The Thomas Chandler Haliburton Symposium

Haliburton's "Clifton," at Windsor, Nova Scotia

Haliburton's "Clifton," at Windsor, Nova Scotia ALLEN E. PENNEY When forming an opinion about a person in history we first refer to his actions and then turn to descriptions and portraits by other people. If the person is a writer we give some weight to his writings, which often illuminate his prejudices, attitudes, and interests . Haliburton is usually quite explicit about his opinions, whether they issue from the mouth of Sam Slick or of someone else. Verbal portraits pale in comparison with visual portraits, yet we seldom use the house of the subject as a form of visual autobiography. This paper is about Haliburton's house, which he built for his family in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in the early 1830s. Gleaning significant facts about the attitudes, aspirations, and life-styles of the builder of a house is dependent upon the information remaining to be investigated, especially of the early house. "Clifton" has been substantially altered over time, and so we have to reconstruct the first house in our minds. This is the task of the architectural interpreter . During the past eight years of intermittent work I have striven to emulate one of my heroes, the fictional detective M. Hercule Poirot. But architects who dabble in history may end up looking more like Inspector Clouseau. Facts have to be first gathered and then arranged in order before they can be interpreted. The change in the elevation over time (figs, la and Ib) is so dramatic that one might think he is looking at a different house, whereas the plan (figs. 2a and 2b) remains consistent with only the addition of rooms. There are also some large gaps in the data. For example, there are no diaries or journals and little memorabilia. Interpretation without facts is very difficult, although the lack of data does not seem to have deterred certain people in the past. Previous mistakes can confuse the scene for later investigators. In1939 measured drawings were made of the house by the Provincial Government , which had just become the owner. A drawing shows only one roof thickness, whereas an inspection of the roof void at the same place reveals Figure la. Garden Front, Clifton, 1833+ Figure Ib. Garden Front, Clifton, 1913 + 9 two roofs with an air space between them. The evidence is clear, yet the drawing confuses. Further confusion has been created by a large body of oral history and tradition to which guides at the house seem particularly vulnerable. Two quotations may be used as examples of interpretive variation . The first appeared in The Evening Mail of March 1932: The main door in Haliburton's day did not face the gate but looked in the other direction towards the river.1 The inventory of the house, describing the painting by Sir Wyly Grier in 1940, states: The backgroundshows the outside of the dining room door, which was the front door when Judge Haliburton lived at Clifton.2 I believe that the second statement is very different from the first, and that the second is fundamentally wrong, because the present dining room was possibly not built until after Haliburton had left the house in 1856. So the entrance door was initially at the end of the house (fig. 3a), and later, probably after 1856, was at the back (fig. 3b). The scarcity of visual material makes definitiveinterpretation difficult . Views of the back of the house are especially rare. A conjectural reconstruction of the sequence of building cannot be proven because of lack of data. Several years ago an attempt was made to reconstruct the sequence of development of the house (fig. 4). Peeling away the accretions of time has been one of the purposes of my study. The stages are approximately correct but the problem of dating remains. I foresee little new material being added to the public archives, and therefore some parts can never be verified. Haliburton lived in a number of houses and it may be helpful if I give an overview of these before looking in detail at "Clifton." Evidence that Haliburton lived in these houses is obtained from some primary sources, and the writings of other historians and of Haliburton's own son Robert. The houses are: 1. Front Street, Windsor, the house of Judge William Otis Haliburton (fig. 5) and the house where Thomas Chandler Haliburton was born in 1796.3 He frequently puzzled his friends by saying that he and his...