Sisters in the Viewfinder

Charlotte Gray's Sisters in the Wilderness brilliantly captures the literary lives of two sisters, transplanted from genteel Sussex country life, into the wilderness of the Lakefield area in the early 1800s. Their husbands, retired military officers on half-pay, were as unsuited to the rustic life of pioneers as were the ladies.

Those ladies, however, managed to make a literary name for themselves, with works that resonate even today. These lady pioneers were Catherine Parr Traill and Susanna Moodie.

Most memorable amid Catherine's formidable literary output was The Backwoods of Canada, (the full title adds Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer, Illustrative of the Domestic Economy of British America) a how-to guide for roughing it in the bush, published in 1836.

Her viewpoint has been described as "perennially optimistic." Certainly she put a brave cheerful face on a very difficult life. Her saving grace may have been her love of the nature around her. She was an amateur botanist, and published several studies of plants including Studies of Plant Life in Canada.

 Recently I managed to capture her literary home, something I'd been meaning to do for ages. The house in Lakefield had proved elusive until a  road trip for lunch in Buckhorn with our lovely aunt, and a return via Lakefield, address in hand. While my two favourite people cooled off near the river, I wandered up to take a few snaps of the shy frame farmhouse hiding in the trees. This site has some additional views and some text, if you can ignore the zippy animations.

The house is Westove, Catherine's home after the death of her husband in 1862, until her own death in 1899. There's a lovely contemporary image of the house on this dandy site.

 Catherine's sister Susanna Moodie may be better known. She wrote two works about the emigrant experience: Roughing it in the Bush(1852) - the title describing pretty much how she felt about the pioneer life - and Life in the Clearings(1853) - which expresses her relief and relative contentment, upon their move to Belleville in 1840, where her husband Dunbar served as Sheriff of Victoria District /Hastings County from 1839 to 1863.

No excuse for taking so long to photograph this fine stone house, which has evolved over the years from a pleasant Regency cottage. (I'm sure I saw a photo of its original form once.) Susanna (Strickland) Moodie's Belleville home is a short hop across town.

Although I know the owner, I haven't yet seen the interior. You'll recognize the doorcase in this 1866 photo at Collections Canada.

At right, Susanna's final resting place in bucolic Belleville Cemetery, by the tranquil Bay of Quinte.