896. Carouie, near Quebec, the seat of Henry Atkinson, Esq., ' is situated on a piece of table land on the top of a precipice 200 feet high, and flanked by a wooded mountain range. From the windows of the balcony of the principal front of the house, the shipping in the harbour of Quebec is distinctly seen. A part of the grounds, called Spencer Wood, was occupied by the troops under General Wolfe, when he attacked the town. The trees in the park are chiefly the white and red oak, and the hemlock and white spruce. The house is built of hemlock spruce; and the walls are so constructed as to admit of a free circulation of air from the bottom of the masonry to the eaves. Though built upwards of a century ago, the interior of the walls is as fresh as if they were newly put up. It seems the hemlock spruce begins to rot at the centre of the trunk; and, to prevent this, the trees were sawn up the middle, so as to expose the centre to the air. After placing one tree on another, to the height of the wall, in the usual manner, both the inside and the outside were battened with pieces of quartering from one inch to six inches in thickness; and to these the weather-boarding outside, and the laths for plastering inside, or the wainscoting, when that mode is employed, are nailed in the usual manner. A concealed opening is left under the lower weather-board, and at the eaves of the roof; in consequence of which, there is a constant circulation of air between the outside weather-boarding and the inside wainscoting or plastering.' Mr. Atkinson's kitehen-garden is four acres in extent, and contains a range of glass 300 feet long. (Gard. Mag., for 1837, p. 467.)
