Personal memoirs of 19th century immigrant tradespeople are rare indeed. An English bricklayer, Richard Lester, brought his large family to Ottawa in 1857 and wrote this one about 1900. It is a rich account of their hair-raising journey from England and 50 years of settler life here. Lester was also a prolific poet whose many compositions reveal not only an honest, hardworking and moral man, but a romantic and wise one; find them in the "Document History" section of Bytown Pamphlet no. 124.