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Macdonnell-Williamson House celebrates bicentennial heritage
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
colonies of North America. At that time Scotland was enduring harsh retribution from the British government following the unsuccessful Jacobite rebel- lion under Prince Charlie, an heir to the throne of Scotland. The disastrous civil war saw “Bonny Prince Charlie” go into exile in France while the Highland clans who had supported him suffered persecution, including both seizures of ancient lands and holdings and the imposition of the “Tartan Laws”, which forbade everything associated with Scots culture from the speaking and teaching of Gaelic to wearing traditional clan tartans. This and other aspects of Scots histo- ry and culture were included in the day’s events at Macdonnell-Williamson House, with displays of swordsmanship, hands-on archery lessons, and performances by the Gaelic Choir.The evening concluded with a grand dinner for the Macdonnell-William- son Reunion as more than 70 Macdonnell descendants and admirers of Gaelic culture sat down to supper.
There are two kinds of people in the world. There are the Scots, and then there are those whowish they were. Both came toge- ther in the Chute-à-Blondeau/Pointe-For- tune area, over the weekend, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Macdonnell-Williamson House. “People went away with a good feeling,” said George Henderson, co-chairman of the Friends of Macdonnell-Williamson House. “They loved themaypole dance. It was some- thing different this year that most people had never done.” The bicentennial celebration occupied all of Saturday over the Aug. 20 weekend, with visitors to the 200-year-old heritage house located along the Ottawa River in the Chute-à-Blondeau/Pointe-Fortune area, close to the original boundary stonemarking between the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, which existed when theMacdonnell family emigrated fromScotland to the British
Line Boutin (left), Elena Pretty and Sébastien Larivée are dressed in character for a talk on the history of the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
La maisonMacdonnell-Williamson à Chute-à-Blondeau, un des plus anciens bâtiments patrimoniaux de l’est de l’Ontario, est un site populaire pour les visiteurs de la région avec ses caractéristiques architecturales géorgiennes et son exposition intérieure d’objets divers. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
Renée Fleury, a Friend of Macdonnell- Williamson House, poses for the camera. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
Brigitte Bakx
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There can be only one, though whether the victor will be Scotland, as represented by Kevin Côté, or England, in the person of David Farley Chevrier, all depends on the results of the fencing demonstration. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
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