[casgrain] remarks ON "THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC" 117 



mark,— since he has demonstrated his professional savoir-faire to be 

 on a par with his historical accuracy as to St-Sauveur. 



If we are to believe the evidence of James Henderson, the very best 

 witness on the occasion, who supported Wolfe to the hollow ground in 

 rear, a distance of "about 100 yards;" and consider that the 334 yards 

 of Mr. Doughty would hardly out-pass the eastern limit of the redoubt; 

 and that our basis and calculations are not mere verbal criticism, nor in- 

 tended for a mere show of accuracy, but to arrive at a certainty of know- 

 ledge and conviction, based upon reliable geometrical lines, measure- 

 ments, boundaries and land-marks ; also the broad fact that, in contradic- 

 tion to the large distance first given of a quarter of a mile, Mr. Doughty 

 comes back so close to Holland's land-mark ; and moreover, when we take 

 into account the continued popular tradition and reverence (without any 

 doubt ever being raised), for this sacred spot, — it is reasonable to believe, 

 with the weight of the evidence before us, that Holland has irrevocably 

 marked the spot where Wolfe fell ; and it will, to the latest day, continue 

 to be visited with the same deep interest and patriotic emotion. It 

 would, in our estimation, be cavilling and hair splitting not to adopt the 

 redoubt as the place where Wolfe fell, and wherefrom it took the name 

 of Wolfe's Eedoubt. 



We next come to the second point of controversy; — does the race- 

 course form part or not of the battle field ? 



The general outlines of the battle are not in dispute among former 

 historians; and men of learning agree in placing the brunt of the fight 

 on and between the eminence of the gaol and the Buttes-à-Neveu or Mar- 

 tello Towers along there. 



Even Hawkins, who is so severely taken to task by Mr. Doughty, 

 says : " The severest fighting took place between the right of the race 

 '• stand and the Martello Towers." 



The assertion of Mr. Chambers (?) in the Quebec Morning 

 Chronicle, April 2nd, 1900, that: — 



" It is generally understood that the fiercest of the fight took place 

 " upon that ground which is now the race-course, and this stand has been 

 " taken by Sir James LeMoine and P. B. Casgrain," — is simply 

 unfounded in fact. V. Conférence par P.-B. Casgrain, 14 déaemhre 

 1899, in Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 

 1900. 



The pretensions of these writers and of those who are conversant 

 with the subject, go no further than to show that this part of the Plains 

 necessarily formed part of the battle field, as a ground to be held and 

 kept by all means, being the key of the position and the only road and 

 means of communication with the fleet for the stores and ammunitions; 

 that military operations did effectively take place there on that day ; that 



