received from his friend O'Hara. "This morning," he says, "I had a
letter from Portugal, from a sensible man and excellent officer, Walter
O'Hara. The officers do not appear," he continues, "to entertain very
sanguine hopes of success. We have lost a vast number of brave men, and
the French have gained a vast number, and fight as well as under the
republic."
The Walter O'Hara whom we here have Landor speaking of as "a sensible
man and excellent officer" is the Col. O'Hara at whose homestead, on a
portion of the Hallowell park-lot, we have arrived, and whose name is
one of our household words. Colonel O'Hara built on this spot in 1831,
at which date the surrounding region was in a state of nature. The area
cleared for the reception of the still existing spacious residence, with
its lawn, garden and orchards, remained for a number of years an oasis
in the midst of a grand forest. A brief memorandum which we are enabled
to give from his own pen of the Peninsular portion of his military
career, will be here in place, and will be deemed of interest.
"I joined," he says, "the Peninsular army in the year 1811, having
obtained leave of absence from my British Regiment quartered at
Canterbury, for the purpose of volunteering into the Portuguese army,
then commanded by Lord Beresford. I remained in that force until the end
of the war, and witnessed all the varieties of service during that
interesting period, during which time I was twice wounded, and once fell
into the hands of a brave and generous enemy."
From 1831 Col. O'Hara held the post of Adjutant-General in Upper Canada.
His contemporaries will always think of him as a chivalrous,
high-spirited, warm-hearted gentleman; and in our annals hereafter he
will be named among the friends of Canadian progress, at a period when
enlightened ideas in regard to government and social life, derived from
a wide intercourse with man in large and ancient communities, were,
amongst us, considerably misunderstood.
After passing the long range of suburban properties on which we have
been annotating, the continuation, in a right line westward, of Lot
Street, used to be known as the Lake Shore Road. This Lake Shore Road,
after passing the dugway, or steep descent to the sands that form the
margin of the Lake, first skirted the graceful curve of Humber Bay, and
then followed the irregular line of the shore all the way to the head of
the Lake. It was a mere track, representing, doubtless, a trail trodden
by the aborigines from time immemorial.
So late as 1813 all that could be said of the region traversed by the
Lake Shore Road was the following, which we read in the "Topographical
Description of Upper Canada," issued in London in that year, under the
authority of Governor Gore:--"Further to the westward (_i. e._ of the
river Humber)," we are told, "the Etobicoke, the Credit, and two other
rivers, with a great many smaller streams, join the main waters of the
Lake; they all abound in fish, particularly salmon......the Credit is
the most noted; here is a small house of entertainment for passengers.
The tract between the Etobicoke and the head of the Lake," the
Topographical Description then goes on to say, "is frequented only by
wandering tribes of Mississaguas."
"At the head of Lake Ontario," we are then told, "there is a smaller
Lake, within a long beach, of about five miles, from whence there is an
outlet to Lake Ontario, over which there is a bridge. At the south end
of the beach," it is added, "is the King's Head, a good inn, erected for
the accommodation of travellers, by order of his Excellency
Major-General Simcoe, the Lieutenant-Governor. It is beautifully
situated at a small portage which leads from the head of a natural canal
connecting Burlington Bay with Lake Ontario, and is a good landmark.
Burlington Bay," it is then rather boldly asserted, "is perhaps as
beautiful and romantic a situation as any in interior America,
particularly if we include with it a marshy lake which falls into it,
and a noble promontory that divides them. This lake is called Coote's
Paradise, and abounds with game." (Coote's Paradise had its name from
Capt. Coote, of the 8th, a keen sportsman.)
As to "the wandering tribes of Mississaguas," who in 1813 were still the
only noticeable human beings west of the Etobicoke, they were in fact a
portion of the great Otchibway nation. From time to time, previous and
subsequent to 1813, and for pecuniary considerations of various amounts
they surrendered to the local Government their nominal right over the
regions which they still occupied in a scattered way. In 1792 they
surrendered 3,000,000 acres, commencing four miles west of Mississagua
point, at the mouth of the river Niagara for the sum of L1,180 7s. 4d.
