Rendered rich in money and lands by his extemporized mercantile operations, Mr. St. George returned to his native France soon after the restoration of Louis XVIII., and passed the rest of his days partly in Paris and partly on estates in the neighbourhood of Montpellier. During his stay in Canada he formed a close friendship with the Baldwins of York; and on his departure, the house on King Street, which has given rise to these reminiscences of him, together with the valuable commercial interests connected with it, passed into the hands of a junior member of that family, Mr. John Spread Baldwin, who himself, on the same spot, subsequently laid the foundation of an ample fortune.

(It is a phenomenon not uninteresting to the retrospective mind, to observe, in 1869, after the lapse of half a century, the name of Quetton St. George reappearing in the field of Canadian Commerce.)

Advancing now on our way eastward, we soon came in front of the abode of Dr. Burnside, a New-England medical man of tall figure, upright carriage, and bluff, benevolent countenance, an early promoter of the Mechanics'-Institute movement, and an encourager of church-music, vocal and instrumental. Dying without a family dependent on him, he bequeathed his property partly to Charities in the town, and partly to the University of Trinity College, where two scholarships perpetuate his memory.

Just opposite was the residence of the venerable Mrs. Gamble, widow of Dr. Gamble, formerly a surgeon attached to the Queen's Rangers. This lady died in 1859, in her 92nd year, leaving living descendants to the number of two hundred and four. To the west of this house was a well-remembered little parterre, always at the proper season gay with flowers.

At the next corner, on the north side, a house now totally demolished, was the original home of the millionaire Cawthra family, already once alluded to. In the Gazette and Oracle of June 21, 1806, Mr. Cawthra, senior, thus advertises:—"J. Cawthra wishes to inform the inhabitants of York and the adjacent country, that he has opened an Apothecary Store in the house of A. Cameron, opposite Stoyell's Tavern in York, where the Public can be supplied with most articles in that line. He has on hand also, a quantity of Men's, Women's, and Children's shoes and Men's hats. Also for a few days will be sold the following articles, Table Knives and Forks, Scissors, Silver Watches, Maps and Prints, Profiles, some Linen, and a few Bed-Ticks, Teas, Tobacco, a few casks of fourth proof Cognac Brandy, and a small quantity of Lime Juice, and about twenty thousand Whitechapel Needles. York, June 14, 1806." And again, on the 27th of the following November, he informs the inhabitants of York and the neighbouring country that he had just arrived from New York with a general assortment of "apothecary articles;" and that the public can be supplied with everything in that line genuine: also patent medicines: he likewise intimates that he has brought a general assortment of Dry Goods, consisting of "broad cloths, duffils, flannels, swansdown, corduroys, printed calicoes, ginghams, cambrick muslins, shirting, muslin, men and women's stockings, silk handkerchiefs, bandana shawls, pulicat and pocket handkerchiefs, calimancoes, dimity and check; also a large assortment of men's, women's, and children's shoes, hardware, coffee, tea and chocolate, lump and loaf sugar, tobacco, &c., with many other articles: which he is determined to sell on very low terms at his store opposite Stoyell's tavern." York, Nov. 27, 1806. (The Stoyell's Tavern here named, had previously been the Inn of Mr. Abner Miles.)

Immediately across, at the corner on the south side, was a depôt, insignificant enough, no doubt, to the indifferent passer-by, but invested with much importance in the eyes of many of the early infantiles of York. Its windows exhibited, in addition to a scattering of white clay pipes, and papers of pins suspended open against the panes for the public inspection, a display of circular discs of gingerbread, some with plain, some with scalloped edge; also hearts, fishes, little prancing ponies, parrots and dogs of the same tawny-hued material; also endwise in tumblers and other glass vessels, numerous lengths or stems of prepared saccharine matter, brittle in substance, white-looking, but streaked and slightly penetrated with some rich crimson pigment; likewise on plates and oval dishes, a collection of quadrangular viscous lumps, buff-coloured and clammy, each showing at its ends the bold gashing cut of a stout knife which must have been used in dividing a rope, as it were, of the tenacious substance into inch-sections or parts.

In the wrapping paper about all articles purchased here, there was always a soupçon of the homely odors of boiled sugar and peppermint. The tariff of the various comestibles just enumerated was well known; it was precisely for each severally, one half-penny. The mistress of this establishment bore the Scottish name of Lumsden—a name familiar to us lads in another way also, being constantly seen by us on the title-pages of school-books, many of which, at the time referred to, were imported from Glasgow, from the publishing-house of Lumsden and Son.

A little way down the street which crosses here, was Major Heward's house, long Clerk of the Peace for the Home District, of whom we had occasion to speak before. Several of his sons, while pursuing their legal and other studies, became also "mighty hunters;" distinguished, we mean, as enthusiastic sportsmen. Many were the exploits reported of them, in this line.

We give here an extract from Mr. McGrath's lively work, published in 1833, entitled "Authentic letters from Upper Canada, with an Account of Canadian Field Sports." "Ireland," he says, "is, in many places, remarkable for excellent cock-shooting, which I have myself experienced in the most favourable situations: not, however, to be compared with this country, where the numbers are truly wonderful. Were I to mention," Mr. McGrath continues, "what I have seen in this respect, or heard from others, it might bring my graver statements into disrepute."

"As a specimen of the sport," he says, "I will merely give a fact or two of, not unusual success; bearing, however, no proportion to the quantity of game. I have known Mr. Charles Heward, of York," he proceeds to state, "to have shot in one day thirty brace at Chippewa, close to the Falls of Niagara—and I myself," Mr. McGrath continues, "who am far from being a first-rate shot, have frequently brought home from twelve to fourteen brace, my brothers performing their part with equal success."

But the younger Messrs. Heward had a field for the exercise of their sportsman skill nearer home than Chippewa. The Island, just across the Bay, where the black-heart plover were said always to arrive on a particular day, the 23rd of May, every year, and the marshes about Ashbridge's bay and York harbour itself, all abounded with wild fowl. Here, loons of a magnificent size used to be seen and heard; and vast flocks of wild geese, passing and re-passing, high in air, in their periodical migrations. The wild swan, too, was an occasional frequenter of the ponds of the Island.

XV.

On the morrow the cannon is missed from the sloop (she was being prepared for the spring navigation): on instituting an inquiry, Capt. Oates is mysteriously informed the lost article is, by some means, up somewhere on the premises of Mr. J. S. Baldwin, the gentleman who had been honoured with the salute, and that if he desired to recover his property he must despatch some men thither to fetch it. (We shall have occasion to refer hereafter to the Richmond, when we come to speak of the early Marine of York Harbour.)

