Toronto of Old Part 19

In 1836, he appears to have been visited in Pickering by Dr. Thomas Rolph, when making notes for his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada."

"The Towns.h.i.+p of Pickering," Dr. Rolph says, "is well settled and contains some fine land, and well watered. Mr. Fothergill," he continues, "has an extensive and most valuable museum of natural curiosities at his residence in this towns.h.i.+p, which he has collected with great industry and the most refined taste. He is a person of superior acquirements, and ardently devoted to the pursuit of natural philosophy." P. 189.

It was Mr. Fothergill's misfortune to have lived too early in Upper Canada. Many plans of his in the interests of literature and science came to nothing for the want of a sufficient body of seconders. In conjunction with Dr. Dunlop and Dr. Rees, it was the intention of Mr.

Fothergill to establish at York a Museum of Natural and Civil History, with a Botanical and Zoological Garden attached; and a grant of land on the Government Reserve between the Garrison and Farr's Brewery was actually secured as a site for the buildings and grounds of the proposed inst.i.tution.

A prospectus now before us sets forth in detail a very comprehensive scheme for this Museum or Lyceum, which embraced also a picture gallery, "for subjects connected with Science and Portraits of individuals," and did not omit "Indian antiquities, arms, dresses, utensils, and whatever might ill.u.s.trate and make permanent all that we can know of the Aborigines of this great Continent, a people who are rapidly pa.s.sing away and becoming as though they had never been."

For several years Mr. Fothergill published "The York Almanac and Royal Calendar," which gradually became a volume of between four and five hundred duodecimo pages, filled with practical and official information on the subject of Canada and the other British American Colonies. This work is still often resorted to for information.

Hanging in his study we remember noticing a large engraved map of "Cabotia." It was a delineation of the British Possessions in North America--the present Dominion of Canada in fact. It had been his purpose in 1823 to publish a "Canadian Annual Register;" but this he never accomplished. While printing the _Upper Canada Gazette_, he edited in conjunction with that periodical and on the same sheet, the "Weekly Register," bearing the motto, "Our endeavour will be to stamp the very body of the time--its its form and pressure: we shall extenuate nothing, nor shall we set down aught in malice." From this publication may be gathered much of the current history of the period. In it are given many curious scientific excerpts from his Common Place Book. At a later period, he published, at Toronto, a weekly paper in quarto shape, named the "Palladium."

Among the non-official advertis.e.m.e.nts in the _Upper Canada Gazette_, in the year 1823, we observe one signed "Charles Fothergill," offering a reward "even to the full value of the volumes," for the recovery of missing portions of several English standard works which had belonged formerly, the advertis.e.m.e.nt stated, to the "Toronto Library," broken up "by the Americans at the taking of York." It was suggested that probably the missing books were still scattered about, up and down, in the town.

It is odd to see the name of "Toronto" cropping out in 1823, in connection with a library. (In a much earlier York paper we notice the "Toronto Coffee House" advertised.)

Mr. Fothergill belonged to the distinguished Quaker family of that name in Yorks.h.i.+re. A rather good idea of his character of countenance may be derived from the portrait of Dr. Arnold, prefixed to Stanley's Memoir.

An oil painting of him exists in the possession of some of his descendants.

We observe in Leigh Hunt's _London Journal_, i. 172, a reference to "Fothergill's Essay on the Philosophy, Study and Use of Natural History;" and we have been a.s.sured that it is our Canadian Fothergill who was its author. We give a pathetic extract from a specimen of the production, in the work just referred to: "Never shall I forget," says the essayist, "the remembrance of a little incident which many will deem trifling and unimportant, but which has been peculiarly interesting to my heart, as giving origin to sentiments and rules of action which have since been very dear to me."

"Besides a singular elegance of form and beauty of plumage," continues the enthusiastic naturalist, "the eye of the common lapwing is peculiarly soft and expressive; it is large, black, and full of l.u.s.tre, rolling, as it seems to do, in liquid gems of dew. I had shot a bird of this beautiful species; but, on taking it up, I found it was not dead. I had wounded its breast; and some big drops of blood stained the pure whiteness of its feathers. As I held the hapless bird in my hand, hundreds of its companions hovered round my head, uttering continued shrieks of distress, and, by their plaintive cries, appeared to bemoan the fate of one to whom they were connected by ties of the most tender and interesting nature; whilst the poor wounded bird continually moaned, with a kind of inward wailing note, expressive of the keenest anguish; and, ever and anon, it raised its drooping head, and turning towards the wound in its breast, touched it with its bill, and then looked up in my face, with an expression that I have no wish to forget, for it had power to touch my heart whilst yet a boy, when a thousand dry precepts in the academical closet would have been of no avail."

