John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

11 Quebec— Monday 17. July 1843.

17. IV. Monday.

Leupp Charles M. Bowden James J Walker Coll Bishop of Montreal Poyntz Major

In our excursion yesterday afternoon we observed two monuments, upon which I stop’d to read the inscriptions.— The first is an obelisk 65 feet high, adjoining the entrance to the glacis of Cape Diamond fronting the river eastward— On the South side of the pedestal is carved in large relief the name of Wolfe—on the North side that of Montcalm. In the front are the two following inscriptions—

Mortem Virtus. Communem Famam Historia Monumentum

Posteritas dedit

and below

Hujusce Monumenti, in Memoriam Virorum Illustrium Wolfe et Montcalm Fundamentum P. C. Georgius Comes De Dalhousie, In Septentrionalis Americae Partibus ad Britannos Pertinentibus Summam Rerum Administrans; Opus per multos Annos Praetermissum (Quid Duci Egregio Convenientius?) Auctoritate Promovens. Exemplo Stimulans, Munificentia Fovens, Die Novembris XVâ A.D. MDCCCXXVII, Georgio IV. Brittaniarum Rege.

The first of these inscriptions is good: and the simple names of Wolfe and Montcalm at the opposite sides in good taste.— The second inscription is a newspaper puff in honour of Earl Dalhousie, barely noticing the names of Wolfe and Montcalm, but magnifying the Scotch Laird Governor General Dalhousie, into an egregious chieftain, with the word convenientius of very dubious latinity.— I could not help thinking of the famous specimen of the bathos— And thou, Dalhousie, the great God of War

Lieutenant Colonel to the Earl of Mar.

It is indeed highly creditable to this last Dalhousie, that he did accomplish the erection of this monument, but he should not have suffered this pompous panegyric upon himself to be inscribed upon its front in substitution of some brief but pathetic allusions to the illustrious rivals in life and death, themselves.

The other monument is on the plains of Abram— A plain stone broken column about eight feet high from the ground, with a small square basement surrounded by loose stones cemented together on a low gently rising mound with the words deeply carved on the shaft

Here

Wolfe Fell

Victorious.

It is a sad eye sore to monumental glory that this inscription is so defaced by the chipping off from the Letters of the word victorious, and from the name of Wolfe, that they are scarcely legible— A person present said this defacemt had been made within the last two years.

12

On rising this morning, I went out to the platform to see the Sun rise across the river— A solitary centinel was walking to and fro on his guard, and as I passed by him said in a low desponding tone—Sir—can you tell me what O’Clock it is?— I answered, half past 4. The Sun was then about ten minutes risen—on returning from the precipitous edge of the platform which looks down on the tops fifty feet below of a street of houses, I asked the centinel the name of a point across the river—he said he did not know. He had been here not more than a month, and came last from Jamaica. I passed on to the next Centinel at the wicket gate entrance to the glacis of Cape Diamond, and before the obelisk and asked him the name of the point— He did not know— It was point Levy—and at some distance beyond it was the Island of Orleans— After Breakfast an Irish waiter at the Inn shewed me the way to the residence, at the Artillery Barracks of Lieutt. Coll. Walker commander of the Artillery, to whom I delivered the Letter which Coll. Campbell had given me in the Steamer Queen on our passage from Montreal— Coll. Walker’s reception of me was not so cordial, as the gift of the Letter had been by Coll. Campbell— It was cold but civil, as I have often found the receipt of commendatory Letters— He invited me however to the Lunch at the mess-room at one O’Clock, but I told him I was going to the Falls of Montmorenci, and should not be back till later. He led me however to a spot in the garden, where there was a ladder by which I mounted on the glacis and had a beautiful view of the city below the rivers and country around and the distant mountains. He asked me if I had called upon the commanding officer of the city, Sir James Hope. I had not— On my return to Payne’s Hotel, I found a Barouche at the door, and immediately went with Miss Grinnell, Miss Otté and Mr Leupp, and Mr Brooks’s Coachman Perry, nine miles to the falls of Montmorenci— Mr Bowden with my Grandson John Quincy went separately in a Calèche, and returned an hour before us— After passing a clumsy wooden bridge over the river St. Charles, the road is a turnpike, lined with a continuous village of French cottages and chaumières, interspersed with a few handsome and costly houses surrounded by cultivated farms— The country has an appearance of general ease and comfort— The houses of one story, deep slanting roofs with Lutheran windows sometimes with a second set over them, built of wood or stone bare or plastered over with shingled or thatched roofs, and the sides of the houses sometimes of plank, perpendicularly laid— The population is generally good looking and healthy; but we saw several women in the kitchen garden adjoining every habitation, hoeing and digging the vegetables, and others with the men making hay.— About half way to the falls by the side of the road, was a column on a pedestal surmounted by a corinthian capital with inscriptions on three sides of the pedestal, imparting that the monument was erected by the inhabitants of the parish of Beauport in gratitude to the blessed virgin, for the success of the temperance reform in that parish—we viewed the falls first on the North side then on the South, and lastly on the river strand below; the descent to and ascent from which were so steep that the Ladies did not attempt it— We returned to the city about 3. p.m and I received visits from Coll. Walker, who agreed to accompany us at 9. to-morrow morning to the Citadel, and from the English Bishop of Montreal Dr Mountain— There had been cards while I was absent from L’Eveque de Sidyme, and sundry Priests—the Mayor of Quebec, and C. S. Bourne—a Stranger