Passing on our way eastward we came immediately, on the north side, to one of the principal hotels of York, a long, white, two-storey wooden building. It was called the Mansion House—an appropriate name for an inn, when we understand "Mansion" in its proper, but somewhat forgotten sense, as indicating a temporary abode, a place which a man occupies and then relinquishes to a successor. The landlord here for a considerable time was Mr. De Forest, an American who, in some way or other, had been deprived of his ears. The defect, however, was hardly perceptible, so nicely managed was the hair. On the ridge of the Mansion House roof was to be seen for a number of years a large and beautiful model of a completely-equipped sailing vessel.

We then arrived at the north-west angle of King and Princes streets, where a second public well (we have already commemorated the first,) was sunk, and provided with a pump in 1824—for all which the sum of £36 17s. 6d. was paid to John James on the 19th of August in that year. In the advertisements and contracts connected with this now obliterated public convenience, Princes Street is correctly printed and written as it here meets the eye, and not "Princess Street," as the recent corruption is.

Let not the record of our early water-works be disdained. Those of the metropolis of the Empire were once on a humble scale. Thus Master John Stow, in his Survey of London, Anno 1598, recordeth that "at the meeting of the corners of the Old Jurie, Milke Street, Lad Lane, Aldermanburie, there was of old time a fair well with two buckets; of late years," he somewhat pathetically adds, "converted to a pump."

Just across eastward from the pump was one of the first buildings put up on King Street: it was erected by Mr. Smith, who was the first to take up a building lot, after the laying-out of the town-plot.

On the opposite side, a few steps further on, was Jordan's—the far-famed "York Hotel"—at a certain period, the hotel par excellence of the place, than which no better could be found at the time in all Upper Canada. The whole edifice has now utterly disappeared. Its foundations giving way, it for a while seemed to be sinking into the earth, and then it partially threatened to topple over into the street. It was of antique style when compared with the Mansion House. It was only a storey-and-a-half high. Along its roof was a row of dormer windows. (Specimens of this style of hotel may still be seen in the country-towns of Lower Canada.)

When looking in later times at the doorways and windows of the older buildings intended for public and domestic purposes, as also at the dimensions of rooms and the proximity of the ceilings to the floors, we might be led for a moment to imagine that the generation of settlers passed away must have been of smaller bulk and stature than their descendants. But points especially studied in the construction of early Canadian houses, in both Provinces, were warmth and comfort in the long winters. Sanitary principles were not much thought of, and happily did not require to be much thought of, when most persons passed more of their time in the pure outer air than they do now.

Jordan's York Hotel answered every purpose very well. Members of Parliament and other visitors considered themselves in luxurious quarters when housed there. Probably in no instance have the public dinners or fashionable assemblies of a later era gone off with more eclat, or given more satisfaction to the persons concerned in them, than did those which from time to time, in every season, took place in what would now be considered the very diminutive ball-room and dining-hall of Jordan's.

In the ball-room here, before the completion of the brick building which replaced the Legislative Halls destroyed by the Americans in 1813, the Parliament of Upper Canada sat for one session.

In the rear of Jordan's, detached from the rest of the buildings, there long stood a solid circular structure of brick, of considerable height and diameter, dome-shaped without and vaulted within, somewhat resembling the furnace into which Robert, the huntsman, is being thrust, in Retzsch's illustration of Fridolin. This was the public oven of Paul Marian, a native Frenchman who had a bakery here before the surrounding premises were converted into a hotel by Mr. Jordan. In the Gazette of May 19, 1804, Paul Marian informs his friends and the public "that he will supply them with bread at their dwellings, at the rate of nine loaves for a dollar, on paying ready money."

About the same period, another Frenchman, François Belcour, is exercising the same craft in York. In Gazettes of 1803, he announces that he is prepared "to supply the ladies and gentlemen who may be pleased to favor him with their custom, with bread, cakes, buns, etc. And that for the convenience of small families, he will make his bread of different sizes, viz., loaves of two, three, and four pounds' weight, and will deliver the same at the houses, if required." He adds that "families who may wish to have beef, etc., baked, will please send it to the bake-house." In 1804, he offers to bake "at the rate of pound for pound; that is to say he will return one pound of Bread for every pound of Flour which may be sent to him for the purpose of being baked into bread."

After the abandonment of Jordan's as a hotel, Paul Marian's oven, repaired and somewhat extended, again did good service. In it was baked a goodly proportion of the supplies of bread furnished in 1838-9, to the troops, and incorporated militia at Toronto, by Mr. Jackes and Mr. Reynolds.

As the sidewalks of King Street were apt to partake, in bad weather, of the impassableness of the streets generally at such a time, an early effort was made to have some of them paved. Some yards of foot-path, accordingly, about Jordan's, and here and there elsewhere, were covered with flat flagstones from the lake-beach, of very irregular shapes and of no great size: the effect produced was that of a very coarse, and soon a very uneven mosaic.

At Quebec, in the neighborhood of the Court House, there is retained some pavement of the kind now described: and in the early lithograph of Court House Square, at York, a long stretch of sidewalk is given in the foreground, seamed over curiously, like the surface of an old Cyclopean or Pelasgic wall.

On April the 26th, 1823, it was ordered by the magistrates at Quarter Sessions that "£100 from the Town and Police Fund, together with one-fourth of the Statute Labour within the Town, be appropriated to flagging the sidewalks of King Street, commencing from the corner of Church Street and proceeding east to the limits of the Town, and that both sides of the street do proceed at the same time." One hundred pounds would not go very far in such an undertaking. We do not think the sidewalks of the primitive King Street were ever paved throughout their whole length with stone.

After Jordan's came Dr. Widmer's surgery, associated with many a pain and ache in the minds of the early people of York, and scene of the performance upon their persons of many a delicate, and daring, and successful remedial experiment. Nearly opposite was property appertaining to Dr. Stoyell, an immigrant, non-practising medical man from the United States, with Republican proclivities as it used to be thought, who, previous to his purchasing here, conducted, as has been already implied, an inn at Mrs. Lumsden's corner. (The house on the other side of Ontario Street, westward, was Hayes' Boarding House, noticeable simply as being in session-time, like Jordan's, the temporary abode of many Members of Parliament.)

After Dr. Widmer's, towards the termination of King Street, on the south side, was Mr. Small's, originally one of the usual low-looking domiciles of the country, with central portion and two gable wings, somewhat after the fashion of many an old country manor-house in England.

The material of Mr. Small's dwelling was hewn timber. It was one of the earliest domestic erections in York. When re-constructed at a subsequent period, Mr. Charles Small preserved, in the enlarged and elevated building, now known as Berkeley House, the shape and even a portion of the inner substance of the original structure.

