a certain house” in the Mount Stewart area, the R.C.M.P. came upon an illegal distillery under the protective covering of a large canvass sail. The equipment, consisting, among other things, of two 15—gallon copper stills, vats capable of holding 300 gallons of mash and two gas stoves, was still hot and believed to have been in operation that very morning. The owners were reported to have dug a well and installed an up—to-date

pump by the stills.

Prince Edward Island, the last province to do so, left prohibition in 1948. All retail sales of alcoholic beverages in the Province were then made through a number of liquor stores operated by the P.E.I. Temper- ance Commission. For long, however, no sale was made to any person who did not possess a permit, and permit holders were, moreover, re-

stricted to a monthly quota.

Entertainment

Entertainment in the Mount Stewart area over the years has been characterized by great diversity of form. In attempting a chronology of some of its highlights, it has, for want of a better arrangement, been deemed advisable to advance through the years, referring to each ac— tivity as the first detected reference to it occurred.

Honours for being the sport of greatest antiquity must go to horseracing. The Examiner for September 18, 1847 announced that races would take place at St. Andrew’s on the “29th instant” with the winn- ing post at Mr. P. Griffin’s. It was expected that “several good races will be won.” For many years only two horses and their drivers appear to have participated in any given race. Thus, in March of 1883, there was a trot on Savage Harbour Bay between the two “Jeff's”, one owned by H. R. Douglas of Head of Hillsborough and the other by Fred Pigot of Savage Harbour. The Douglas “Jeff” was the winner. Again, in February of 1908, the river ice at Pisquid was the scene of a contest between Artemas Cook’s horse “Dean” and Peter McAvinn’s mare “Flor- ence,” resulting in a victory for the former. During the 20’s and 30’s the entrants were more numerous and the events, as a consequence, more structured. The “Class B Trot and Pace” of races held in March, 1937 featured “Frisco,” owned by Robert Pigot of Savage Harbour, “Lady Watson,” owned by John McEachern, Cherry Hill, and “Laddie,” owned by Chester Birt of Pisquid. Judges for this event were Messrs. Chester Coffin, John Pigot and Wendell Jay, and the starters were Messrs. Urban MacDonald and William Gunn. Races during these years were quite numerous, and Mount Stewart became something of a mecca for fast horses and their enthusiastic owners, the “knights of the track.”

The cause of public entertainment in Mount Stewart received a great boost in 1875 with the incorporation of the Mount Stewart Hall Co. For some years the need for such a facility had been regarded as “absolutely necessary,” and so it was that, on April 27th, a bill de- claring Messrs. James White, John Roche Bourke, John J. Fletcher, William E. Clarke, David Egan, Duncan Coffin and James Ross 3. “body politic” was given Royal Assent. It is believed that the building itself, later known as the Foresters’ Hall and located on the present site of Coffin’s Feed Mill, may have been constructed out of an old Presby- terian kirk which was hauled to the village from Mermaid.

. The public lecture was a favoured form of entertainment for over thirty years followmg the opening of the hall. There was, for instance,

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