thought our steamer had come.
But no ; he had started in her, but she ran ashore in a fog,
and after vainly trying to pull her off, the Captain sent him
on to tell us of his misfortune. It is indeed a great dis-
appointment to everyone concerned. The steamer has
been done up for us, and in her we hoped to go round
Lake Winnipeg, and to get into the Saskatchewan ; now
this appears to be impossible, and we shall have to hug
the shore in canoes, and shall not be able to do the Lake
or the Saskatchewan at all.
Mr. Campbell came in a flat-bottomed boat with two men,
and had a very adventurous journey ; one day he was
blown fifteen miles out of his course, and had great difficulty
in landing. He slept under his boat at night, and once a
tremendous thunderstorm passed over him. I believe he
SEPT. 1877 LAKE WINNIPEG 353
really was several times in danger of being upset, there was
such a strong wind.
There is just a chance that, as the wind blows in the
right direction, the Colville may get off her mudbank ; but
we shall not know that yet. We have had such beautiful
weather the last twenty-four hours that we regret the loss
of our steamer immensely, and I am sure the Captain will
be almost distracted. The reporter who was to have joined
us in her would not face the flat-bottomed boat !
Sunday, gtk. We were all up and ready for breakfast at
seven o'clock, and by nine we had said ' good-bye ' to the
Mackenzies, and had packed our canoes, and started afresh
on our way to Gimla (the Icelandic settlement). We had
made up our minds to ' rough it ' in the way of provisions,
and looked forward to a possible diet of pemmican. Ugh !
And we were bearing our disappointment in the most
Christian manner, and were cheerfully reading our papers,
and paddling along in our four canoes, when a cloud of
smoke appeared on the horizon, and a cry of ' the steamer ! '
rose simultaneously from all the boats. There she was, off
her mudbank, and on her way to meet us. We soon got
on board, and we found her most comfortably fitted up. I
must confess, when I first saw her at Winnipeg in her work-
ing-dress, that, with every desire to make the best of every-
thing, my heart sunk a little at the idea of spending six days
in her. Now she looks very nice ; she has been repainted,
and the hold has been turned into a beautiful dining-room.
It has been entirely lined with green baize, while the com-
panion ladder is clothed in red, and she has altogether a
most cheerful and comfortable appearance. The gentlemen
sleep in this saloon. On deck we have a sitting-room, and
out of it are two cabins, with two berths in each. There is
another nice large cabin for Colonel and Mrs. Littleton.
When we came on board we found a little Icelandic
maid-servant, on her way to Mrs. Mackenzie. She could
only say ' yes ' and ' no,' and her principal luggage con-
A A
854 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
sisted of a flower-pot, with a geranium growing in it. She
went on to Fort Alexander in our canoes. We took a
tender leave of all our men, who were greatly delighted
with a little extra pay D. gave them. They were a most
good-natured, friendly, shabby lot; and each day their
clothes got more and more ragged, but at Fort Alexander
one or two new shirts and caps made their appearance.
I think our own clothes are rather in the same disrepu-
table condition ; for, what with dragging oneself through
the bush, sitting by camp-fires, having holes burnt in one's
gowns, lying or sitting on one's hat, and never having
one's boots cleaned, one is conscious of being rather
uncivilised-looking when one re-enters society. I have
been happy in the knowledge that after this journey my
gown need never appear again, and that a misfortune more
or less is a matter of no importance. I bought, too, at a
Hudson's Bay store, a man's soft grey felt hat, which turns
up or down, and accommodates itself to every ray of sun-
shine ; the rain may pour upon it with impunity, and I can
lean back upon it, so that wearing it I suffer no economical
pangs. The old gown is grey, and I have one new navy-
blue serge in which to encounter natives ; and this is all
the finery I could pack into the canoe.
Nellie also has a dear old frock and hat, and one good
one in a box for grand occasions ; but she cannot have any-
thing of hers on for two minutes without its meeting with
some serious accident ; the glory of her smart frock has
been sadly marred during the two days upon which she
has worn it.
Of course we have fresh provisions on the Colville, so
the pemmican diet is postponed for a time. The reporter
has met us here again.
Monday, loth. The longest day I have spent for some
time.
Lake Winnipeg is so large we were out of sight of land,
and the Colville is a terrible ship for rolling. In this fine
SEPT. 1877 THE SASKATCHEWAN 355
weather she rolled all day, and even when we anchored at
night she went on swaying from side to side.
Tuesday, nth. We started again early in the morning,
and landed at eight o'clock on the shores of the Sas-
katchewan. There is not very much to see at this par-
ticular spot : trees on each side of the river, two large
wooden houses at the wharf, and some groups of Indians
sitting about. They had put up decorations, and fired off
their guns as usual. Mr. McTavish, one of the Hudson's
Bay Company, came to meet us, and took us two miles
across the portage on a tramway laid down since July, and
the first railway in the North-West. The car was most
gorgeously lined with coloured blankets, and when we got
out of it we jumped into spring-carts, in which we did the
unfinished part of the railway. During the drive we saw
some views of the river, and went to the Hudson's Bay
Company's store. We then inspected a new steel steamer,
and lunched ; and I put in a rivet in the last bit of the
railway, and was presented with the hammer. We met
here Mrs. Bompas, wife of the Bishop of Athabasca, and
offered her a passage in our steamer, which she was
thankful to accept. She has been travelling a month to
get here, and her journey from an opposite direction makes
us feel as if we had not penetrated so very far into the
country after all. We also visited Mrs. Mathisson, a half-
breed, who gave us some pretty specimens of her work.
And then came the event of the day our descent of
the Grand Eapids of the Saskatchewan in a ' York ' boat.
The ' York ' is a very large, heavy, wooden boat, which holds
about twenty people ; and the rapids we went down are
four miles long. They are simply extremely rough water,
and we found them more sea-sicky and less exciting than
the Winnipeg Eiver rapids.
In our absence one of our servants got a good bear-
skin from a man who killed the animal last night ; he saw
another bear there, but we have no time to go after it. We
A A 2
356 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
fished, but though we saw a man with a great barrowful of
beautiful ' white fish ' fresh out of the water, caught nothing
ourselves. Colonel Littleton got three pike in the morning.
D. saw an Indian chief, and gave him a gun.
We started off on our journey home about five o'clock,
and looked forward with dread to Lake Winnipeg.
Wednesday, 12th. We had a very good night, and,
still better, a beautiful day, so we enjoyed our voyage. We
talked to Mrs. Bompas, and heard her missionary experi-
ences. She lives in a place where she never has milk or
butter, bread only three times a week (as flour costs 5^. a
bag), and fresh meat very rarely pork and pemmican being
her chief food all the year round. No spirit is allowed to
be sold in the North- West, so ' the pleasures of the bottle '
are also denied the inhabitants of these distant regions.
In the middle of the day we went ashore to see some
Indians. The Chief was such a funny old man. He gave
wonderful expression to his one remark, repeated in a
variety of ways while D. was speaking to him ; all he ever
said being 'Ah ! ' ' Eh ! ' 'Ah ! ' ' Eh ! ' ; but one understood
his gratitude, his wonder, his assent, and all his feelings,
perfectly well each time he emitted the sound. The receipt
of a gun evoked a very well- satisfied ' Ah ! ' but the mention
of pork and flour brought forth an enthusiastic ' Eh ! ' and
a shout from his people.
Thursday, i$th. 4 A.M.: Rolling, rolling, doors bang-
ing, jugs upsetting all the morning ; no more sleep to be
had, and the melancholy news that it is quite impossible
to land at Gimla to greet us when we feebly struggle down
to breakfast.
Gimla is the Icelandic, settlement which D. must see,
and the alternative before us is either to roll about at
anchor until the wind shifts, which it may do in a day or
two, or to go all the way to the Stone Fort to coal, and
return to-morrow (always provided the wind changes).
D. thought the first alternative was out of the question
SEPT. 1877 GIMLA 357
for me, so we settled to come to the Stone Fort and here
I am.
Once safe in a house, with the memory of the rolling
fresh upon me, I could not make up my mind to seven
hours more to Gimla and seven back again; so Nellie,
Mrs. Littleton, my maid, and I remain here for the night,
while D. and the gentlemen, having arrived here at two,
started back again at five.
They will get to the mouth of the river before it is dark,
anchor there, and, if they can land, go on to Gimla in the
morning.
It has been such a dreadful afternoon pouring rain,
and two fearful thunderstorms. I shall have to give you a
second-hand account of Gimla. I am very sorry not to
have seen it, but the Colville is such a lively little steamer
in rough water that I dreaded fourteen hours more of her !
We have telegraphed for horses, and hope to leave this
to-morrow. Meantime, Mr. and' Mrs. Flett are making us
very comfortable.
D. left with a very bad headache ; he was up and down
all night, saving all our goods from being flung about the
cabin, so I was not surprised that he had one.
We landed Mrs. Bompas at the house of Archdeacon
Cowley, where she is going to spend the winter.
Friday, i^tli. Our carriages arrived very early in the
morning, and we were able to start before noon in the
ambulance, or, as my maid calls it, the ' rumble-tumble
machine.'
We had, during the next six hours, a real specimen of Red
Eiver mud. Imagine driving twenty-five miles over a field
of clay soil which has just been harrowed, and you may
acquire some notion of the way in which our wheels were
clogged with mud, and the horses' tails weighted down
with great balls of it. Happily it was fine overhead, and
we got ' home ' at five.
We had six mail-bags to open, and were busy till
358 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
dinner-time reading our letters. The housemaid cooked
for us, and we enjoyed the quiet evening after all our
travelling.
Saturday, i$th. Such a pouring morning ! We are so
glad to be safe at Silver Heights.
His Ex. got to Gimla yesterday. He spoke to the Ice-
landers, and said in his speech : ' The homesteads I have
visited seem well-built and commodious, and are certainly
superior to any of the farmhouses I remember in Iceland ;
while the gardens and little clearings which have begun to
surround them show that you have already tapped an
inexhaustible store of wealth in the rich alluvial soil on
which we stand.' He then welcomed them to this country,
saying, ' It is a country in which you will find yourselves
freemen, serving no overlord, and being no man's men
but your own ; each master of his own farm, like the
Udalmen and Bonders of old days ' ; and concluded with
these words : ' I trust you will continue to cherish for all
time the heart- stirring literature of your nation, and that
from generation to generation your little ones will continue
to learn in your ancient Sagas that industry, energy, forti-
tude, perseverance, and stubborn endurance which have
ever been the characteristics of the noble Icelandic race.'
The gentlemen arrived this afternoon, but the servants
did not get through the mud till late in the evening.
Sunday, \6tli So cold ! We are thankful for a fire,
and shiver at the thought of our camp to-morrow.
Church in the morning, and in the afternoon a visit
from eight men, three ladies, and two children all Ameri-
cans from St. Paul, who have come here for a trip, re-
maining only two days, and coming in for bad weather.
They brought me all sorts of messages from the ladies
of St. Paul, who regretted so much that they had not seen
me there. They did not know I should be at the Eeception,
and when they heard I was, they ' felt so badly,' because
they had not come to it.
SEPT. i 77 A LEATHER LODGE 359
Monday, 17 th. We did not manage to get off, ourselves
and our baggage, till after two o'clock ; but then we started
in the ambulance, and with all the usual riding-horses and
waggons, the only difference in our procession being that,
instead of the portly form of Mr. McKay, we had a clerk of
his in our guiding-buggy.
We reached the camping-ground at five, having driven
to it across the prairie ; but our provisions and our
mattresses did not arrive, and at first we thought we had
absolutely nothing to eat. On closer investigation, we
found that the cook had a few scraps with him, and of them
he made us a capital dinner.
Instead of a bell-tent we tried a leather 'lodge' in
other words, a regular Indian tent the chief merit of which
is, that in it you are able to have a good fire. We watched
the men putting it up. There are thirteen long, stout
poles. Three are tied together at the top, and are lifted
up, and spread out at the bottom ; eight others are then
fitted round these, so as to complete the circle at the
bottom, and to form a frame for the leather covering. Two
corners of a large sheet of leather are attached to two more
poles, and with these it is lifted over the skeleton frame-
work ; these two poles also work the chimney apparatus.
The tent is quite open at the top, but the two flaps of
leather regulate the draught. We had a good fire to go to
bed by, and to dress by in the morning ; but we let it go
out at night. The provisions arrived late in the evening.
Tuesday, i8th. We got up early, and were breakfasting
when Mr. McKay arrived. We cheered his arrival, but I am
sorry to say he brought the Littletons a telegram from
Dr. Grant to say their baby is very ill, and that they had
better return home.
They went back to Winnipeg at once, and will telegraph
for further news ; they cannot get a boat to leave in till to-
morrow, and the child may be better.
We were a long time packing our waggons and catching
360 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
our horses ; but at last we started, and had a cold drive
over the prairie. D. had a headache, caused, he thinks,
by the extremely bad water we had to drink last night.
It required no microscope to show the animals in it. Of
course we filtered it, but I don't think it was possible to
make it wholesome. When we reached our luncheon-place
D. lay down, and with a good fire we got a little warm.
The sun is bright, but the wind is bitter.
The afternoon was equally cold, and when we reached our
camping-ground I was glad to get the ' lodge ' up as quickly
as possible, that D. might get to bed. He was very feverish,
and had a terrible headache.
Wednesday, igth. I found the fire in my leather house
so hot this morning that I had to let it burn down before
I could dress at it. D. was better, and able to start
in the ambulance with us. We drove past Shoal Lake,
where we saw quantities of geese and of large crow-ducks
standing upon pieces of rock in the water ; our way lay
through prairie, oak-coppice, and marsh, and after a drive
of seventeen miles we began to see farm-houses here and
there, then a Hudson's Bay station, and finally a little
cottage, at which we stopped, and from which we looked
out on -Lake Manitoba.
The cottage is Mr. McKay's. It consists of two rooms,
in one of which our dinner will be cooked, and in the other
eaten. We pitched all our tents close to the house.
While waiting for the waggons to arrive, we walked
down to the Lake, an enormous sheet of water, like a sea,
with no land to be seen across it. It is fifty miles wide
at this spot. The shore is a beautiful sandy beach, and
Nellie amused herself with the shells. D. after a little
lunch felt well enough to go out for an hour to look after
some ducks. Captain Smith brought home a bittern, a
plover, and three ducks, but no one else got anything.
Thursday, 2Oth. The gentlemen went off in four canoes
this morning, and Nellie and I remained alone. We visited
SEPT. 1877 LAKE MANITOBA 361
the Hudson's Bay store, where Mr. Clark was very civil to
us : showed us his bears, his dogs, his garden, and after-
wards sent me a quantity of flowers from it. The sun
shone brightly, and it was very pleasant.
The sportsmen got home about seven o'clock. His Ex.
1 8 head, Fred 16, Captain Smith 17, and Mr. McKay 25.
They had several sorts of duck, plover, bittern, grebe,
and coot. They saw over a thousand duck, but they were
difficult to approach. D. says the shooting was very
pretty and curious. They paddled to a sort of marsh,
where there were gigantic rushes forming streets, lanes and
squares of water. About these waterways they went, try-
ing to get quietly up to the duck ; but the birds were very
wild.
After dinner Mr. Clark and an Indian agent came over
from the Hudson's Bay store, and sat by our fire. Mr.
Clark has lived here nine years. He has not one single
neighbour or companion, and is unmarried.