We have before us a curious plan (undated but old) of the piece of ground originally occupied and enclosed by Mr. Small, as a yard and garden round his primitive homestead: occupied and enclosed, as it would seem, before any building lots were set off by authority on the Government reserve or common here. The plan referred to is entitled "A sketch showing the land occupied by John Small, Esq., upon the Reserve appropriated for the Government House at York by His Excellency Lt. Gov. Simcoe." An irregular oblong, coloured red, is bounded on the north side by King Street, and is lettered within—"Mr. Small's Improvements." Round the irregular piece thus shewn, lines are drawn enclosing additional space, and bringing the whole into the shape of a parallelogram: the parts outside the irregularly shaped red portion, are colored yellow: and on the yellow, the memorandum appears—"This added would make an Acre." The block thus brought into shapely form is about one-half of the piece of ground that at present appertains to Berkeley House.

The plan before us also incidentally shows where the Town of York was supposed to terminate:—an inscription—"Front Line of the Town"—runs along the following route: up what is now the lane through Dr. Widmer's property: and then, at a right angle eastward along what is now the north boundary of King Street opposite the block which it was necessary to get into shape round Mr. Small's first "Improvements." King Street proper, in this plan, terminates at "Ontario Street:" from the eastern limit of Ontario Street, the continuation of the highway is marked "Road to Quebec,"—with an arrow shewing the direction in which the traveller must keep his horse's head, if he would reach that ancient city.—The arrow at the end of the inscription just given points slightly upwards, indicating the fact that the said "Road to Quebec" trends slightly to the north after leaving Mr. Small's clearing.

XVI.

Looking up Parliament Street we are reminded that a few yards westward from where Duke Street enters it, lived at an early period Mr. Richard Coates, an estimable and ingenious man, whose name is associated in our memory with the early dawn of the fine arts in York. Mr. Coates, in a self-taught way, executed, not unsuccessfully, portraits in oil of some of our ancient worthies. Among things of a general or historical character, he painted also for David Willson, the founder of the "Children of Peace," the symbolical decorations of the interior of the Temple at Sharon. He cultivated music likewise, vocal and instrumental; he built an organ of some pretensions, in his own house, on which he performed; he built another for David Willson at Sharon. Mr. Coates constructed, besides, in the yard of his house, an elegantly-finished little pleasure yacht, of about nine tons burden.

This passing reference to infant Art in York recalls again the name of Mr. John Craig, who has before been mentioned in our account of the interior of one of the many successive St. Jameses. Although Mr. Craig did not himself profess to go beyond his sphere as a decorative and heraldic painter, the spirit that animated him really tended to foster in the community a taste for art in a wider sense.

Mr. Charles Daly, also, as a skilful teacher of drawing in water-colours and introducer of superior specimens, did much to encourage art at an early date. In 1834 we find Mr. Daly promoting an exhibition of Paintings by the "York Artists and Amateur Association," and acting as "Honorary Secretary," when the Exhibition for the year took place. Mr. James Hamilton, a teller in the bank, produced, too, some noticeable landscapes in oil.

As an auxiliary in the cause, and one regardful of the wants of artists at an early period, we name, likewise, Mr. Alexander Hamilton; who, in addition to supplying materials in the form of pigments and prepared colours, contributed to the tasteful setting off of the productions of pencil and brush, by furnishing them with frames artistically carved and gilt.

Out of the small beginnings and rudiments of Art at York, one artist of a genuine stamp was, in the lapse of a few years, developed—Mr. Paul Kane; who, after studying in the schools of Europe, returned to Canada and made the illustration of Indian character and life his specialty. By talent exhibited in this class of pictorial delineation, he acquired a distinguished reputation throughout the North American continent; and by his volume of beautifully illustrated travels, published in London, and entitled "Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America," he obtained for himself a recognized place in the literature of British Art.

In the hollow, a short distance westward of Mr. Coates's, was one of the first buildings of any size ever erected in these parts wholly of stone. It was put up by Mr. Hutchinson. It was a large square family house of three storeys. It still exists, but its material is hidden under a coating of stucco. Another building, wholly of stone, was Mr. Hunter's house, on the west side of Church Street. A portion of Hugill's Brewery likewise exhibited walls of the same solid, English-looking substance. We now resume our route.

We immediately approach another road entering from the north, which again draws us aside. This opening led up to the only Roman Catholic church in York, an edifice of red-brick, substantially built. Mr. Ewart was the contractor. The material of the north and south walls was worked into a kind of tesselated pattern, which was considered something very extraordinary. The spire was originally surmounted by a large and spirited effigy of the bird that admonished St. Peter, and not by a cross. It was not a flat, moveable weathercock, but a fixed, solid figure, covered with tin.

In this building officiated for some time an ecclesiastic named O'Grady. Mingling with a crowd, in the over-curious spirit of boyhood, we here, at funerals and on other occasions, first witnessed the ceremonial forms observed by Roman Catholics in their worship; and once we remember being startled at receiving, by design or accident, from an overcharged aspergillum in the hands of a zealous ministrant of some grade passing down the aisle, a copious splash of holy water in the eye.

Functionaries of this denomination are generally remarkable for their quiet discharge of duty and for their apparent submissiveness to authority. They sometimes pass and repass for years before the indifferent gaze of multitudes holding another creed, without exciting any curiosity even as to their personal names. But Mr. O'Grady was an exception to the general run of his order. He acquired a distinctive reputation among outsiders. He was understood to be an unruly presbyter; and through his instrumentality, letters of his bishop, evidently never intended to meet the public eye, got into general circulation. He was required to give an account of himself, subsequently, at the feet of the "Supreme Pontiff."

Power Street, the name now applied to the road which led up to the Roman Catholic church, preserves the name of the Bishop of this communion, who sacrificed his life in attending to the sick emigrants in 1847.

The road to the south, a few steps further on, led to the wind-mill built by Mr. Worts, senior, in 1832. In the possession of Messrs. Gooderham & Worts are three interesting pictures, in oil, which from time to time have been exhibited. They are intended to illustrate the gradual progress in extent and importance of the mills and manufactures at the site of the wind-mill. The first shows the original structure—a circular tower of red brick, with the usual sweeps attached to a hemispherical revolving top; in the distance town and harbour are seen. The second shows the wind-mill dismantled, but surrounded by extensive buildings of brick and wood, sheltering now elaborate machinery driven by steam power. The third represents a third stage in the march of enterprise and prosperity. In this picture gigantic structures of massive, dark-coloured stone tower up before the eye, vying in colossal proportions and ponderous strength with the works of the castle-builders of the feudal times. Accompanying these interesting landscape views, all of them by Forbes, a local artist of note, a group of life-size portraits in oil, has occasionally been seen at Art Exhibitions in Toronto—Mr. Gooderham, senior, and his Seven Sons—all of them well-developed, sensible-looking, substantial men, manifestly capable of undertaking and executing whatever practical work the exigencies of a young and vigorous community may require to be done.

