we are perambulating, illustrates the rapid advance and expansion of
architectural ideas amongst us. In the case now referred to it was no
shell of timber and deal-boards that was taken down, but a very handsome
solid edifice of cut-stone, which might have endured for centuries. The
Bank of British North America, built by Mr. Howard, at the corner of
Yonge Street and Wellington Street in 1843, was deliberately taken down,
block by block, in 1871, and made to give place to a structure which
should be on a par in magnificence and altitude with the buildings put
up in Toronto by the other Banks. Mr. Howard's building, at the time of
its erection, was justly regarded as a credit to the town. Its design
was preferred by the directors in London to those sent in by several
architects there. Over the principal entrance were the Royal Arms,
exceedingly well carved in stone on a grand scale, and wholly disengaged
from the wall; and conspicuous over the parapet above was the great
scallop-shell, emblem of the gold-digger's occupation, introduced by Sir
John Soane, in the architecture of the Bank of England. (The Royal Arms
of the old building have been deemed worthy of a place over the entrance
to the new Bank.)
The Cemetery, the gates and keeper's lodge of which, after crossing the
concession road and advancing on our way northward, we used to see on
the left, was popularly known as "The Potter's Field"--"a place to bury
strangers in." Its official style was "The York General or Strangers'
Burying Ground." In practice it was the Bunhill Fields of York--the
receptacle of the remains of those whose friends declined the use of the
St. James's churchyard and other early burial-plots.
Walton's Directory for 1833, gives the following information, which we
transfer hither, as well for the slight degree of quaintness which the
narrative has acquired, as also on account of the familiar names which
it contains. "This institution," Walton says, "owes its origin to Mr.
Carfrae, junior. It comprises six acres of ground, and has a neat
sexton's house built close by the gate. The name of the sexton is John
Wolstencroft, who keeps a registry of every person buried therein.
Persons of all creeds and persons of no creed, are allowed burial in
this cemetery: fees to the sexton, 5s. It was instituted in the fall of
1825, and incorporated by Act of Parliament, 30th January, 1826. It is
managed by five trustees, who are chosen for life; and in case of the
death of any of them, a public meeting of the inhabitants is called,
when they elect a successor or successors in their place. The present
trustees (1833) are Thomas Carfrae, jun., Thomas D. Morrison, Peter
Paterson, John Ewart, Thomas Helliwell."
(Mr. Carfrae was for some years the collector of Customs of the Port of
York. The other trustees named were respectively the medical man,
iron-merchant, builder, and brewer, so well known in the neighbourhood.)
A remote sequestered piece of ground in 1825, the Potter's Field in 1845
was more or less surrounded by buildings, and regarded as an impediment
in the way of public improvement. Interments were accordingly
prohibited. To some extent it has been cleared of human remains, and in
due time will be built over. Its successor and representative is the
Toronto Necropolis, the trustees of which are empowered, after the lapse
of twenty-one years, to sell the old burying-ground.
Proceeding on, we were immediately opposite the Red Lion Tavern,
anciently Tiers', subsequently Price's, on the east side; a large and
very notable halting-place for loaded teams after the tremendous
struggle involved in the traverse of the Blue Hill ravine, of which
presently.
In old European lands, in times by-gone, the cell of a hermit, a
monastery, a castle, became often the nucleus of a village or town. With
us on the American continent, a convenient watering or baiting place in
the forest for the wearied horses of a farmer's waggon or a stage-coach
is the less romantic _punctum saliens_ for a similar issue. Thus
Tiers's, at which we have paused, may be regarded as the germ of the
flourishing incorporation of Yorkville. Many a now solitary way-station
on our railroads will probably in like manner hereafter prove a centre
round which will be seen a cluster of human habitations.
We discover from a contemporary _Gazette_ that so early as 1808,
previous, perhaps, to the establishment of the Red Lion on Yonge Street,
Mr. Tiers had conducted a public house in the Town of York. In the
_Gazette_ of June 13, 1808, we have the following announcement. It has
an English ring; "Beefsteak and Beer House.--The subscriber informs his
friends and the public that he has opened a house of entertainment next
door to Mr. Hunt's, where his friends will be served with victualing in
good order, on the shortest notice, and at a cheap rate. He will furnish
the best strong beer at 8d. New York currency per gallon if drank in his
house, and 2s. 6d. New York currency taken out. As he intends to keep a
constant supply of racked beer, with a view not to injure the health of
his customers, and for which he will have to pay cash, the very small
profits at which he offers to sell, will put it out of his power to give
credit, and he hopes none will be asked. N.B. He will immediately have
entertainment for man and horse. Daniel Tiers. York, 12th January,
1808."
