English Bloods: In the Backwoods of Muskoka, 1878

Farming in the Canadian backwoods in the late 1800s was a prospect that enticed many young Englishmen to cross the Atlantic. One such fellow was Frederick de la Fosse, whose well-meaning uncle paid £100 per annum for his young nephew to serve as a farm pupil in the northern reaches of Muskoka. Some years later, de la Fosse, under the pseudonym of Roger Vardon, wrote an illuminating and humorous biographical account of the trials and tribulations of the "English Bloods," the local epithet at...