— 70 — ; 



we spent the time in round dances and games. There was 

 no piano, so we sent for the village orchestra, two habi- 

 tant girls, to sing for us to dance cotillons and contre- 

 dances, which they did untiringly for a couple of hours. 

 This we continued until eleven o'clock, when all retired 

 to rest. We returned to Quebec next day. I am not 

 without experience of balls, with all the accessories of 

 decoration, lights and fine music ; but I never recollect 

 to have passed a more pleasant evening. We all knew 

 one another, and we brought to our entertainment 

 cheerfulness, geniality, good manners, and youth. Two 

 of the ladies are now the wives of retired generals of 

 artillery in England." 



This charming glimpse by Mrs. Kingsford of social 

 amusements in a Canadian home of the past, to be 

 thoroughly understood, requires a few words of explan- 

 ation, which I, more than once a favored guest, at the 

 houses he describes, can easily supply from personal 

 recollections of my sporting days on the Chateau-Kicher 

 marsh. 



1. The Chateau-Eicher Manor of 1843 was an 

 antique tenement one hundred and ten feet in length, 

 divided here and there by wide-throated chimnies. 

 A massive Three-Eivers stove, of the Matthew Bell 

 pattern, heated the ample hall ; the parlor was hung 

 round with family oil-portraits. Its hospitable laird, 

 Lt. Col. William Henry LeMoine, C. M., counting 

 many friends. Among the Quebec sportsmen whom 

 September each year attracted to the Chateau-Eicher 

 manor and snipe marshes, I can recall, among others, 

 the late Hon. Justice Elzear Bedard, of the Court of 

 Appeals, Judge Louis Fiset, his friend Hector Simon 

 Huot, William Phillips, Errol Boyd Lindsay, Narcisse, 

 Juchereau, Charles and Philippe Duchesnay, Dr. Joseph 

 Fremont, father of the late mayor of Quebec, who 

 like William Henry, Eobert Auguste, Alexandre Olivier 

 LeMoine, the three eldest sons of the " Seigneur," 

 — all present at this memorable reunion de famille, — 



