We reached the Holland Landing, at the southern extremity of the lake,
about three o'clock; and the rest of our way lay through the Home
District, and through some of the finest land and most prosperous
estates in Upper Canada. It was a perpetual succession, not of
clearings, such as I had seen of late, but of well-cultivated farms. The
vicinity of the capital, and an excellent road leading to it (called
Yonge Street), have raised the value of landed property here, and some
of the farmers are reputed rich men.
Mr. Jarvis gave me an account of an Irish emigrant, a labouring man, who
had entered his service some years ago as teamster (or carter); he was
then houseless and penniless. Seven years afterwards the same man was
the proprietor of a farm of two hundred acres of cleared and cropped
land, on which he could proudly set his foot, and say, "It is mine, and
my children's after me!"