The singular _Hotel de Ville_ which in modern times distinguishes
Yorkville, has a Flemish look. It might have strayed hither from Ghent.
Nevertheless, as seen from numerous points of view, it cannot be
characterized as picturesque, or in harmony with its surroundings.--The
shield of arms sculptured in stone and set in the wall above the
circular window in the front gable, presents the following charges
arranged quarterly: a Beer-barrel, with an S below; a Brick-mould, with
an A below; an Anvil, with a W below; and a Jackplane, with a D below.
In the centre, in a shield of pretence, is a Sheep's head, with an H
below. These symbols commemorate the first five Councillors or Aldermen
of Yorkville at the time of its incorporation in 1853, and their trades
or callings; the initials being those respectively of the surnames of
Mr. John Severn, Mr. Thomas Atkinson, Mr. James Wallis, Mr. James
Dobson, and Mr. Peter Hutty. Over the whole, as a crest, is the Canadian
Beaver.
The road which enters from the west, a little way on, calls up memories
of Russel-hill, Davenport and Spadina, each of them locally historic. We
have already spoken of them in our journey along Front Street and Queen
Street, when, in crossing Brock Street, Spadina-house in the distance
caught the eye. It is a peculiarity of this old bye-road that, instead
of going straight, as most of our highways monotonously do, it meanders
a little, unfolding a number of pretty suburban scenes. The public
school, on the land given to Yorkville by Mr. Ketchum, is visible up
this road.
In this direction were the earliest public ice-houses established in our
region, in rude buildings of slab, thickly thatched over with pine
branches. Spring-water ice, gathered from the neighbouring mill-ponds,
began to be stored here in quantities by an enterprising man of African
descent, Mr. Richards, five-and-thirty years ago.
On the east side of Yonge Street, near the northern toll-gate, stood Dr.
R. C. Horne's house, the lurid flames arising from which somewhat
alarmed the town in 1837, when the malcontents of the north were
reported to be approaching with hostile intent. Of Dr. Horne we have
already spoken, in connexion with the early press of York.
Were the tall and very beautiful spire which in the present day is to be
seen where the Davenport Road enters Yonge Street, the appendage of an
ecclesiastical edifice of the mediaeval period--as the architecture
implies--it would indicate, in all probability, the presence of a Church
of St. Giles. St. AEgidius or Giles presided, it was imagined, over the
entrances to cities and towns. Consequently, fancy will always have it,
whenever we pass the interesting pile standing so conspicuously by a
public gate, or where for a long while there was a public gate, leading
into the town, that here we behold the St. Giles' of Toronto.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XXV.
YONGE STREET, FROM YORKVILLE TO HOGG'S HOLLOW.
Of long standing is the group of buildings on the right after passing
the Davenport Road. It is the Brewery and malting-house of Mr. Severn,
settled here since 1835. The main building over-looks a ravine which, as
seen by the passer-by on Yonge Street, retains to this day in its
eastern recess a great deal of natural beauty, although the stream below
attracted manufacturers at an early period to its borders at numerous
points. There is a picturesque irregularity about the outlines of Mr.
Severn's brewery. The projecting galleries round the domestic portion of
the building pleasantly indicate that the adjacent scenery is not
unappreciated: nay, possibly enjoyed on many a tranquil autumn evening.
Further on, a block-house of two storeys, both of them rectangular, but
the upper turned half round on the lower, built in consequence of the
troubles of 1837, and supposed to command the great highway from the
north, overhung a high bank on the right. (Another of the like build was
placed at the eastern extremity of the First Concession Road. It was
curious to observe how rapidly these two relics acquired the character
and even the look, gray and dilapidated, of age. With many, they dated
at least from the war of 1812.)
