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.
"Peace hath her victories,
No less renowned than war;"
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, L2,000; to Trinity Church, L500; to St.
Paul's L250; to St. Peter's L250.
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 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 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."