Whenever we have chanced to obtain a glimpse of this striking group (especially the miniature photographic reproduction of it on one card), a picture of Tancred of Hauteville and his Twelve Sons, "all of them brave and fair," once familiar as an illustration appended to that hero's story, has always recurred to us; and we have thought how thankfully should we regard the grounds on which the modern Colonial patriarch comforts himself in view of a numerous family springing up around him, as contrasted with the reasons on account of which the enterprising Chieftain of old congratulated himself on the same spectacle. The latter beheld in his ring of stalwart sons so many warriors; so much good solid stuff to be freely offered at the shrine of his own glory, or the glory of his feudal lord, whenever the occasion should arise. The former, in the young men and maidens, peopling his house, sees so many additional hands adapted to aid in a bloodless conquest of a huge continent; so much more power evolved, and all of it in due time sure to be wanted, exactly suited to assist in pushing forward one stage further the civilizing, humanizing, beautifying, processes already, in a variety of directions, initiated.

and it is to the victories of peace chiefly that the colonial father expects his children to contribute.

When the families of Mr. Gooderham and Mr. Worts crossed the Atlantic, on the occasion of their emigration from England, the party, all in one vessel, comprised, as we are informed, so many as fifty-four persons more or less connected by blood or marriage.

We have been told by Mr. James Beaty that when out duck shooting, now nearly forty years since, he was surprised by falling in with Mr. Worts, senior, rambling apparently without purpose in the bush at the mouth of the Little Don: all the surrounding locality was then in a state of nature, and frequented only by the sportsman or trapper. On entering into conversation with Mr. Worts, Mr. Beaty found that he was there prospecting for an object; that, in fact, somewhere near the spot where they were standing, he thought of putting up a wind-mill! The project at the time seemed sufficiently Quixotic. But posterity beholds the large practical outcome of the idea then brooding in Mr. Worts's brain. In their day of small things the pioneers of new settlements may take courage from this instance of progress in one generation, from the rough to the most advanced condition. For a century to come, there will be bits of this continent as unpromising, at the first glance, as the mouth of the Little Don, forty years ago, yet as capable of being reclaimed by the energy and ingenuity of man, and being put to divinely-intended and legitimate uses.—Returning now from the wind-mill, once more to the "road to Quebec," in common language, the Kingston road, we passed, at the corner, the abode of one of the many early settlers in these parts who bore German names—the tenement of Peter Ernst, or Ernest as the appellation afterwards became.

From these Collections and Recollections matters of comparatively so recent a date as 1849 have for the most part been excluded. We make an exception in passing the Church which gives name to Trinity Street, for the sake of recording an inscription on one of its interior walls. It reads as follows:—"To the Memory of the Reverend William Honywood Ripley, B.A., of University College, Oxford, First Incumbent of this Church, son of the Rev. Thomas Hyde Ripley, Rector of Tockenham, and Vicar of Wootton Bassett in the County of Wilts, England. After devoting himself during the six years of his ministry, freely, without money and without price, to the advancement of the spiritual and temporal welfare of this congregation and neighbourhood, and to the great increase amongst them of the knowledge of Christ and His Church, he fell asleep in Jesus on Monday the 22nd of October, 1849, aged 34 years. He filled at the same time the office of Honorary Secretary to the Church Society of the Diocese of Toronto, and was Second Classical Master of Upper Canada College. This Tablet is erected by the Parishioners of this Church as a tribute of heartfelt respect and affection. Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."

Canadian society in all its strata has been more or less leavened from England. One of the modes by which the process has been carried on is revealed in the inscription just given. In 1849, while this quarter of Toronto was being taken up and built over, the influence of the clergyman commemorated was singularly marked within it. Mr. Ripley, in his boyhood, had been trained under Dr. Arnold, at Rugby; and his father had been at an early period, a private tutor to the Earl of Durham who came out to Canada in 1838 as High Commissioner. As to the material fabric of Trinity Church—its erection was chiefly due to the exertions of Mr. Alexander Dixon, an alderman of Toronto.

The brick School-house attached to Trinity Church bears the inscription: "Erected by Enoch Turner, 1848." Mr. Turner was a benevolent Englishman who prospered in this immediate locality as a brewer, and died in 1866. Besides handsome bequests to near relations, Mr. Turner left by will, to Trinity College, Toronto, £2,000; to Trinity Church, £500; to St. Paul's £250; to St. Peter's £250.

Just opposite on the left was where Angell lived, the architect of the abortive bridges over the mouths of the Don. We obtain from the York Observer of December 11, 1820, some earlier information in regard to Mr. Angell. It is in the form of a "Card" thus headed: "York Land Price Current Office, King Street." It then proceeds—"In consequence of the Increase of the population of the Town of York, and many applications for family accommodation upon the arrival of strangers desirous of becoming settlers, the Subscriber intends to add to the practice of his Office the business of a House Surveyor and Architect, to lay out Building Estate, draw Ground plans, Sections and Elevations, to order, and upon the most approved European and English customs. Also to make estimates and provide contracts with proper securities to prevent impostures, for the performance of the same. E. Angell. N.B.—Land proprietors having estate to dispose of, and persons requiring any branch of the above profession to be done, will meet with the most respectful attention on application by letter, or at this office. York, Oct. 2, [1820]."

The expression, "York Land Price Current Office," above used is explained by the fact that Mr. Angell commenced at this early date the publication of a monthly "Land Price Current List of Estates on Sale in Upper Canada, to be circulated in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales."

Near Mr. Angell, on the same side, lived also Mr. Cummins, the manager of the Upper Canada Gazette printing office; and, at a later period, Mr. Watson, another well-known master-printer of York, who lost his life during the great fire of 1849, in endeavouring to save a favourite press from destruction, in the third storey of a building at the corner of King and Nelson streets, a position occupied subsequently by the Caxton-press of Mr. Hill.

On some of the fences along here, we remember seeing in 1827-8, an inscription written up in chalk or white paint, memorable to ourselves personally, as being the occasion of our first taking serious notice of one of the political questions that were locally stirring the people of Upper Canada. The words inscribed were—No Aliens! Like the Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, which we ourselves also subsequently saw painted on the walls of Paris; these words were intended at once to express and to rouse public feeling; only in the present instance, as we suppose now, the inscription emanated from the oligarchical rather than the popular side. The spirit of it probably was "Down with Aliens,"—and not "Away with the odious distinction of Aliens!"

A dispute had arisen between the Upper and the Lower House as to the legal terms in which full civil rights should be conferred on a considerable portion of the inhabitants of the country. After the acknowledgment of independence in 1783, emigrants from the United States to the British Provinces came in no longer as British subjects, but as foreigners. Many such emigrants had acquired property and exercised the franchise without taking upon themselves, formally, the obligations of British subjects. After the war of 1812, the law in regard to this matter began to be distinctly remembered. The desire then was to check an undue immigration from the southern side of the great lakes; but the effect of the revival of the law was to throw doubt on the land titles of many inhabitants of long standing; doubt on their claim to vote and to fill any civil office.

