Release date is 2025-12-30

Fiona Holmes and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive).

"Nova Scotia" by Beckles Willson is a historical and travel account written in the early 20th century. The work offers a vivid portrait of the province’s past and present—its exploration and settlement, coastal and rural landscapes, towns and industries, and self-image—while advocating that immigrants and travelers consider this often-overlooked “front door” to Canada. Blending history, anecdote, and on-the-ground observation, it moves place by place (notably Halifax, the Annapolis Valley, Cape Breton, and Windsor) with illustrations and local color.

The opening of this work begins with an introduction by Nova Scotia’s premier praising the province’s resources, technical education, and promise for immigrants, followed by a provocative preface in which the author contrasts the West’s immigration boom with Nova Scotia’s steadier, more “British” character. It then shifts to a traveler’s approach by sea and an argument that the province has been “passed by” through lack of promotion, before launching into a brisk early history: Norse sightings, Cabot, French Acadia at Port Royal (with Champlain’s “Order of Good Time”), English raids, and the long Anglo-French struggle. A substantial section recounts Sir William Alexander’s charter, the Nova Scotia baronetcies, faltering Scottish settlement, and France’s temporary resurgence, leading to Britain’s eventual hold on the mainland and the later Loyalist influx. The narrative next sketches the province’s character—predominantly Scottish with Gaelic communities—then swiftly surveys its geography from rugged Atlantic shores to Fundy tides, the apple-rich Annapolis Valley, and Cape Breton’s Bras d’Or. It touches on identity and memory (“Blue-nose,” Joseph Howe, notable Nova Scotians), and turns to Halifax: its great harbour, garrison and naval heritage, Dickens’s admiring arrival, critiques of wooden architecture, the transition to Canadian control, St. Paul’s church, a debated new cathedral, and Sandford Fleming’s memorial tower. The opening also notes the rise of technical education and industry (the Technical College, dry dock), and acknowledges Black and Maroon communities around Halifax. It closes by turning inland to Windsor—home of King’s College and associated with “Sam Slick”—introducing its schools, setting, and genteel tone. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: London: Constable & Company Ltd, 1912