Tag Archives: cheese

We have seen thee, queen of cheese

The orig­i­nal 7,300 lb Mam­moth Cheese of 1866, depart­ing its birth­place in Inger­soll, Ontario.

I’m doing a lit­tle research on Cana­di­an lit­er­a­ture of the 19th cen­tu­ry. This is not a field that over­whelms the researcher with an abun­dance of mas­ter­pieces. Cana­da, at this time, was an emp­ty, rugged, pio­neer­ing place, vague­ly British in the soci­ety of its small urban elite, but for most peo­ple cul­tur­al­ly clos­er the the west­ern parts of the Unit­ed States. Mon­tre­al had a mod­est lit­er­ary life in French, draw­ing on sev­er­al cen­turies of folk­lore and even pro­duc­ing a few operas. These works were unknown in the rest of the French-speak­ing world. Eng­lish-speak­ing Mon­treal­ers were more inter­est­ed in com­merce than cul­ture. Out­side of Mon­tre­al, the only real city, there was not much oth­er than small towns, farms and wilder­ness.  Read more »