The consent of the Crown was freely given to legislate on the subject: and in 1825-6 the Parliament resolved to settle the question. But a dispute arose between the Lower and Upper House. The Legislative Council sent down a Bill which was so amended in terms by the House of Assembly that the former body declared it then to be "at variance with the laws and established policy of Great Britain, as well as of the United States; and therefore if passed into a law by this Legislature, would afford no relief to many of those persons who were born in the United States, and who have come into and settled in this Province." The Upper House party set down as disloyal all that expressed themselves satisfied with the Lower House amendments. It was from the Upper House party, we think, that the cry of "No Aliens!" had proceeded.

The Alien measure had been precipitated by the cases of Barnabas Bidwell and of his son Marshall, of whom the former, after being elected, and taking his seat as member for Lennox and Addington, had been expelled the House, on the ground of his being an alien; and the latter had met with difficulties at the outset of his political career, from the same objection against him. In the case of the former, however, his alien character was not the only thing to his disadvantage.

It was in connection with the expulsion of Barnabas Bidwell that Dr. Strachan gave to a member of the Lower House, when hesitating as to the legality of such a step, the remarkable piece of advice, "Turn him out, turn him out! Never mind the law!"—a dictum that passed into an adage locally, quoted usually in the Aberdeen dialect.

Barnabas Bidwell is thus commemorated in Mackenzie's Almanac for 1834: "July 27, 1833: Barnabas Bidwell, Esq., Kingston, died, aged 69 years and 11 months. He was a sincere friend of the rights of the people; possessed of extraordinary powers of mind and memory, and spent many years of his life in doing all the good he could to his fellow-creatures, and promoting the interests of society."

Irritating political questions have now, for the most part, been disposed of in Canada. We have entered into the rest, in this respect, secured for us by our predecessors. The very fences which, some forty years ago, were muttering "No Aliens!" we saw, during the time of a late general election, exhibiting in conspicuous painted characters, the following exhortation: "To the Electors of the Dominion—Put in Powell's Pump"—a humorous advertisement, of course, of a particular contrivance for raising water from the depths. We think it a sign of general peace and content, when the populace are expected to enjoy a little jest of this sort.

A small compact house, with a pleasant flower garden in front, on the left, a little way on, was occupied for a while by Mr. Joshua Beard, at the time Deputy Sheriff, but afterwards well known as owner of extensive iron works in the town.

We then came opposite to the abode, on the same side, of Mr. Charles Fothergill, some time King's Printer for Upper Canada. He was a man of wide views and great intelligence, fond of science, and an experienced naturalist. Several folio volumes of closely written manuscript, on the birds and animals generally of this continent, by him, must exist somewhere at this moment. They were transmitted to friends in England, as we have understood.

We remember seeing in a work by Bewick a horned owl of this country, beautifully figured, which, as stated in the context, had been drawn from a stuffed specimen supplied by Mr. Fothergill. He himself was a skilful delineator of the living creatures that so much interested him.

In 1832 Mr. Fothergill sat in Parliament as member for Northumberland, and for expressing some independent opinions in that capacity, he was deprived of the office of King's Printer. He originated the law which established Agricultural Societies in Upper Canada.

In 1836, he appears to have been visited in Pickering by Dr. Thomas Rolph, when making notes for his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada." "The Township of Pickering," Dr. Rolph says, "is well settled and contains some fine land, and well watered. Mr. Fothergill," he continues, "has an extensive and most valuable museum of natural curiosities at his residence in this township, which he has collected with great industry and the most refined taste. He is a person of superior acquirements, and ardently devoted to the pursuit of natural philosophy." P. 189.

It was Mr. Fothergill's misfortune to have lived too early in Upper Canada. Many plans of his in the interests of literature and science came to nothing for the want of a sufficient body of seconders. In conjunction with Dr. Dunlop and Dr. Rees, it was the intention of Mr. Fothergill to establish at York a Museum of Natural and Civil History, with a Botanical and Zoological Garden attached; and a grant of land on the Government Reserve between the Garrison and Farr's Brewery was actually secured as a site for the buildings and grounds of the proposed institution.

A prospectus now before us sets forth in detail a very comprehensive scheme for this Museum or Lyceum, which embraced also a picture gallery, "for subjects connected with Science and Portraits of individuals," and did not omit "Indian antiquities, arms, dresses, utensils, and whatever might illustrate and make permanent all that we can know of the Aborigines of this great Continent, a people who are rapidly passing away and becoming as though they had never been."

For several years Mr. Fothergill published "The York Almanac and Royal Calendar," which gradually became a volume of between four and five hundred duodecimo pages, filled with practical and official information on the subject of Canada and the other British American Colonies. This work is still often resorted to for information.

Hanging in his study we remember noticing a large engraved map of "Cabotia." It was a delineation of the British Possessions in North America—the present Dominion of Canada in fact. It had been his purpose in 1823 to publish a "Canadian Annual Register;" but this he never accomplished. While printing the Upper Canada Gazette, he edited in conjunction with that periodical and on the same sheet, the "Weekly Register," bearing the motto, "Our endeavour will be to stamp the very body of the time—its form and pressure: we shall extenuate nothing, nor shall we set down aught in malice." From this publication may be gathered much of the current history of the period. In it are given many curious scientific excerpts from his Common Place Book. At a later period, he published, at Toronto, a weekly paper in quarto shape, named the "Palladium."

Among the non-official advertisements in the Upper Canada Gazette, in the year 1823, we observe one signed "Charles Fothergill," offering a reward "even to the full value of the volumes," for the recovery of missing portions of several English standard works which had belonged formerly, the advertisement stated, to the "Toronto Library," broken up "by the Americans at the taking of York." It was suggested that probably the missing books were still scattered about, up and down, in the town. It is odd to see the name of "Toronto" cropping out in 1823, in connection with a library. (In a much earlier York paper we notice the "Toronto Coffee House" advertised.)

Mr. Fothergill belonged to the distinguished Quaker family of that name in Yorkshire. A rather good idea of his character of countenance may be derived from the portrait of Dr. Arnold, prefixed to Stanley's Memoir. An oil painting of him exists in the possession of some of his descendants.

We observe in Leigh Hunt's London Journal, i. 172, a reference to "Fothergill's Essay on the Philosophy, Study and Use of Natural History;" and we have been assured that it is our Canadian Fothergill who was its author. We give a pathetic extract from a specimen of the production, in the work just referred to: "Never shall I forget," says the essayist, "the remembrance of a little incident which many will deem trifling and unimportant, but which has been peculiarly interesting to my heart, as giving origin to sentiments and rules of action which have since been very dear to me."

