Page:Tourist's Maritime Provinces.djvu/312

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THE TOURIST'S MARITIME PROVINCES

of shady streets and by the bulk and effectiveness of provincial and government buildings which seem irrelevant in so village-like and placid a community. Fredericton is remote enough from larger and more broad-minded towns to be and also to appear self-sufficient. Since 1787 it has been the seat of the province and until the last quarter century barracks and drill-ground were gay with red coats. Before New Brunswick's first governor called it Frederick Town for the second son of King George III, the town then occupied by French Acadians was known as St. Anne's Point. Villebon's fort on the opposite bank of the St. John was the centre of a still earlier settlement which, in 1696, was cannonaded by a Massachusetts force assembled to avenge the joint French and Indian attack against Pemaquid. In this engagement the New Englanders lost twenty-five men and precipitately retired to their sloops, leaving Villebon's garrison almost intact.

The steamer landing is within a short walk of the shops and hotels on Queen Street. In the centre of the town surrounded by a level sward is the old Officers' Building whose balconies and arcades make a pleasing appeal. The things-to-see in Fredericton are limited to the Anglican Cathedral and the Parliament Building in east Queen Street, the handsome Post Office and old Government House in the west end of the town, and the University. The cathedral's Gothic walls