OR, SCENES AT HOME AND ABROAD. BY LORD WILLIAM LENNOX. AUTHOR OF "COMPTON AUDLEY," "WELLINGTON IN PRIVATE LIFE," "In works of humour, especially when a man writes under a fictitious personage, IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 1855. 249. W. 150. PHILIP COURTENAY. CHAPTER I 'Go, then; 'tis vain to hover At length my dream is over; "Twas sweet, 'twas false, 'tis fled! Farewell, since nought it moves thee, Such truth as mine to see ; Some one, who far less loves thee, Perhaps more blessed will be.' MOORE. THE city of Quebec is situated on a very lofty point of land, on the north-west side of the VOL. II. B river St. Lawrence. Nearly facing it, on the opposite shore, there is another point. Between. the two the river is contracted to the breadth of three-quarters of a mile; but, after passing through this strait, it expends to the extent of nearly six miles, taking a great sweep behind the promontory whereon Quebec stands. The city derives its name from the word Quebeic, which, in the Algonquin tongue, signifies a sudden contraction of a river. The wide foot of the St. Lawrence immediately before the town is called the basin; and is sufficiently deep and spacious to float upwards of one hundred sail of the line. The city itself has a very romantic appearance. An immense projecting rock, with an impregnable citadel; the bright steeples of the cathedrals and churches; the houses, barracks, nunneries, and warehouses, rising gradually one above another, in the form of an amphitheatre, and which, being covered with tin to prevent conflagration, so put on that it never rusts, have the appearance of being covered with silver when the rays of the sun shine on the buildings, and remind one of a scene in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. On the The crowd of shipping is beneath. left stands Point Levi, thickly covered with houses, and here and there the wild Indian wigwam. On the right is the fruitful and highly-cultivated Island of Orleans, with its rustic dwellings clothed with lofty trees. Beyond is seen the falls of Montmorency, bursting through a mystic chasm over a ledge of broken rocks, until it comes to the brink of a precipice, down which it descends in one uninterrupted and nearly perpendicular fall of two hundred and forty feet; these, and the mountains in the distance, from a most impressive and grand object. It was a bright and sunny day when we landed; and although nothing could exceed the kindness or hospitality of the gallant captain of the Rokeby, we were all delighted at |