Such is humour at the Crossroads Tea Room celebrating the 200th anniversary of their beloved Perth. I inquired on the meaning of the French Queen greeting guests. We settled tongue-in-cheek on a reference to “cake”.

“We are the only tea room in Perth,” the manager quickened. “We ran out of scones today,” she added. Among menu items, the perfunctory British scones and jam with clotted cream make a high-brow statement. Alas! this writer was not to partake. Not yet.

Perth’s first settlers arrived in 1816. That’s not too long after Upper Canada and Lower Canada were established in 1791. It is most surprising to consider that the first settlers arrived on the heels of the war of 1812. Out of the ashes of then Lower Canada, a community began to thrive Northward. Today, Perth stands as one of the great beauties of East Ontario.

Perth’s clock towers above Gore Street