"To persons unaccustomed to hard labour, and used to the comforts and luxuries deemed indispensable to those moving in the middle classes at home, a settlement in the bush can offer few advantages. It has proved the ruin of hundreds and thousands who have ventured their all in this hazardous experiment; nor can I recollect a single family of the higher class, that have come under my own personal knowledge, that ever realised an independence, or bettered their condition, by taking up wild lands in remote localities; while volumes might be filled with failures, even more disastrous than our own, to prove the truth of my former statements." Mrs. Moodie
"We all joined in a little tirade against Canada this morning [...] I grumbled a little at the necessity of storing all your summer provisions in the winter, and at the annoyance of unpacking and repacking barrels of pork, boiling brine, etc, etc. Our caterer I find, instead of a box of candles, has brought us a cask of tallow, much to our disappointment, having already abundance of work on hand. I have sometimes thought, and I may as well say it, now that it is grumbling day- woman is a bit of a slave in this country." Anne Langton, July 1839
"this is the worst season of the year to provide a good dinner. At present provisions are at their lowest ebb. We are without fresh meat, the pork is done, for as we over-stocked ourselves last year, of course we rather under-stocked ourselves this year. We have no bacon, but what is two years old, and this year's hams are most indifferent, owing either to impure salt or impure molasses, or some other unknown cause...Milk and butter will not be plentiful for a month to come, eggs are our chief luxury and with these we make as much variety as we can. The scarcity of the season is not regarded as much by anybody except the housekeeper, whose ingenuity is tasked to spread a decent table before the family." Anne Langton, April 1846
Immigration from Ireland
Grace, and McDermott, would have emigrated to Canada prior to the Great Potato famine that led to the worst conditions for Irish immigrants. Still, she likely would have been on a crowded ship that was prime breeding grounds for disease.
http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/coffin-ships.html
http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/coffin-ships.html
Burial at sea: The Illustrated London News, November 1880, State Library of Victoria
"While the French and Spanish traditionally preferred to leave the bodies of their comrades in the ship’s hold until such a time as they could find a land cemetery, the British developed their own ritualised sea burials quite early on. This often involved the body being stitched into a shroud by the ship’s sail maker or one of his mates, with one prevalent tradition dictating that the last stitch should pass though the corpse’s nose. In the 19th Century a dead sailor’s hammock was often used as a shroud instead. In both instances the body would be weighted down with lead shot to ensure it sank properly and did not find its way ashore. After being given a religious service presided over by the captain of the ship, the body would be tipped into the water feet first." http://www.history.co.uk/history-of-death/water-burials
Rock of Ages
2001-01-1110-rock-of-ages-eng.pdf | |
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Rock of Ages sheet music