On the 8th of August, 1797, they surrendered 3,450 acres in Burlington
Bay for the sum of L65 2s. 6d. On the 6th September, 1806, 85,000 acres,
commencing on the east bank of the Etobicoke river, brought them L1,000
5s. On the 28th of October, 1818, "the Mississagua tract Home District,"
consisting of 648,000 acres, went for the respectable sum of L8,500. On
the 8th of February, 1820, 2,000 acres, east of the Credit reserve,
brought in L50.
All circumstances at the respective dates considered, the values
received for the tracts surrendered as thus duly enumerated may, by
possibility, have been reasonable. Lord Carteret, it is stated, proposed
to sell all New Jersey for L5,000, 150 years ago. But there remains one
transfer from Mississaga to White ownership to be noticed, for which the
equivalent, sometimes alleged to have been accepted, excites surprise.
On the 1st of August, 1805, a Report of the Indian Department informs
us, the "Toronto Purchase" was made, comprising 250,880 acres, and
stretching eastward to the Scarboro' Heights; and the consideration
accepted therefor was the sum of ten shillings. Two dollars for the site
of Toronto and its suburbs, with an area extending eastward to Scarboro'
heights. The explanation, however, is this, which we gather from a
manuscript volume of certified copies of early Indian treaties,
furnished by William L. Baby, Esq., of Sandwich. The Toronto purchase
was really effected in 1787, by Sir John Johnson, at the Bay of Quinte
Carrying-place; and "divers good and valuable considerations," not
specified, were received by the Mississagas on the occasion. But the
document testifying to the transfer was imperfect. The deed of August 1,
1805, was simply confirmatory, and the sum named as the consideration
was merely nominal.
On the early map from which we have been taking the names of the first
locatees of the range of park-lots extending along Queen Street from
Parliament Street to Humber Bay, we observe the easternmost limit of the
"Toronto Purchase" conspicuously marked by a curved line drawn
northwards from the water's edge near the commencement of the spit of
land which used to fence off Ashbridge's Bay and Toronto Harbour from
the lake.
In 1804, the Lake Shore Road stood in need of repairs, and in some
places even of "opening" and "clearing out." In the _Gazette and Oracle_
of Aug. 4th, in that year, we have an advertisement for "Proposals from
any person or persons disposed to contract for the opening and repairing
the Road and building Bridges between the Town of York and the Head of
Burlington Bay." "Such proposals," the advertisement goes on to say,
"must state what prices the Party desirous of undertaking the aforesaid
work will engage to finish and complete the same, and must consist of
the following particulars: At what price per mile such person will open
and clear out such part of the road leading from Lot Street, adjoining
the Town of York (beginning at Peter Street) to the mouth of the Humber,
of the width of 33 feet, as shall not be found to stand in need of any
causeway. With the price also per rod at which such party will engage to
open, clear out, and causeway such other part of the same road as shall
require to be causewayed, and the last-mentioned price to include as
well the opening and clearing out, as the causewaying such Road. The
causewaying to be 18 feet wide; as also the price at which any person
will engage to build Bridges upon the said Road of the width of 18 feet.
"And the same Commissioners will also receive proposals from any person
or persons willing to engage to cut down three Hills at the following
places viz:--One at the Sixteen Mile Creek, another between Sixteen and
Twelve Mile Creek, and the third at the Twelve Mile Creek. And also for
repairing, in a good and substantial manner, the Bridge at the outlet of
Burlington Bay. All the before-mentioned work to be completed, in a good
and substantial manner, on or before the last day of October next, and,
when completed, the Money contracted to be given shall be paid by the
Receiver General." This advertisement is issued by William Allan and
Duncan Cameron, of York; James Ruggles and William Graham, of Yonge
Street; and William Applegarth, of Flamboro' East, Commissioners for
executing Statute passed in Session of present year.
We now return to that point on Queen Street where, instead of continuing
on westward by the Lake Shore Road, the traveller of a later era turned
abruptly towards the north in order to pass into Dundas Street proper,
the great highway projected, as we have observed, by the first organizer
of Upper Canada and marked on the earliest manuscript maps of the
Province, but not made practicable for human traffic until comparatively
recent times.
