LE MANOIR DUCHESNAY

Quelques-unes trouveront place en cette esquisse : The Beaiiport Manoir Inscription

To the Editor of the 2Iorning Chronide

" Whilst regretting the loss of the coins and documents accompanying the inscription of the Beauport Manor, on account of the light it might hâve thrown on this remote incident of Canadian history, let us examine the case as it stands.

This rude inscription of 25th July, 1634, gives priority as todate to the Beauport-Manor over any ancient structure extent in Canada this day. The érection of the manor would seem to hâve preceded by three years the foundation of the Jesuits Sillery résidence, now owned by ûiessrs. Dobell and Beckett, which. dates, of July, 1637. Who prepared the inscription ? Who engraved the letters ? "Who eut on the lead die figure of the " flaming: heart " ? The stars ? Are they heraldic ? What did they typify ?■ Did the plate corne out ready prepared from France ? Had the Académie des Inscriptio?is, etc.^ or any other académie, any hand in the business ?

The lead plate was imbedded in sohd masonry. It is too rude to be the work of an engraver. Could it hâve been designed by Surgeon Gifart, the Laird of Beauport, and eut on the leadplate by the scribe and savant of the settlement, Jean Guion. (DionP^whose penmanship in the wording of two marriages cou tracts, dating from 1636, lias been brought lo light by an indefa. tigable searcher of the past— the Abbé Ferland ? Probably.

But if the lettered Beauport stone mason, who lie ver rose to be a Hugh Niiller whatever may hâve been his abilities, did utilize his talents, in 1634, to produce a durable record, in order to perpetuate the date of foundation of this manor, lie subsequentiy got at Icggerheads with his worthy seigneur, probably owing to the litigious taste which his native Perche had instilled in hiiii. Perche, we ail know, is not very distant from Normandy, the liot bed of feuds and litigation, and might hâve caught the infection from this neighborhood.

Governor Montniagny, in the spaceofeight short years, had been called on to adjudicate on six controversies which had ariseii between Gifart and his vassals, touching boundaries and seignorial rights ; thoitgh the learned historian Ferland has failed to particularize whether among those controversed rights, was included the Droit de Chapons and the Droit du Seigneur. Could the latter unchaste, but cherished right of some Scotch and German feudal lords, by a misapprehension of our law, in the dark days of the cûlony, hâve been claimed by such an exacting seigneur as M. de Gifart ? One thinks not.

Be that as it may, ihe stone mason and savant, Jean Guion, had refused to do feudal hommage to " Monsieur de Beauport^ "

and on the 2oth July, 1643, six years afcer the date ofthe inscription, under sentence rendered by Governor de Montmagny, he was made to do so.

Who will decipher the I. H. S. — M. I. A., the letters at the the top ofthe plate? Is there no descendant of the haughty Seignior of Beauport, Robert Gifart, to give us his biography, and tell us of his sporting days ; of the black and grey ducks, brant, widgeon, teal, snipe and curlew, etc., which infested the marshy banks ot the stream —the Ruisseau de rOurs, on which he had located, first his shooting box, and afterwards his little fort or block house, against Iroquois aggression no doubt ? Gifart was a keen sportsman, tradition repeats. Did the locality get the name of Canardière on account ofthe Canards, the ducks, he had bagged in his time ? Who will enlighten us on ail thèse points ? Where are our " Oldbucks' ?

Québec, SthApril, 1880.

Ouery — Would I. H. S., stand for jfesics Homimtm Salvator ? and M. I. A. iox Maria- JoscpJms-Aimat — the Holy Family — asks Dr W. Marsden.