Читать книгу Sir John A.'s Crusade and Seward's Magnificent Folly - Richard Rohmer - Страница 4

Once upon a time, there was an imagined place in England called Downton Abbey, which was the similarly and brilliantly imagined seat of the aristocratic Crawley family, headed by the upstanding, capable, handsome Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham.

Once upon today, “this” time there is a real place in England named Highclere Castle, which is the seat of the legendary Earls of Carnarvon, the Herbert family. At the time of the 1866 foray to England by the Fathers of Confederation of the colony of Canada, the family was headed by Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, the fourth earl of Carnarvon, and the then colonial secretary to the British government.

Downton Abbey, as it appears in the magnificent television series, is actually Highclere Castle, often known as Carnarvon Castle. It was there that much of the Downton Abbey series was and will be shot. It was also there that the difficult quest for Canada’s status as an ultimately self-governing monarchy nation truly began on December 11, 1866, as this piece of historical fiction demonstrates. The novel also has a focus on the highly secret attempt by future Canadian prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald to negotiate the purchase by the British for and on behalf of Canada the strategically important Russian American holdings known then, and now, as Alaska. It also has a focus on the creative work of William Steward, the U.S. Secretary of State, in his successful dealings with his Congress and the Russian Tsar, leading to the American purchase of Alaska — Seward’s magnificent folly!

Richard Rohmer

October 2012

Collingwood, Ontario