From an advertisement in the _Gazette and Oracle_ of August, 1806, we
learn that Dundas Street was not, in that year, yet hewn out through the
woods about the Credit. "Notice is hereby given," thus runs the
advertisement referred to, "that the Commissioners of the Highways of
the Home District will be ready on Saturday, the 23rd day of the present
month of August, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, at the Government
Buildings in the town of York, to receive proposals and to treat with
any person or persons who will contend to open and make the road called
Dundas Street, leading through the Indian Reserve on the River Credit;
and also to erect a Bridge over the said River at or near where the said
Road passes. Also to bridge and causeway (in aid to the Statute Labour)
such other parts of such Road passing through the Home District, when
such works are necessary, and for the performance of which the said
Statute Labour is not sufficient. Thomas Ridout, Clerk of the Peace,
Home District. York, 6th August, 1806."
The early line of communication with the Head of the Lake was by the
Lake Shore Road. The cross thoroughfare between the park lots of Mr.
Bouchette or Col. Givins and Mr. David Burns, was opened up by Col. G.
T. Denison, senior, with the assistance of some of the embodied militia.
The work of opening the road here, as well as further on through the
forest, was at first undertaken by a detachment of the regulars under
the direction of an officer of the Royal Engineers. The plan adopted, we
are told, was first to fell each tree by very laboriously severing it
from its base close to the ground, and then to smooth off the upper
surface of the root or stump with an adze. As this process was
necessarily slow, and after all not likely to result in a permanently
good road, the proposal of Colonel, then Lieutenant, Denison, to set his
militia-men to eradicate the trees bodily, was accepted--an operation
with which they were all more or less familiar on their farms and in
their new clearings. A fine broad open track, ready, when the day for
such further improvements should arrive, for the reception of plank or
macadam, was soon constructed.
Immediately at the turn northwards, out of the line of Lot Street, on
the east side, was Sandford's Inn, a watering place for teams on their
way into York, provided accordingly with a conspicuous pump and great
trough, a long section of a huge pine-tree dug out like a canoe. Near
by, a little to the east, was another notable inn, an early rival, as we
suppose, of Sandford's: this was the Blue Bell. A sign to that effect,
at the top of a strong and lofty pole in front of its door, swung to and
fro within a frame.
Just opposite, on the Garrison Common, there were for a long while low
log buildings belonging to the Indian department. One of them contained
a forge in charge of Mr. Higgins, armourer to the Department. Here the
Indians could get, when necessary, their fishing-spears, axes, knives
and tomahawks, and other implements of iron, sharpened and put in order.
One of these buildings was afterwards used as a school for the
surrounding neighbourhood.
Immediately across from Sandford's, on the park lot originally occupied
by Mr. Burns, was a house, shaded with great willow-trees, and
surrounded by a flower-garden and lawn, the abode for many years of the
venerable widow of Captain John Denison, who long survived her husband.
Of her we have already once spoken in connection with Petersfield. She
was, as we have intimated, a sterling old English gentlewoman of a type
now vanishing, as we imagine. The house was afterwards long in the
occupation of her son-in-law, Mr. John Fennings Taylor, a gentleman
well-known to Canadian M.P.'s during a long series of years, having been
attached as Chief Clerk and Master in Chancery first to the Legislative
Council of United Canada and then to the Senate of the Dominion.
To the right and left, as we passed north, was a wet swamp, filled with
cedars of all shapes and sizes, and strewn plentifully with granitic
boulders: a strip of land held in light esteem by the passers-by, in the
early day, as seeming to be irreclaimable for agricultural purposes.
But how admirably reclaimable in reality the acres hereabout were for
the choicest human purposes, was afterwards seen, when, for example, the
house and grounds known as Foxley Grove, came to be established. By the
outlay of some money and the exercise of some discrimination, a portion
of this same cedar swamp was rapidly converted into pleasure ground,
with labyrinths of full-grown shrubbery ready-prepared by nature's hand.
Mr. James Bealey Harrison, who thus transformed the wild into a garden
and plaisaunce, will be long remembered for his skill and taste in the
culture of flowers and esculents choice and rare: as well as for his
eminence as a lawyer and jurist.