The length of this extract will be pardoned for the sake of its deterrent drift in respect to the wanton maiming and ma.s.sacre of our feathered fellow-creatures by the firearms of sportsmen and missiles of thoughtless children.

Eastward from the house where we have been pausing, the road took a slight sweep to the south and then came back to its former course towards the Don bridge, descending in the meantime into the valley of a creek or watercourse, and ascending again from it on the other side.

Hereabout, to the left, standing on a picturesque knoll and surrounded by the natural woods of the region, was a good sized two-storey dwelling; this was the abode of Mr. David MacNab, sergeant-at-arms to the House of a.s.sembly, as his father had been before him. With him resided several accomplished, kind-hearted sisters, all of handsome and even stately presence; one of them the belle of the day in society at York.

Here were the quarters of the Chief MacNab, whenever he came up to York from his Canadian home on the Ottawa. It was not alone when present at church that this remarkable gentleman attracted the public gaze; but also, when surrounded or followed by a group of his fair kinsfolk of York, he marched with dignified steps along through the whole length of King Street, and down or up the Kingston road to and from the MacNab homestead here in the woods near the Don.

In his visits to the capital, the Chief always wore a modified highland costume, which well set off his stalwart, upright form: the blue bonnet and feather, and richly embossed dirk, always rendered him conspicuous, as well as the tartan of brilliant hues depending from his shoulder after obliquely swathing his capacious chest; a bright scarlet vest with ma.s.sive silver b.u.t.tons, and dress coat always jauntily thrown back, added to the picturesqueness of the figure.

It was always evident at a glance that the Chief set a high value on himself.--"May the MacNab of MacNabs have the pleasure of taking wine with Lady Sarah Maitland?" suddenly heard above the buzz of conversation, p.r.o.nounced in a very deep and measured tone, by his manly voice, made mute for a time, on one occasion, the dinner-table at Government House. So the gossip ran. Another story of the same cla.s.s, but less likely, we should think, to be true, was, that seating himself, without uncovering, in the Court-room one day, a messenger was sent to him by the Chief Justice, Sir William Campbell, on the Bench, requiring the removal of his cap; when the answer returned, as he instantly rose and left the building, was, that "the MacNab of MacNabs doffs his bonnet to no man!"

At his home on the Chats the Emigrant Laird did his best to transplant the traditions and customs of by-gone days in the Highlands, but he found practical Canada an unfriendly soil for romance and sentiment.

Bouchette, in his _British Dominions_, i. 82, thus refers to the Canadian abode of the Chief and to the settlement formed by the clan MacNab. "High up [the Ottawa]," he says, "on the bold and abrupt sh.o.r.e of the broad and picturesque Lake of the Chats, the Highland Chief MacNab has selected a romantic residence, Kinnell Lodge, which he has succeeded, through the most unshaken perseverance, in rendering exceedingly comfortable. His unexampled exertions in forming and fostering the settlement of the towns.h.i.+p, of which he may be considered the founder and the leader, have not been attended with all the success that was desirable, or which he antic.i.p.ated."

Bouchette then appends a note wherein we can see how readily his own demonstrative Gallic nature sympathized with the kindred Celtic spirit of the Highlander. "The characteristic hospitality that distinguished our reception by the gallant Chief," he says, "when, in 1828, we were returning down the Ottawa, after having explored its rapids and lakes, as far up as Grand Calumet, we cannot pa.s.s over in silence. To voyageurs in the remote wilds of Canada," he continues, "necessarily strangers for the time to the sweets of civilization, the unexpected comforts of a well-furnished board, and the cordiality of a Highland welcome, are blessings that fall upon the soul like dew upon the flower. 'The sun was just resigning to the moon the empire of the skies,' when we took our leave of the n.o.ble chieftain," he adds, "to descend the formidable rapids of the Chats. As we glided from the foot of the bold bank, the gay plaid and cap of the n.o.ble Gael were seen waving on the proud eminence, and the shrill notes of the piper filled the air with their wild cadences. They died away as we approached the head of the rapids.

Our caps were flourished, and the flags (for our canoe was gaily decorated with them) waved in adieu, and we entered the vortex of the swift and whirling stream."

In 1836, Rolph, in his "Statistical Account of Upper Canada," p. 146, also speaks of the site of Kinnell Lodge as "greatly resembling in its bold, sombre and majestic aspect, the wildest and most romantic scenery"

of Scotland. "This distinguished Chieftain," the writer then informs us, "has received permission to raise a militia corps of 800 Highlanders, a cla.s.s of British subjects always distinguished for their devoted and chivalrous attachment to the laws and inst.i.tutions of their n.o.ble progenitors, and who would prove a rampart of living bodies in defence of British supremacy whenever and wherever a.s.sailed."

