T.C. Haliburton
NS c1800
Overview
Hurley on the long pond
Works
Highways
Waterways
Railway
Windsor
King’s College
Windsor Gypsum
NS 1st Historian
Why He Wrote
Jack of All Trades
O’Brien
Clifton
Right of Way
TCH’s Long Pond
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Thomas Chandler Haliburton –
His works are about Nova Scotia and "Mr. Blue Nose"
The Old Judge or Life in the Colony – Preface
by Thomas Chandler Haliburton
The following sketches of "Life in the colony" were drawn from
nature, after a residence of half a century among people whose habits,
manners, and social condition they are intended to delineate. I have adopted
the form of a tour, and the character of a stranger, for the double purpose
of avoiding the *prolixity of a journal, by the omission of tedious details,
and the egoism of an author, by making others speak for themselves in
their own way. The utmost care has been taken to exclude anything that
could by any possibility be supposed to have a personal reference, or
be the subject of annoyance. The "Dramatis Personae" of the
work are, therefore, ideal representatives of their several classes, having
all the characteristics and peculiarities of their own set, but no actual
existence…
I have also avoided, as far as practicable, topics common to other countries,
and endeavor to select scenes and characters peculiar to the colony (of
Nova Scotia), and not to be found in books…
This distinctive character is produced by the necessity of a new country,
by the nature of the climate, the want of an established Church, hereditary
rank, entailment of estates, and the subdivision of labour, on the one
hand, and the absence of nationality, independence, and republican institutions
on the other…
The Nova Scotian, who is more particularly the subject of this work,
is often found superintending the cultivation of a farm and building a
vessel at the same time; and is not only able to catch and cure a cargo
of fish, but to find his way with it to the West Indies or the Mediterranean;
he is a man of all work, but expert in none…
(he) is a handy, frank, good-natured, hospitable, manly fellow, and withal
quite good looking as his air gives you to understand he thinks himself
to be. Such is the gentleman known throughout America as Mr. Blue Nose,
a **sobriquet acquired from a superior potato of that name…
Note: The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 5th edition pub 1963
*prolixity – lengthy, tediously wordy
**sobriquet – nickname
Taken From-
The Old Judge or life in the Colony
by Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Originally published London, Henry Colburn1849
Volume Consulted Published by the Tucumseh Press, Ottowa, Canada, 1978
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