He was a graduate of Cambridge; and before his emigration to Canada, had
attained distinction at the English bar. He was the author of a work
well known to the legal profession in Great Britain and here, entitled
"An Analytical Digest of all the Reported Cases determined in the House
of Lords, the several Courts of the Courts of the Common Law in Banc and
Nisi Prius, and the Court of Bankruptcy, from Michaelmas Term, 1756, to
Easter Term, 1843; including also the Crown Cases Referred: in Four
Volumes." During the regime of Sir George Arthur, Mr. Harrison was
Secretary of the Province and a member of the Executive Council; and at
a later period he was Judge of the County and Surrogate Courts. The
memory of Judge Harrison as an English Gentleman, genial, frank and
straightforward, is cherished among his surviving contemporaries.
On turning westward into Dundas Street proper, we were soon in the midst
of a magnificent pine forest, which remained long undisturbed. The whole
width of the allowance for road was here for a number of miles
completely cleared. The highway thus well-defined was seen bordered on
the right and left with a series of towering columns, the outermost
ranges of an innumerable multitude of similar tall shafts set at various
distances from each other, and circumscribing the view in an irregular
manner on both sides, all helping to bear up aloft a matted awning of
deep-green, through which, here and there, glimpses of azure could be
caught, looking bright and cheery. The yellow pine predominated, a tree
remarkable for the straightness and tallness of its stems, and for the
height at which its branches begins.
No fence on either hand intervened between the road and the forest; the
rider at his pleasure, could rein his horse aside at any point and take
a canter in amongst the columns, the underwood being very slight.
Everywhere, at the proper season, the ground was sprinkled with wild
flowers--with the wild lupin and the wild columbine; and everywhere, at
all times, the air was more or less fragrant with resinous exhalations.
In the heart of the forest, midway between York and the bridge over the
Humber, was another famous resting place for teams--the Peacock
Tavern--a perfect specimen of a respectable wayside hostelry of the
olden time, with very spacious driving-houses and other appropriate
outbuildings on an extensive scale.
Not far from the Peacock a beaten track branched off westerly, which
soon led the equestrian into the midst of beautiful oak woods, the trees
constituting it of no great magnitude, but as is often the case on sandy
plains, of a gnarled, contorted aspect, each presenting a good study for
the sketcher. This track also conducted to the Humber, descending to the
valley of that stream where its waters, now become shallow but rapid,
passed over sheets of shale. Here the surroundings of the bridle-road
and foot-path were likewise picturesque, exhibiting rock plentifully
amidst and beneath the foliage and herbage.
Here in the vale of the Humber stood a large Swiss-like structure of
hewn logs, with two tiers of balcony on each of its sides. This was the
house of Mr. John Scarlett. It was subsequently destroyed by fire. Near
by were mills and factories also belonging to Mr. Scarlett. He was well
connected in England; a man of enlightened views and fine personal
presence. He loved horses and was much at home in the saddle. A shrewd
observer when out among his fellow men, at his own fireside he was a
diligent student of books.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXIV.
YONGE STREET--FROM THE BAY TO YORKVILLE.
The tourist of the present day, who, on one of our great lake-steamers,
enters the harbour of Toronto, observes, as he is borne swiftly along,
an interesting succession of street vistas, opening at intervals inland,
each one of them somewhat resembling a scene on the stage. He obtains a
glimpse for a moment of a thoroughfare gently ascending in a right line
northward, with appropriate groups of men and vehicles, reduced prettily
to lilliputian size by distance.
Of all the openings thus transiently disclosed, the one towards which
the boat at length shapes its course, with the clear intention of
thereabout disburdening itself of its multifarious load, is quickly seen
to be of preeminent importance. Thronged at the point where it descends
to the water's edge with steamers and other craft, great and small,
lined on the right and left up to the far vanishing-point with handsome
buildings, its pavements and central roadway everywhere astir with life,
its appearance is agreeably exciting and even impressive. It looks to
be, what in fact it is, the outlet of a great highway leading into the
interior of a busy, populous country. The railway station seen on the
right, heaving up its huge semicircular metal back above the subjacent
buildings, and flanking the very sidewalk with its fine front and lofty
ever-open portals, might be imagined a porter's lodge proportioned to
the dignity of the avenue whose entrance it seems planted there to
guard.
