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UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS:

The French Regime:

The history of the Eastern Townships begins with the Abenakis, who, according to oral tradition, had a number of villages in the region. The Abenakis used the region's forests and waterways for hunting, fishing, trade, and travel.

The southeast corner of the province of Quebec is home to the region known as the Eastern Townships. The region is famous across Canada and internationally for its scenic beauty and history.

Celebrated Quebec sculptor and painter Albert Laliberté was born in Ste-Élisabeth-de-Warwick in 1878. At the age of eighteen, he went to Montreal to study at the Société des arts and the Conseil des arts et manufactures.

Opened in 1929 at the dawn of the talking movie, the Granada Theatre in downtown Sherbrooke is one of Canada’s most beautiful atmospheric theatres. With its sumptuous interior decorated with tromp l’oeil Mediterranean scenes, it was a popular venue for both movies and live entertainment.

The composite photograph seen here was published as a postcard in 1916 to commemorate the centennial of the first Roman Catholic mass celebrated in Sherbrooke.

Monseigneur Antoine Racine, the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sherbrooke, was born in Saint-Ambroise-de-la-Jeune-Lorette, near Quebec City, in 1822. He received his early education from an uncle, who was a priest in a nearby parish.

Nestled in the hills not far from the Canada-U.S. border at East Hereford is the tiny hamlet of Saint-Venant-de-Paquette. Saint-Venant, or Paquetteville, as many of the locals still call it, has a population of 111, making it one of the smallest municipalities in the Eastern Townships. It is also, arguably, one of the most pretty.

"In a civilization more and more mobile, loud-sounding and speaking, zones of silence become a vital necessity. So monasteries more than ever are called to be haunts of peace and interiority. Never let internal or external pressures affect your traditions and your means of recollection.

To enter the Musée du patrimoine Louis-Emile-Beauregard in Dudswell, Quebec, is to enter a land of Lilliputian delight. Take a trip to yesteryear and visit the miniature world of Louis-Émile Beauregard, where, as the brochure proclaims, "your amazement is guaranteed."

Anyone interested in fine architecture and history will love Stanstead. Located on the American border just opposite Derby Line, Vermont, Stanstead was created in 1995 out of the former "Three Villages" of Stanstead Plain, Rock Island, and Beebe Plain.

FOUR-SEASON RESORT

A hundred and twenty years after it was built, and twenty-five years after it was by-passed, the covered bridge over the Fitch Bay Narrows is still standing.

Located at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, the township of Dudswell was first inhabited around 1800, in the area of Bishopton. About 1824, the area surrounding Marbleton, nestled around a small lake in a luscious green valley, expanded with the mining of calcium deposits, which drew an influx of Francophones.

The towns hug the river bank along the St. Francis. It almost doesn't matter what direction one takes to come to this once bustling railroad community -- the view from the hills as the traveller approaches Richmond or Melbourne is spectactular.

Any outing to the northeastern part of the Townships (the Hautes-Appalaches region) would be incomplete without a visit to Kinnear's Mills. Off the beaten track about 20 km northeast of Thetford Mines, this little hamlet is located at the heart of a hilly region in the Osgood River valley.

There's more than meets the eye at the Archives of the Missisquoi Historical Society.

The letter was addressed to Mrs. N. Nicholson, Richmond, Quebec. It read: "Dear Mrs. Nicholson. Do you feel that breakfast seems incomplete without a bread of some sort? Just break open a biscuit made with Crisco." This was ad copy, I realized, despite the header "Mac Rae Bros. Pure Food Products." "Notice its sweet appetizing aroma.

(Continued from Tighsolas: House of Light, Part 1: An Intimate Glimpse into the World of a Turn-of-the-Century Townships Family) Do you believe in magic? If only the magic of the Internet.