The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1921-08-31
BOOTH ANNIVERSARY
OF NOVA SCOTIA TO-DAY
Observance Of Charter Grantinu Be.
gins at Annapolis Royal, with
Extensive PROGRAM

Annapolis Royal, N. s., Aug. 81
Sixteen years before the Mayflower
with brailed sails cast anchor off Ply
mouth Rock, the S.eur de Monts
sighted the Annapolis Basin from the
stern deck Of another ship, the Aca.
die. and landed to from the first set.
tlement Of white men north OF the
Gulf of Mexico
Today Nova Scotians celebrated the
three hundredth anniversary of the
granting Of the charter of New Scot
land) Nova Scotia. by King James /.
to Sir William Alexander, in 1921. and
paid tribute To the sturdy Scottish pi.
oneers who laid the foundations of set
Element and government in this pro-
vince three centuries ago as we'll as
intrepid French adventurers whose
landing and settlement in 1904 makes
this town second only to st. Angus.
tine Florida, in point of age, in North
America.
a tablet was unveiled by the Govern
ment of Nova Scotia, concentrating
the grant to Sir William Alexander and
the Scottish foundation of Nova SEQ
tia. and another honoring the 200th
year since the establishment and sit
ting of the first court administering
English Common Law in what is now
the Dominion of Canada. A third tab
let is in honor of Thomas Chandler
Halliburton. the eminent Nova Scotia
statesman, iurist and humorist who,
as creator of Sam Slick, the Yankee
clockmaRer, won fame as the father of
American humor. Judge Halliburton
was admitted to the bar Of Nova SEQ
ia a century ago, and his famous book
The Clockmaker or Sayings and Do
ings of Sam Slick of Slickyilie' ap.
peared in 1887.
The Annapolis Valley afforded n
smgularly appropriate setting for the
impressive ceremonies. The quaint,
old.world town perched on the bluffs
royal for the beauty of its environ.
called by deMonts. Port Royal, lie port
ment, but later named Annapolis Roy
al by General Nicholson in honor of
Queen Anne, oyerloks the enclosed
basin, where imagination readily con
jures picture Of three masted high
popped vessel with square mainsail;
of Champlain and deMonts and their
TO lowers In their weatherbeaten doub-
let's.
The old French powderhouse, lined
with stones brought from France es-
pecially to keep the powder dry still
stands inside the fort built by the
Sieur in 1905 among the first erected
on American soil. With first the
eur-de-lis and then the British lion
flying from the peak, the fort was the
scene of thirteen sangunary battles
during the French and Indian Wars
An army and navy brigade comman
ded by General Nicholson was dis.
the last time the flag of Louis OF
patched from Boston in l7lO and for
France was hauled down. The huge
last time and now reposes in the col
iron key whined IN the lock for the
lection of the Massachusetts Histori
cal Society
The cannons were taken to England
and supplanted by bluntnosed old
barkers that still poke their ugly
snouts from the moss grown rampurts
and bastions.
The officers barracks built by the
Duke of Kent, Queen Victorias ia
ther, have been converted into a mu
scum where the idle tourist may gaze
on relics that would-if they coult
talk-tell many fine tale of advent
ure and romance of the early days
when Americas history was told OF
few pages.