A considerable stretch of striking landscape here skirts our route on
the right. Rosedale-house, the old extra-mural home, still existent and
conspicuous, of Mr. Stephen Jarvis, Registrar of the Province in the
olden time, afterwards of his son the Sheriff, of both of whom we have
had occasion to speak repeatedly, was always noticeable for the
romantic character of its situation; on the crest of a precipitous bank
overlooking deep winding ravines. Set down here while yet the forest was
but little encroached on, access to it was of course for a long time,
difficult and laborious.
The memorable fancy-ball given here at a comparatively late period, but
during the Sheriff's lifetime, recurs as we go by. On that occasion, in
the dusk of evening, and again probably in the gray dawn of morning, an
irregular procession thronged the highway of Yonge Street and toiled up
and down the steep approaches to Rosedale-house--a procession consisting
of the simulated shapes and forms that usually revisit the glimpses of
the moon at masquerades,--knights, crusaders, Plantagenet, Tudor and
Stuart princes, queens and heroines; all mixed up with an incongruous
ancient and modern canaille, a Tom of Bedlam, a Nicholas Bottom "with
amiable cheeks and fair large ears," an Ariel, a Paul Pry, a Pickwick,
&c., &c., not pacing on with some veri-similitude on foot or respectably
mounted on horse, ass, or mule, but borne along most prosaically on
wheels or in sleighs.
This pageant, though only a momentary social relaxation, a transient but
still not unutilitarian freak of fashion, accomplished well and cleverly
in the midst of a scene literally a savage wild only a few years
previously, may be noted as one of the many outcomes of precocity
characterizing society in the colonies of England.
In a burlesque drama to be seen in the columns of a contemporary paper
(the _Colonist_, of 1839) we have an allusion to this memorable
entertainment. The news is supposed to have just arrived of the union of
the Canadas, to the dismay, as it is pretended, of the official party,
among whom there will henceforth be no more cakes and ale. A messenger,
Thomas, speaks:
List, oh, list--the Queen hath sent
A message to her Lords and trusty Commons--
All--What message sent she?
Thomas.--Oh the dreadful news!
That both the Canadas in one be joined.--(_faints._)
Sheriff William then speaks:
Farewell ye masquerades, ye sparkling routs:
Now routed out, no more shall routs be ours;
No gilded chariots now shall roll along;
No sleighs that sweep across our icy path,--
Sleighs! no: this news that slays our warmest hopes,
Ends pageantry, and pride and masquerades.
The characters in the dramatic _jeu d'esprit_, from which these lines
are taken, are the principal personages of the defeated party, under
thinly disguised names, Mr. Justice Clearhead, Mr. John Scott, William
Welland, Judge Brock, Christopher, Samuel, Sheriff William, as above,
and Thomas, &c. Rosedale is a name of pleasant sound. We are reminded
thereby of another of the same genus, but of more recent application in
these parts--Hazeldean--the pretty title given by Chief Justice Draper
to his rural cottage, which overhangs and looks down upon the same
ravine as Rosedale, but on the opposite side. (A residence of the Earl
of Shaftesbury in Kew-foot Lane near Richmond, on the Thames is called
Rosedale House, and is associated with the memory of the poet Thomson,
who is said to have written his _Castle of Indolence_ there.)
The perils and horrors encountered every spring and autumn by travellers
and others in their ascent and descent of the precipitous sides of the
Rosedale ravine, at the point where the primitive Yonge Street crossed
it, were a local proverb and by-word: perils and horrors ranking for
enormity with those associated with the passage of the Rouge, the
Credit, the Sixteen, and a long list of other deeply ploughed
watercourses intersected of necessity by the two great highways of Upper
Canada.
The ascent and descent of the gorge were here spoken of collectively as
the "Blue Hill." Certain strata of a bluish clay had been remarked at
the summit on both sides. The waggon-track passed down and up by two
long wearisome and difficult slopes cut in the soil of the steep sides
of the lofty banks. After the autumnal rains and during the thaws at the
close of winter, the condition of the route here was indescribably bad.
At the period referred to, however, the same thing, for many a year, was
to be said of every rood of Yonge Street throughout its thirty miles of
length.
Nor was Yonge Street singular in this respect. All our roads were
equally bad at certain seasons every year. We fear we conveyed an
impression unfavourable to emigration many years ago, when walking with
two or three young English friends across some flat clayey fields
between Cambridge and the Gogmagogs. It chanced that the driftways for
the farmers' carts--the holls as they are locally called, if we remember
rightly--at the sides of the ploughed land were mire from end to end.