Mr. McKay described to us how he shot sixteen swans
here last April. He had an enormous tub made for himself,
which he sunk into the ice ; he had it filled with hay, and
surrounded with rushes. As he weighs twenty-eight stone,
he must have looked funny in his tub. In front of him
he placed a stuffed swan, and there he sat, and shot the
live ones which came to look at it. He remained there all
day, got frightfully chilled, and was ill for fifty days with
rheumatic fever the first ailment he ever had.
The wind began to rise in the evening, and at night the
noise in our tent was dreadful ; the wind whistled in at the
hole in the top, and the chimney flapped about. Then an
enormous dog crept in, and alarmed me. I heard a
rustling, and, looking up, saw a black creature, which I took
for a man; I spoke, and the creature rushed out of the
tent in such a rapid manner that I knew it must be a dog.
I told D., who declared I was dreaming ; but in a short
time I again saw this great animal, and again frightened
362 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
him with my voice (Indian dogs are very shy, but savage
if you don't succeed in frightening them) ; then I got up
and barricaded the door of my tent.
Next moment a howling was heard ; so D. at last
believed I was awake, and got up too, and assisted in
making the napping oilcloth door a little more serviceable.
We had everything we possessed piled upon the end of it to
keep it down. The noise in the tent was louder than
that in a gale of wind at sea, and there was so much
draught we had to wrap up our heads as if we were out of
doors.
Friday, 21st. Mr. McKay has a terrible headache, and
there is too much wind for the canoes, so the shooting is
put a stop to, which is annoying. Fred and Captain Smith
have walked out to see if they can get anything in the
marsh close by.
The wind fell, Mr. McKay lost his headache, and the
gentlemen went off for the afternoon's ' hunting,' as shoot-
ing is called here. They did not bring back a great deal
the birds were so wild ; twenty-six the total bag. A
number of the birds they shot were lost in the rushes.
Saturday, 22nd. We left our encampment this morn-
ing, and after luncheon Mr. McKay, D. and Captain
Smith went out shooting again. Fred and Captain Smith
tossed up, and Fred lost the place in the canoe. We drove
on to the camping-place, which is rather an uninteresting
spot. There is not even a shrub near it, and we are in
long grass, on a small piece of highish ground surrounded
by swamp. We can hear the sportsmen's shots, and see an
immense number of ducks escaping, and flying over us.
Fred has gone on foot to see what he can get.
They came back, having greatly enjoyed their sport.
D. got nineteen birds, and Fred shot seven duck, four of
which he brought home.
Sunday, 2$rd. We had intended to make a very short
journey to-day, but the shooting yesterday kept us back a
SEPT. 1877 PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE 363
little. We lunched close to the house of a German sur-
veyor, who brought us some excellent bread-and-butter,
and we visited his wife and daughters. He has established
himself upon i ,000 acres of good land. We camped about
four o'clock, and soon had the pleasure of seeing Colonel
Littleton riding towards us. Mrs. Littleton has gone home,
but the child is better. Our letters also arrived, and were
very welcome.
Monday, 2^th. Started about half-past eight, and drove
along a good road and through five farms to Portage La
Prairie. There were arches and an address, bands of
painted Indians, and a long procession of ' buggies.' We
drove to one farm to inspect it, and as we did not see much
chance of any lunch, we asked the old lady for some, and
soon filled her house, eat up her bread, tasted her home-
made cheese, and drank her rich milk. Her husband and
son seemed to take great interest and pride in their farm,
and if they had a market they would be very well off ; the
market and the railway will come in time. They have
magnificent crops.
Food and presents were given to the Indians, and we
drove back to our camp, which is on the way to Winnipeg,
and on the way home !
Indians came and inspected us, and one very tall man,
looking grand in his blanket and red leggings, embroidered
with beads, sold us first his garters, and then the stripes
off his trousers ; while an old friend of his, with a green
wreath on his head, and wrapped in a toga (blanket, Nero
fashion), nudged him, and egged him on to add dollars to
his original prices. The man had a beautiful pipe, which
he would not sell.
Tuesday, 2$th. Before starting this morning we re-
ceived an address, and were introduced to a quantity of
people at High Bluffs ; but we were on our way again by
half-past nine. We drove till lunch-time along a good
road, and through a beautiful farming-country. By the
364 M Y CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
way, a farmer told me yesterday that they built no barns
here, because it would be impossible to have them large
enough to hold their grain ! There is a great deal of natural
wood, the country is flat, and the soil very rich ; the only
' ifs ' the agriculturists have here are, ' if ' the ' hoppers '
don't return, and ' if ' the railway does come, then they
will be millionaires.
We camped at Houses to-night, and I think the only
interesting feature of the place was the water. Just as
Nelly was about to drink off a tumblerful, she saw that it
was full of large and lively animals. Colonel Littleton, who
had not looked into his before he drank it, felt very un-
comfortable. I think that, throughout our whole journey,
water has been our greatest difficulty; though we have
always had ' water, water everywhere,' there was generally
' not a drop to drink,' unless your filter was at hand. The
settlers seem to get accustomed to it ; but it would have
made us very ill, I am sure.
Wednesday, 26th. At twelve o'clock to-day we reached
Silver Heights, and our journey is virtually over. We have
all enjoyed it very much, and are well and much sunburnt
after six weeks of almost constant open air. Our good luck
in weather has been extraordinary ; there was only one single
night that we were driven from our camp-fire by rain. The
bad weather always seemed to come the days that we had
a roof to shelter us, and this morning's drive was cold enough
to make us glad that our camping out is over. Our leather
lodge was very comfortable, though a little smoky ; but a
stove in the hall and an open fire in the drawing-room of
Silver Heights are not unwelcome luxuries.
The evening was frightfully wet such pouring rain, as
if to make us thoroughly appreciate our house.
Mr. Mills and Mr. Pelletier (two of the Ministers who
have been travelling here) came to see us, and were unable
to look upon my extreme sunburntedness without remarking
upon it.
SEPT. 1877 WINNIPEG 365
Thursday, zjtli. Most of us went into town to pay bills
and arrange various matters connected with our departure.
I called upon the Morrises.
There are such swarms of beautiful birds about the
fields and roads. In the distance they all look the same,
like small crows ; but near, there is great variety. There
are orange breasts and crimson breasts, red-brown heads,
two or three coloured feathers in a wing, and all the rest of
every bird black. They must do a great deal of harm to
the grain, one would think.
Friday, 2&th. D. and the other gentlemen went out
shooting, and had a very successful afternoon. The bag
was seventeen plover, four prairie-chicken, one snipe, one
duck, one goose (shot by Fred), one musk-rat, and one
skunk ! There is variety for you !
Mr. McKay and Mr. Donald Smith dined with us. The
former gave Nellie and me two buffalo robes, and he has
presented D. with the most magnificent horns I ever
saw.
Saturday, 2Qth. Last day at Winnipeg. We said good-
bye to Silver Heights soon after breakfast, and drove through
Fort Garry and across the Eed River to a place where D.
and I each drove in a spike in the Canada Pacific Rail-
way, the first line in this part of the world. The chief
engineer had gone to try and get the locomotive there in
time for us to start it, but unfortunately it could not be
managed. Mr. Whitehead (the engineer) was a stoker on
the first line of railway opened in England, and now he is
about to open the first line in the North-West.
When this ceremony was over we visited the Roman
Catholic Schools on this side of the water, and there were
addresses both from the boys and girls. We crossed the
river again, and drove to the City Hall, where a dejeuner
was given to the Governor-General.
His speech at it was very good, and the company
present were much pleased with it. He spoke for about
366 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
three-quarters of an hour, and people seemed to listen with
all their ears, and laughed a great deal at the amusing
parts. He tried to give some idea of the great size of the
Dominion, and, speaking of this Province, said :
' From its geographical position, and its peculiar cha-
racteristics, Manitoba may be regarded as the keystone of
that mighty arch of sister provinces which spans the con-
tinent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It was here that
Canada, emerging from her woods and forests, first gazed
upon the rolling prairies and unexplored North-West, and
learned, as by an unexpected revelation, that her historical
territories of the Canadas, her eastern seaboards of New
Brunswick, Labrador, and Nova Scotia, her Laurentian
lakes and valleys, corn lands and pastures, though them-
selves more extensive than half-a-dozen European kingdoms,
were but the vestibules and ante-chambers to that till then
undreamed-of dominion, whose illimitable dimensions alike
confound the arithmetic of the surveyor and the verifica-
tion of the explorer. It was hence that, counting her past
achievements as but the preface and prelude to her future
exertions and expanding destinies, she took a fresh depar-
ture, received the afflatus of a more imperial inspiration,
and felt herself no longer a mere settler along the banks
of a single river, but the owner of half a continent ; and in
the amplitude of her possession, in the wealth of her re-
sources, in the sinews of her material might, the peer of any
power on the earth.'
D. had two addresses after lunch, and about four o'clock
we got to the hotel, and received people till five, saying
' good-bye ' to all who came. Then we went over to the
Morrises', and had a cup of tea ; after which we got on board
the Minnesota, and started on our return journey amidst
much firing and shouting and waving of adieux.
One dear old member of Parliament (who came as Fal-
staff to our fancy ball) was quite overcome by the grief of
parting with us, and almost fell into the water because he
SEPT. 1877 UP THE RED RIVER 367
would continue his parting speeches until the gangway was
partially removed.
We were very sorry to say farewell to Mr. McKay, whose
substantial figure, in his well-known buggy, was one of the
last things we saw as we steamed away.
We felt very tired in the evening, for this had been a
hard day.
Sunday, ^oth. -The Minnesota's screw shakes so much
that I find great difficulty in writing at all ; but as we travel
straight through to Ottawa, I think it better to defy it,
rather, than wait till I arrive there.
There is a cinnamon bear on board ; a tame pig, which
answers to the name of Dick, and a dog. The bear some-
times hugs the pig, and the dog rushes to the rescue.
Someone tied a bun to the pig's tail to-day, which the
bear perceived, and seized; but while he was leisurely arran-
ging himself to enjoy it, the pig seized it, and ate it up.
Monday, October ist. Steaming up the monotonous
Eed Eiver, we reached Grand Forks at two o'clock, and
arrived at Fisher's Landing in the night.
Tuesday, 2nd. We went ashore, and saw the engine
No. 2 of the Canada Pacific Eailway ; it is going to
Winnipeg with a train of railway-trucks, and it is to be
called the ' Lady Dufferin.'
We started at three o'clock, and slept in the train.
Wednesday, $rd. We reached St. Paul, and had time to
go and dine at the hotel, which made a very nice break in
the journey. The Milwaukee Eailway Company gave us
an additional car here, and sent us off on their line, free of
expense, to Chicago.
We came this way in order to see the banks of the
Mississippi, but unfortunately we had left the river when
we got up in the morning.
Thursday, qth. We arrived at Chicago in the afternoon,
went to see an exhibition going on there, dined at the
Palmer House, and left at nine in the evening.
368 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xix
Friday, $th. We crossed the St. Clair at Detroit, and
arrived that evening at Toronto; the Macdonalds and a
number of other people met us there, and sat with us while
we had our tea.
Saturday, 6th. During the night we reached Kingston,
and slept quietly in our car till the morning, when, directly
after breakfast, we were met by Colonel and Mrs. Hewitt,
Sir E. Selby Smyth, and a guard of honour, and went off
at once to inspect the new Military College.
It is beautifully situated, and is a very flourishing young
institution, and D. saw all the drill, etc. He then visited
the Fort, but I went straight to the Hewitts' house, as the
wind was bitter, and I had caught a little cold on my
journey.
The Hewitts gave us a lunch, and sent us off at two
o'clock on our way to Ottawa, where we found the children
well and in great spirits.
CHAPTEE XX
OUR LAST SEASON AT OTTAWA AND MONTREAL
Ottawa : Sunday, November ^.th. There was a bad shock
of earthquake in the night. I am sorry to say it did not
awaken me ; but several people in the house got up to see
what was the matter, and there are accounts of it in all the
newspapers.
Monday, December 24^. We went into town, and did
a quantity of Christmas shopping, and on our return found
that Fred Ward, John Petty Ward, and Price Blackwood had
arrived. I was also very busy most of the day getting the
Christmas tree ready ; it is always a long business. I have
it in the middle of the ball-room, with a little red-baize plat-
form round it, and then a green carpet, forming a square,
on the floor round that ; on the platform and carpet all the
heavy things are put, and the display this year is gorgeous.
Christmas Day, 1877. We had such a 'Merry' Christ-
mas. I must tell you about it.
In the morning we finished the tree, and then we went to
church. The children were very anxious to kill time, so after
lunch we skated on the river till past four o'clock. Then
we had tea, and at half-past five I gave the order to
light up. Mr. Dixon, the governesses, all the Littletons,
and our guests were present. The display of presents
was grand. Victoria was hoarse with screaming over hers,
and everyone was pleased. Archie (who is at home from
BB
370 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
Eton for the holidays) was delighted, and in a great state of
excitement all day. We were twenty-one at dinner, and
had some delightful music in the evening.
New Year's Day, 1878. At five I began to dress my
chicks for their play ; but before that I went down to the
servants' hall, where all the children of the place were
having their tea ; the servants had decorated it beautifully.
Then I proceeded to the putting of finishing touches
to the actors. The piece, ' Fifine, the Fisher Maid,' went
off admirably, and everyone was delighted. The General
and his son, Mr. Dixon, and Mr. Higginson dined with us
afterwards.
Wednesday, 2nd January. Skating on our Eink for the
first time this winter.
Thursday, $rd. We went into Ottawa, and skated on
the Eink there. Some gentleman had gallantly provided
a band, and we danced the lancers and other figures, and
enjoyed it much. We are still driving on wheels ; but the
Ottawa is at last frozen over.
This is the day of the children's party. I had tea for
grown-up people in the recess off the corridor, and for the
children in the dining-room. The guests were all quite
delighted with the play, and as it lasted from five till seven,
were hungry enough to enjoy their tea. Afterwards they
had a great romp in the ball-room.
Monday, 7th. In the morning we went and skated in
town, and, although it was extremely cold, we danced our
lancers and other figures, and enjoyed ourselves very much.
At lunch the gentlemen were full of tobogganing, although
the slide was not quite ready. There was a good deal of
fun and chaff about it, and they soon went out, and at once
decided to go down four on one toboggan. There was so
much loose snow that the person steering the toboggan was
blinded, and they came against a tree, and J. P. Ward was
seriously hurt. Fred rushed up to the house for brandy
and assistance, and in a short time they carried him up,
JAN. 1878 OTTA WA 371
The doctor got here in half an hour, and found his leg
broken and his side much bruised. He suffered greatly. It
is so unfortunate ; he was enjoying everything so much,
and now his whole winter is spoilt.
Of the other three, Price was stunned and bruised, Fred
knocked and bruised, and Fred Ward the least hurt.
Monday, 2%th. Archie and Terence left us on their way
to school in England. Mr. Higginson went with them to
New York. We all miss them so much, and spent a
miserable day. In the evening we got letters from them
written in the train.
Thursday, 31 st. Katie and I went into town and had a
delightful skate. Mr. Haycock had had a pole put up in
the Eink, from which depended a number of ribbons. The
dancers stood round it, and each one held a ribbon in her
hand ; then we went round and round to music, as in the
last figure of the lancers, the ribbons being lifted over and
under, so that gradually they got plaited round the pole.
Then we stopped, turned round, and going in the opposite
direction unplaited them again.
A great number of skaters had collected, and we had a
very amusing morning-party.
Friday, February Sth. The day of the opening of
Parliament. It was very fine weather, but we had to go in
carriages, not in sleighs. The Senate Chamber was full,
and looked very handsome: the ladies well got-up, the
judges very splendid, etc. Having dressed in our finery so
early, we were somewhat tired on our return, but after tea
we had to dress again for dinner and the Drawing-room.
