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image: Agnes Maule Machar Ferncliff Cottage was built in the 1850's as a summer home for the highly-respected Canadian author Agnes Maule Machar. Some of Gananoque's oldest residents still recall Miss Machar (1837-1927) as "a little old lady in a grey suit, a grey parasol with a frill ... always with her little grey dog,"* who visited their schools to give little talks about nature, or to form children's "Bands of Mercy" to protect animals. Some recall being invited to tea at Ferncliff, or meeting her in the Ferncliff Woods, where they were warmly welcome so long as they did not pick wild flowers "or in any way disturb or destroy nature."
      But the frail old lady these long-ago children of Gananoque still dimly remember was known to contemporaries around the English-speaking world as "Fidelio" --her pen name, for Agnes Maule Machar was one of Victorian Canada's best-known authors, whose "keen intelligence and judgment guided conferences and councils," whose eloquence and generosity served "every work for the good of man or beast"--from the League of Nations to the Kingston Home of the Aged.
     A life-long resident of Kingston, Ontario, Miss Machar made the grand tour after her graduation from Queens' University, and on her return purchased a tract of land in the "Upper Isles" of the St. Lawrence River from a Gananoque farmer who found it too rocky to be useful. Ferncliff Cottage was designed by Miss Machar herself to resemble the chalets she had seen in Europe, and she spent all her summers there.
image: Lawson and Heather Chambers image: Lawson and Heather Chambers image: Heather with daughter Damaris A frequent visitor at Ferncliff was Lawson Powers Chambers, a student at Queens' and son of Machar's friend Robert Chambers, who taught English in Turkey. When the childless Miss Machar passed away, she left her beloved Ferncliff to Lawson. It was his wife, Adelaide (an avid gardener), who had trucked in soil to cover the rock around the cottage and create the current lawns.
Four Generation at Ferncliff:
the cottage has been lovingly tended by Miss Machar's heirs since 1927. Top left to bottom right: Lawson Chambers and his daughter Heather; Heather with her own child Damaris; Damaris and her husband Glenn with children Amanda and Charlie.		 image: Heather with daughter Damaris image: Heather with daughter Damaris image: Damaris and family
Lawson and Adelaide's daughter Heather, and after her, their granddaughter Damaris and great-granddaughter Amanda, have continued to care for Ferncliff.
      Recent years have seen expanded restoration work, such as the current efforts to recreate Adelaide Chambers' extensive gardens. Vacation rentals help to support this endeavor, as well as allowing others to enjoy the oasis of peace that Ferncliff has provided to its caretakers for over a hundred years.

*All quotes from contemporary Kingston newspapers.
For more information about Agnes Maule Machar, visit The National Library of Canada's site on Machar's work.


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