Here is something new in the line of old time stuff. It is a story of a strip of carpet 80 feet long and four feet wide, made of maple leaves sewed together. This carpet was made in 1860 by the ladies of Dickenson’s Landing on the St. Lawrence, for the Prince of Wales (late King Edward VII) when he visited Dickenson’s Landing that year on his tour of the St. Lawrence.
On August 28th, 1860, the Prince’s party, under the tutelage of the Duke of Newcastle, went from Montreal to Dickenson’s Landing by Grand Trunk Railway, and at that point boarded the steamer Kingston and ran the various rapids back to Montreal.
At Dickenson’s Landing the Prince was given a splendid welcome. The road from the station to the river was lined on both sides with spruce trees and spanned by several light, but tasteful arches of evergreens. Bands of music were in attendance, the houses in the village were nicely decorated with flags, and Captain Dickenson’s troop of cavalry from Cornwall escorted the party to the wharf.
On the wharf was laid a carpet 80 feet long and four feet wide made of maple leaves sewed together the previous day by the ladies of the village. This bit of courtesy was so novel in its character that the Prince stopped in his careful walk over it, examined it, and commented upon the ingenious idea and also on the Industry of the ladies who, standing in a post of honour beside the walk, were naturally highly tickled by the Prince’s compliment.
Ten thousand farmers (including families) front the counties of Stormont and Dundas were present and cheered the Prince on. The gathering of the leaves and the sewing or weaving of them together must have been quite a task. They estimated that there must have been at least ten thousand maple leaves in that soft piece of carpet
Meanwhile in Lanark County
Tribute of a Pioneer
This rugged old veteran, George Pretty, who has never been ill a day in all his 96 years, didn’t see the King and Queen but back on his hundred acres in the seventh concession of Darling township as the drums rolled and pomp and circumstance marked the recent triumphal entry of Their Majesties to the Dominion’s Capital, the aged Mr. Pretty did his best to mark the epochal event. He got out a large picture of Queen Victoria and fastened it to a wide-spreading oak tree that stands in front of his premises. That sheltering tree was proudly planted by him seventy-nine years ago to mark the visit to Canada of another member of the royal family, the Prince of Wales, later His Majesty King Edward VII. Today what was then the tiny sapling with but six tender shoots planted in 1860 is now the most majestic tree on the premises. It is still the “Prince of Wales tree” and somehow one fancies King George VI would have been pleased had he been able to pass by the Pretty farm in Darling’s hinterland and see this living if modest monument erected so long ago in honour of his grandsire by a descendant of him who wore the King’s uniform before Victoria the Good was yet upon England’s throne.
Meanwhile in Carleton Place
Once upon a time the railroad never stopped at Carleton Place. In fact in 1860 an Ottawa Valley train bearing the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) breezed its way right through town without even blowing the train whistle or slowing down. Yes, much like we do when we travel through Innisville these days. One enthusiast on the station platform fired a small cannon in salute of the Prince as the carriages rolled by.“You’re wasting your powder,” shouted a grizzled old Scottish settler of the village. “Them trains will never notice us.”
However, years later the train did indeed stop in Carleton Place and rafts of fine quartered timber drifted down the Mississippi River river on its way to market
This came up on my feed from a year ago.. from Scott Henderson–-Looks like his father Edward VII preceded him with a visit to Lanark County in 1860: Royal Visit to Carleton Place 1860
Historian Recalls Visit of Royal Party 100 Years Ago
Carleton Place Canadian, 14 November 1957
By Howard M. Brown
The route of the state tour of Ottawa’s first royal visitor, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, included Lanark, Renfrew and Leeds counties. Proceeding in 1860 by boat from the new capital, the royal party received an elaborate lumbermen’s reception at Arnprior. Its progress continued by road from Arnprior to Almonte, the royal carriage passing through many triumphal arches erected at various points along the way.
Meanwhile in Mississippi Mills
Lanark County Royal Visit
After an Almonte reception the future Edward VII boarded his waiting train at that temporary terminus of the new railway, continuing by rail through Carleton Place and Smiths Falls to Brockville. A report of the royal progress through these Eastern Ontario counties, given by James Poole in the Carleton Place Herald, tells of a minor amusing adventure of the future king in Almonte as seen by the Carleton Place editor.
Bennie’s Comers was once one of a few of the smaller villages of the Ottawa district which was honoured by a visit from the Prince of Wales (King Edward) in 1860–and the Corners did itself proud on that occasion. It will be recalled that the Prince on the occasion of his visit here in 1860 sailed up the Ottawa river to Fitzroy Harbor, then to Arnprior where he stayed over night with Mr. McLachlin, the lumberman, and the following day drove to Almonte by way of Bennie’s Comers, and from Almonte took the Canada Central Railway on his way back.
Almonte was the terminus of the railway at the time. When Bennie’s Corners heard that the Prince was coming that way they all rose to the occasion. It decided to show that the hamlet was just as loyal as Arnprior or Almonte was. The farmers combined with the villagers and erected a large wooden arch, which they covered with evergreens, flags and loyal mottoes. All the houses were also decorated.
The Prince’s party, when they left Arnprior consisted of about 20 vehicles owned by Arnprior people. Neither the Prince nor his escort had expected any demonstration between Arnprior and Almonte and when they saw the elaborate preparations the little village had they were greatly surprised and pleased.
The villagers gave the Prince a great welcome as he drove through the Corners. Bennie’s Corners was a live little village in the 1860s. It began in the 1840s by John Bennie, but the cities and big towns later killed It. In 1860 when the Prince passed through, the village was a live business centre.
DICKINSON’S LANDING by Fran LaFlamme
The following essay was found among the papers obtained from the Fran Laflamme estate. Click
The settlement, located a couple of kilometres north of the much larger Dickinson’s Landing, remained sparsely populated and unnamed until the Grand Trunk Railway arrived–CLICK
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