A thousand people passed a steady stream for an hour and
a quarter so many curtseys were exhausting.
Monday, nth. We left Ottawa, a great party, to stay
at Montreal as guests of the City. The only two left behind
were Cis, 1 who is ill, and Mr. J. P. Ward, who was to
get up for the first time to-day. Mr. Bierstadt and Mr.
1 My sister-in-law (Mrs. Rowan Hamilton).
BBS
372 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
Hayes go with us. The latter is the son of the President
of the United States.
We reached Montreal at six, and met with a splendid
reception. The place was crowded, and there was much
cheering, a lovely bouquet for me, an address to D., and
a drive through the crowd with four horses to the Windsor
Hotel, the bells of the town ringing out a welcome.
We are by way of opening this new hotel the Windsor.
It is a very fine one, and the Reception Committee were
awaiting us in the gorgeous drawing-rooms ; in reply to
their words of introduction, D. told them that the humble
rooms at Government House would not be able to contain
him on his return.
Our dinner was very good, but a long time being allowed
for digestion between each course, we retired before the
pudding, and found Gwen waiting to take the gentlemen
on to a ball.
Tuesday, 12th. D., I, and a certain proportion of our
party, lunched with Mr. McKay, a dear old gentleman who
has spent his hard-earned wealth in building a great deaf-
and-dumb institution, which he to-day presents to the City
through the Governor-General.
After lunch we drove to the Institution, our sleigh being
escorted by a troop of cavalry. The building was ornamented
with flags, and was full of people. There were prayers first,
then addresses, and an inspection of the rooms.
Afterwards we went to the Villa Maria Convent, where a
very striking scene was presented to us. Turning in from
the cold and the daylight (it was a snow-stormy day), we
found ourselves in a brilliantly-lighted room, full of young
ladies, saw a gorgeous display of flowers, and heard sounds
of music ' God save the Queen ' played upon harps and
pianos, and sung by numerous voices. All the girls wore
black dresses for the Pope's death (Pius IX.), but they had
white lace bibs and cuffs, broad sashes of coloured ribbon
over the shoulder, and in their hands long sprays of arti-
FEB. 1878 MONTREAL 373
ficial flowers. The hall is a very large one, and all along
the walls were rows of girls ; at the end of the room a
rising bank of the pupils, and in the centre three plat-
forms : on one the pianos, on the second five harps, and on
the third, D. and I.
We had a good deal of music and six addresses two
in French and two in English, and two from little girls,
who presented bouquets.
When we got home we had to dress for dinner and a
ball. The latter was given for us in a very fine dining-room
in this hotel. There were 2,000 people at it, and it was in
every way a success. We entered the room in a procession,
and D. danced everything, while I ' did ' a few squares, and
was introduced to numbers of ladies. Everything went
merrily till 4.30 A.M., when we retired to bed. Katie 2 enjoyed
this, her first ball, very much, and danced everything.
Wednesday, i$tk. We went to M'Gill College, and at
the gates the students met us and dragged us up to the
door. Happily, no one was hurt, though these volunteer
horses were constantly falling, being dragged by the rope,
and half driven over.
I was taken up to the Hall, where I waited the arrival
of the new LL.D., for D. was down in the library being
clothed in cap and gown. The students soon filled the hall
completely, so that it was impossible for His Ex. to get
through it, and he had to be brought by a back stair, and
appeared through a trap-door on the platform, where the
learned sat.
The address and reply were in Greek, and I was listening
in a vacant manner, when I saw the Greek scholars smiling
at me, and I found that the word Countess had been intro-
duced into the harangue. I came in for a share of glory
also when the students presented me with a very handsome
silver bouquet-holder, made on purpose for me, with
Canadian and English symbols, the arms of the College, and
- My sister (Lady Nicolson).
374 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
an inscription engraved upon it. After a speech from the
president, the new graduate signed the register, was handed
his diploma, and was called upon for an address.
I suppose a learned and serious speech was expected ;
but D. surprised his audience by a few light and airy
sentences, and I don't think I ever heard him speak more
effectively. He had not thought of anything particular to
say, and did not wish to enter into a serious speech about
nothing ; and, as it turned out, his impromptu jokes were
much better. I had one or two people to tea on my return,
and after dinner we went to the theatre.
The house was crammed, and presented a most brilliant
spectacle. The piece was, in its way, unique, for it was
made the excuse for a grand military display. There were
at least 160 artillery men and officers, and a number of
soldiers in red, exhibited on the stage as about to embark
for India. The steamer with its funnel was in the back-
ground, the bands played, the regiments marched on board ;
five horses at a time came on, one ridden, the others dragging
the gun-carriage. All was done in regular military fashion,
and it made a splendid scene. This was got up for us
by the Volunteers, and it was most successful. We did not
leave the theatre till midnight, and then were dragged by
the snow-shoers of Montreal to the hotel. Our two-legged
steeds wore a very picturesque costume, and were very lively
horses and most cheery companions. ' To bed, to bed,
said Sleepy Head.'
Thursday, iqth. We had to leave early to drive a long
way out to the Sacred Heart Convent. It is one of the
most exclusive of the nunneries. When we got there we
were received by the ladies, many of them very charming
women. The Lady Superior is an Italian, and very clever
and pleasant. They gave us a cup of hot coffee, and then
took us into the room where the children were assembled.
It is a long, narrow room, the walls covered with white-and-
gold. At the far end of the room was a stage with rustic
FEB. 1878 MONTREAL 375
arbours on it and quantities of flowers, and on it was per-
formed an original musical operetta, in which all the flowers
took part, and which ended in the 'Eose' carrying a magnifi-
cent basket of flowers to His Ex., each of her attendants
holding a ribbon attached to it.
When this was all over we were shown the house, and
the fine chapel where the girls, with white veils thrown
over their heads, marched two and two up the aisle, stop-
ping for a second at the altar, and then on to their places,
where they knelt, filling all the centre part of the church,
the colours of the painted windows lighting up their white
figures, and colouring them with a rainbow light, which
looked very beautiful. The organ played, and there was
some very good singing, the last thing being a sort of grace,
for after leaving the chapel we went straight to lunch. There
was a large party, and the nuns did the honours. They
helped to wait upon us, and at the same time talked to us
so pleasantly.
Driving home, we went up the mountain that is to say,
through Mount Eoyal Park. It is only just made. The
road winds up to a great height, and the views from it are
lovely. It will be a very beautiful drive to have so near a
city.
This evening there was the banquet, and I am sure no
Governor of any kind ever received a more magnificent
ovation than this at the end of his term of office. The
dinner was in the great ball-room. There was one long
table down the side of the room, and ten others across,
holding in all 350 people. The first thing of which I can
tell you from personal experience was my own entrance.
I went in with my sisters and a few other ladies to hear
the speeches. When 1 came in, everyone stood up, most
of them on their chairs, and cheered me for so long that,
after acknowledging their greeting repeatedly, I sat clown
before silence was restored. Sir Francis Hincks was the
chairman, and of course the Queen's health came first,
376 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
and was enthusiastically received. As a special compli-
ment, D. next proposed the health of the President of the
United States (Mr. Hayes), his son being present.
The toast of the evening was the signal for most tre-
mendous cheering the gentlemen stood on their chairs,
and waved handkerchiefs ; and when D. spoke, almost
every sentence was followed by the greatest applause, and
all the amusing part by roars of laughter. Nothing could
have gone off better or more brilliantly than this banquet
did, and I wish I had time to give you a better account
of it.
Friday, i$th. We had to be at the Curling Rink at 10.30
to play a great match the Viceregal Club against the Three
Rivers for the Caledonian medal. The game was an ex-
ceedingly close one, but, alas ! we lost by one point. The
Rink was beautifully decorated, even the ice being covered
with designs ; and our side played very well, though it was
beaten.
I skated for an hour, and hurried home to lunch, and
to dress for a reception we had at three. That over, I
had the Chief Justice to tea, and then got ready for a
dinner. In the evening we opened an exhibition of pictures
of the Art Association of Montreal, and D. announced that
Mr. Bierstadt was going to present the Society with a
picture. The hall of the hotel, in which the exhibition was
held, is an immense place with a marble floor, and looked
very splendid, filled as it was with gaily-dressed company.
Some of the principal people came to our room afterwards.
Saturday, i6th. Our week of ovation is over, and this
morning we started for home. Gwen and her dear little
baby came to breakfast, and at ten we were off, first of all
to visit an indiarubber manufactory and a cotton manu-
factory, and then to the station, where there was an
address.
On the way to Ottawa, by a new line of railway, D. had
at least one address at every station, sometimes three and I
FEB. 1 87 8 OTTAWA 377
generally got a lovely bouquet. We were very kindly, and
indeed affectionately, received everywhere, and the whole
country seemed to turn out to greet us. A number of
gentlemen came part of the way home with us. Lady
Sykes and her brother are staying here.
I thought it best to finish the happy part of my Journal
first ; but there has been a drawback to my pleasure in the
week. While D. was dining on Friday, and just before I
went in to hear the speeches, I received a telegram to say
that Basil had scarlet fever. He is going on extremely
well, but of course I shall be very anxious until I know
whether this horrid disease spreads. The other children
are separated, but they were with him when he first fell
ill. His room is in the centre of the house, and the isola-
tion is not as perfect as I could wish. Here we are, with
Cis in bed, Mr. Ward laid up with a broken leg, scarlet
fever in the house, and visitors on the top of all this who
' are not in the least afraid.' Katie remained at Montreal
with Gwen.
But for these domestic misfortunes our week at Mon-
treal would have been an unqualified pleasure. We found
everywhere so much personal affection and kindness, and
were in every way so magnificently received, that nothing
could have been more delightful than it was.
Monday, March $tli. Mr. Harvey 3 dined with us, and
we had music in the evening. Eussell and he played the
violin, and Mr. J. P. Ward sang the ' Lost Chord ' to us.
He has a most beautiful tenor voice. He has only just
recovered from the tobogganing accident.
Sunday, loth. Mr. Ward fell ill to-day, but we were not
at all alarmed about him till the evening, when the doctor
told us his illness was most serious, and that there was no
hope. He was told so, too, and immediately settled all his
affairs and wrote a letter. I went to see him in the evening.
He was perfectly calm and happy.
3 Of Ickwellbury.
378 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
Tuesday, i2th. Mr. Ward passed away this afternoon,
having lingered all Monday, exhibiting always the most
wonderful patience, resignation and thoughtfulness for
others. I was with him when he died ; Fred Ward seldom
left him. The anxiety was terrible, for on Monday afternoon
we were given a ray of hope, soon to be destroyed again.
Thursday, i^th. He was buried early in the morning ;
none went to the funeral but those who knew him, and had
been with him here. He was a very great favourite with us
all, and this has been a great sorrow to us.
Tuesday, April 2nd. We put off our farewell gaieties
as long as we could, but to-day we resume our social duties.
I spent the day nursing my voice, driving out, and looking
over my parts ; at six we dined, and our plays began at a
quarter to eight.
* Sweethearts ' came first ; then ' New Men and Old
Acres ' ; and at the end an epilogue a farewell D. had
written for me to speak. No one knew anything about it,
not even my fellow-actors, so that it was a great surprise.
The worst of it was, that it made the audience so melancholy
that the evening ended tearfully.
Thursday, tfh. Gwen, Eussell, the Baby, and Miss
Abbott arrived. Muriel is very pretty, and a dear little
thing in every way.
Friday, $th. Our last play here. We had an enor-
mous audience, and both ' Sweethearts ' and ' New Men '
and the epilogue were greatly appreciated. They certainly
went off well, and everyone was delighted ; but all were
sad to think that we were having our last party here, and
I know I feel miserable about it.
Monday, 8th. Fred Ward left for England a signal
of our approaching departure, for we shall have left this
when he returns to Canada. I hate these symptoms of our
waning existence here, I have enjoyed it all so much. His
departure makes also the first break in what has been a very
happy family party.
APEILI878 OTTAWA 379
Saturday, itfh. In the morning we drove into Ottawa
to see an enormous map of Canada, prepared for the Paris
Exhibition. We also looked at models of the Welland Canal.
Hearing that the House had been sitting all night, and
was likely to sit all day, we determined to come in again in
the afternoon to hear what was going on.
The Opposition were talking against time, to prevent a
division being taken about some Quebec affairs (the Governor
having dismissed his Ministers) until Monday, as the
political meetings amongst the French are generally after
Mass on Sunday, and they did not wish to have the defeat
of their motion announced to the congregations.
Last night there was singing and cock-crowing and all
sorts of noises, and when Mr. Plumb was speaking another
member got up and said he was interrupting the music.
When we went Gwen and I, Mrs. Littleton, and the Colonel
a Member was speaking, merely to fill up the time. He
read out of a book, and gave us the title in full several
times, and said it belonged to ' his hon. friend the Member
for Niagara ' ; and then, when noise was made, he said he
feared hon. members had not heard, and so he would repeat
what he had been saying or reading. Singing began ' Auld
Lang Syne,' ' En roulant ma boule ' cock-crowing, and all
sorts of noises and fun, while the entertainment as far as
I heard it ended with the Marsellaise, beautifully sung by
a musical M.P. When I got up to go, what do you think
happened ? the whole house, both sides, stood up and sang
' God save the Queen,' and then cheered. Of course I got
out as quickly as I could. We were told afterwards that
we had been as ' sugar ' to the House ; that they were just
getting very cross when we came in, and that our presence
put them in a good humour very good humour, as you
may perceive. They were expecting to sit all night, but
at six Mr. Mackenzie consented to adjourn, on condition
that the division should be taken early on Monday.
We had a Parliamentary dinner that night, so when I
380 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
was in the House I instituted inquiries as to who would be
able to come. On my return a telegram followed me,
' Thirty will not be able to dine ' ; so I had the dinner moved
into the small dining-room, and cut down from forty to
sixteen. Soon after another message came to say the
House had adjourned, which was agitating; but only thirteen
guests arrived, so our table was all right. We had a plea-
sant little dinner Mr. Macpherson, Mr. Campbell, Mr.
Bunston, Mr. Odell, and the old Mr. Glasier, who went
away from our theatricals ' because he did not come all the
way down here to see a lot of love-making.' Mr. Kyan and
the Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms, Major Smith, were also there.
Tuesday, i6th. D. received the address presented to
him by both Houses of Parliament. We Gwen, Nellie and
I went to the Senate Chamber, where our seats were
just in front of the Throne, Ministers' wives, etc. behind.
I found it a very melancholy ceremony, and it gave me a
nervous headache.
Monday, 22nd. We began our last fortnight of gaieties.
Gwen and Russell 4 are already here, and Miss Abbott and
Miss Scott arrived to take part in two concerts. Miss
Abbott has stayed with us before, and is very nice, and
a great musician. Miss Scott is very pretty and nice, and
sings and plays well. They both live at Montreal.
We also began to say ' farewell.' D. and I went into
town, and in the Supreme Court spent an hour and a half,
saying good-bye to the members and senators. Mr. Kimber
and Mr. Flemming dined with us, and we had music in
the evening.
Wednesday, 24th. We had our last ' Good-bye ' at the
Supreme Court ; and in the evening we had our last big
dinner. The table formed three sides of a square, and we
had over seventy people. After the ladies left the room a
senator (Mr. Vidal) got up and proposed my health; he
sent round to ask D. if he might, and he did not like to
* Mr, and Mrs. Bussell Stephenson.
