Canada

The various woods in this section of the Clandeboye avenue reflect Lord Dufferin’s time as Governor General in Canada, between 1872 and 1878. Names of woods include Montreal, Tadousac, Toronto, Niagara and Ottawa. There is no trace in the archive of a diary written by him during this period but his wife, Hariot, wrote a wonderful diary, later published under the title of "My Canadian Journal” in which she describes in detail the family’s time there.

On arrival in Canada, Lord and Lady Dufferin proceeded to the Governor’s house in Ottawa, obviously a bit of a let-down after the initial ceremonies in Quebec. To quote from her journal: “We have been so enthusiastic about everything hereto that the first sight of Rideau Hall did lower our spirits just a little! The road to it is rough and ugly, the house appears to be at the land’s end, and there is no view whatever from it,..”[1] They soon settled in and started work on improvements to the house, making room for their five children and staff. By the time they left in 1878 they had added two more children to the family, as well as grand additions to the house, including a ballroom and indoor tennis court that doubled up as a supper room at balls by installing a tent inside it. The tent room today is a far grander affair than the original, and definitely no longer for tennis.[2]

Having started on the Ottawa residence, Dufferin turned his attention to Quebec, where he moved into the officer’s mess on the Citadel and created yet another ball room. But their greatest love was for Tadousac, at the confluence of the Saguenay and St Lawrence rivers, regularly visited by many breeds of Whale, including the white Beluga.[3]

The family visited Tadousac shortly after arriving in Canada and fell in love with it. They initially stayed in the hotel, which was popular with American visitors, but Lord Dufferin soon purchased a plot overlooking the beach for $1 and a local timber firm was engaged to build a large summer house for them.[4] This was to be the summer home for the children while their parents travelled throughout the country, by whatever means available, including canoes, trains, steamers, carriages and even in wagons across the prairie. As the representative of the Queen, and even though his office was next door to the Prime Minister’s, Lord Dufferin had to resist the temptation to involve himself in politics and therefore decided that the best course of action to encourage the union of the country was to entertain as many Canadians as he could, hence the ball rooms. However, only by reading her journals could you get a full flavour of these wonderful days in their lives together.

[1] Harriot Georgina Blackwood Dufferin and Ava, My Canadian Journal 1872-'78 (D. Appleton & Co, 1891), 4.

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXy3e9BdtXk

[3] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/beluga-whales.html

[4] Dufferin and Ava, My Canadian Journal 1872-'78, 13.

[5] Barbara Jane Messamore, "'The line over which he must not pass': Defining the Office of Governor General, 1878," The Canadian Historical Review 86, no. 3 (2005).