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The Glory of Grand Pré

There is no section of Canada so rich in romance and folk-lore, so crowded with memories, as the region around Grand Pré, in the Land of Evangeline.

And here, most moving story of all, the French and English waged a century-long struggle, alternately captured, razed and recaptured - the continual clamor of war.

Here Col. Arthur Noble was killed on February 11th 1747, with one hundred of his New England men.

Here was St. Charles' Church where the Acadian men were assembled at the command of Governor Lawrence, of Halifax and told that they were prisoners.

Here Longfellow properly placed the home of Evangeline and her lover, Gabriel - and the start of the pathetic pilgrimage so thrillingly related in the poem.

Grand Pré was the theatre of the Evangeline story, so graphically told in Longfellow's epic poem. "Evangeline's" real name was Emmeline, the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, surnamed the "Sunshine of St. Eulalie". Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the blacksmith, and Rene LeBlanc, the heros of the Evangeline poem, are not fictitious but real characters, according to Acadian tradition. The poem itself , beautiful and poignant, is a classic.

Grand Pré National Historic Site

Acadia University

Wolfville