APRIL 1878 OTTAWA 381
refuse. We had singing after dinner, and Fred told us,
when he saw the party off, they were delighted with their
evening. They said they had left a man in the House to
talk against time, and had promised to be back at nine ; but
they did not leave till 10.30.
Friday, 26th. In the evening we went to see Charlotte
Thompson in ' Jane Eyre.' She is not a handsome woman,
but so good an actress that she makes you quite forget her
face. Her voice is very pretty.
Saturday, 2?th. Our concert took place this afternoon,
and was most successful. The music was really lovely,
and people seemed delighted. In the evening we went to
see Miss Multon (' East Lynne ').
Tuesday, ^oth. I have organised a bazaar in our tennis-
court to pay off the debt on our little church, and we began
to arrange it. The carpenters put up the shields on the
walls of the tennis-court and set the tables.' We carried
down all the things, and some ladies from New Edinburgh
came to help, so that when we locked up for the evening
everything was ready, and extremely pretty it all looked.
Wednesday, May i st. Will the weather be fine ? That
is what we are anxious about ; it pours all the morning.
D. is arranging a Picture-Gallery in the ball-room, to
which the public will be admitted upon payment of 25 cents.
Every painting, water-colour, engraving or photograph which
we possess, whether in a book, a portfolio, or a frame, is
exhibited here, and in addition we have borrowed two very
fine paintings of Mr. Gilmour's. An orange ticket, 25
cents, admits the juveniles of Ottawa, and many of the old
people too, to the mysteries of ' Punch and Judy,' which
Mr. Dixon and Mr. Brodie perform most admirably.
We were putting finishing touches to ourselves and to
the tables till the last moment, and happily the rain cleared
off, and the afternoon was lovely. In the garden we had
the Guards' band, and a large tin full of small parcels tied
up with string. Near this stood two lovely ladies (Miss
382 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
Griffin and Miss Scott), with fishing-rods in their hands ;
for ten cents you were allowed to try your luck that is, to
take the rod and fish for a parcel, and this became so
popular an amusement, both for old and young, that it went
on all three afternoons, and made much money.
Miss Mary Macdonald sold flowers, and various young
ladies had raffle-papers to fill up. Miss Macdonald and
Nellie had the principal stall, and I was kept busy at my
table answering questions, seeing to raffles, etc. There
was so brilliant an account of the first performance of
' Punch and Judy,' that I went to see the second ; but I
had not long been in the room when I heard someone say,
* There is a fire ! ' And we did have a marvellous escape.
A smell of gas, a lighted candle and flames appeared
through the floor ! Mothers shrieked ; but in a few seconds
the hose put out the flames, and no damage occurred, except
to the unfortunate author of the disaster, the man with the
candle, who burnt his hand. In the confusion a lady threw
her arms round Fred, and said : ' Oh my children ! my
children ! my husband is in the Public Works Department ;
what shall I do ? ' etc., etc.
The buying and selling, the music, the raffles, the tea,
the fishpond, all go on merrily.
Friday, $rd. The weather was bad yesterday, and we
had to keep indoors, which was a great loss to our pockets.
Both Wednesday and yesterday I enjoyed very much,
though I don't think I ever was so busy in my life, for I
found it impossible, from morning till night, to take my
attention off bazaar business for one moment. The third
day was harder work, and not so amusing. We had to
raffle all the things, and fewer people came, and it was
wet ; but at the end we had an auction for about an hour,
which amused people much.
The thing was a great success. Everybody enjoyed it,
and instead of my modest anticipations of making 600
dollars, I think we shall clear more than 2,000. Everyone
MAY 1878 THE PHONOGRAPH 383
said they had never been to so honest or so pleasant a
bazaar, and they proved their sincerity by coming every
day while it was open.
I am going to pay off the debt on our church (for
which I got up the Bazaar), and shall give the surplus,
and the things left, to the Protestant Orphan Asylum in
Ottawa, which is very badly off.
Thursday, gth. Parliament was prorogued to-day.
\J?riday, i?th. This morning we had an exhibition of
the phonograph. Two men brought this wonderful inven-
tion for us to see. It is quite a small thing, a cylinder
which you turn with a handle, and which you place on a
common table.
We were so amazed when we first heard this bit of iron
speak that it was hard to believe there was no trick ! But
we all tried it. Fred sang ' Old Obadiah,' D. made it talk
Greek, the Colonel sang a French song, and all our vocal
efforts were repeated. As long as the same piece of tinfoil
is kept on the instrument you can hear all you have said
over and over again ; and the inventor will soon have com-
pleted a flat instrument, in which you will be able to put
in old sayings of yours, or of others, and .hear them again.
You may imagine how susceptible the needle is when I tell
you that the first time D. spoke into the machine he spoke
too loud, and tore the tinfoil. The last performance was
for D. to say something which should be repeated by the
machine to a public exhibition in Ottawa in the evening.
When D. had finished, it was repeated to us (by the
machine), and was, we hope, again delivered with good effect
in the evening.
We are scattering for a few days. Nellie goes to
Niagara with the Littletons. To-morrow morning D. goes
to Toronto for an exhibition of pictures, and I to spend a
week with Gwen at Montreal. Then we all meet at Montreal
for a Eeview on the Queen's Birthday.
The house is full of packing-cases, and everything bare
384 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
and miserable-looking, and I am very glad of a rest and a
holiday.
Montreal : Monday, 2oth. In the afternoon Gwen and
I walked to the General Hospital, where the Grey Nuns
have old people, orphans, and foundlings. We went over
the whole institution, which took us fully two hours, and
were very graciously received by the Sisters. They admitted
us to the cloistered parts, and we saw their foundress lying
in state. Her body is covered with wax, and the sight is
not at all ghastly if you could think it was only a wax
figure. The superior gave me a very handsome book, a
biography of the foundress.
The Hospital will be enormous when the building is
finished ; it now holds over 700 inmates.
Thursday, 2$rd. D., Fred, Colonel Littleton and Dr.
Grant reached Montreal this evening, and came up to tea
at Gwen's house.
Friday, 24^/1. The Queen's Birthday; a most successful
day. The weather was exactly suited to the occasion : not
too hot, not dusty, not wet, but bright and sunshiny. The
Eeview began at 1 1.30, and Gwen, Eussell and I drove up
to the Grand Stand at that time. The roads were full of
carriages and people walking, and the effect was quite
Derby-like. I never saw such a crowd in Canada. The
field, the trees, the side of the mountain, were covered with
spectators, well-dressed, smart-looking people, and all in
the best of humours.
There were about 3,000 troops, and the Governor-
General and his 'brilliant Staff' rode down the ranks,
stopping opposite to a company of United States Volunteers,
who had come to take part in the proceedings, to make a
little speech, welcoming them to Canada, etc.
The feu de joie, the march-past, and a sham battle
followed. Everybody was delighted with everything, and
what could you wish for more ? The horses ridden by the
Staff and those in the carriages behaved admirably, though
MAY 1 878 FAREWELL TO OTTAWA 385
Gwen and I never could get up a perfect faith in ours, and
were much alarmed by the bands, and the squibs, which
were to be heard at intervals.
We next hurried through a little lunch, and proceeded
to the Lacrosse ground. D. was there presented with an
address and a ' crosse,' and we saw two very pretty games.
Then we rushed back to the hotel to drop D. for a great
military banquet, which began at 5.30. I dined at Gwen's
house, and returned to the hotel to pick up the gentlemen
on our way to the theatre. The dinner not being over, we
went up and peeped in. It was a very pretty sight, all the
guests being in uniform.
Saturday, 2$tli. D. and I left Montreal at 9 A.M. and
with Colonel Littleton and Dr. Grant returned to Ottawa.
Ottawa: Saturday , June ist. I was 'at home 'to say
' Good-bye ' ; and as the day was lovely we sat out on the
grass. It was very hard to say ' Good-bye ' to so many
kind friends. I have two more of these farewells to go
through.
Sunday, 2nd. We went to our little church for the last
time, and in the afternoon D. and I drove with Nellie,
Freddie, and Victoria to the Cemetery, to see the stone put
up to J. P. Ward's memory. It is a small Irish cross.
On our return we found Dr. Grant ; he can't bear to say
' Good-bye,' and comes here nearly every day.
Thursday, 6th. We went into town, where an address
was presented at the Town Hall. There was a large guard
of honour and crowds of people. The building is a new
one, with a fine hall, where we were received.
The Mayor read the address, and when that and the
answer were over we shook hands with all the people who
liked to come up. Then we went out on the balcony, and
an alarm of fire was sounded, that we might see the engines
at work.
D. then addressed the guard of honour (Governor-
General's Foot Guards), and we drove away amidst loud
c c
380 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
cheers. We were shown a full-length picture of D., an
excellent likeness painted by order of the Government for
the Parliament Buildings.
I am sure I have told you before how much Fred is
liked here, and what a popular A.D.C. he has been. Well,
as a proof of their appreciation of his unfailing kindness and
courtesy during the last six years, his Canadian friends have
presented him with a handsome silver tray, teapot, urn,
cream jug, etc. quite an unprecedented honour !
Friday, Jth. Left Ottawa. We had to get up early and
be at the boat by seven. It was trying ; first we had to
say good-bye to all the people about our house, and then at
the wharf we found many friends. The large guard of
honour was drawn up on the top of the cliff, and at the
water's edge were the friends.
A number of young men the bachelors were wait-
ing for me on board with a bouquet and silver holder;
then the ship began slowly to move away, and there were
long cheers and waving of handkerchiefs till we were out of
sight. Ottawa looked lovely as we left, and never shall we
forget our happy six years here and our innumerable
friends.
We had to change at Grenville into a train, and there
say a few more good-byes. After half an hour we got into
another steamer, which took us to Montreal. At several of
the small places we passed crowds had collected to give us
a parting cheer. At Montreal the steamer was full of
people, all come to say good-bye, and to see an address pre-
sented. This was from the Curlers, and with it was given a
beautiful coloured photograph, with a view of Montreal, and
portraits of ourselves and many other people we know. It
is an oil picture, and is a most charming remembrance. D.
replied ; but in the middle of the ceremony the galleries
began to creak, and the crowd had to get out of them quickly.
Saturday, 8th. Up very early to see the children off to
England. We breakfasted on board the Quebec steamer,
JUNE 1878 PARTINGS 387
and went in a tender to the Allan s.s. Scandinavian. The
Bishop and Mr. Dobell are on board, and it was a lovely
day for starting ; but it was very sad seeing all our flock
go and now we have half left Canada.
Dufferin and I, Mr. Keynolds and Mrs. Littleton, went on
board the Druid, and are now on our way to Gaspe ; but we
shall not be ourselves till we have slept upon all the part-
ings of the last two days. It has been so delightful in
Canada, and never again, I fear, can we hope to be sur-
rounded by so many true and kind friends.
c c 2
CHAPTEE XXI
THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS AND LAST DAYS IN CANADA
Tuesday, June nth. Everything we do now seems to
be impressed with that horrid word ' last ' ; here we are at
Gaspe, for the last time, enjoying our last fishing, cruising
for the last time in the old Druid, and mentally saying
' good-bye ' to many a pleasant thing which has become
a habit to us during the past six years.
We arrived early in the morning, and even before break-
fast there was an evident excitement on deck, and I could
hear through my skylight as I dressed ' yarns ' of the forty-
pounder the Colonel had lost, land of the smaller fry he
and Sir F. Graham ! have killed. I elected to remain at home
to-day, but Mrs. Littleton went with Mr. Eeynolds to stay
a few days with him, and to join her husband on the York.
Fred and D. went to the lower pools of our river, which
they can fish from the Druid.
I am left in possession of ' Tinker,' Fred's devoted fox-
terrier. No blandishments of mine affect him : he chooses
to sit in sackcloth and ashes until his master's return ; he
shivers in the ante-room, will not be warmed by my fire ;
will not even eat the mutton-chop I present him with, and
makes me feel rather small at my signal failure to gain his
confidence.
Wednesday, 12th. Eain all night, the river rising.
And as I tell the gentlemen to cheer them there are
1 The late Sir Frederick Graham of Netherby.
JUNE 1878 RIOTS AT QUEBEC 389
fourteen hours to be spent in doing nothing ! I divide my day
into hours of eating, working, reading, writing and walking
on deck. So I hope to answer all my letters, to braid Vic-
toria an elaborate frock, and to be well read in the history
of the War of Independence before I go to Boston.
The afternoon was fine, and D. sketched, and some very
important telegrams came. I had a cipher one to do, which
took me two hours and a half, and that made a hole in the
fourteen ! There is a riot at Quebec : the soldiers out, the
ringleader shot, and many people wounded.
The Littletons arrived when we were at dinner, and we
spent a pleasant evening hearing of their adventures, and
playing whist. Sir Frederick remains with Mr. Eeynolds.
Thursday, i$tli. The steamer which was to take the
Littletons away arrived unexpectedly at 5 A.M., and they had
to pack and go off at once.
D. and Fred went out fishing, and brought home only
one salmon each ; Fred's was a beauty, weighing 29 Ibs.
When D. came home he settled for us to go up to the
bush, as the fish have left the lower part of the river. This
was just arranged, when he got a telegram from Quebec ask-
ing him to have a British regiment sent there, so D. thinks
he had better return at once. The fires are lighted, coal
taken on board, and by two o'clock in the night we are off.
Great will be the disappointment to the men we employ
here when they come in the morning and find us gone.
Before starting we sent off numbers of telegrams, and the
clerk at the office said his ' head felt very bad.' He seldom
has so much work to do at quiet Gaspe.
Friday, itfh. Such lovely weather, the sea like a glass,
and covered with fishing boats. We stopped and bought
over sixty cod, some of them very large, for two dollars.
Saturday, i$tli. At Father Point we received a tele-
gram from Dent to say that all our rooms were filled with
soldiers, beds on the floors, etc. We made up our minds
to stay on the Druid.
390 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
Sunday, i6th. We found on our arrival at Quebec this
morning that most of the soldiers had left, so we went up
there and found everything tidy again. There is still one
regiment here, and the officers are filling the rooms we
intended for Gwen.
Dent had to provide for sixty officers give them blankets,
towels, etc. ; BO I don't know what they would have done if
she had not been here. She kept them in great order, too,
and insisted upon their replacing a pillow which had come
to grief in a bolstering match.
We had an escort of cavalry to come up to the Citadel
with. Everything seems quiet for the present.
Colonel Strange came to see us, and told us all about the
riot. The day was muggy and wet, and in the night there
was a severe thunderstorm.
Monday, I'jtli. D. was very busy all day, and in the
evening we dined at the Lieutenant-Governor's. I sat
between him and M. Joly, the Prime Minister ; and on the
other side of him was a pleasant man. They talked a
great deal, and were very amusing. It was a large dinner.
We had the military chiefs who distinguished themselves
in the riot, Sir Narcisse Belleau, Mr. Irvine, and several
more of the political celebrities here.
Wednesday, igih. There was a review of the 8th Eoyals
this morning on the Esplanade. It was fine and sunny,
and the regiment gave great satisfaction to the military
lookers-on. D. complimented them, and on their return
to barracks they were disbanded.
Thursday, 2oth. We had a very pleasant expedition
to-day. Starting in the Druid about lunch-time, we went
over to the Island of Orleans, where we drove in a carriage
lent to us by a ' Habitan.' The views from the island are
lovely.
Friday, 2ist. We slept on board and started early in
the morning, reaching St. John, a town at the other end of
the island, by breakfast-time. We were not expected there,
JUNE 1878 QUEBEC 391
but the Druid was seen in the distance, and by the time
we landed every cottage had hoisted a flag or a tablecloth,
and people were at every door bowing and smiling.