Under the impulse of the moment, pleased in fact with a reminder of home
far-distant, we exclaimed, "Here are Canadian roads!" The comparison
was altogether too graphic; and our companions could never afterwards
be got to entertain satisfactory notions of Canadian civilization.
But English roads were not much better a century ago. We made a note
once of John Moody's account of Lady Townley's journey with her
coach-and-four and large household to London, from the veritable
old-country York, in Sir John Vanbrugh's comedy of the Provoked Husband,
so perfect a parallel did it furnish to the traveller's experience here
on Yonge Street on his way from the Canadian York to the Landing in
stage-coach or farmer's waggon in the olden time.
"Some impish trick or other," said John Moody, "plagued us all the day
long. Crack goes one thing: bounce goes another: Woa, says Roger--then
sowse! we are all set fast in a slough. Whaw, cries Miss: scream go the
maids: and bawl just as tho' they were stuck: and so, mercy on us! this
was the trade from morning to night."
The mode of extricating a vehicle from a slough or mudhole when once in,
may be gathered from a passage in McTaggart's "Three Years in Canada,"
ii., 205. The time referred to is 1829: "There are few roads," McTaggart
says, "and these are generally excessively bad, and full of mudholes in
which if a carriage fall, there is great trouble to get it out again.
The mail coaches or waggons are often in this predicament, when the
passengers instantly jump off, and having stripped rails off the fence,
they lift it up by sheer force. Coming up brows they sometimes get in;
the horses are then taken out, and yoked to the stern instead of the
front; and it is drawn out backwards."
The country between York and Lake Huron was, as we have already seen,
first explored by Governor Simcoe in person, in 1793. It was also
immediately surveyed, and in some measure occupied; and so early as
1794, we read in a _Gazette_ the following notice: "Surveyor-General's
Office, Upper Canada, 15th July, 1794. Notice is hereby given that all
persons who have obtained assignments for land on Dundas Street, leading
from the head of Burlington Bay to the upper forks of the River Thames,
and on Yonge Street leading from York to Lake Simcoe, that unless a
dwelling-house shall be built on every lot under certificate of
location, and the same occupied within one year from the date of their
respective assignments, such lots will be forfeited on the said Roads.
D. W. Smith, Acting Surveyor General."
All the conditions required to be fulfilled by the first settlers were
these: "They must within the term of two years, clear fit for
cultivation and fence, ten acres of the lot obtained; build a house 16
by 20 feet of logs or frame, with a shingle roof; also cut down all the
timber in front of and the whole width of the lot (which is 20 chains,
133 feet wide), 33 feet of which must be cleared smooth and left for
half of the public road." To issue injunctions for the performance of
such work was easy. To do such work, or to get such work effectually
done, was, under the circumstances of the times, difficult. Hence Yonge
Street continued for some years after 1794 to be little more than a
rambling forest wheel-track through the woods.
In 1794, as we have before heard, Mr. William Berczy, brought over from
the Pulteney Settlement, on the south side of Lake Ontario, sixty German
families, and conducted them to the township of Markham, north-east of
York, where lands had been assigned them. In effecting this first
lodgement of a considerable body of colonists in a region entirely new,
Mr. Berczy necessarily cut out by the aid of his party, and such other
help as he could obtain, some kind of track through the forest, along
the line of Yonge Street. He had already once before successfully
accomplished a similar work. He had, we are told, hewn out a waggon road
for emigrants through trackless woods all the way from Philadelphia to
the Genesee country, where the Pulteney Settlement was.
In 1795, Mr. Augustus Jones, a Deputy Provincial Surveyor, who figures
largely in the earliest annals of Upper Canada, was directed by the
Lieutenant Governor to survey and open in a more effective manner the
route which Mr. Berczy and his emigrants had travelled. A detachment of
the Queen's Rangers was at the same time ordered to assist.
On the 24th December, 1795, Mr. Jones writes to D. W. Smith, Acting
Surveyor General:--"His Excellency was pleased to direct me, previous to
my surveying the township of York, to proceed on Yonge Street, to survey
and open a cart-road from the harbour at York to Lake Simcoe, which I am
now busy at (_i. e._ I am busily engaged in the preparations for this
work.) Mr. Pearse is to be with me in a few days' time with a detachment
of about thirty of the Queen's Rangers, who are to assist in opening the
said road."
