Big Cities - Halifax, Wednesday 2017 June 21
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Published: March 17th 2019
Our morning started earlier today, as the first two conference lectures started at 8:45.
The first thoroughly described the posting of Jane Austen’s brothers,
Charles and
Francis, in Halifax for several years. The Halifax harbour was the northern station for the Atlantic fleet, and the southern station was Bermuda. During their separate successful naval careers, they would spend the summers in Halifax and the winters in Bermuda, patrolling for French and American ships that were breaking the blockade during the Napoleonic Wars and beyond.
The second lecture was an unexpectedly hilarious exploration of time in
Northanger Abbey, in which almost every character was checking their watch. The obviously experienced presenter had been our breakfast companion.
Lunch was at
Murphy’s Restaurant, the same Murphy’s that sold our tour to Peggy’s Cove. Deirdre and I decided to stretch our legs by walking, rather than taking the provided bus. Because Halifax traffic is quite congested, we arrived much earlier than those on the bus. Inside, the large restaurant was flooded with natural light - it followed the long shape of the pier it used to be. Lunch was full of good cheer and chatty conversation. I had a salad, a well-filled
lobster roll, and a small deep-dish apple pie, served with white wine.
On the bus, we drove up the steep streets to the Citadel, a former British fort and Canadian military installation, now a National Park. It was called a “stone fort”, although it was not built up from the ground but rather dug down into the hill with the walls reinforced in stone. Two young men in the uniforms of the eighteenth century
78th Highlanders greeted us and divided us into two groups for guided tours. We first inspected the enlisted men’s barracks, a bare-bones arrangement of bed, mattress and blanket, with a minimal number of amenities for brewing tea or toasting bread, etc. We moved on to the tailor shop, where uniforms shipped from Britain were altered. Enlisted men were issued their uniforms - a few different ones for ordinary or dress occasions. Officers had to buy their own uniforms, which were fancier. The development of the rifle, and therefore snipers, started the tactical trend towards less distinctive uniforms, shortly after the period represented in this fort. (
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We went up a flight of steps to the height of the ramparts, made beautiful by the grass
WW1 trench model
A taste of warfare in a safe placeleft in its natural long growth as a reinforcement for the earthen ramparts. On one side two masts rose into the sky, looking like they were ready for ship sails. Instead, they were for long-distance communications between forts, using a code in flags. For instance, the long chain of forts on the coast could share the movements of ships, whether merchants or warships, for a fair distance.
Finally, we visited a special exhibit on WWI trenches. A battlefield model emphasized that trenches were constructed in zig-zag or Greek-key patterns to minimize the spread of gun fire or other disasters. An actual trench around the Citadel had partially collapsed, preventing us from going too far, which was historically a common problem. Around each corner a young person in a uniform interpreted such features as duckboards, reinforcing materials, entrenching tools, and medical aid. Deirdre and I found their enthusiasm so engaging that we spent too much talking and had to stop short and return to the meeting place for our group; actually, people were so late that we could have continued on the trench tour.
Our next site was
St Paul’s Anglican Church, the oldest one in North America (1750). It stands proudly
opposite the gothic-style City Hall, across a plaza dedicated to fallen military and armed service personnel. Lots of people were in the plaza, enjoying the thin sun, doing exercises, or crossing on their way home. Inside the church, a local guide gave us a brief introduction to the building and its historic role. The entire nave was filled with enclosed pews, the kind that were rented in the eighteenth century. Worshippers who could not afford a pew sat in the upper level. Almost unbelievably, it was not seriously damaged by the Explosion in 1917. Later we saw a window that was broken but un-collapsed, now preserved, and a single piece of shrapnel embedded in the wall facing the blast. The large stained-glass windows at the other end of the nave were not damaged.
By now 5:30 p.m., we returned to our hotel and a free evening. Deirdre and I flopped on our beds, discussed tomorrow and had tea, unwittingly falling asleep. Near to 7:00 we bestirred ourselves to go out for dinner. Our original destination of a pub in an historic building seemed more like a hard drinking bar, so we kept walking (in a light rain). After a
few rejected pubs and restaurants, we were initially fooled by a place called the
Economy Shoe Shop. No shoes for sale – it was a charming pub designed in an Italianate style. The server explained that it used to be the Economy Shoe Shop, and the pub owners kept the name. I had crab cakes with a wilted lettuce salad and a red ale – all particularly delicious.
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Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Halifax Airport
That's all I've seen of Halifax, but it sounds worth a few more days, at least. :-) I'd never heard of Jane Austen's brothers, much less their Halifax connection. And the story of the cathedral is amazing. As an aside, sadly, the photos didn't load - maybe our slightly weak/wonky internet connection.