After our drive round this end of this pretty island,
we found more preparations had been made : two men had
got themselves into red tunics, and seven or eight young
ladies had guns, and tired an impromptu and amateur
feu dejoie. They also had bouquets ready for us, tied with
white ribbon ; mine had written upon it ' For Lady Dufferin,
in remembrance of her visit to St. John.' The cure said if he
had only known before we should have had all the country-
people in to greet us.
Quebec : Saturday, 22nd. At three o'clock we went to
the House of Parliament, where addresses were presented
to D. on his approaching departure ; he replied, and both
addresses were read in French and English. The room
was very full, everyone having come to see the ceremony.
The speeches in Parliament upon the address were ex-
tremely flattering, and, coming from both sides of the
House, are very gratifying.
Sunday, 2^rd. We had some difficulty in arranging
our journey to Boston to which city D. has been invited
in order to receive a Doctor's degree from the University
of Harvard so as to arrive there on Monday; it would
take twenty- four hours, and there were no trains on
Sunday. We talked of going up to Montreal in the Druid,
but as that would have cost the Government lool, we
gave up the idea ; and virtue was rewarded, for the mail
steamer arriving, an express train had immediately to be
sent off. So we finished our packing and went in that. D.
and I had an excellent night in the train, and reached
Montreal at six in the morning.
Monday, 24th. We started again at nine on our way
to Boston.
The railway passes through a lovely country rivers and
mountains and fertile valleys and we arrived at Boston
392 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
late in the evening. We were met at the station by Mr.
Winthrop, who had just been assisting at rather a melan-
choly dinner a gathering of the survivors of his class at
college fifty years ago ; the heavy hand of Time had of
course committed fearful ravages in the half-century, and
I only wonder anybody was able to dine at all.
He drove us out to Uplands, which is about a quarter
of an hour from Boston, in a suburb called Brooklyn.
Our host's family consists of Mrs. Winthrop, his daughter,
and an invalid daughter of Mrs. Winthrop's. We had tea,
and were then glad to go to bed.
Tuesday, 2$th. Immediately after breakfast there were
prayers in the hall, which is long and narrow, going right
through the house, with a door at each end into the grounds.
The walls are wooden, and covered with pictures ; there are
tables, books, busts, and bronzes about, and it makes a very
nice sitting-room. On one side is the dining-room, and on
the other the drawing-room and another small room.
At eleven we went for a drive in the neighbourhood ;
a very pretty neighbourhood it is villa after villa, sur-
rounded by plots of grass and gardens open to the road. Then
we lunched, and then came what I call the American part
of the day. I had had an idea of sitting out in the
garden and of walking in the grounds; but as I came
out of the dining-room I w r as told that I must rest, and
that dinner was at six. I was led therefore up to my
room, again reminded of the dinner-hour, and shut up
there for the remainder of the day. Having a nice book,
I reconciled myself to this un-English way of spending the
afternoon.
At dinner I sat between Mr. Winthrop and Mr. Long-
fellow, with Mr. Dana on the other side of him ; Wendell
Holmes and Mr. Parkman opposite ; the Governor of the
State, the Chief Justice, Mrs. Amory, Mrs. Mason (formerly
Sumner's wife), Mrs. Perkins, ourselves, and young Mrs.
Winthrop, formed the party.
LADY Dt'FFKHlN
JUNE 1878 BOSTON 393
In the evening there was a reception, and we saw a
number of distinguished people.
Wednesday, 26th. This morning D. drove with an officer
in a carriage-and-four to the State House, where he met
the Governor, and at ten went with him, escorted by
lancers, to the College (Harvard).
We ladies did not leave the house till ten, and then went
to Harvard, and took our seats in a handsome theatre, imme-
diately opposite to the platform, where all the University
celebrities sat.
There were nine orations ; after which the classes came
up one by one, listened to some words in Latin from the
President, and were handed a bundle of degrees, which
were re-distributed afterwards. When D. received his he
was greatly cheered. We were allowed to peep into the
fine hall, where the party (800) lunched ; D. was there,
and had to make a little speech ; he did not get back till
six. We went to Mrs. Eliot's (the wife of the President
of Harvard), and had a ladies' lunch. She is very pretty
and nice, and I enjoyed it very much. I drove home with
Mrs. Winthrop through a very fine cemetery filled with
beautiful plants.
Thursday, 2?th. I spent a very quiet day, taking a
drive with Mrs. Winthrop in the afternoon. D. went to
another lunch, with an ' oration ' before it. The speeches
were not reported, but I hear his was very amusing and good.
Friday, 2&tJi. D. and I went to breakfast with Long-
fellow. He and his daughter, a Mr. Green, and ourselves,
were the party. Longfellow was very pleasant and kind,
and gave me at leaving a copy of ' Keramos,' in which he
wrote my name.
He told us of a letter he received from a lady, asking
for his autograph, and suggesting that he should copy her
one verse of that lovely poem of his beginning ' Break,
break, break.'
We got back to Uplands at eleven, and soon after started
394 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xx
on a very long drive to see Mr. Adams. He was Minister in
London at the time of the War, and made many friends there.
He lives in a charming old-fashioned house, which has
been added to in every direction ; and a few years ago he
built a library in the garden, which is a fine room, with,
something very quaint about it. There are box borders in the
garden, and everything is old-fashioned and English-looking.
Mr. Adams has five sons, all doing well ; but the New
Englanders seem to think that the money of the West will
prevent the Eastern men from ever taking a prominent
part in politics again. Mrs. Adams is a very nice person,
and there was a very pretty daughter-in-law there too. We
had luncheon with them. The drive is a beautiful one,
and the day was warm and sunny.
Mr. Parkman dined with the Winthrops, and had a long
* talk with D. Miss Motley is staying here.
Saturday, 2gth. We were up very early, as the train
started at eight, and we had a long drive to Boston. The
Winthrops and Miss Motley saw us off. They have been
most kind, and our visit has been very pleasant.
Indeed I must say that wherever we have been in the
States we have been most kindly received. Nothing can
exceed the hospitality of Americans ; they seem as if they
never could do enough for the comfort and entertainment of
those who visit them in their own homes ; and D. and I have
now had many opportunities of appreciating their kindness
to strangers.
The day was hot, and it seemed very long in the train
from 8 A.M. till 9 P.M. ; then a rush up to the hotel for
tea, and then all night in the ' cars.'
Sunday, ^oth. We reached Quebec early in the morning,
and came over to the Citadel.
Monday, July ist. A very hot day, upon which we did
not do much till the evening, when we started in the Druid
Fred, D. and I for Bic, where we take the train for
Casaupscal, on the Metapediac river.
JULYI8;8 DOWN THE ST. LAWRENCE 395
Tuesday, 2nd. It was very pleasant sitting on deck till
bed-time last night, with the prospect of a beautiful passage,
but less delightful when we awoke this morning, and
recognised that easy roll produced by a swell, and heard
that the wind was very strong, and that we were just going
to anchor on account of the fog.
This we did, and when I felt a little more accustomed to
the motion, or when it was lessened by anchoring, I got up,
and looked into the surrounding mist, wondering when it
would clear, and whether we should see land soon enough
to get ashore, and catch the train anywhere ; and what the
Stephens' would think when they went to the station and did
not find us, they not knowing that we had trusted to the
sea at all ; and what Gwen would imagine if she did not
hear of us for three days (which is quite possible). But
happily our ' wonders ' were cut short by the lifting of the
fog, and we found ourselves between three shoals, and near
Eiviere du Loup. We landed at once with our baggage,
sending our servants on first, had a long drive to the
station, and near it met a very excited old Frenchman, who
told us that the train had just gone when our servant
arrived, but that they had stopped it at the next station,
and were going to send us on in a car and engine to pick
it up. There is some use, you see, in being Governor-
General.
"When we reached the train at Cacouna, Mr. Brydges,
the chief of the line, came into our carriage, and we found
that we had been keeping him waiting. As, however, the
train was originally an hour late, we only added a little to
its delinquencies.
Bic, where we were to have landed, is such a pretty
place ; and, indeed, on our way to Casaupscal there are
several lovely bits of scenery, though a great deal of the
country looks desolate and dull.
Mr. Brydges had his wife and family on board his own
private car, and he and his friends walked about with hats
396 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
upon which was written ' Great Caesar's Ghost.' We asked
the meaning of this, and found that it is the name of a
barge on which he lives in his river. He fishes in the
Eestigouche, a magnificent river which branches off from
the Metapediac at a place called the Forks. Up this he
is drawn in his barge, anchors it at the top, and makes
excursions in boats, always returning to his yacht at night.
We got to our destination about half-past eight, and
found Mrs. Stephens, Mr. Douglas, and Sir Frederick
Graham at the station to meet us. Mr. Stephens is, un-
fortunately, away.
This is much more civilised fishing than our river
affords. The house itself is a very nice cottage. A rail-
way runs along the banks of the river ; the station is close
to the house ; there is a telegraph, and there is nothing
lonely about the life. The surroundings, too, are open:
you look over distant hills and mountains, and have plenty
of space round you, very different from our ' bush.'
We had an excellent dinner, and afterwards sat round an
iron pot full of fire, the fuel being supplied by Peter, a
character of dwarfish height, who used to keep a light-
house, but left it in disgust because his wife's master
invited so many guests to see the lighthouse, and each one
put his or her finger on the reflector, leaving a smudge,
which Peter had to rub out. I can imagine how aggravating
it must have become. Gwen had told me of this man, and
warned me that he would always enter my bedroom with-
out knocking ; however, I think a lady has been told off to
wait on me.
Mrs. Stephens was much afraid we should be too hot
in our bedroom, which is under the roof; but the evening
cooled down considerably, and we found it luxurious ; also
there are no flies, which is delightful.
Wednesday, $rd. We got up at seven, had a cup of tea
and a bit of bread, and went out fishing. D. and I went
together in a wooden canoe with a man called John Beshavi,
JULY 1878 ON THE METAPEDIAC 397
a Gaspe fisherman. I worked away (Mr. Stephens being
very anxious that I should catch a salmon) and D. flogged
the water, and we tried ' Alec's Elbow,' another pool
but eleven o'clock came and not a rise had we had, so we
went home to breakfast, and found that everyone else
had been equally unlucky. It was too hot, or had been
too hot (salmon are wonderful creatures for finding out
reasons for not rising) ; but we were cheerful, and hoped for
better sport in the evening.
Breakfast was a great meal of porridge, smoked salmon,
bacon, eggs, tea and coffee ; and after it came a period of
rest and idleness. I sat with Mrs. Stephens till about four,
when the gentlemen went out again, and I took a walk with her.
We went along the road to Alec's Elbow, where D.
was fishing, and watched him for a long time. Then
we walked back to the house, and he returned there too,
and made me come and try my luck in a beautiful pool
close to it ; but no ! not a fish to be seen. It was dinner-
time, and D. was just taking ' one cast more,' when the
joyful click of the reel was heard, and away rushed a
salmon, jumping out of the water, and then taking another
long run, so that D.'s line was nearly all out. We followed
him as well as the very rough water would permit ; but our
long-expected victim dropped the fly out of his mouth, and
left us feeling very much ' sold.' The fishing having been
so bad all day, the whole household were collected on the
bank to watch the capture !
We dined well, in spite of our misfortunes, and spent
the evening as usual.
Thursday, 4th. We have Mr. Brydges's private car on
the line, and an engine whenever we want to move about ;
so we settled to make an expedition to see the river
to-day. We started at 7.30, servants and luggage in our
car, D. and I in one canoe, Sir Frederick in the other ; and
we had a charming morning going down the river, fishing
at every pool, but seeing no prey.
398 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. MI
At eleven we reached Assmaquaghan, where our car
was ' anchored,' and in it we found a breakfast laid, and
everything looking so comfortable.
Then we ordered the engine to start, and had a really
lovely ' drive ' to Campbelltown. The junction of the Meta-
pediac and the Kestigouche is quite beautiful, and all the
way along the road the views are well worth coming to see.
At Campbelltown D. and I walked down to the pier, and,
sitting down there, enjoyed the views and the sea air till
our engine had turned round, when we got ' on board ' again,
and came back to our anchorage.
When the sun was low, we resolved to give the salmon
another chance, but by dinner-time the only thing caught
was a small grilse, which D. got just before dinner, and
which we ate at once. We have most comfortable bedrooms
in the car, where we slept after we had sat over a splendid
camp fire outside.
Friday, $th. The morning fishing over, we set our
engine going, and returned to Casaupscal in time for the
eleven o'clock breakfast ; and very hungry we were for it.
In the afternoon everyone set to work again, and D.
caught one 28-pound salmon, and Fred one 26. While we
were away he got one 25 pounds, so he has been the luckiest
of the party.
After dinner no less than seven bonfires were lighted in
our honour six on the opposite bank of the river, and one
nearer to us. They looked very bright in the dark night.
Saturday, 6th. Fishing unlucky nothing done in the
morning ; and at three we left in our special train, very
sorry not to spend a few days more in this pleasant spot.
In about two hours we got to Eimouski, where there was
a crowd and an address. We drove round the village,
looked into a college and a convent, and returned to our
car, where we refre'shed ourselves with a cup of tea. The
next station was Bic, and there we had another address,
and walked through the village and down to the quay, where
JULY 1878 CHICOUTIMI 399
we found our own boat waiting for us. Bic is quite lovely :
the hills are of most curious and picturesque shapes, and I
should think it a charming place to spend a summer in.
We looked into a great cave, where a party of Indians were
burnt by their enemies long ago exchanged greetings with
Mrs. Archibald Campbell, whose children were firing a
salute in our honour, and who has a very pretty cottage
here, and then got on board withjhe_ure,ji M. Sylvain,
and some other visitors, who went over the Druid, and then
left us. We remained at anchor till twelve, and then set off
for Tadousac.
Monday, 8th. We started up the Saguenay. At one
we began to fish for trout, and by three had caught about
seven dozen between us. In the evening, as we were
anchored, we got a boat's crew to row round us, singing
the Canadian boat- songs.
Tuesday, gth. Sir Frederick Graham and Fred left us
at Chicoutimi (where we arrived early in the morning), and
went on an expedition after land-locked salmon. They will
camp out for three or four days. D., Gwen and I went by
steamer to Ha-Ha Bay, and there, getting into a buggy,
drove to the A-Mas Elver. D. had capital sport here with
two good salmon, and we enjoyed watching him, and looking
at the salmon jumping up the leap.
We returned to the Druid, dined, and sat on deck. In
the night we started again, and arrived at Tadousac in the
morning.
Wednesday, loth. Went over our empty house, took
away our blankets, but left all our nice furniture, and shut
it up the last time, I suppose, we shall ever see the place.
I hate these good-byes.
Russell Stephenson came on board, and we started for
Quebec. Unfortunately, the day was very wet and disagree-
able ; but the rain will put out the bush fires, which are very
bad just now at Three Rivers. The Montreal boat actually
had to turn back on account of the smoke.
400 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
Thursday, nth. Got to Quebec early, and came up to
breakfast at the Citadel. I suppose we shall not again
spend a night in the dear old Druid. In the evening we
/ got a telegram from Sir E. Thornton (Washington), to say
I ) that two thousand roughs had left Buffalo, and gone to
* Montreal to ' help ' on the i2th.
Friday, \2tli. Great anxiety felt in the morning as to
what would happen in Montreal. Three thousand troops are
there, and the Mayor has two hundred special constables.
