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Heriot (1807)Heriot, George (1759-1839). Travels Through the Canadas [...]. London: R. Phillips, 1807.
A writer, government official and landscape painter, George Heriot is remembered mainly in the latter capacity. With its sure execution, at once simple and highly evocative, his drawings and watercolours representing very picturesque landscapes or scenes are a delight to the eye. Born in 1759 in Haddington, Scotland, George Heriot seems to have studied drawing and painting in Edinburgh before staying in the West Indies from 1777 to 1781. Back in England, he enrolled in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, London, which offered courses in the art of topography as well as drawing and watercolour. He then served as a clerk at the Woolwich Board of Ordnance before being promoted to treasurer of the Board of Ordnance of the British Army in Quebec City in 1792. In 1799 he was appointed deputy postmaster general for British North America, and occupied this office until January 1816, when he resigned. He left Quebec City and went back to live in London, where he died in 1839, after taking frequent trips to different European countries while continuing to draw and paint. During his stay in North America, Heriot visited many different places to look for ways to improve mail service. He thus visited Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario, while making notes and sketches of the country and its inhabitants, which provided him with the material for his book, published in London in 1807 under the title Travels Through the Canadas. Heriot's work, which has become a classic of Canadian travel literature, is divided into two parts. The first part consists mainly of descriptions of the places he visited, whether inhabited or not, though Heriot prefers picturesque and romantic sites like Montmorency and Niagara Falls. The second part is entirely devoted to the ways and customs of different Indian tribes of North America. However, in this area Heriot is not much of an innovator: he borrows most of his descriptions from previous authors, such as Champlain, Lahontan, La Potherie, Lafitau, Charlevoix, Mackenzie and Vancouver.
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