CHATEAU FRONTENAC.

Of the famous edifices, which in the past have crowned the lofty cape, to which, Our-Governor General, the Earl of Durham, in 1838, added a superb terrace, more than trebled in extent, by one of his successors, the Earl of Dufferin, in 1878, a full history appears pp. 66-96 in Picturesque Quebec.

I shall confine myself to a concise mention of the spot, where the C. P. Railway officials have erected at a cost of more than $500,000 a palatial hotel opened out to the travelling public on the 18th November, 1893.

So many graphic descriptions of it have appeared in the daily press, that it seems superfluous to enlarge on them. The following excerpt is from the Montreal Daily Witness of 18th May, 1893.

"Viewed, especially from the river, the Chateau-Frontenac forms one of the most striking objects in the landscape of the old city, with whose feudal aspect its style of architecture harmonizes so delightfully. The building, in fact, looks like one of those (1) old feudal castles, which are nowhere to be seen except in Europe, or in the pages illustrated by a Doré or a Castelli. Even the precipice is not wanting, for it is erected almost on the very edge of the great cliff upon which so large a portion of Quebec is built, and which a little to the westward culminates in Cape Diamond and its crowning glory, the famous citadel, that has won for the old

(1) The design is borrowed from three antique French chateaux on the Loire, modernised to suit the time.

place the proud title of the "Gibraltar of America." Indeed, it is hardly possible to conceive of a more aerial or commanding site than the one it occupies, and looking up from the river, which, nearly 200 feet below, rushes onward to the sea, it seems to cling like an eagle's nest to the side of the great rocks above, and to fittingly complete its military and picturesque appearance. And then the ground upon which it stands is historic, and invested as such with a deep and abiding interest for the world at large. Where Quebec's new palace hotel now rears its stately proportions, once stood the old Chateau or Castle of St. Louis, the very mention of whose name recalls so many thrilling memories, carrying the mind back to the very infancy of the colony, and reanimating, so to say, the illustrious dead, Jacques Cartier, DeMontmagny, D'Ailleboust, La Barre, Frontenac, Laval, Talon, Begon, Tracy, LaGalissonnière, Saint-Castin, Iberville, LaSalle, Joliette, LaVerendrye, Montcalm, Lévis, Bougainville, Wolfe, Murray, Nelson, Cook, Champlain, Haldimand, Arnold, Montgomery, Carleton, Richmond, Prescott, Dorchester, Craig, Dalhousie, Aylmer, Durham, etc. One by one their ghostly figures rise up before the mind's eye in the presence of the splendid pile, which to-day replaces the old Castle of St. Louis, and which has been so appropriately called the "Chateau-Frontenac," after the sturdy old French governor, who, over two hundred years ago, from the same spot hurled his defiance at the English invader, telling Phip's envoy that he would answer his master's impertinent summons to surrender, "by the mouths of his cannon." Hawkins has glowingly sketched the glories of the ancient Castle of St. Louis. He says:

"The history of the ancient castle of St. Louis, or Fort of Quebec, for above two centuries the seat of government in the province affords subjects of great and stirring interest during the several periods. The hall of the old 'Fort, during the weakness of the colony was often a scene of terror and despair at the inroads of the persevering and ferocious Iroquois, who, having passed, or overthrown, all the French outposts,

more than once threatened the Fort itself, and massacred some friendly Indians within sight of its walls. At a later era, when, under the protection of the French kings, the province had acquired the rudiments of military strength and power, the Castle of St. Louis was remarkable as having been the site whence the French governors exercised an immense sovereignty, extending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, along the shores of that noble river, its magnificent lakes, and down the course of the Mississipi to its outlet below New Orleans. The banner which first streamed from the battlements of Quebec, was displayed from a chain of forts, which protected the settlements through the vast extent of country; keeping the English colonies in constant alarm, and securing the fidelity of the Indian nations. During this period the council chamber of the Castle was the scene of many a midnight vigil-many a long deliberation and deep-laid project to free the continent from the intrusion of the ancient rival of France, and assert throughout the supremacy of the Gallic lily. At another era, subsequent to the surrender of Quebec to the British arms, and until the recognition of the independence of the United States, the extent of empire of the government, of which the castle of Quebec, was the principal seat, comprehended the whole American continent north of Mexico. It is astonishing to reflect for a moment, to how small, and, as to size, comparatively insignificant an island in the Atlantic ocean, this gigantic territory was once subject."