At eleven the General telegraphed, ' There will be no pro-
cession ' ; and the end of the whole thing was, that the Mayor
found an old Act which declared the procession illegal ; he
seized the marshals as they came out of the Hall, and the
rest of the people remained shut up the whole day, and in
the evening were conveyed home in cabs. We hope this is
the end of it.
Sunday, i^tli. Sir Frederick and Fred returned from a
pleasant expedition, but unsuccessful fishing. They came
back in a boat full of Americans forty- seven of the Maine
Press Association and had great fun, as these people sang,
and recited, and acted, and made speeches. They were all in
church this morning, and we asked them to come up and
see the Citadel and have tea. It was rather awful when
they first arrived, as there was no one to introduce them,
and they came in two and three together, all arm in arm.
However, I cut it short by going and shaking hands with
everyone, though they evidently did not consider this an
introduction, as all the afternoon they kept re-introducing
me one to the other.
They said they were a large party, ' all harmonious, all
serene, all bent upon having a good time, all acquainted
since childhood.' We walked about the platform, and they
were much pleased when they found they were admitted
into the 'inner circle,' and that it was a private spot.
They greatly appreciated our beautiful view, and were
interested in all we showed them. Then we gave them tea
JULY 1878 QUEBEC 401
and claret-cup, which they seemed to enjoy ; showed the
Plains of Abraham, and then returned to the Citadel to
say ' Good-bye.'
Forty-seven people shaking hands quickly, and all say-
ing the same thing in a different form : ' Thank you for
delightful entertainment ; ' ' Most happy to have seen you ; '
' Such a lovely time ; ' ' Your hospitality ; ' ' The honour ; '
' Hope to see you in the States ; ' ' Will never forget ; ' ' Never
expected ; ' ' The feature of our tour,' etc. I smiled almost
too pleasantly over this ceremony.
In the morning paper I see that 'their Excellencies
received the parties most graciously, and were quite as free
from restraint as themselves.' One man told Fred to give
his love to his mother, and tell her she had a good son.
There was one very funny little man, who combed his
hair in the drawing-room when he came in ; but I never
could talk to him, as someone was always being intro-
duced to me.
Saturday, 2Otli. We were up early, and breakfasted at
eight. Directly after we went down to see Sir F. Graham
off to England. Colonel and Mrs. Littleton came down from
Ottawa, and their children sail to-day. I was very sorry
to say good-bye to them, as it is another break-up of our
life here.
At twelve we had a combination of breakfast and luncheon,
no one having eaten much this morning ; and afterwards
we went over to the Camp, where we saw a little bit of a
fox-hunt, and the gentlemen played lawn-tennis.
The Littletons and Mr. Adams (son of the American
Minister in London during the War), with a friend and a
young Mr. Potter (son of an English M.P.), dined with us.
Mrs. Littleton and I were left till 11.30 upstairs alone, the
gentlemen having got into politics downstairs.
Tuesday, 2$rd. Mrs. Littleton, Gwen, Baby and I drove
out to Sillery, where the nuns received us most graciously,
and then we went on to the Prices'. They have a lovely
D D
402 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
place on the St. Lawrence, with some fine trees on the lawn
and a good view of the river ; there is a nice old-fashioned
house and flower-garden, and we had tea, with strawberries
and cream, and flowers to take home. D. rode there, and
found a game of tennis going on when he arrived.
Tuesday, 30^. D. remains another month, at the re-
quest of the Secretary of State.
Wednesday, 31 st. We made up our minds to go out for
tea, so at four we drove off to Spencer Wood, where we sat
on the grass and admired the view, and on leaving were
presented by the gardener with three bouquets, one for
each lady. The Littletons dined with us.
The papers are full of ' Our New Governor-General,' and
all are delighted at the idea of having a Royal Princess
here.
Monday, August 5?/i. The Roman Catholic Bishops of
the Province of Quebec, who had been assisting at the
consecration of the Bishop, called. There were seven or
eight of them, gorgeous in purple and gold. The new Bishop
of Chicoutimi (Racine) was one of the nicest.
We heard of the death of the Apostolic Delegate, Dr.
Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh. He died in Newfoundland. I
am very sorry, as he was always longing to get home, and
never seemed to be happy over here. His old parents are
alive, and will feel his death terribly.
Tuesday, 6th. Sir Edward Thornton came to stay with
us, and it rained poured in tropical style. However, when
in the afternoon it changed to drizzle, we went out and
showed the town to Sir Edward. At six we went on board
the Druid, and dined there, as we were engaged to attend
an amateur theatrical performance on the Island of Orleans.
The expedition would have been charming had the weather
been fine, but of course the rain spoilt our pleasure in all
the yachting part of it. We landed at eight o'clock, and
drove up to what had been a carpenter's shop, but was now
converted into a ' Theatre Royal ' ; the ' green-room ' was a
AUG. 1878 ISLAND OF ORLEANS 403
tent, and the porch, in which the band stood, was made of
tarpaulin.
I rushed through this as one does when one is bundled
up in waterproofs and is making for a shelter, and suddenly
found myself, as I thought, upon the stage, in the presence
of an audience. I quickly stepped back, and handed out my
wraps, allowed the Governor- General to precede me, and
made a proper and formal entrance.
Then I found that it was the theatre I had entered, but
that in front of the stage there were banks of flowers, two
little arbours in the corners, and seven figures dressed in
powder and Dolly Varden costumes. You can't think how
pretty they looked. There were tables spread with refresh-
ments in the arbours, and behind stood these Dresden
figures ready to serve us ; and on stools in front were four
children two little girls in each corner also in costume.
When we had stood for ' God save the Queen,' and had
seated ourselves in the armchairs prepared, a little powdered,
china-looking girl came and handed me a beautiful bouquet,
and then another came with a painted programme, and
between the scenes the grown-up China brought us ices,
cake, and claret-cup. The room itself was hung with flags,
or rather lined with flags. The play was ' She Stoops to
Conquer,' and it went off very well. The Tony Lump-
kin was admirable, and the prima donna was very handsome,
and acted very well. She is a Mrs. Watson, and she had
arranged the whole thing. The small figures got very sleepy
and tired before the end ; but they added greatly to the
general effect, and amused us a good deal by the natural
way in which they admired their own finery, and examined
even the soles of their feet and their coloured heels.
We went to the hotel 'afterwards, where we were given
supper ; so that by the time we got to the Citadel it was
nearly two.
Wednesday, ?th. Actually fine weather ! so at eleven we
went on board the Druid, a party of fourteen, and sailed
404 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
for the Montmorency Falls. They were full of water, and
were looking lovely. We landed in boats, and our party
divided when we got ashore. Some went one side of the
Fall, some the other, and some sat down and sketched.
I went to the left, and had a very fine view ; but we got so
wet with the spray that we soon had to move. The work-
men there (lumbermen) would keep building me up sub-
stantial thrones in the very wettest places, and I felt obliged
to try each one for a few minutes ; then we went off to
see the saw-mills, and were weighed there. About three
o'clock, having thoroughly enjoyed the sight of the beautiful
Fall, we went on board again. A different but very accept-
able sight was the deck, where luncheon was spread ; we
were all so hungry. Our party consisted of ourselves and
A.D.C.'s, the Littletons, Stephensons, Herveys, Judge and
Miss Johnston, Colonel Montizambert, the Spanish Consul,
and Sir E. Thornton.
Thursday, 8th. Mrs. Littleton was offered the use of a
steam-launch, so she came up early, and invited us all to
go on an expedition with her, arranging that I should
bring the tea, and that we should go and see the Chaudiere
Falls. So after lunch we assembled at the dock Sir E.
Smyth and his son, the Littletons, ourselves, and M. Chau-
veau ; also the police-officer (it was the police-boat), who, it
turned out, was really the host.
We puffed along quickly, and just had one little fright
when the funnel tumbled down, and of course I thought
the boiler was going to burst ; however, it was soon put up
again, and we reached our destination in safety.
We had to get out and cross the river (Chaudiere) in
a scow ; but we found everybody ignorant as to how far
off the waterfall was ; someone told us it was two miles,
and we trudged off to walk there. People here are not
fond of walking, so at the same time messengers were sent
to look for buggies ; and very lucky this was, for when we
had gone two miles in the rain, we asked at a cottage how
AUG. 1878 DANVILLE 405
far it was to the waterfall, and we were told ' three miles
more.'
Four carriages soon overtook us, and D. drove me in a
buggy, followed by all the others in various machines. We
had one collision : going down a hill, the carriage behind us
came too fast, and the horse's leg got over our wheel ; both
animals being extremely quiet, no harm was done. The
storm cleared away, and when we reached the Chaudiere
the view was lovely. It is a most beautiful fall, ancTtEe
shapes of the surrounding rocks, which jut out into the
foam, are most picturesque. We had a great climb to reach
the best point of view, but when we got there we sat directly
opposite the Fall, on a promontory of rock, and were able
to admire thoroughly the volumes of water and of spray,
and the rainbows which shone through them. D. made a
sketch, and we sat idle and enjoyed ourselves till M. Chau-
veau called us to have the champagne with which he had
replaced my tea.
We drove back to the scow, and crossed over to the
launch, which took us to Quebec in thirty-five minutes. It
was 8.30 when we got there, and by the evening we were
all extremely tired.
Monday, \2th. We started at one o'clock upon our tour
in the Eastern townships.
After crossing the river in the steam-launch (steered by
His Ex.), we landed at Port Levi, and were presented with
bouquets on the way to our car. It is a Grand Trunk
private car, and is very comfortable. Our first stop was at
Danville, where we were received by a guard of honour and
a crowd, and were led to a carriage. We got out at the
Town Hall, had an address and a bouquet, and were intro-
duced to a few people ; amongst them an old lady, who said
my father's name had been a household word in her family.
We had a drive through the town, which was prettily
decorated, and saw thousands of people who had come in from
the country.
406 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
On our way back to the station D. spoke to an old
Peninsular "War soldier, who exhorted him to ' go and conquer
Egypt,' which, he said, ' we must have.'
Having spent an hour at Danville, we got into our car
again, and proceeded to Eichmond. A platform had been
erected here, and an address was presented, signed by
eleven Mayors. After being introduced to some people, we
had lunch in the station, and then drove about. D. had
four horses, but I drove with Lord Aylmer (who is settled
out here) with a pair.
We visited a college, and saw the town. There was a
very good band at the station, with a little boy of eight years
old, in uniform, playing the cymbals with a most grave and
preoccupied air.
Sherbrooke was the station we reached next, and a most
magnificent reception it gave us. It was dark when we
arrived, and from the railway we saw large manufactories
and hotels with lighted candles in every pane.
When we stopped the Keception Committee came on
board, and presented Mrs. Littleton and me with bouquets ;
then we stepped on to a platform, and saw before us a
fine guard of honour, a great crowd, a brilliantly lighted
building, and a quantity of torch-bearers in rd uni-
form (the Fire Brigade). After the address and reply we
started in a carriage-and-four, escorted by three or four
hundred torches and a crowd (to say nothing of soldiers),
to drive through the town. It was beautifully illuminated
and decorated, and the reception was exceedingly gratifying
to an almost defunct Governor- General ! I must trust to a
newspaper to describe the arches, the lights, the various
devices for decorating houses, the procession shooting up
rockets in every direction, for I have not time to enter into
particulars. But I must mention one arch dedicated to me,
and made by ladies ; it had an enormous coronet of flowers,
surmounting it, with ' Welcome to our Countess ' on one
side, and ' Kind hearts better than coronets ' on the other.
AUG. 1878 SHERBROOKE 407
One arch was in imitation of a Gothic archway, and was
very pretty.
We drove, with the crowd and the torches surrounding
us, to Mr. Brooks's gate, where they left us.
We are staying with Mr. and Mrs. Brooks. He is an
M.P., and she is a very handsome and pleasant woman ; they
have a very nice house and pretty grounds. The house is
new, and had not yet been papered ; but Mrs. Brooks has
ornamented her walls in a very effective way by pinning
dried ferns and leaves upon them. One large room with a
polished floor had our monograms, portraits, quantities of
flowers, and a welcome in rhyme on its walls. There is a
beautiful view from the windows here.
We had supper, and went to bed soon after.
Tuesday, i$th. The sun shone brilliantly at breakfast-
time ; rain poured from ten till four, all the time we were
out; and then it was beautifully fine the rest of the
evening.
We drove into Sherbrooke early, and visited first a fine
new bank, just built ; we admired especially the burglar-
proof safe, with a lock which, when set to a particular hour,
can be opened by neither friend nor foe until that hour
arrives. Next we visited the Fire Station, saw the stable-
doors opened by machinery, and the horses step out, and
fall into their own places in the various fire engines. After
this we went to a convent, where there was a little singing
and an address ; and to a great wool manufactory, where
we saw everything, from wool in its filthiest state to the
same article converted into fine cloth. D. was presented
with the material for a pair of trousers, and Mrs. Littleton
and I were each given beautiful rugs.
After seeing everything, D. made a speech to the operatives,
and we proceeded to Lennoxville. In the village there was
an address, a platform, and the usual etceteras, and at the
College and School the same. It is one of the best English
schools in Canada, but the boys were away for the holidays.
408 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
Two rivers pass by it, and the country round is real country,
and very pretty. We had about four miles to drive back to
the house of Mr. Heniker, in Sherbrooke. It is situated
on the banks of the Magog, and although only a villa it
has a magnificent rapid and splendid rocks, and scenery
which many a great English landholder would give his
fortune to possess in his park. Mr. and Mrs. Heniker gave
us lunch, and showed us the place. By this time I felt
very damp. My petticoat was wet and muddy, and my
very summery gown was out of place ; but it was nothing
to our A.D.C.'s unlined suit of tussore silk. The trousers
began to look very limp and sticky, and I laughed every
time I looked at him.
On our return to the Brooks's we had to change quickly
for a reception, which was held in the room with the motto.
Happily it had become fine ; a band played outside the
windows, and a great number of people came. We sat
about between the verandah and the rooms till we were all
very cold, and then we had a little dance, three young ladies
coming in. The daughter of the house, a nice, pretty girl,
is not out yet.
D. and the Colonel have to spend the night in the train.
They meet Mr. Mackenzie^ at Eichmond, do business
between the hours of twelve and two, and return here for
breakfast in the morning.
Wednesday, i^th. Bed-time. I seize a few minutes to
try and describe the doings of a very pleasant day. The
weather was perfect, and we began the morning by being
photographed in groups at the door of Mr. Brooks's house ;
then I planted a tree.
We were to have left by train at ten o'clock, but the
telegraph had broken down, and the necessary assurance
that ' the line is clear ' could not be obtained. At last they
managed in some roundabout way to get the message, and
we got off in time to fulfil our engagement to Mr. Murray.
2 The Premier.
AUG. 1878 THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS 409
We went for about half an hour in the train to his house
on Massiwippi Lake. He has only just built it, but already
it is surrounded by lawns and flower-gardens, and has from
its windows a beautiful view of the Lake.
Mr. Murray introduced us to his wife and children, and
we rowed about the Lake, and then returned as we came to
Sherbrooke, enjoying immensely the view of the Lake and
of the well-wooded country.
We had about twenty minutes to rest at Mr. Brooks's
house before we set off again to drive to Compton. D. and
I and Fred Ward were in a very nice buggy, the others
following in two more vehicles. We drove fifteen miles
through such a lovely country. The townships really are
beautiful : so rich-looking, so undulating, and so well- wooded.
At the village of Compton there were both English and
French addresses, and D. replied to both. Mr. Cochrane
met us with a drag and four horses. He lives two miles
from the village, and has a wonderful farm. He is one of
those people who get a thousand pounds for a calf, a hundred
pounds for a pig, etc.
