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Nunc Dimittis, 1796-1808
Our tale is told.
The Active was wrecked on the island of Anticosti, where the
estuary of the St Lawrence joins the Gulf. No lives were lost, and
the Carletons reached Perce in Gaspe quite safely in a little
coasting vessel. Then a ship came round from Halifax and sailed the
family over to England at the end of September, just thirty years
after Carleton had come out to Canada to take up a burden of oversea
governance such as no other viceroy, in any part of the
world-encircling British Empire, has ever borne so long.
He lived to become a wonderful link with the past. When he died at
home in England he was in the sixty-seventh year of his connection
with the Army and in the eighty-fifth of his age. More than any
other man of note he brought the days of Marlborough into touch with
those of Wellington, though a century lay between. At the time he
received his first commission most of the senior officers were old
Marlburians. At the time of his death Nelson had already won
Trafalgar, Napoleon had already been emperor of the French for
nearly three years, and Wellington had already begun the great
Peninsular campaigns. Carleton's own life thus constitutes a most
remarkable link between two very different eras of Imperial history.
But he and his wife together constitute a still more remarkable link
between two eras of Canadian history which are still farther apart.
At first sight it seems almost impossible that he, who was the
trusted friend o Wolfe, and she, who learned deportment at
Versailles in the reign of Louis Quinze, should together make up a
living link between 1690, when Frontenac saved Quebec from the
American Colonials under Phips, and 1867, when the new Dominion was
proclaimed there. But it is true. Carleton, born in the first
quarter of the eighteenth century, knew several old men who had
served at the Battle of the Boyne, which was fought three months
before Frontenac sent his defiance to Phips 'from the mouth of my
cannon.' Carleton's wife, living far on into the second quarter of
the nineteenth century, knew several rising young men who saw the
Dominion of Canada well started on its great career.
All Carleton's sons went into the Army and all died on active
service. The fourth was killed in 1814 at Bergen-op-Zoom carrying
the same sword that Carleton himself had used there sixty-seven
years before. A picture of the first siege of Bergen-op-Zoom hangs
in the dining-room of the family seat at Greywell Hill to remind
successive generations of their martial ancestors. But no Carleton
needs to be reminded of a man's first duty at the call to arms. The
present holder of the Dorchester estates and title is a woman. But
her son and heir went straight to the front with the cavalry of the
first British army corps to take the field in Belgium during the
Great World War of 1914.
Carleton spent most of his last twelve years at Kempshot near
Basingstoke because he kept his stud there and horses were his chief
delight. But he died at Stubbings, his place near Maidenhead beside
the silver Thames, on the 10th of November 1808.
Thus, after an unadventurous youth and early manhood, he spent his
long maturity steering the ship of state through troublous seas
abroad; then passed life's evening in the quiet haven of his home.
This site includes some historical materials that
may imply negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of
a particular period or place. These items are presented as part of
the historical record and should not be interpreted to mean that the
WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes implied.
Chronicles of Canada, The
Winning of Canada, A Chronicle of Wolfe, 1915
Chronicles of Canada