St. Stanislas street, the western boundary of the ancient estate of the Jesuits—on the eastern portion of which their college was built in 1637— owes its saintly nomenclature to the learned order—no doubt desirous of handing down to posterity an enduring souvenir of a valiant ascetic, though youthful member of the fraternity. Its northern end reaches at right angles to Ste. Hélène street in a line with the old tenement recently occupied by the late Narcisse Constantin Faucher, Esq., Barrister—recently leased by the late Lieut.-Col. John Sewell, one of Sir Isaac Brock's officers at Queenstown Heights in 1812 In 1835 it was the home of a Mrs. Montgomery. That year it was burglarized in a somewhat romantic—shall we say—humane manner by Chambers' murderous gang; the aged and demure mistress of the house and her young maid servant being rolled up in the velvety pleats of the parlor carpet and deposited gently, tenderly and unharmed in the subterranean and discreet region of the cellar, so that the feelings of either should not be lacerated by the sight of the robbery going on above stairs.
Who will dare assert that among the sanguinary crew who in 1836, heavily ironed, bid adieu to Quebec forever, leaving their country for their country's good—in the British Brig Ceres, all bound as permanent settlers to Van Dieman's Land—who will dare assert there was not some Jack Sheppard, with a tender spot in his heart towards the youthful Briseis who acknowledged Mrs. Montgomery's gentle sway.
A conspicuous landmark on St. Stanislas street is Trinity Chapel.
Of yore there stood in rear of the chapel the "Theatre Royal," opened 15th February, [50] 1832, where the Siddons, Keans and Kembles held forth to our admiring fathers. Church and theatre both owed their birth to the late Chief Justice Sewell. The site of this theatre was purchased some years back by the ecclesiastical authorities of St Patrick Church. Thus disappeared the fane once sacred to Thespis and Melpomene, its fun-loving votaries, as such, knew it no more.
TRINITY CHURCH.
The church of the "Holy Trinity," St. Stanislas street, Quebec, was erected on a site which, judging from the discovery of a skeleton, when the foundations were laid, had been a cemetery.
The architecture of this church is Doric, and is considered correct both internally and externally. It is a substantial building of good proportions, 90 feet in length by 49 in breadth, is supplied with an organ and bell. It is commodious and capable of seating 700 persons. The sittings are free. It contains a beautiful marble monument, by Manning, of London, which was erected to the memory of the late Hon. Jonathan Sewell, LL.D., the founder of the church, also a few other tablets in memory of different members of the family of Sewell. The present incumbent and proprietor is the Rev. Edmund Willoughby Sewell, M.A., but it is confidently expected that ere long it will pass into the hands of an incorporated body, with whom the future presentment of the officiating clergyman will rest.
On a tin-plate on the corner-stone of the chapel, the following inscription occurs:
"Quebec, 15th September, 1824.
On Thursday was deposited in a private manner, under a stone at
the north-east angle of the new Chapel of Ease to the English
Cathedral, a tin plate having the following Latin inscription: