The distance from the town of Niagara to Hamilton is about forty miles.
We had left the former place at ten in the morning, yet it was nearly
midnight before we arrived, having had no refreshment during the whole
day. It was market-day, and the time of the assizes, and not a bed to be
had at the only tolerable hotel, which, I should add, is large and
commodious. The people were civil beyond measure, and a bed was made up
for me in a back parlour, into which I sank half starved, and very
completely tired.
The next day rose bright and beautiful, and I amused myself walking up
and down the pretty town for two or three hours.
Hamilton is the capital of the Gore district, and one of the most
flourishing places in Upper Canada. It is situated at the extreme point
of Burlington Bay, at the head of Lake Ontario, with a population,
annually increasing, of about three thousand. The town is about a mile
from the lake shore, a space which, in the course of time, will probably
be covered with buildings. I understand that seventeen thousand bushels
of wheat were shipped here in one month. There is a bank here; a
court-house and jail looking unfinished, and the commencement of a
public reading-room and literary society, of which I cannot speak from
my own knowledge, and which appears as yet in embryo. Some of the
linendrapers' shops, called here clothing stores, and the grocery
stores, or shops for all descriptions of imported merchandise, made a
very good appearance; and there was an air of business, and bustle, and
animation about the place, which pleased me. I saw no bookseller's shop,
but a few books on the shelves of a grocery store, of the most common
and coarse description.
I should not forget to mention, that in the Niagara and Gore districts
there is a vast number of Dutch and German settlers, favourably
distinguished by their industrious, sober, and thriving habits. They are
always to be distinguished in person and dress from the British
settlers; and their houses and churches, and, above all, their
burial-places, have a distinct and characteristic look. At Berlin, the
Germans have a printing-press, and publish a newspaper in their own
language, which is circulated among their countrymen through the whole
province.
At Hamilton I hired a light _wagon_, as they call it, a sort of gig
perched in the middle of a wooden tray, wherein my baggage was stowed;
and a man to drive me over to Brandtford, the distance being about
five-and-twenty miles, and the charge five dollars. The country all the
way was rich, and beautiful, and fertile beyond description--the roads
abominable as could be imagined to exist. So I then thought, but have
learned since that there are degrees of badness in this respect, to
which the human imagination has not yet descended. I remember a space of
about three miles on this road, bordered entirely on each side by dead
trees, which had been artificially blasted by fire, or by girdling. It
was a ghastly forest of tall white spectres, strangely contrasting with
the glowing luxurious foliage all around.
The pity I have for the trees in Canada, shows how far I am yet from
being a true Canadian. How do we know that trees do not feel their
downfall? We know nothing about it. The line which divides animal from
vegetable sensibility is as undefined as the line which divides animal
from human intelligence. And if it be true "that nothing dies on earth
but nature mourns," how must she mourn for these the mighty children of
her bosom--her pride, her glory, her garment? Without exactly believing
the assertion of the old philosopher, quoted by Evelyn, that a tree
_feels_ the first stroke of the axe, I know I never witness nor hear the
first stroke without a shudder; and as yet I cannot look on with
indifference, far less share the Canadian's exultation, when these huge
oaks, these umbrageous elms and stately pines, are lying prostrate,
lopped of all their honours, and piled in heaps with the brushwood, to
be fired,--or burned down to a charred and blackened fragment,--or
standing, leafless, sapless, seared, ghastly, having been "girdled," and
left to perish. The "Fool i' the Forest" moralised not more quaintly
over the wounded deer, than I could sometimes over those prostrate and
mangled trees. I remember, in one of the clearings to-day, one
particular tree which had been burned and blasted; only a blackened
stump of mouldering bark--a mere shell remained; and from the centre of
this, as from some hidden source of vitality, sprang up a young green
shoot, tall and flourishing, and fresh and leafy. I looked and thought
of hope! Why, indeed, should we ever despair? Can Heaven do for the
blasted tree what it cannot do for the human heart?
The largest place we passed was Ancaster, very prettily situated among
pastures and rich woods, and rapidly improving.
Before sunset I arrived at Brandtford, and took a walk about the town
and its environs. The situation of this place is most beautiful--on a
hill above the left bank of the Grand River. And as I stood and traced
this noble stream, winding through richly-wooded flats, with green
meadows and cultivated fields, I was involuntarily reminded of the
Thames near Richmond; the scenery has the same character of tranquil and
luxuriant beauty.
In Canada the traveller can enjoy little of the interest derived from
association, either historical or poetical. Yet the memory of General
Brock, and some anecdotes of the last war, lend something of this kind
of interest to the Niagara frontier; and this place, or rather the name
of this place, has certain recollections connected with it, which might
well make an idle contemplative wayfarer a little pensive.