"Besides a singular elegance of form and beauty of plumage," continues the enthusiastic naturalist, "the eye of the common lapwing is peculiarly soft and expressive; it is large, black, and full of lustre, rolling, as it seems to do, in liquid gems of dew. I had shot a bird of this beautiful species; but, on taking it up, I found it was not dead. I had wounded its breast; and some big drops of blood stained the pure whiteness of its feathers. As I held the hapless bird in my hand, hundreds of its companions hovered round my head, uttering continued shrieks of distress, and, by their plaintive cries, appeared to bemoan the fate of one to whom they were connected by ties of the most tender and interesting nature; whilst the poor wounded bird continually moaned, with a kind of inward wailing note, expressive of the keenest anguish; and, ever and anon, it raised its drooping head, and turning towards the wound in its breast, touched it with its bill, and then looked up in my face, with an expression that I have no wish to forget, for it had power to touch my heart whilst yet a boy, when a thousand dry precepts in the academical closet would have been of no avail."

The length of this extract will be pardoned for the sake of its deterrent drift in respect to the wanton maiming and massacre of our feathered fellow-creatures by the firearms of sportsmen and missiles of thoughtless children.

Eastward from the house where we have been pausing, the road took a slight sweep to the south and then came back to its former course towards the Don bridge, descending in the meantime into the valley of a creek or watercourse, and ascending again from it on the other side. Hereabout, to the left, standing on a picturesque knoll and surrounded by the natural woods of the region, was a good sized two-storey dwelling; this was the abode of Mr. David MacNab, sergeant-at-arms to the House of Assembly, as his father had been before him. With him resided several accomplished, kind-hearted sisters, all of handsome and even stately presence; one of them the belle of the day in society at York.

Here were the quarters of the Chief MacNab, whenever he came up to York from his Canadian home on the Ottawa. It was not alone when present at church that this remarkable gentleman attracted the public gaze; but also, when surrounded or followed by a group of his fair kinsfolk of York, he marched with dignified steps along through the whole length of King Street, and down or up the Kingston road to and from the MacNab homestead here in the woods near the Don.

In his visits to the capital, the Chief always wore a modified highland costume, which well set off his stalwart, upright form: the blue bonnet and feather, and richly embossed dirk, always rendered him conspicuous, as well as the tartan of brilliant hues depending from his shoulder after obliquely swathing his capacious chest; a bright scarlet vest with massive silver buttons, and dress coat always jauntily thrown back, added to the picturesqueness of the figure.

It was always evident at a glance that the Chief set a high value on himself.—"May the MacNab of MacNabs have the pleasure of taking wine with Lady Sarah Maitland?" suddenly heard above the buzz of conversation, pronounced in a very deep and measured tone, by his manly voice, made mute for a time, on one occasion, the dinner-table at Government House. So the gossip ran. Another story of the same class, but less likely, we should think, to be true, was, that seating himself, without uncovering, in the Court-room one day, a messenger was sent to him by the Chief Justice, Sir William Campbell, on the Bench, requiring the removal of his cap; when the answer returned, as he instantly rose and left the building, was, that "the MacNab of MacNabs doffs his bonnet to no man!"

At his home on the Chats the Emigrant Laird did his best to transplant the traditions and customs of by-gone days in the Highlands, but he found practical Canada an unfriendly soil for romance and sentiment. Bouchette, in his British Dominions, i. 82, thus refers to the Canadian abode of the Chief and to the settlement formed by the clan MacNab. "High up [the Ottawa]," he says, "on the bold and abrupt shore of the broad and picturesque Lake of the Chats, the Highland Chief MacNab has selected a romantic residence, Kinnell Lodge, which he has succeeded, through the most unshaken perseverance, in rendering exceedingly comfortable. His unexampled exertions in forming and fostering the settlement of the township, of which he may be considered the founder and the leader, have not been attended with all the success that was desirable, or which he anticipated."

Bouchette then appends a note wherein we can see how readily his own demonstrative Gallic nature sympathized with the kindred Celtic spirit of the Highlander. "The characteristic hospitality that distinguished our reception by the gallant Chief," he says, "when, in 1828, we were returning down the Ottawa, after having explored its rapids and lakes, as far up as Grand Calumet, we cannot pass over in silence. To voyageurs in the remote wilds of Canada," he continues, "necessarily strangers for the time to the sweets of civilization, the unexpected comforts of a well-furnished board, and the cordiality of a Highland welcome, are blessings that fall upon the soul like dew upon the flower. 'The sun was just resigning to the moon the empire of the skies,' when we took our leave of the noble chieftain," he adds, "to descend the formidable rapids of the Chats. As we glided from the foot of the bold bank, the gay plaid and cap of the noble Gaël were seen waving on the proud eminence, and the shrill notes of the piper filled the air with their wild cadences. They died away as we approached the head of the rapids. Our caps were flourished, and the flags (for our canoe was gaily decorated with them) waved in adieu, and we entered the vortex of the swift and whirling stream."

In 1836, Rolph, in his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada," p. 146, also speaks of the site of Kinnell Lodge as "greatly resembling in its bold, sombre and majestic aspect, the wildest and most romantic scenery" of Scotland. "This distinguished Chieftain," the writer then informs us, "has received permission to raise a militia corps of 800 Highlanders, a class of British subjects always distinguished for their devoted and chivalrous attachment to the laws and institutions of their noble progenitors, and who would prove a rampart of living bodies in defence of British supremacy whenever and wherever assailed."

The reference in Dean Ramsay's interesting "Reminiscences of Scottish life and Character," to "the last Laird of MacNab," is perhaps to the father of the gentleman familiar to us here in York, and who filled so large a space in the recollections of visitors to the Upper Ottawa. "The last Laird of MacNab before the clan finally broke up and emigrated to Canada was," says the Dean in the work just named, "a well-known character in the country; and, being poor, used to ride about on a most wretched horse, which gave occasion to many jibes at his expense. The Laird," this writer continues, "was in the constant habit of riding up from the country to attend the Musselburgh races [near Edinburgh]." A young wit, by way of playing him off on the race course, asked him in a contemptuous tone, "Is that the same horse you had last year, Laird?"—"Na," said the Laird, brandishing his whip in the interrogator's face in so emphatic a manner as to preclude further questioning, "Na! but it's the same whup!" (p. 216, 9th ed.)

We do not doubt but that the MacNabs have ever been a spirited race. Their representatives here have always been such; and like their kinsmen in the old home, too, they have had, during their brief history in Canada, their share of the hereditary vicissitudes. We owe to a Sheriff's advertisement in the Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle of the 14th of April, 1798, published at Niagara, some biographical particulars and a minute description of the person of the Mr. MacNab who was afterwards, as we have already stated, Usher of the Black Rod to the House of Assembly and father of his successor, Mr. David MacNab, in the same post; father also of the Allan MacNab, whose history forms part of that of Upper Canada.