"The Swedish savant, Kalm, the disciple of Linnæus, who visited Quebec, and the Chateau St. Louis about 1748, also draws a charming picture of the residence of the governors of New France, and the regal state they maintained, but it was left to that marvellous wordpainter," Adirondack" Murray, to reanimate the scene in a way that literally curdles the blood. Writing to the "Boston Herald", from Quebec in 1887, after spending the evening on Dufferin Terrace, he said:

"The silence of the place grows weird, the glamour of the old past is on me, and I see uncanny sights. Is not that man, the man in the angle there, Champlain? Surely it is he, the very same man who crossed the ocean twenty times, who shot the Iroquois chief near Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, who founded this city 250 years ago, and whose dust is under the altar there in the great basilica? And who are these coming this way? Surely this is he, the brave old Lord de Frontenac, the old bluff saviour of Canada? My Lord, I greet you! This

city belongs to you and Champlain. See, there goes Laval, ambitious priest, and better scholar, who founded the great college yonder, before John Harvard left his gift to letters in Massachusetts! See, old Frontenac frowns at him. And who is he in the angle of the promenade, gazing southward? LaSalle? Incredible! Why, his body sleeps beneath the flowers of a Texan prairie. Montcalm and Wolfe arm in arm! Brave captains, you fight no more. Look! look! Those two in the deep shadows of that old elm, that girl and young English middy there. By heavens, that is Nelson, my Lord of Trafalgar, flirting with the lovely Mary Simpson! My God, this ground is haunted, and the dead of new and old France alike are here. I'll get me to the yacht (The "Champlain ") and say my prayers. Beshrew me, this is a ghostly spot in truth."

"The old, or original Castle of St. Louis, dating back to 1620, and whose foundations can yet be seen under Dufferin Terrace, was destroyed in 1834 by a fire, which only spared the wing, or new castle, erected by Sir Frederick Haldimand, the English Governor-General, in 1784. It is upon the site of the latter, and part of the old Lower Governor's garden that the new hotel, which is now rapidly approaching completion, has been erected. During the work of demolishing the old building, which was used for many years as the Laval normal school, a vaulted room was laid bare, which had evidently been the powder-magazine of the old fort.

As will be seen, the situation of the new hotel, is not only most interesting, historically speaking, but is probably one of the finest and most salubrious in the whole world. Every visitor to old Quebec knows with what pleasure the eye rests upon the glorious panorama that unrolls itself to the sight from Dufferin Terrace. The beauty of the Bay of Naples is much praised; but it is doubtful if it surpasses in any respect, the diversifield view from Quebec's majestic and famous promenade, while history speaks in trumpet tones from almost every object embraced within the wide range of vision. The noble expanse of water below, the opposing heights of Levis, also battlement-crowned, the Island of Orleans sparkling like a jewel on the bosom of the mighty river, the foaming cataract of Montmorency, the

distant range of the Laurentian mountains and the warlike rock of Cape Diamond, with its diadem of walls and towers-all combine to make up one of the grandest scenes imaginable. Into the masonry above theporte cochère" has been carefully let in by the builders, the curious old stone, marked with a gilt cross, over which our antiquaries have so long puzzled their brains, and which the late Sergeant Thompson, in his Diary, 1759 to 1830, " speaks of as having been found on September 17th, 1784, when the miners at the Chateau were levelling the yard, and as having been placed, by his order, " in the cheek of the gate of the new building (Chateau Haldimand), in order to convey to posterity the antiquity of the Chateau St. Louis. Over the origin of this stone, with its Maltese cross enclosed within a shield, and its half-effaced date of 1647, there has been much controversy ---some even pretending to trace it to the supposed existence in Quebec of a priory of the Knights of St. John or Malta during the French regime; but, whatever may be the truth about it, it is not the less a conspicuous and interesting feature of the new C. P. R. hotel."

THE POWDER MAGAZINE OF FORT ST. LOUIS.

Under this caption, Mr. Ernest Gagnon, secretary of the Board of Works, contributed a scholarly article to the Courrier du Canada, furnishing curious details. anent the origin, various uses and transformations of this ancient structure, which the pick and shovel of the workmen engaged in razing the Chateau Haldimand, all at once brought in the light of day, and which was the subject of controversy in the Quebec press. These solid casemates erected two centuries previous,