which stand the Court House and the English Cathedral. They possessed the entire area between St. Anne and St. Lewis Streets, and gave the modern name of Garden Street. Not far from the corner of the Place d'Armes, in St. Anne Street, there stands within the precincts of the Church close, a venerable tree, the last relic of those which once shaded the Récollet fathers—a touching monument of olden time -perhaps the last tenant of the primeval forest. Under this tree or on its site, tradition relates that CHAMPLAIN pitched his tent, on landing and taking possession of his new domain. Here he lived until the habitation, which he was building near the brink of the rock, was ready for the reception of his little band. In the rear of the Récollet Church, at a short distance from it, was the Ursuline Convent, still occupying with its garden a considerable space enclosed within St. Anne, St. Lewis and St. Ursule Streets. Beyond the latter were the ancient ramparts of the city. St. Anne Street divided the possessions of the Ursuline Nuns from those of the Jesuits. The College of the latter stood in a considerable square, now the market-place; and was surrounded by a garden, planted with lofty and umbrageous trees, extending from St. Anne to St. John Streets. The French Cathedral, occupying one side of this square, and its attached buildings covered a space reaching to Fort Street, and was divided from the Place d'Armes by a road, which was afterwards Buade Street. At the descent into Mountain Street, the buildings belonging to the French Cathedral communicated with the site occupied by the Bishop's Palace and gardens, reaching to the edge of the rock. The ancient Palace is said to have been equal to many similar establishments in France. From the French Cathedral to the Grand Battery, the site is covered with the buildings and garden of the Seminary, bounded also by Hope Street, formerly Ste. Famille Street, and St. George's Street. The Seminary garden overlooks the Lower Town, near the place formerly called the Sault-auMatelot. At a short distance from it are the grounds belonging to the Hotel Dieu, which extend along the summit of the cliff from Hope-Gate, and are bounded irregularly by Palace Street and Couillard Street. The different buildings above enumerated with their spacious gardens, added to the sites occupied by the magazines, and other government buildings, together with the spaces reserved for military purposes, occupied nearly the whole of the level ground within the ramparts. It is evident, therefore, that the early inhabitants had no alternative; and were compelled to build in directions leading from one of these public buildings to another, or around their precincts. Those who came to settle in Quebec were, doubtless, attracted by the neighborhood of the different churches, and the protection afforded by the Fort. They erected their small and temporary habitations as near as possible to the convents, whence, in times of scarcity or sickness they received support and medical aid. Hence the winding and irregular character of some of the smaller streets, particularly of those in the vicinity of the Hotel Dieu and the Ursuline Convent. The nature of the ground, or rather rock, on which the city is built, effectually prevented any regularity of design. The most level site was the easiest and cheapest-strait lines were disregarded in comparison with present convenience-consequently, a house was built only where a level foundation could best be found; and those places which were rugged and precipitous were left unoccupied, until some one, more enterprising or with better means, overcame the difficulty, and succeeded in establishing his edifice. During the first fifty years after the foundation in 1608, the houses were extremely small, mean and poorly furnished; partly from want of means, and partly from fear of the Iroquois, whose incursions kept the inhabitants in constant dread, and prevented any expense being incurred in these particulars. Little, however, sufficed for the first colonists: all they required was shelter and warmth during the winter. The summer was passed chiefly in the open air. As an example of the want of furniture and conveniences in the old habitations, it may be mentioned that when the Hospitalières arrived in Quebec in 1639, for the purpose of founding the Hotel Dieu, they were lodged in a house belonging to the company of Merchants, lent to them by the Chevalier de MONTMAGNY, who succeeded CHAMPLAIN in the government. The house is, indeed, described as having four rooms and two closets; but the only furniture in it for the accommodation of these ladies was a rude kind of table made of boards, and two benches of the same material! The absence of architectural embellishment must always be lamented; but a sufcient apology for the want of symmetry in the buildings of Quebec, may be found in the peculiar circumstances of the early settlers, and the subsequent history of the colony. Even now, no degree of taste is discernible in the public buildings,the architects have had principally in view strength and durability-utility has rather been consulted than symmetry of construction, Almost all the houses within the works are built of stone, either rough as it came in masses from the rock, or hewn into shape |