Elizabeth Posthuma Guillim, an English heiress, married John Graves Simcoe when she was sixteen and he was thirty. When Simcoe, who had served the British in the American Revolution, was named lieutenant governor of Upper, or western, Canada in 1790, he sailed to take up his post, accompanied by his wife and two of the youngest of their six children. Adventurous and curious about people, places, and things, Mrs. Simcoe relished the strangeness of her new environment. In her diary, she recorded details of the flora and fauna she encountered. A gifted artist, never without her watercolors and pens, she also produced drawings and paintings of scenes she wanted to remember.
The Simcoes crossed Lake Ontario and arrived at the garrison of Niagara on July 26th, 1792. 
Because Navy Hall, the building being renovated for them, was not finished, tents called Marquees or Canvas Houses were pitched to accommodate them.
One of the first sights the Simcoes went to see was Niagara Falls.
M. 30th—At 8 this morning we set off in Calashes [a kind of carriage] to go to the Falls, 16 miles from hence. … We had a delightful drive thro the woods on the bank of the River which is excessively high the whole way. … we ascended an exceeding steep road to the top of the Mountain, which commands a fine view of the Country, as far as the Garrison of Niagara & across the lake. From hence the road is entirely flat to the Falls, of which I did not hear the sound until within a mile of them. … The fall is said to be but 170 feet in height. The River previously rushes in the most rapid manner on a declivity for 3 miles, & those rapids are a fine sight. The fall itself is the grandest sight imaginable from the immense width of waters & the circular form of the grand fall; to the left of which is an Island. … A few Rocks separate this from Ft. Schlosser Fall, on the American side of the river, which, passing over a straight ledge of rock, has not the beauty of the circular form or its green colour, the whole centre of the circular fall being of the brightest green, & below it is frequently seen a Rainbow.
I descended an exceeding steep hill to get to the table Rock, from whence the view of the falls is tremendously fine. Men sometimes descend the Rocks below this projecting point, but it is attended with great danger & perhaps little picturesque advantage.
The prodigious Spray which arises from the foam at the bottom of the fall adds grandeur to the scene, which is wonderfully fine & after the eye becomes more familiar to the objects I think the pleasure will be greater in dwelling upon them.
“In Camp near Queenstown, 1793” is from a drawing by Mrs. Simcoe. The watercolor rendering of Niagara Falls from the Canadian side, 1792, is also by her. The excerpt and illustrations are from The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe, wife of the First Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada, 1792-96, with Notes and a Biography by J. Ross Robertson (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), pages 76-77.
It was taken by the British during the Revolution, but in a midnight assault on July 16, 1779 the Continental Light Infantry, under the command of Mad Anthony Wayne, seized the hilltop garrison. The Americans waded through 3-foot deep water on the Haverstraw Bay side and made their way up a steep embankment with orders to use only bayonets so as not to raise the alarm. The British were surprised and, recognizing defeat was inevitable, surrendered.
After refreshments there was a demonstration of the firepower of the site’s six-pound cannon. Did you ever wonder about the derivation of the term “ramrod?”
