Canada was coming into its own in the 1860s, according to writer Luella Creighton. First published a hundred years after Confederation, Creighton's book celebrates the thriving culture of Canada during its nascent years. No longer a land of pioneers and hardship, the New World was a place where travel, communication, and trade flourished, rivalling the cities of the Old World. Much of the book, a lively mix of fact and fiction, consists of narratives from foreign travellers, many of whose expectations of burdened lives and economic privation change as they witness the elegance, hierarchy, and wealth that Canada had to offer.

• Introduction to the Wynford Edition


• Foreword


• 1. Rendezvous at Charlottetown


• 2. The Canadians Entertain


• 3. The Travellers and the Towns


• 4. Christmas in a Village, Canada West, 1866


• 5. Winter Time and "The Cone"


• 6. Spacious Days


• 7. The Chatelaine


• 8. The Fashionable Years


• 9. The Sixties and the Simple Faith


• 10. Canadians in Paris, 1867


• 11. Concerning the Duty of Women


• 12. Literary Life


• 13. The Sound of Music


• 14. The Glamour of the Garrison


• 15. Summer Time


• 16. Mr. Lawson Comes Home


• 17. Old Grey City


• 18. On the First of July, 1867


• Notes

Luella Creighton (1901-1996) was born in Stouffville, Ontario. She studied at the University of Toronto under E.J. Pratt and the Sorbonne, and later married esteemed Canadian historian and writer Donald Creighton, with whom she had two children. A writer of fiction, non-fiction, and children's stories, she is best-known for her novel High Bright Buggy Wheels (1951, reissued in 2013), which depicts Mennonite life in rural Ontario. The Wynford edition of Elegant Canadians is introduced by Cynthia Flood, Luella Creighton's daughter.