Entertainment

Christmas at the Fort

"Bartering for the Christmas Dinner"




"Christmas Morning - Hoisting the British Flag"

"Making the Pudding"


"It Turned Out Rather Raw"

"And Indigestible"




"A Half-breed Ball"

"New Year's Day, a day above all days, for rioting in drunkenness, then what are we to expect from this young, but desperate Colony of ours; where dissipation is carried on to such extremities my readers will be expecting to find nothing in my Almanac, from Christmas, till past the New Year, but such a one drunk, and another drunk, and so on; how different is the scene, then what must I attribute the cause of all this, too, must I prescribe it to the good morals of the people; no! no! my friends, no such thing could be expected here; the grog-shops were drained of every sort of liquor, not a drop to be got for either love or money, had it been otherwise the case, there is no saying whither my small Almanac would have contained them or not; it would take a line of packet ships, running regular between here, and San Francisco to supply this Island with grog, so great a thirst prevails amongst its inhabitants."

"In 1859 several additions to the staff of the Hudson's Bay Company were made in the persons of James Beattie, Robert Jesse and others who came to Victoria by the steamer Labouchere from London. These young gentlemen added to those already on the ground formed quite a little society and many were the larks we organised and carried out. A favourite amusement was to get old Willie Mitchell to recite Shakespeare. One, Ronaldson, who had settled at Metchosin was one of the elect and we occasionally proceeded by water to spend the week end with him.

...Robert Jesse after continuing in the Hudson's Bay Co's service for some years, retired and joined that of the contractors for the first diversion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. He married the daughter of Captain McNeill and died at Lytton in 1881.

...James Beattie on his retirement returned to England when he became manager of a branch of the British Linen Company's Bank and subsequently accepted the position of Manager of the Bank of New Zealand at Nelson where he died leaving a numerous family by his wife my sister, of whom I have made frequent mention of in the earlier part of these memoirs."

Notes

Robert Melrose came to Victoria in 1850 as an employee of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. He worked as a labourer at Craigflower Farm and kept a five year journal of everyday events, including some personal commentary and poems.

Despite Melrose' descriptions of rampant drunkenness in the early days of Fort Victoria, there were other entertainments aside from the consumption of alcohol. Robert Melrose gave and was audience to numerous topical speeches. James Anderson mentions the recitation of Shakespeare, and Martha Cheney Ella wrote about theatre entertainment on board visiting ships. Indeed, early on Victoria was a stop on the international theatre circuit. Arthur Bushby spent a great deal of his nights visiting various people: having dinner, playing cards, going for picnics and horseback rides. The parties that were thrown were exciting affairs that sometimes lasted until four o'clock in the morning.