It adds greatly to the
comfort of travelling in Canada, that you are every where treated with the
greatest politeness and attention. This,
to me, counterbalances a thousand inconveniences. Often have I felt provoked on the continent
of Europe, when, after a fatiguing journey, - wet and hungry, perhaps, into the
bargain, - stopping at a filthy place, they called an inn, I have looked in
vain for the least civility or assistance from the people of the house; frequently
obliged to carry my own luggage, and endeavour to find a place where it might
be safe from the thief-like fellows about me – the landlord, perhaps, amongst
them. How different is the case in
Canada! A Canadian aubergiste
(landlady) the moment you stop, receives
you at the door with a degree of politeness and urbanity which is unexpected as
it is pleasing. Voulez vous bien
Monsieur, avoir la complaisance d’entrer ; voilà une chaise, Monsieur ;
asseyez vous s’il vous plaît. If they have got anything you want, it is given at once with a good
grace. If they have not, they tell you
so in such a tone and manner, as to shew that they are sorry for it. Je n’en ai point, Monsieur; J’en suis mortifiée.
You see that it is their
poverty that refuses you, and not their will.
A man must be as savage as a Goth, and as surly as a city epicure over
spoiled venison, who, with such treatment, though his dinner be indifferent,
could leave the house in bad humour.
The Canadian innkeeper
is frequently a farmer also, or a shopkeeper.
Indeed, you need never be at a loss for a house to stop at. There is not a farmer, shopkeeper, nay, nor
even a seigneur, or country
gentleman, who, on being civilly applied to for accommodation, will not give
you the best bed in the house, and every accommodation in his power.
The Canadians seem to
have brought the old French politeness with them to this country, and have
handed it down to the present generation.
One is more surprised to find here courtesy and urbanity, from the
little likelihood that such plants would exist, far less flourish, in the wilds
of Canada.
Source: Hugh Gray, Letters
from Canada. Written during a residence
there in the years 1806, 1807, and 1808 (London, England: Longman, Hurst, Rees,
and Ormer, 1809), pp. 126-128. From facsimile edition reprinted by Coles
Publishing Company, Toronto, 1971. Some appropriate
accents have been added to the above French text.