Magical History Tour

Finally the rain stopped so we enacted a plan to vacate the summer shackri-la for awhile to explore back roads in mainland Nova Scotia.

A Livingstone ancestor imported the family bloodline to New Scotland in 1790. We saw Livingstone Cove in Antigonish County where Malcolm established a homestead; we visited the St. David’s churchyard where ten or twelve old Livingstone headstones slowly lose the battle against the elements and the ravages of time.

My ancestor fought with the Highland Stuarts at the calamitous Battle of Culloden, which ended Bonnie Prince Charlie’s adventure and put the sword to the Highland clan system. The battle occurred 264 years ago, but even today it resonates strongly in both the Old Scotland and the New. At Knoydart a roadside sign pointed the way to a monument I’d never seen or even heard of. In 1938, a MacDonald clansman, still possessed of strong feelings about the atrocities visited by the English following the 1746 debacle, built a cairn honouring three Culloden survivors who made good lives for themselves in Nova Scotia. The monument stands on a windswept headland clearly selected to evoke the highland moor where the Highlanders fell. The monument plaque reads, in part:
Let them tear our bleeding bosoms
Let them drain our dearest veins
In our hearts is Charlie, Charlie
While a drop of blood remains

Whew.

Our road trip morphed into a magical history tour. Jan urged a stop at the NS Museum of Industry at Stellarton. Later we saw the Sutherland steam-powered sawmill at Denmark NS, the nearby Balmoral Grist Mill and finally the Maitland site of the shipyard where William Dawson Lawrence built the largest wooden sailing ship the world had ever seen. At each of these fascinating stops I was struck by the energy, industry, initiative and inventiveness of 19th century Nova Scotians and pondered the changes that have led to Stephen Harper feeling entitled to talk about the region’s “culture of defeat”.

Defeatists were not evident at sparsely-populated Wallace. If you are ever in the neighbourhood you might want to consider pausing at the Jubilee Cottage Inn. It was the nearby national wildlife area that drew us to Wallace but having seen the Jubilee included in a list of five things ‘not to miss’ on the Northumberland shore we took a room in the century-old house. The room was charming enough but the capper was a fabulous 5-part dinner feast produced by Carol, the female half of our husband-and-wife hosts. Carol is a brilliant country chef and she delivered one of the best meals we’ve ever enjoyed, anytime, anywhere.

Carrying on to Black Rock for a sibling weekend with my three sisters and their rhyming spouses, Donnie, Ronnie and Jonnie, we enjoyed a surfeit of Cape Sable lobsters and evening outdoor fires. On Saturday the eight of us stormed the Marigold Cultural Centre in Truro for a virtuoso performance by one of my favourite singer-songwriters, Lennie Gallant, the best-known, best-loved native of Rustico PEI.

Now we are back at Big Bras d’Or, a few pounds heavier for our gustatory indulgences but with head swimming with ideas for the next round of historical pursuits and rambles.

Alan