In 1798, imprisonment for debt was the rigorously enforced law of the land. The prominent MacNab of that date had, it would appear, become obnoxious to the law on the score of indebtedness: but finding the restraint imposed irksome, he had relieved himself of it without asking leave. The hue and cry for his re-capture proceeded as follows: "Two hundred dollars reward! Home District, Upper Canada, Newark, April 2, 1798. Broke the gaol of this District on the night of the 1st instant, [the 1st of April, be it observed,] Allan MacNab, a confined debtor. He is a reduced lieutenant of horse," proceeds the Sheriff, "on the half-pay list of the late corps of Queen's Rangers; aged 38 years or thereabouts; five feet three inches high; fair complexion; light hair; red beard; much marked with the small-pox; the middle finger of one of his hands remarkable for an overgrown nail; round shouldered; stoops a little in walking; and although a native of the Highlands of Scotland, affects much in speaking the Irish dialect. Whoever will apprehend, &c., &c., shall receive the above reward, with all reasonable expenses."

The escape of the prisoner on the first of April was probably felt by the Sheriff to be a practical joke played off on himself personally. We think we detect personal spleen in the terms of the advertisement: in the minuteness of the description of Mr. MacNab's physique, which never claimed to be that of an Adonis; in the biographical particulars, which, however interesting they chance to prove to later generations, were somewhat out of place on such an occasion: as also in a postscript calling on "the printers within His Majesty's Governments in America, and those of the United States to give circulation in their respective papers to the above advertisement," &c.

It was a limited exchequer that created embarrassment in the early history—and, for that matter, in much of the later history as well—of Mr. MacNab's distinguished son, afterwards the baronet Sir Allan; and no one could relate with more graphic and humorous effect his troubles from this source, than he was occasionally in the habit of doing.

When observing his well-known handsome form and ever-benignant countenance, about the streets of York, we lads at school were wont, we remember, generally to conjecture that his ramblings were limited to certain bounds. He himself used to dwell with an amount of complacency on the skill acquired in carpentry during these intervals of involuntary leisure, and on the practical results to himself from that skill, not only in the way of pastime, but in the form of hard cash for personal necessities. Many were the panelled doors and Venetian shutters in York which, by his account, were the work of his hands.

Once he was on the point of becoming a professional actor. Giving assistance now and then as an anonymous performer to Mr. Archbold, a respectable Manager here, he evinced such marked talent on the boards, that he was seriously advised to adopt the stage as his avocation and employment. The Theatre of Canadian public affairs, however, was to be the real scene of his achievements. Particulars are here unnecessary. Successively sailor and soldier (and in both capacities engaged in perilous service); a lawyer, a legislator in both Houses; Speaker twice in the Popular Assembly; once Prime Minister; knighted for gallantry, and appointed an Aide-de-camp to the Queen; dignified with a baronetcy; by the marriage of a daughter with the son of a nobleman, made the possible progenitor of English peers—the career of Allan MacNab cannot fail to arrest the attention of the future investigator of Canadian history.

With our local traditions in relation to the grandiose chieftain above described, one or two stories are in circulation, in which his young kinsman Allan amusingly figures. Alive to pleasantry—as so many of our early worthies in these parts were—he undertook, it is said, for a small wager, to prove the absolute nudity of the knees, &c., of his feudal lord when at a ball in full costume: (the allegation, mischievously made, had been that the Chief was protected from the weather by invisible drawers.) The mode of demonstration adopted was a sudden cry from the ingenuous youth addressed to the Chief, to the effect that he observed a spider, or some such object running up his leg!—a cry instantly followed by a smart slap with the hand, with the presumed intention of checking the onward course of the noxious thing. The loud crack occasioned by the blow left no room for doubt as to the fact of nudity; but the dignified Laird was somewhat disconcerted by the over zeal of his young retainer.

Again, at Kingston, the ever-conscious Chief having written himself down in the visitors' book at the hotel as The MacNab, his juvenile relative, coming in immediately after and seeing the curt inscription, instantly entered his protest against the monopoly apparently implied, by writing himself down, just underneath, in conspicuous characters, as The Other MacNab—the genius of his coming fortunes doubtless inspiring the merry deed.—He held for a time a commission in the 68th, and accompanied that regiment to York in 1827. Riding along King Street one day soon after his arrival in the town, he observed Mr. Washburn, the lawyer, taking a furtive survey of him through his eyeglass. The proceeding is at once reciprocated by the conversion of a stirrup into an imaginary lens of large diameter, lifted by the strap and waggishly applied to the eye. Mr. Washburn had, we believe, pressed matters against the young officer rather sharply in the courts, a year or two previously. A few years later, when member for Wentworth, he contrived, while conversing with the Speaker, Mr. McLean, in the refreshment-room of the Parliament House, to slip into one of that gentleman's coat pockets the leg-bone of a turkey. After the lapse of a few minutes, Mr. MacNab, as chairman of a committee of the whole House, is solemnly seated at the Table, and Mr. Speaker, in his capacity as a member, is being interrogated by him on some point connected with the special business of the committee. At this particular moment, it happens that Mr. Speaker, feeling for his handkerchief, discovers in his pocket the extraordinary foreign object which had been lodged there. Guessing in an instant the author of the trick, he extricates the bone and quick as thought, shies it at the head of the occupant of the Chair. The House is, of course, amazed; and Mr. MacNab, in the gravest manner, directs the Clerk to make a note of the act.—We have understood that the house occupied by Mr. Fothergill (where we paused a short time since) was originally built by Allan MacNab, junior, but never dwelt in by him.

We now arrived at the Don bridge. The valley of the Don, at the place where the Kingston Road crosses it, was spanned in 1824 by a long wooden viaduct raised about twenty-five feet above the marsh below. This structure consisted of a series of ten trestles, or frames of hewn timber supporting a roadway of plank, which had lasted since 1809. A similar structure spanned the Humber and its marshes on the west side of York. Both of these bridges about the year 1824 had become very much decayed; and occasionally both were rendered impassable at the same time, by the falling in of worn-out and broken planks. The York papers would then make themselves merry on the well-defended condition of the town in a military point of view, approach to it from the east and west being effectually barred.

Prior to the erection of the bridge on the Kingston Road, the Don was crossed near the same spot by means of a scow, worked by the assistance of a rope stretched across the stream. In 1810, we observe that the Humber was also crossed by means of a ferry. In that year the inhabitants of Etobicoke complained to the magistrates in session at York of the excessive toll demanded there; and it was agreed that for the future the following should be the charges:—For each foot passenger, 2½d.; for every hog, 1d.; for every sheep, the same; for horned cattle, 2½d. each, for every horse and rider, 5d.; for every carriage drawn by two horses, 1s. 3d. (which included the driver); for every carriage with one horse, 1s. It is presumed that the same tolls were exacted at the ferry over the Don, while in operation.

In 1824 not only was the Don bridge in bad repair, but, as we learn from a petition addressed by the magistrates to Sir Peregrine Maitland in that year, the bridge over the Rouge in Pickering, also, is said to be, "from its decayed state, almost impassable, and if not remedied," the document goes on to state, "the communication between this town (York) and the eastern parts of the Province, as well as with Lower Canada by land, will be entirely obstructed."

