Editing Plains of Abraham (section)

==Name and features==
[[File:Plaque des premiers colons de Quebec.jpg|thumb|right|Plaque honouring the first settlers of Québec City, including Abraham Martin. (Affixed to back of monument to {{ill|Guillaume Couillard (settler)|fr|Guillaume Couillard|lt=Guillaume Couillard}}, which accompanies those to [[Louis Hébert]] and [[Marie Rollet]].) [[Parc Montmorency]], [[Québec City]].]] The plains are likely named after Abraham Martin (also known as L'Écossais) (1589–1664), a fisherman and river pilot called ''The Scot''. Martin moved to Quebec City in 1635 with his wife Marguerite Langlois and received {{cvt|32|acre}} of land divided between the lower town and promontory from the Company of New France.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/en/history-heritage/site-history/illustrious-park/| title=An illustrious park| work=National Battlefield Commission| access-date=4 April 2014}}</ref> Abraham's name appears in the [[toponymy]] of Quebec City at the time of the [[New France|French regime]], the deeds of the 17th and 18th centuries referring to the coast of Abraham, and a 1734 plan even precisely locating an Abraham Street. Later, the journals of the [[Francis de Gaston, Chevalier de Levis|Chevalier de Levis]] and the [[Louis-Joseph de Montcalm|Marquis de Montcalm]] referred to the ''Heights of Abraham'', as did the diaries of British soldiers, who also employed the phrase ''Plains of Abraham''.<ref>{{cite journal| editor-last=Mathieu| editor-first=Jacques | year=1992| title=Les plaines d'Abraham. Le culte de l'idéal| journal=Septentrion}}</ref>

[[File:Plaine abraham quebec.jpg|thumb|left|Looking toward the [[Château Frontenac]] and over the [[Saint Lawrence River]]]]
The park itself currently occupies an area approximately {{cvt|2.4|km}} long by {{cvt|0.8|km}},<ref name=Wood1911>{{Harvnb| Wood| 1911| p=155}}</ref> {{convert|98|ha}} that extends westward from the [[Citadelle of Quebec]] and the [[Ramparts of Quebec City|walls of Quebec City]] along a [[plateau]] above the [[Saint Lawrence River]], and forms a part of [[The Battlefields Park]]. An interpretive centre and walking trails have been built on the site, and [[monument]]s commemorate the [[Battle of Sainte-Foy]] and [[James Wolfe]], the latter being an astronomic meridian marker raised in 1790 by the Surveyor-General of Canada, Major Holland, on the site where Wolfe was said to have died.

In 1913, the National Battlefields Commission placed a column identical to one that had been built on the site in 1849, and a replica [[Cross of Sacrifice]] was constructed on the plains to commemorate soldiers who were lost in [[World War I]]; it continues to be the location of [[Remembrance Day]] ceremonies every year.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/_en/histoire.php| last=The National Battlefields Commission| title=Plains of Abraham > History of the Park| publisher=Queen's Printer for Canada| access-date=21 July 2009| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212183641/http://www.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/_en/histoire.php| archive-date=12 February 2009}}</ref>