The course of George Street toward the water is interrupted by the Parade, a rectangle where volunteers, red-coats, Hessians and Canadian troopers have in the past two centuries assembled for review. Here were held, also, the first religious services observed by Governor Cornwallis and his pioneers pending the completion of old St. Paul's, whose wooden façade looks across the Parade toward the modern City Hall. The church was the gift of George II to his new colony. It was begun soon after the arrival of the settlers' fleet, lumber having been despatched from Boston for its construction. "Timbered in times when men built strong," the body of the building has scarcely been altered from that day to this. A new spire, new aisles, new windows have contributed to its space and modest elegance, but the nave retains its original oak. Nowhere on the continent is there a sanctuary quite like it. It is the Abbey of the Provinces, the shrine of primitive Canada. To muse in its stiff wooden seats, to meditate among its tombs is like sitting at the feet of an oracle to learn of history and stirring deeds.
Over the vestibule door is the faded hatchment of Baron de Seitz who was Colonel of a Plessian regiment. He died in 1782 and was buried beneath the church in full accoutrement, including sword and spurs. Hung upon the balcony of the main aisle are the escutcheons of Admirals, Generals, Governors, Provincial Secretaries, and Chief