The house and farm-buildings look so comfortable, and
there is a nice conservatory, flower-garden, and tennis-
ground in front of the house. We arrived about seven
o'clock, and after being introduced to Mrs. Cochrane went
up to dress. There were eighteen people at dinner, and we
sat out on the verandah afterwards, the grounds being
illuminated with Chinese lanterns.
We have very comfortable rooms, and Mr. Cochrane has
taken in our whole party. Mr. and Mrs. Brooks dined here,
and we said good-bye to them afterwards. They were
extremely kind to us, and have entertained us most hos-
pitably.
Thursday, i$th. We have been out all the morning
examining prize cattle. First we inspected calves and
bulls and pigs, and then we left the farm-yard and drove
about the fields, looking at cows and Shetland ponies. There
410 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
is a cow here called Tenth Duchess of Airdrie, which has
made great sums of money. The views over the country
are quite magnificent. I am glad we did not leave Canada
without seeing this district.
After lunch we drove fifteen miles in the drag to a village
called Coaticook, where a great crowd had collected to meet
us. It is a very prettily situated village, and was very
flourishing before the hard times. After the addresses
on an evergreen-ornamented platform, we walked to the
Mayor's house, where we had a cup of tea before driving
home. In the evening the neighbours drove over to be
introduced, and we sat out on the verandah, and walked
in the garden, which was lighted up.
Friday, i6th. Directly after breakfast, having said
'Good-bye' to Mrs. Cochrane, her children, and her married
daughter (Mrs. Baines), we took our places behind the gallant
four, and drove on and on through beautiful country, stopping
once at Hatley a nice little village, where we were received
with the usual honours to Stanstead.
We sat under the shade of some trees just before we got
there, and had a little lunch, and once we went a little
out of our way to see a specially fine view. Mountains,
wood, water, cultivation everything that is wanted to
make up a beautiful bit of scenery yet none of the
millionaires of this country ever seem to think of settling
here. Mr. Colby, the member for Stanstead, met us, and
drove before us into the town. At its entrance we found a
large corps of firemen, some in blue, some in red, awaiting
us, and the foremost presented D. with a harp made of
water-lilies from the ladies of the place. Then the firemen
and their band marched before us, and we kept slowly
behind them, my team behaving admirably, considering all
things.
Suddenly we came upon a very fine villa, from which
hung red and blue and white decorations ; but we could
scarcely look at them, for marching down the lawn with a
AUG. 1878 LAKE MEMPHREMAGOG 411
sprightly step came four or five ladies dressed in the extreme
of the fashion splendid in silks of blue and olive-green, red
and pink, etc., and waving in each hand a pocket-handker-
chief ; they were Americans, and came into the landscape of
a quiet Canadian village most unexpectedly.
Stanstead is just on the border, and these Americans
live half the year in Canada and half in the States. We
lunched with Mr. and Mrs. C. Pierce, and the beautiful ladies
came over to his house here, and the Governor of Vermont
(Mr. Fairbank) met us. Mrs. Fairbank had sent me a
bouquet. They were five widows, all sisters or daughters
of his.
We hurried over lunch, as we had to go to a school,
where there were two addresses. D. having replied, and
having had a little joke, which was highly appreciated,
over the American Protection laws, made the people cheer
the President of the United States and the Governor of
Vermont.
We shook hands with a number of people afterwards,
and then got into three buggies and drove twelve miles more
to Georgeville, up and down mountains, to Lake Memphre-
magog, where Sir Hugh Allan's steamer met us ; and in
her we spent an hour and a half going to Magog, where I
now am, and where we arrived about ten o'clock. We were
drawn a mile up to the hotel by boys and soldiers, replied
to two addresses, admired the illumination of every window,
and were much too tired to eat the good food provided for us.
We said 'Good-bye' to Mr. Cochrane at Stanstead. Our
visit to him was extremely pleasant.
Magog: Saturday, ifth. Our hotel is an ordinary
country inn, and the view from the windows is not
remarkably pretty, which is the fault of those who chose
the site, as they might have had very fine views. Sir
Hugh Allan came for us at ten, and we steamed up the lake
in his yacht, seeing all the beauties of Memphremagog.
The two ends of the lake are uninteresting, but there is
412 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
a fine mountain in the centre, called the Owl's Head, and
some of the scenery about there is beautiful. Sir Hugh's
own place is perfect ; it is almost on an island. The house
is placed on the top of a high hill, and the smooth grass
slope up to it is planted with single trees. The forests of
wood on either side, the boathouse and bathing-house, the
tennis-lawn, the billiard-room, the bowling-alley, the large
verandah, all combine to make it look beautiful and plea-
sant; while the views from it are splendid.
When we got into the steamer again, we had a thunder-
storm, but reached Magog safely at 7.30.
Sunday, iSth. Very showery and thundery, and a
wretched day to spend in a country inn. We went to
church, and were preached to by an American bishop.
He, the Bishop of New Hampshire, came to see us at
lunch-time, and in the afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Brooks
appeared.
They brought us the photographs taken of the group at
their door, and of the arches at Sherbrooke all very success-
ful ; he also gave me some beautiful specimens of minerals
for my Canadian collection. After dinner we spoke to some
of the people staying in the hotel who had helped to decorate
it for us.
Monday, igtli. We left Magog by train for Bolton,
where Mr. Huntington has a country place. The view from
his house is quite lovely a panorama of mountain scenery.
It perhaps lacks a little water, for, although he has five lakes
within three miles, one does not catch a glimpse of them
from the windows.
An address was presented by the neighbours, while a
very smartly dressed band played to us.
In the drawing-room was a very handsome decoration
the arms of England made in flowers. Mrs. Huntington
is very nice, and she had four American young ladies
staying with her. We had a very pleasant lunch, and soon
after continued our journey to Waterloo.
AUG. 1878 THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS 413
It is wonderful what these small towns do to welcome
us. We come to a place of 4,000 inhabitants, and find
regiments turned out, bands, arch after arch, platforms
erected, flags, and all the country collected to meet us.
Waterloo really gave a very fine reception. The platform
was well-made and convenient, and not only D. and I, but
the whole Staff, were presented with bouquets by little girls
dressed in white. Then there were speeches, and such
cheers ! The village has an English inhabitant, who prides
himself upon his ' Hurrah,' and who led the applause.
We drove round the town in a procession, and I am sure
D. ought to have blushed as he read the mottoes on the
arches ! Here are some of them : ' Votre sejour en Canada
fournira une belle page dans notre histoire.' ' Bienvenue
la compagne de celui qui a conquis notre affection.' ' To
Canada's favourite Euler.' ' Farewell to him who has won
the hearts of all Canadians.' ' Favourite of the people.'
' Canada's Pride.' ' II est la gloire du Canada.' ' Prudence,
Energy, Charity.' ' Eternal sunshine settle on his head.'
' He is a right good Fellah.' Some of these come from
other places.
We dined and slept in our palatial car, and after sunset
went out to see the illuminations. D. drove round the town,
but I sat on the platform and watched an enormous bonfire
burning in the middle of the Square.
Tuesday, 2oth, we started for Granby. This is another
very small place, where a wonderfully pretty reception was
prepared. There is a fine Town-Hall, which was decorated
with flowers. In front of the stage was a large harp of
flowers, which we afterwards put up on the end of our
train as we travelled about. D. made rather a long speech
here in English, and a short one in French, and then
we drove round the village and admired its decorations.
The arches were of very pretty shapes.
At West Farnham we merely got out at the station
address, flags, cheers and proceeded to Swestsborough,
414 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL OH. xxi
where we drove through another village called Cowansville.
A heavy shower of rain was the only incident which made
our visit there different from those at other places.
D. generally has two replies to make, and always one.
He speaks extempore, and people like that.
St. John was our next point, and it was the end of our
official tour. It gave us a splendid reception ; its one
handsome street was beautifully decorated, and every
window was full of people, in addition to the crowd in the
street. The address itself was a remarkably pretty one.
When D. had answered it both in French and English
(it was read in both languages), we drove to visit a
handsome Eoman Catholic church, and an interesting
china manufactory, where we were given specimens of
the work. The girls read me an address and gave me a
bouquet. We also saw the English Church and the old
barracks, and then got into our train, and started on a
little holiday trip.
We stopped at Plattsburgh, which is in the States, and
slept on board the Vermont, a magnificent steamer, on Lake
Champlain.
Wednesday, 21 st. We awoke 'at sea' on Lake Cham-
plain, and after breakfast sat on deck and enjoyed the
scenery. Ticonderoga is reached at one, and we immediately
got into a train, which in twenty minutes disgorged its
passengers on Lake George.
This is a smaller and a very lovely lake too ; but I pre-
fer Lake Champlain, as the mountains are more distant
than they are at Lake George, where the hills rise straight
from the water. All along the Lake are little hotels, where
we stopped and exchanged travellers. At the end of the
Lake we came to our destination, Fort Henry. As soon as
the steamer touched there was a rush : the men on board tore
away, and raced towards the house. They had gone to
secure the outside places on a number of coaches which
stood there, and were all going on to Glen Falls and Saratoga.
AUG. 1878 LAKE CHAMP LAIN 415
We took a quiet drive in a carriage, conducted by a
coachman who has held his office for four years, but who
is now only twelve years old, and very small. We dined at
the hotel. Such dresses ! and such hats to be seen ! But we
were most amused in a melancholy way by the children.
They were dressed out with the shortest of petticoats, the
most magnificent silk and muslin and lace dresses, the
best of coloured silk stockings, and boots with large bows
to match ; such curls, and fans, and bracelets ! and, above
all, such airs, and such consciousness of deserving admira-
tion ! The way they came into the large dining-room by
themselves, and often sat alone at a table, the girls looking
twenty, and the boys rather naughty and undisciplined.
This young generation living its hotel-life, with no duties,
and no object but dressing itself and being admired, is a
startling phenomenon.
We came in for a very good concert which Marie Roze,
of the Italian Opera, happened to be giving to-night.
Thursday, 22nd. Left the hotel early, and came down
Lake George again, and on to Ticonderoga, where we
visited the old Fort before going on board the Vermont
again.
We had another pleasant journey down Lake Champlain,
and got on to our car, in which we proceeded on our way to
Montreal. There I found my English letters, for which I
have been pining all the week. So ended our last Canadian
' official ' tour.
Saturday, 24^. I received letters which oblige me to
return home at once. It is a great disappointment to me
to have to leave D. and Gwen, and it made us all very
miserable.
Friday, ^otli. We went down to the Druid to say good-
bye to the men, and to present the Captain with a telescope.
The improvements which D. suggested should be made
at Quebec, with a view to preserving its old walls and gates,
its picturesque appearance, and its ancient character, have
416 MY CANADIAN JOURNAL CH. xxi
been begun, and the ' Dufferin Terrace ' promises to become
one of the loveliest walks in the world.
Saturday, $ist. A final good-bye to Quebec, and to my
happy Canadian life; and good-bye also, for a time, to D. and
Gwen. The B Battery turned out to accompany me, and to
fire a salute for me, and after the ship left the wharf they all
cheered from the Citadel. Numbers of people came down
to the steamer, though it was early in the morning that I
left.
In one of his farewell speeches in Canada D. said:
' During a period of six years I have mingled with your
society, taken part in your sports and pastimes, interested
myself in your affairs and business, become one of you in
thought and feeling, and never have I received at your
hands, whether in my public or in my private capacity,
anything but the kindest consideration, the most indulgent
sympathy, and the warmest welcome.' This being so truly
the case, no wonder that although the day itself was lovely,
it was one of the most miserable I ever spent.
After I left, D. received a deputation, consisting of the chief officers
of all the municipalities of Ontario, who came to Quebec to present
him with a joint address. The ceremony took place on the platform
at the Citadel, and the deputations arrived, preceded by three
Highland pipers dressed in the tartans of their respective clans. In
his reply to them he spoke much of the Princess Louise and Lord
Lome, and said that, with regard to the latter, he only knew of one
fault ' of one congenital defect which attached to his appointment as
Governor-General of Canada he was not an Irishman.' Several
other addresses were presented to I)., and he was made a Doctor of the
Laval University.
Later he went to Toronto to open a provincial exhibition,
and whilst there he visited institutions and made a number
of speeches. It was at this time that he suggested in a letter to
the Governor of New York State that the Governments of Canada
and of the United States should join together to create an Inter-
national Park at Niagara ; that the troublesome touts and squatters,
1878 LAST DA YS 417
with their hideous shanties and wooden huts, should be got rid of ;
and that ' the locality should be restored to its pristine condition of
wild and secluded beauty.' This project has since been carried out,
and the islands in the Niagara River have been called after him.
Before D. finally left Canada there was a change of Ministry, and
Mr. Mackenzie, who had been in power for over four years, having
resigned, the departing Governor-General swore in Sir John Macdonald
on October 17 at Montreal.
The last public act D. performed in Canada was to lay the
foundation-stone of the Dufferin Terrace, and on October 19 he sailed
from Quebec, receiving at the wharf a final Address from the citizens
and residents of Quebec.
E H
F S VM2?r. lith
LongitM.de West 90 of Greenwich.
INDEX
ALASKA, 264
Burrard's Inlet, 269
Alert Bay, 267
Bute Inlet, 258
' Alexander Camp,' 168
Alkali Plains, 242, 244, 292
Allendale, 158
CACHE CREEK, 281
A-Mas River, 399
Cacouna, 10, 395
Andrew's (St.), 828, 341
California, 245
Anne (St.), Falls at, 154
Campelltown, 398
Anthony (St.), Falls, 314
Cap Rouge, 33
' Artemisian Desert,' 242
Cariboo, 281
Assineboine River, 319, 320
Carleton Place, 197
Assmaquaghan, 398
Casaupscal, 394, 398
Catherine's (St.), 188
BAKER, MOUNT, 253
Chaleur, Bay of, 90
Champlain, Lake, 414, 415
Baltimore, 204
Charlotte Town, 92
Barrie, 158
Chatham, 91, 178
Bedford Basin, 97
Chaudicre Falls, 6, 27, 141, 405
Belleville, 195
River, 404
Bergeron, 11
Cheyenne, 241, 295
Berlin, 181
Chicago, 172, 238, 313, 367
Bersimis, 82
Chicoutimi, 152, 399
Bic, 395, 398
Clair (St.) River, 179, 298, 368
Birch River, 349
Coaticook, 410
Bolton, 412
Coburg, 193, 237
Boniface (St.), 322
Colfax, 246, 292
Boston, 205, 391 ; Bunker's Hill, 206 ;
Collingwood, 163
Harvard College, 206, 293; Dor-
Compton, 409
chester Heights, 206 ; Uplands, 392
Couchiching, Lake, 159, 160
Bar, 274
Cowansville, 414
Bow Park, 185
Bowmanville, 192
Bracebridge, 161
DALHOUSIE BAY, 91
Brantford, 183, 186
Danville, 405
Breton, Cape, 9f.