Then in his Note-book and Journal for the new year 1796, he records the
commencement of the survey, thus:--"Monday, 4th (January, 1796). Survey
of Yonge Street. Begun at a Post near the Lake, York Harbour, on Bank,
between Nos. 20 and 21, the course being Mile No. 1, N. 16 degrees W.,
eighty chains, from Black Oak Tree to Maple Tree on the right side,
along the said Yonge Street: at eighteen chains, fifty links, small
creek; at twenty-eight chains, small creek; course the same at
thirty-two eighty: here First Concession. At, N. 35 W. to 40-50, At
39-50 swamp and creek, 10 links across, runs to the right: then N. 2 E.,
to 43 chains in the line. At 60-25, small creek runs to right; swampy to
73; N. 29 W. to 77, swamp on right. Then N. to 80 on line. Timber
chiefly white and black oak to 60, and in many places windfalls thereon:
maple, elm, beech, and a few oaks, black ash; loose soil. Mile No. 2 do.
80 chains; rising Pine Ridge to 9 on top," &c., and so on day by day,
until Tuesday, February 16th, when the party reached the Landing.
For Mile No. 33 we have the entry. "Course do. (N. 9 W.) 80 chains;
descended; at 10 chains, small creek; cross aforesaid small creek; at
30, several cedars to 35-50; at 33, creek about 30 links across, runs to
left; at 80 chains, hemlock tree on the right bank small creek; hemlock,
pine, a few oak; broken soil. At Mile 34, do., 53 chains to Pine tree
marked at Landing; timber, yellow and white Pines; sandy soil; slight
winds from the north; cloudy, cold weather."
The survey and opening of the Street from York bay to the Landing thus
occupied forty-three days (January 4, to February 16). Three days
sufficed for the return of the party to the place of beginning. The
memoranda of these three days, and the following one, when Mr. Jones
presented himself before the Governor, in the Garrison at York, run
thus: "Wednesday, 17th, returned back to a small Lake at the
twenty-first mile tree; pleasant weather, light winds from the west.
Thursday, 18th, came down to five mile tree from York; pleasant weather.
Friday, 19th, came to the town of York; busy entering some of my field
notes; weather as before. Saturday, 20th, went to Garrison, York, and
waited on His Excellency the Governor, and informed him that Yonge
Street is opened from York to the Pine Fort Landing, Lake Simcoe. As
there is no provision to be had at the place," Mr. Jones proceeds, "His
Excellency was pleased to say that I must return to Newark, and report
to the Surveyor General, and return with him in April next, when the
Executive will sit, and that my attendance would be wanted. Pleasant
weather, light winds from the west."
The entry on the following Monday is this: "The hands busy at repairing
(caulking) the boat to return to Burlington Bay, and thence to Newark;
light winds from south, a few clouds. Tuesday, 23rd, high winds from the
south-west hinder going on the Lake. Wednesday, 24th, high winds from
the south drove a great quantity of ice into the harbour; obliged me to
leave the boat and set out by land; went to the Etobicoke. Thursday,
25th, came along the Lake to the 16 mile creek; winds left from south,
thaw. Friday, 26th, came down to my house, Long Beach; calm, thaw," &c.
Then on Tuesday, the 1st of March, 1796, the entry is: "Came down to
12-mile creek; lame in my feet; high winds from N. W., frosty night.
Wednesday, 2nd, came down to Newark; some snow, calm, frosty weather.
Thursday, 3rd, busy entering some field notes; some snow, calm weather.
Friday, 4th, busy protracting Yonge Street; cold weather, high winds
from N. W." Finally, on Monday, 7th March (1796), we have the entry:
"Busy copying of Yonge Street; high winds from the north, cold, snow
fell last night about six inches."
Some romance attaches to the history of Mr. Augustus Jones. We have his
marriage mentioned in a _Gazette_ of 1798, in the following terms: "May
21, Married, at the Grand River, about three weeks since, A. Jones,
Esq., Deputy Surveyor, to a young lady of that place, daughter of the
noted Mohawk warrior, Terrihogah."--The famous Indian Wesleyan
missionary, Peter Jones, called in the Indian tongue
Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by, Sacred Waving Feathers, was the issue of this
marriage.