VICTORIA DISTRICT CHURCH.
I read with a great deal of pleasure the article on Christ Church by
Canon Beanlands. These reminiscences of former days in Victoria have
a charm for me that is not easy to describe. More particularly is
this the case in the present instance, as my very earliest
recollections of this fair city are connected with Victoria District
Church. My mother was a devout church woman, and I attended her in
her frequent and regular attendance. She encouraged me to join the
choir as a boy in 1861 and taught me music, and my first position in
the church in connection with its musical services was as organ
blower. I afterwards took my seat with the adults, singing treble,
then alto and tenor, and I have now the treble score of several
anthems copied by myself at that time.
I shall now describe the church as I remember it in 1859 and 1862.
The inside was an oblong square. The entrance was at the south-west
corner, and there was a gallery across the west end, where the old
organ and the choir were then situated. Under this gallery were pews,
one of which was occupied by our family. The vestry was at the
south-west corner, and had entrance from under the gallery as well as
from outside. The inside of the building was lathed and plastered.
There was a low tower at the south-west corner, dovecote shaped,
where the pigeons made their nests and brought forth their young.
There were two bells in the tower, one larger than the other,
which when rung sounded ding-dong, ding-dong three times a day,
morning, afternoon and evening of Sunday, and also Wednesday
evenings. A plan shows a square contrivance opposite the entrance.
This was Governor Douglas' pew, and was occupied by the Governor and
his family regularly each Sunday morning. He walked down the aisle in
his uniform in the most dignified manner, and led the congregation in
the responses in an audible voice. By the plan an organ and choir are
shown in the gallery as well as one in the chancel, but the dates
1859 and 1862 explain that in 1862 there was a new organ, and the old
one removed, and the gallery done away with. It was in this gallery
my services commenced as organ blower, and the only one I can now
remember as singing in the choir at that early date was John Butts, a
young man lately from Australia. He had a nice tenor voice, and was
very regular in attendance for some time, until he fell from grace.
He was the town crier afterwards and a noted character. Mr. Higgins
speaks of him in the "Mystic Spring."
[Illustration: Victoria district church.]
One Sunday morning in 1862 or 1863, while Bishop Hills was preaching,
a man walked into the church and cried out, "My Lord, the church is
on fire!" Judge Pemberton, one of the officers of the church, with
others got on to the ceiling through a manhole above the gallery, and
walked on the rafters to where the fire was located. He missed his
footing and came through the lath and plaster, but luckily did not
fall to the floor below, but, like Mahomet's coffin, hung suspended
by his arms until rescued from above. The congregation were soon
outside, and with willing help the fire was soon extinguished. The
church was built and opened in August, 1856, under the supervision of
Mr. William Leigh, who was in charge of Uplands Farm, Cadboro
Bay, and was in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Leigh
was a man of very good attainments, being a good musician and
contributing to the various entertainments of those days, when
regular entertainments by professionals were few and far between. He
subsequently was City Clerk, being the second to hold that position,
after Mr. Nathaniel M. Hicks, who was appointed clerk on the city
being incorporated. Mr. Hicks is buried in Quadra Street Cemetery,
and his headstone is in evidence to-day as a mute appeal to our city
fathers to put the place in order. I might say that Mr. Leigh was the
father of a numerous family, but I believe, with the exception of a
son, Ernest, who resides in San Francisco, and a granddaughter, Mrs.
George Simpson, who resides here, all have passed away.
Victoria District church was destroyed by fire in 1869, one evening
about 10 o'clock, the alarm being given by a Catholic priest on his
way home, who with Mr. James Kennedy (who lived with me), was passing
over the hill. Of the early pioneer clergy connected with the church,
Mr. Cridge, the incumbent, was first; then Bishop Hills; the Rev. R.
J. Dundas, afterward rector of St. John's; Rev. Alexander C. Garrett,
now Bishop of Dallas, Texas, and Rev. George Crickmer, who
subsequently was sent to Langley or Yale.
[Portrait: Bishop George Hills.]
The organ used up to 1861 or 1862 was situated in the gallery, and
had three barrels, each of ten tunes, so that thirty tunes was the
limit. Mr. Seeley, who owned the Australian House, which stood until
lately at the north end of the Causeway, was an attendant at the
church, and being an organ-builder undertook to improvise a keyboard
attachment for this barrel organ. This keyboard was used on Sunday
mornings and on special occasions by Mrs. Atwood (Mrs. T. Sidney
Wilson of St. Charles Street.) At evening services the music
was produced by the barrels, worked by a handle, and the writer on
these occasions was the "organist." An amusing incident occurred one
Sunday evening when I, forgetting the number of verses of a hymn to
be sung, stopped playing, and the congregation commenced another
verse. Seeing that I had made an error I began again two notes
behind. This made confusion worse confounded, as may be supposed, but
having commenced I continued to the end of the verse. This being the
closing hymn, "Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing," I was not long in
making my exit from the church, as I did not wish to meet Mr. Cridge
or any of the church officers, being only a youth and anticipating
censure, but I forget if I got it. About this time a committee of
ladies of the church, among whom were Mrs. A. T. Bushby, mother of
Mrs. W. P. Bullen, and Mrs. Good, her sister, both daughters of the
Governor, Mrs. Senator Macdonald, and Mrs. Cridge collected a large
sum of money and sent to England for a fine pipe organ which I
suppose is the one in use to-day. The first organist of this organ
was a Mr. Whittaker, and of the choir, as near as I can remember
them, were the Misses Harriet and Annie Thorne, Mrs. T. Sidney
Wilson, Mrs. Macdonald and her two sisters the Misses Reid, Dr. J. C.
Davie, Alex. Davie, his brother, Mr. Willoughby, Robert Jenkinson,
Albert F. Hicks, John Bagnall, my brother Rowland and myself. Mr.
Walter Chambers, as a youth, was organ blower also about this time.
The first sexton and verger was William Raby, and the next John
Spelde, who had charge of the Quadra Street Cemetery, digging the
graves and collecting the fees for the same.
I have spun this article out beyond what I intended, but I must be
excused as I don't know when I have said enough on pioneer days.