Dartmouth, 96, 104
Brockville, 196
Brace's Mines, 164
River, 86 ; ' Lady's Steps ' rapids, 87
Dawson, route, 341
Buckingham, 225, 227
Dean's Corner, 188
Buffalo, 87
Denver, 296
Burlington, 289
Detroit, 178, 368
K E 2
420
MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
DEVIL'S GAP
Devil's Gap, 165
Slide, 243
ECHO CANYON, 242
Emerson, 318
Esquimault, 251, 257
Eternity Cliff, 153
Etienne (St.), 12
Evanston, 242
FATHER POINT, 217
Fisher's Landing, 316, 367
Flattery, Cape, 251
Fort Alexander, 350
Garry, 319, 365
Henry, 414
Huron, 179
Simpson, 264
William, 170
Fraser River, 271, 273, 282
Fredericton, 109
Fremont, 240
Fundy, Bay of, 105
GALT, 182
Garden River, 165
Gaspe, 85, 144, 150, 230, 308, 388
Gatineau River, 132 ; rapids, 133, 140 ;
saw-mills, 140
George, Lake, 414, 415
Georgeville, 411
Georgian Bay, 257
Gimla, 856, 358
Godbout River, 80
Goderich, 180
Granby, 413
Grand Falls, 111
Forks, 367
Island, 240
Gravenhurst, 161
Green Mountains 207
Grenville, 386
Guelph, 182
Gut of Canso, 94
HAHA BAY, 151 399
Halifax, 96
Hamilton, 34
Harrisburg, 183
Hastings, 193
Hatley, 410
Hell's Gate, 275
High Bluffs, 363
Hochelaga, 61 ;
Hope, 273
METAPEDIAC
Horn, Cape, rounding, 245
Houses, 364
'Hudson's Bay settlements,' 81, 165,
166, 360 ; Fort, 165
Huron, Lake, 172, 180
INDIAN RESERVE, 184, 330; Mohawk
Church, 184
Ingersoll, 187
International Park, 416
Irvingstown, 203
JACQUES CARTIEH RIVER, 25
John (St.), 105, 147, 390, 414
River, 87, 109, 110
Joseph (St.), Lake, 22
Joseph, Lake, 162
KAMANISTIQWA RIVER, 171
Kamloops, 279 ; ' Pow-wow ' at, 280
Keewatin, 342
Killarney, 164
Kingston, 6, 157, 196, 368
LACHINE RAPIDS, 7, 76
Lake of the Woods, 343, 344
Laprairie, 6
Lawrence (St.), 3, 18, 143, 154, 402
Lennoxville, 407
Lievre (Le), River, 225 ; rapids, 225
Fall, 226
' Little Stone Fort,' 329
London, 38, 39, 187; 'Victoria Park,'
187
Louis (St.), 297
Louisburg, 94
Lytton, 276, 281
MACKINAW, 172
Magog, 411, 412
River, 408
Manitoba, 338
Lake, 360
Manitoulin, 164
Marguerite River, 15; rapids, 15; sal-
mon fishing, 16
Maritime Provinces, 92
Massiwippi, Lake, 409
McNab's Island, 98, 101
' Meech's Lake,' 141
Memphremagog, Lake, 411 ; Owl's
Head, 412
Mennonite settlement, 332
Metapediac River, 394, 898
INDEX
421
METLACATLAH
Metlacatlah, 260, 265
Michigan, Lake, 172, 173, 238, 312
Michipicoten Island, 165
Miller's Landing, 231
Mingan River, 81
Minneapolis, 313
Minnehaha Falls, 314 ; Fort, 814
Minnesota River, 314
Miramichi River, 91
Mississippi River, 239, 298, 813,
314
Missouri River, 239, 297, 298
Mitchell, 181
Montmorency Falls, 8, 113, 404
Montreal, 7, 54, 56, 214, 221, 299,
307, 386, 391, 415
Mount Royal Park, 375 ; banquet, 375
Murray Bay, 153
River, 154
Muskoka Bay, 161
Lake, 161
NANAIMO, 257 ; coal-mine, 258
Napanee, 196
' Narrows,' the, 158, 232
New Edinburgh, 45
Liverpool, 27
Muskoka Grant, 161
Westminster, 271, 283
York, 199, 204
Newcastle, 91
Newmarket, 158
Niagara, 86, 189
Nipigon, 166; River, 165; rapids, 166;
BS,' 166
North- West Angle, 343
North- West Arm, 96
OAKLANDS, 246
Ogden, 243, 292, 295
Canyon, 244
Ontario, Lake, 84, 157, 190
Orange Valley, 203
Orillia, 159
Orleans, Island of, 390, 402
Ottawa, 8, 44, 65, 120, 197, 199, 207,
217, 235, 800, 311, 369, 377, 885
Owen Sound, 168
PARIS, 186
Parry Sound, 168
Parrytown, 208
Paspediac, 90
Paul (St.) 313, 815, 867
SHOAL LAKE
Pembina, 318 ; Fort, 818
Perce", 89, 90
' Petrolia ' oil-wells, 39
Philadelphia, 299 ; Centennial Exhibi-
tion, 307
Pictou, 94
Platte River, 240
Valley, 240
Plattsburgh, 414
Point Levi, 405
Port Hope, 192
Portage La Prairie, 368
Prescott, 4, 76, 143, 227, 237, 308
Presqu'ile, 164
Preston, 182
Prince Arthur's Landing, 169
Edward's Island, 75, 92 ; coal-mines,
QUEBEC, 2, 26, 29, 55, 76, 113, 143, 214
216, 227, 308, 894, 400, 405, 416, 417
Queen Charlotte's Islands, 265
RAMA, 160
Red Lake River, 817
River, 816, 819, 828, 365, 367
Restigouche River, 896, 898
Rice Lake, 193
Richmond, 406
Rideau Falls, 224
River, 224
Rimouski, 398
Riviere du Loup, 5, 8, 17, 111, 395
Rockwood Penitentiary, 326
Rocky Mountains, 240, 241
Plains, 240
Rousseau, 162
Lake, 162
SAFETY HABBOUK, 260
Saguenay River, 12, 15, 151, 811, 39
Salt Lake, 244, 292
City, 244, 292, 294
San Francisco, 246, 285, 289, 291
Sarnia, 179, 180, 237
Saskatchewan, 855 ; Grand Rapids, 355
Sault Ste Marie, 165, 172
Savernagh's Ferry, 281
Selkirk, 880
Severn, 161
Seymour Narrows, 268
Shebandowan, 170
Lake, 170
Sherbrooke, 406, 409
Sherman, 241
Shoal Lake, 860
422
MY CANADIAN JOURNAL
Sillery, 30, 299, 401
Silver Islet, 169
Simcoe, 188
Lake, 158
Smith's Falls, 197
Spencer Wood, 2, 402
Stanstead, 410
Stone Fort, 331, 357
Stratford, 181
Superior, Lake, 169
Swestsborough, 413
Sydney, 95
TADOUSAC, 10, 14, 79, 111, 151, 234, 310,
399
Thomas (St.), 187
Thompson River, 277, 281
Thousand Islands, The, 196
Mile Tree, 243
Three Rivers, 899
Thunder Bay, 169, 172
Cape, 169
Ticonderoga, 414, 415
Toronto, 35, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 157,
191, 298, 302, 803, 368, 416
Tribune Harbour, 258, 268
YOKE RIVER
Trinity Cliff, 153
Trois Rivieres, 156
UINTAH RANGE, 242
VANCOUVER ISLAND, 267
Victoria, 252, 253, 254, 283
WASHAGO, 161
Washington, 204
Waterford, 188
Waterloo, 418
Welland, 188 ; Canal, 189
West Farnham, 418
Whitby, 192 ; ' Trafalgar Castle,' 192
Windsor, 178
Winnipeg, 820, 323, 325, 326 ; Silver
Heights, 320, 358, 364
Lake, 854
River, 340, 844; 'portages,' 345
'White Dog Mission,' 846 ; rapids,
847, 349 ; the Fall, 348
Woodstock, 38, 111, 186
YALE, 273, 282
York River, 144, 281
PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON
LADY DUFFERIN'S JOURNAL.
Fo^(,rth Thousand, with Portrait and Map, 2 vols. crown 8vo. 24s.;
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' Just what might have been expected from the talented and popular
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OUR VICEREGAL LIFE IN INDIA continued.
' An attractive and interesting book, full of graphic and entertaining
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four years in all its rich and manifold variety, to the wife of a Viceroy,
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prime requirements for her task is Lady Dufferin in any way wanting.'
DAILY NEWS.
' A most animated account. It would be difficult to mention a
work in which the infinite and varied picturesqueness of Anglo-Indian
life is brought out more vividly.' ST. JAMES'S GAZETTE.
' Lady Dufferin's Journal should be read, if only for the account it
gives of the truly noble work with which her name will always be
connected. . . . She was keenly interested in everything that concerns
the women of the country, and never missed an opportunity of show-
ing her warm sympathy with those who are working for their welfare.'
ACADEMY.
' Throughout the book Lady Dufferin is bright, lively, and enter-
taining.' SPECTATOR.
' All who understand and sympathise with Indian life will hasten to
read these two pleasant volumes. The journal is a running commen-
tary on the multitudinous events which must crowd into such years as
she passed in India, and is none the less pleasant for its simplicity and
unpretentiousness. Perhaps the visit which Lady Dufferin paid to
Burmah three years ago will attract as much attention as any other
part of her travels.' DAILY TELEGRAPH.
JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street.
ME. MURRAY'S NEW WORKS.
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[Continued.
MB. MURRAY'S NEW WORKS continued.
TRAVELS AMONGST THE GEEAT ANDES OF THE
EQUATOR. By EDWARD WHYMPEB, F.R.G.S. With 4 Maps and
140 Original Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 21s. net. Uniform with
' Scrambles amongst the Alps.'
SUPPLEMENTARY APPENDIX TO TRAVELS AMONGST
THE GREAT ANDES OF THE EQUATOR. Illustrated with
Figures of New Genera and Species. With Preface. By EDWARD
WHYMPER. With 60 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 15s. net.
HOW TO USE THE ANEROID BAROMETER. By EDWARD
WHYMPER. With Tables. Medium 8vo. 2s. Gd. net.
THE COMBAT WITH SUFFERING. By Major E. GAMBIER
PARRY. Fcp. 8vo.
LUX MUNDI : a Cheaper Edition. A Series of Studies in the
Religion of the Incarnation. By Various Writers. Edited by Rev.
CHARLES GORE, M.A. 15th Thousand. Crown 8vo. 6s.
EGYPT UNDER THE PHARAOHS: a History derived en-
tirely from the Monuments. By HEINRICH BRUGSCH-BEY. A New
Edition, Condensed and Thoroughly Revised, by M. BRODRICK.
With Maps. 8vo.
STUDIES IN THE ART OF RAT-CATCHING : a Manual
for Schools. By H. C. BARKLEY, Author of ' My Boyhood ' &c.
Post 8vo.
PRIMITIVE CULTURE : Researches into the Development of
Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Science. By
EDWARD B. TYLOR, F.R.S., Keeper of the Museum, Oxford. Third
Edition, Revised. 2 vols. 8vo.
THE INDIAN EMPIRE. A new Handbook for Travellers in
India. In 1 vol. With numerous Maps, &c.
THE JAPANESE EMPIRE : a Handbook for TraveUers in
Japan. Third Edition (1891). Revised and for the most part
Rewritten. By B. H. CHAMBERLAIN and W. B. MASON. With 15
Maps. Post 8vo. 15s. net.
LIFE OF ALEXANDER N. SOMERVILLE, D.D. In Scot-
land, India, America, Australasia, Europe, &c., 1813-1889. By
GEORGE SMITH, LL.D. Popular Edition. Portrait. Post 8vo. 6s.
OLD ENGLISH PLATE : Ecclesiastical, Decorative, and
Domestic. By WILFRED J. CRIPPS, C.B. Fourth Revised Edition.
Illustrations. Medium 8vo.
JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street.
MR, MURRAY'S RECENT WORKS.
SIR ROBERT PEEL : his Early Political Life as Secretary
for Ireland, 1812-18, and Secretary of State, 1822-27. Published
by his Trustees. Edited by C. S. PARKER, M.P. Portrait. 8vo. 16s.
A MEMOIR OF JENNY LIND : HEB EARLY ART-LIFE AND
DRAMATIC CAREER, 1820-1851. From Original Documents, Letters,
Diaries, &c., in the possession of Mr. GOLDSCHMIDT. By CANON
SCOTT HOLLAND and W. S. ROCKSTRO. Third Edition. Portraits,
Illustrations, and Music. 2 vols. 8vo. 32*.
STRAY VERSES, 1889-1890. By ROBERT, LORD HOUGHTON.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
A PUBLISHER AND HIS FRIENDS: MEMOIR AND
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LATE JOHN MURRAY, WITH AN
ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE HOUSE, 1768-
1843. By SAMUEL SMILES, LL.D. Fourth Thousand. Portraits.
2 vols. 8vo. 32s.
LONDON : PAST AND PRESENT : ITS HISTORY, ASSOCIA-
TIONS, AND TRADITIONS. By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A. Based
on CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK. Ulmunj Edition, on Laid
Paper. 3 vols. Medium 8vo. 3. 3s.
MEMOIR AND LETTERS OF SIDNEY GILCHRIST
THOMAS, Inventor. Edited by R. W. BURNIE, Barrister-at-Law.
Portraits. Crown 8vo. 9s.
ADVENTURES IN THE LIFE OF COUNT ALBERT OF
BREACH. Translated from the German. By H.R.H. PRINCESS
BEATRICE. Second Edition. Portraits. Crown 8vo. 10s. &d.
THE QUEEN'S COMMISSION : HOW TO PREPARE FOE IT ;
HOW TO OBTAIN IT ; AND now TO USE IT ; with Practical Infor-
mation on the cost and prospects of a Military Career. Intended
for Cadets, Subalterns, and Parents. By Capt. G. J. YOUNGHUSBAND.
Post 8vo. 6s.
[ Continued.
MR. MURRAY'S EECENT WORKS continued.
THE LIVES OF TWELVE GOOD MEN.
MARTIN JOSEPH KOUTH.
HUGH JAMES EOSE.
CHAELES MAEEIOTT.
EDWAED HAWKINS.
SAMUEL WILBEEFOECE.
RICHABD LYNCH COTTON.
RICHAED GEESWELL.
HENEY OCTAVIUS COXE.
HENEY LONGUEVILLE MANSEL.
WILLIAM JACOBSON.
CHABLES PAGE EDEN.
CHABLES LONGUET HIGGINS-
By J. W. BUEGON, B.D., late Dean of Chichester. Sixth Thousand
With Portraits of the AUTHOE and of the TWELVE. Svo. 16*.
FEBGUSSON'S HISTORY OF THE MODERN STYLES
OF ARCHITECTURE. A New Edition, Revised and Enlarged.
With a special account of Architecture in America. By Professor
ROBEET KEEE. With 330 Illustrations. 2 vols. Medium 8vo.
31s. 6d.
A HISTORY OF INDIAN AND EASTERN ARCHITEC-
TURE. By JAMES FEEGUSSON, F.R.S. Cheaper Edition. With
400 Illustrations. Medium 8vo. 31s. Gd.
A RIDE THROUGH ASIA MINOR AND ARMENIA. With
Sketches of the CHAEACTEE, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS OP THE
MUSSULMAN AND CHEISTIAN INHABITANTS. By H. C. BABKLEY.
Crown Svo. 10s. 6d.
IMPRESSIONS OF A TENDERFOOT, DURING A JOURNEY
IN SEAECH OF SPOET IN THE FAB WEST. By LADY SEYMOUR
(ALGEENON ST. MAUR). Illustrations. Crown Svo. 12s.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE
BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: being an Expansion of
Lectures delivered in the Divinity School of the University of
Dublin. By GEORGE SALMON, D.D., FR.S., Provost of Trinity
College, Dublin. Fifth Edition. Post Svo. 9s.
THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE CHURCH. A Course of
Lectures delivered in the Divinity School of the University of
Dublin. By GEOEGE SALMON, D.D., F.R.S. Second Edition.
Post Svo. 9s.
JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street.
University of Toronto
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