Jun 02 2009
Prescott Ontario - one of the most wretched little places to be found in any country
Novelist Anthony Trollope left England in 1861 for a grand tour of North America. He wrote a travelogue and Prescott, Ontario, Canada was not the highlight of his trip. Today Prescott is an exit on Highway 401 that I’ve never used. I suspect it’s changed a bit in the past 148 years.
From Ottawa we went by rail to Prescott which is surely one of the most wretched little places to be found in any country.
Immediately opposite to it on the other side of the St Lawrence is the thriving town of Ogdensburgh. But Ogdensburgh is in the United States. Had we been able to learn at Ottawa any facts as to the hours of the river steamers and railways we might have saved time and have avoided Prescott but this was out of the question. Had I asked the exact hour at which I might reach Calcutta by the quickest route an accurate reply would not have been more out of the question. I was much struck at Prescott and indeed all through Canada though more in the upper than in the lower province by the sturdy roughness some would call it insolence of those of the lower classes of the people with whom I was brought into contact. If the words lower classes give offence to any reader I beg to apologize to apologize and to assert that I am one of the last of men to apply such a term in a sense of reproach to those who earn their bread by the labour of their hands. But it is hard to find terms which will be understood and that term whether it give offence or no will be understood.