At length the present earthwork across the marsh at the Don was thrown up, and the river itself spanned by a long wooden tube, put together on a suspension principle, roofed over and closed in on the sides, with the exception of oblong apertures for light. It resembled in some degree the bridges to be seen over the Reuss at Lucerne and elsewhere in Switzerland, though not decorated with paintings in the interior, as they are. Stone piers built on piles sustained it at either end. All was done under the superintendence of a United States contractor, named Lewis. It was at him that the italics in Mr. Angell's advertisement glanced. The inuendo was that, for engineering purposes, there was no necessity for calling in the aid of outsiders.

From a kind of small Friar-Bacon's study, occupied in former years by ourselves, situated on a bold point some distance northwards, up the valley, we remember watching the pile-driver at work in preparing the foundation of the two stone piers of the Don bridge: from where we sat at our books we could see the heavy mallet descend; and then, after a considerable interval, we would hear the sharp stroke on the end of the piece of timber which was being driven down. From the same elevated position also, previously, we used to see the teams crossing the high frame-work over the marsh on their way to and from Town, and hear the distant clatter of the horses' feet on the loosely-laid planks.

The tubular structure which succeeded the trestle-work bridge did not retain its position very long. The pier at its western extremity was undermined by the water during a spring freshet, and gave way. The bridge, of course, fell down into the swirling tide below, and was carried bodily away, looking like a second Ark as it floated along towards the mouth of the river, where at length it stranded and became a wreck.

On the breaking up of the ice every spring the Don, as is well known, becomes a mighty rushing river, stretching across from hill to hill. Ordinarily, it occupies but a small portion of its proper valley, meandering along, like an English tide-stream when the tide is out. The bridge carried away on this occasion was notable so long as it stood, for retaining visible marks of an attempt to set fire to it during the troubles of 1837.

The next appliance for crossing the river was another tubular frame of timber, longer than the former one; but it was never provided with a roof, and never closed in at the sides. Up to the time that it began to show signs of decay, and to require cribs to be built underneath it in the middle of the stream, it had an unfinished, disreputable look. It acquired a tragic interest in 1859, from being the scene of the murder, by drowning, of a young Irishman named Hogan, a barrister, and, at the same time, a member of the Parliament of Canada.

When crossing the high trestlework which preceded the present earth-bank, the traveller, on looking down into the marsh below, on the south side, could see the remains of a still earlier structure, a causeway formed of unhewn logs laid side by side in the usual manner, but decayed, and for the most part submerged in water, resembling, as seen from above, some of the lately-discovered substructions in the lakes of Switzerland. This was probably the first road by which wheeled vehicles ever crossed the valley of the Don here. On the protruding ends of some of the logs of this causeway would be always seen basking, on a warm summer's day, many fresh-water turtles; amongst which, as also amongst the black snakes, which were likewise always to be seen coiled up in numbers here, and among the shoals of sunfish in the surrounding pools, a great commotion would take place when the jar was felt of a waggon passing over on the framework above.

The rest of the marsh, with the exception of the space occupied by the ancient corduroy causeway, was one thicket of wild willow, alder, and other aquatic shrubbery, among which was conspicuous the spiræa, known among boys as "seven-bark" or "nine-bark" and prized by them for the beautiful hue of its rind, which, when rubbed, becomes a bright scarlet.

Here also the blue iris grew plentifully, and reeds, frequented by the marsh hen; and the bulrush, with its long cat-tails, sheathed in chestnut-coloured felt, and pointing upwards like toy sky-rockets ready to be shot off. (These cat-tails, when dry and stripped, expand into large, white, downy spheres of fluff, and actually are as inflammable as gunpowder, going off with a mighty flash at the least touch of fire.)

The view from the old trestlework bridge, both up and down the stream, was very picturesque, especially when the forest, which clothed the banks of the ravine on the right and left, wore the tints of autumn. Northward, while many fine elms would be seen towering up from the land on a level with the river, the bold hills above them and beyond were covered with lofty pines. Southward, in the distance, was a great stretch of marsh, with the blue lake along the horizon. In the summer this marsh was one vast jungle of tall flags and reeds, where would be found the conical huts of the muskrat, and where would be heard at certain seasons the peculiar gulp of the bittern; in winter, when crisp and dry, here was material for a magnificent pyrotechnical display, which usually, once a year, came off, affording at night to the people of the town a spectacle not to be contemned.

Through a portion of this marsh on the eastern side of the river, Mr. Justice Boulton, at a very early period, cut, at a great expense, an open channel in front of some property of his: it was expected, we believe, that the matted vegetation on the outer side of this cutting would float away and leave clear water, when thus disengaged; but no such result ensued: the channel, however, has continued open, and is known as the "Boulton ditch." It forms a communication for skiffs between the Don and Ashbridge's Bay.

At the west end of the bridge, just across what is now the gore between Queen Street and King Street, there used to be the remains of a military breastwork thrown up in the war of 1812. At the east end of the bridge, on the south side of the road, there still stands a lowly edifice of hewn logs, erected before the close of the last century, by the writer's father, who was the first owner and occupant of the land on both sides of the Kingston road at this point. The roadway down to the original crossing-place over the river in the days of the Ferry, and the time of the first corduroy bridge, swerving as it did considerably to the south from the direct line of the Kingston road, must have been in fact a trespass on his lot on the south side of the road: and we find that so noteworthy an object was the solitary house, just above the bridge, in 1799, that the bridge itself, in popular parlance, was designated by its owner's name. Thus in the Upper Canada Gazette for March 9, 1799, we read that at a Town Meeting Benjamin Morley was appointed overseer of highways and fence-viewer for the section of road "from Scadding's bridge to Scarborough." In 1800 Mr. Ashbridge is appointed to the same office, and the section of highway placed under his charge is on this occasion named "the Bay Road from Scadding's bridge to Scarborough."

This Mr. Ashbridge is the early settler from whom Ashbridge's Bay was so called. His farm lay along the lower portion of that sheet of water. Next to him, westward, was the property of Mr. Hastings, whose Christian name was Warren. Years ago, when first beginning to read Burke, we remember wondering why the name of "the great proconsul" of Hindustan looked so familiar to the eye: when we recollected that in our childhood we used frequently to see here along the old Kingston road the name Warren Hastings appended in conspicuous characters, to placards posted up, advertising a "Lost Cow," or some other homely animal, gone astray.—Adjoining Mr. Hasting's farm, still moving west, was that of Mr. Mills, with whose name in our mind is associated the name of "Hannah Mills," an unmarried member of his household, who was the Sister of Charity of the neighbourhood, ever ready in times of sickness and bereavement to render, for days and nights together, kindly, sympathetic and consolatory aid.