Spirit of Canada Gallery
Featuring the Magna Carta

The Spirit of Canada Gallery opened in 2010 for its eleventh year this summer.

As Canada's first political gallery, it has a interesting exhibit of Canada's political leaders depicting the history of Canada.

On display and featuring this year at the Gallery, is a beautifully framed copy of the Magna Carta, an English legal charter, originally written in Latin and issued in 1215.

The English translation of Magna Carta is 'Great Charter'. The Magna Carta was the most significant early influence on the extensive historical process that led to the rule of constitutional law to-day in the English speaking world. Magna Carta required King John of England to proclaim certain rights pertaining to individuals and to respect certain legal procedures. It explicitly protected certain rights of the people.

The Spirit of Canada Gallery is located at the Drope Century Farm which has been in the family for more than 135 years and was purchased at the time when Sir John A. Macdonald was in office.

The farm is located just fifteen miles north of Cobourg, in the village of Harwood, on the south shore of Rice Lake, part of the Trent Severn Waterway. The village of Harwood, in 1854, was the site of an important railway station for the historic Cobourg and Peterborough Railway.

Gallery Features

• A History of Canada - 1867 to the present
  Depicted by pictures of Canadian Prime Ministers and
  Canadian Artifacts
• Portrait of King Edward VII who visited Harwood when he was the Prince of Wales in 1860.
• Model of the 1850s Cobourg-Peterborough Railway showing the Causeway and Bridge which crossed Rice Lake