THE BEAVER CLUB, AT MONTREAL (l). 

 1785-1824. 



" THE LORDS OF THE LAKES AND FORESTS ARE GONE " 



Among the denizens of progressive and modern 

 Mount Royal there are doubtless yet to be found some 

 rare survivors of the times when the rich, sturdy and 

 hospitable old Nor- Westers, to use the words of Wash- 

 ington Irving, " held a lordly sway over the wintry, 

 boundless forests of the Canadas, almost equal to that 

 of the East India Company over the voluptuous climes 

 and magnificent realms of the Orient." 



These were the palmy days when the Lords of the 

 lakes and forests, with their strong, social instincts, 

 founded the famous Beaver Club, where for nearly 

 forty years, during the winter months, a sumptuous 

 fortnightly banquet enlivened with toasts and songs, 

 gathered in their spacious hall, the bulk of the wealth, 

 commercial enterprise and intelligence of Montreal, 

 together with any distinguished traveller from other 

 climes, sojourning at the time in the city. 



The Beaver Club, says the Hon. L. R. Masson, (2) 

 created in 1785, was the outcome of the coalition of 



(1) There was in addition a Summer Club for the Captains 

 of the fur vessels, who in some instances were honorary- 

 members. The historian H. H. Miles, mentions also, a Mon- 

 treal Club of much earlier formation, dating as far back as 

 1760 : the Grey Beard Society or Club, composed of English- 

 men settled in Canada, after 1759. 



(2) I owe to the excellent volume " Les Bourgeois de la 

 Compagnie du Nord-Ouest " recently published by the Hon. 

 L. K. Masson, a great portion of my data in this article. 



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