We propose to pass, as rapidly as we may, up the remarkable street at
the foot of which our tourist steps ashore. It will not be a part of our
plan to enlarge on its condition as we see it at the present time,
except here and there as in contrast with some circumstance of the past.
We intend simply to take note, as we ramble on, of such recollections as
may spring up at particular points, suggested by objects or localities
encountered, and to recall at least the names, if not in every instance,
characteristic traits and words and acts, of some of the worthies of a
byegone generation, to whose toil and endurance the present occupants of
the region which we shall traverse are so profoundly indebted.
Where Yonge Street opened on the harbour, the observer some forty years
ago would only have seen, on the east side, the garden, orchard and
pleasure grounds of Chief Justice Scott, with his residence situated
therein, afterwards the abode of Mr. Justice Sherwood; and on the west
side the garden, orchard, pleasure-grounds and house of Mr. Justice
Macaulay, afterwards Chief Justice Sir James Macaulay, and the
approaches to these premises were, in both cases, not from Yonge Street
but from Front Street, or from Market Street in the rear.
The principal landing place for the town was for a series of years, as
we have elsewhere stated, at the southern extremity of Church Street:
and then previously, for another series of years, further to the east,
at the southern extremity of Frederick Street. The country and local
traffic found its way to these points, not by Yonge Street, south of
King Street, but by other routes which have been already specified and
described.
Teams and solitary horses, led or ridden, seen passing into Yonge
Street, south of King Street, either out of King Street or out of Front
Street, would most likely be on their way to the forge of old Mr. Philip
Klinger, a German, whose name we used to think had in it a kind of anvil
ring. His smithy, on the east side, just south of Market Street, now
Wellington Street, was almost the only attraction and occasion of resort
to Yonge Street, south of King Street. His successor here was Mr. Calvin
Davis, whose name became as familiar a sound to the ears of the early
townsfolk of York as Mr. Klinger's had been.
It seems in the retrospect but a very short time since Yonge Street
south of King Street, now so solidly and even splendidly built up, was
an obscure allowance for road, visited seldom by any one, and for a long
while particularly difficult to traverse during and just after the rainy
seasons.
Few persons in the olden time at which we are glancing ever dreamed
that the intersection of Yonge Street and King Street was to be the
heart of the town. Yet here in one generation we have the Carfax of
Toronto, as some of our forefathers would have called it--the
Quatrevoies or Grand Four-cross-way, where the golden milestone might be
planted whence to measure distances in each direction.
What are the local mutations that are to follow? Will the needs of the
population and the exigencies of business ever make of the intersection
of Brock Street and Queen Street what the intersection of Yonge and King
Streets is now?
In the meantime, those who recall the very commonplace look which this
particular spot, viz.: the intersection of King Street and Yonge Street,
long wore, when as yet only recently reclaimed from nature, cannot but
experience a degree of mental amazement whenever now they pause for a
moment on one of the crossings and look around.
A more perfect and well-proportioned rectangular meeting of four great
streets is seldom to be seen. Take the view at this point, north, south,
west, or east, almost at any hour and at any season of the year, and it
is striking.
It is striking in the freshness and coolness and comparative quiet of
early morning, when few are astir.
It is striking in the brightness and glow of noon, when the sons and
daughters of honest toil are trooping in haste to their mid-day meal.
A few hours later, again, it is striking when the phaetons,
pony-carriages, and fancy equipages generally, are out, and loungers of
each sex are leisurely promenading, or here and there placidly engaged
in the inspection and occasional selection of "personal requisites,"--of
some one or other of the variegated tissues or artificial adjuncts
demanded by the modes of the period,--while the westering sun is now
flooding the principal thoroughfare with a misty splendour, and on the
walls, along on either side, weird shadows slanting and elongated, are
being cast.
Then, later still, the views here are by no means ordinary ones, when
the vehicles have for the most part withdrawn, and the passengers are
once more few in number, and the lamps are lighted, and the gas is
flaming in the windows.