The reference in Dean Ramsay's interesting "Reminiscences of Scottish life and Character," to "the last Laird of MacNab," is perhaps to the father of the gentleman familiar to us here in York, and who filled so large a s.p.a.ce in the recollections of visitors to the Upper Ottawa. "The last Laird of MacNab before the clan finally broke up and emigrated to Canada was," says the Dean in the work just named, "a well-known character in the country; and, being poor, used to ride about on a most wretched horse, which gave occasion to many jibes at his expense. The Laird," this writer continues, "was in the constant habit of riding up from the country to attend the Musselburgh races [near Edinburgh]." A young wit, by way of playing him off on the race course, asked him in a contemptuous tone, "Is that the same horse you had last year, Laird?"--"Na," said the Laird, brandis.h.i.+ng his whip in the interrogator's face in so emphatic a manner as to preclude further questioning, "Na! but it's the same _whup_!" (p. 216, 9th ed.)

We do not doubt but that the MacNabs have ever been a spirited race.

Their representatives here have always been such; and like their kinsmen in the old home, too, they have had, during their brief history in Canada, their share of the hereditary vicissitudes. We owe to a Sheriff's advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle_ of the 14th of April, 1798, published at Niagara, some biographical particulars and a minute description of the person of the Mr. MacNab who was afterwards, as we have already stated, Usher of the Black Rod to the House of a.s.sembly and father of his successor, Mr. David MacNab, in the same post; father also of the Allan MacNab, whose history forms part of that of Upper Canada.

In 1798, imprisonment for debt was the rigorously enforced law of the land. The prominent MacNab of that date had, it would appear, become obnoxious to the law on the score of indebtedness: but finding the restraint imposed irksome, he had relieved himself of it without asking leave. The hue and cry for his re-capture proceeded as follows: "Two hundred dollars reward! Home District, Upper Canada, Newark, April 2, 1798. Broke the gaol of this District on the night of the 1st instant, [the 1st of April, be it observed,] Allan MacNab, a confined debtor. He is a reduced lieutenant of horse," proceeds the Sheriff, "on the half-pay list of the late corps of Queen's Rangers; aged 38 years or thereabouts; five feet three inches high; fair complexion; light hair; red beard; much marked with the small-pox; the middle finger of one of his hands remarkable for an overgrown nail; round shouldered; stoops a little in walking; and although a native of the Highlands of Scotland, affects much in speaking the Irish dialect. Whoever will apprehend, &c., &c., shall receive the above reward, with all reasonable expenses."

The escape of the prisoner on the first of April was probably felt by the Sheriff to be a practical joke played off on himself personally. We think we detect personal spleen in the terms of the advertis.e.m.e.nt: in the minuteness of the description of Mr. MacNab's physique, which never claimed to be that of an Adonis; in the biographical particulars, which, however interesting they chance to prove to later generations, were somewhat out of place on such an occasion: as also in a postscript calling on "the printers within His Majesty's Governments in America, and those of the United States to give circulation in their respective papers to the above advertis.e.m.e.nt," &c.

It was a limited exchequer that created embarra.s.sment in the early history--and, for that matter, in much of the later history as well--of Mr. MacNab's distinguished son, afterwards the baronet Sir Allan; and no one could relate with more graphic and humorous effect his troubles from this source, than he was occasionally in the habit of doing.

When observing his well-known handsome form and ever-benignant countenance, about the streets of York, we lads at school were wont, we remember, generally to conjecture that his ramblings were limited to certain bounds. He himself used to dwell with an amount of complacency on the skill acquired in carpentry during these intervals of involuntary leisure, and on the practical results to himself from that skill, not only in the way of pastime, but in the form of hard cash for personal necessities. Many were the panelled doors and Venetian shutters in York which, by his account, were the work of his hands.

Once he was on the point of becoming a professional actor. Giving a.s.sistance now and then as an anonymous performer to Mr. Archbold, a respectable Manager here, he evinced such marked talent on the boards, that he was seriously advised to adopt the stage as his avocation and employment. The Theatre of Canadian public affairs, however, was to be the real scene of his achievements. Particulars are here unnecessary.

Successively sailor and soldier (and in both capacities engaged in perilous service); a lawyer, a legislator in both Houses; Speaker twice in the Popular a.s.sembly; once Prime Minister; knighted for gallantry, and appointed an Aide-de-camp to the Queen; dignified with a baronetcy; by the marriage of a daughter with the son of a n.o.bleman, made the possible progenitor of English peers--the career of Allan MacNab cannot fail to arrest the attention of the future investigator of Canadian history.

With our local traditions in relation to the grandiose chieftain above described, one or two stories are in circulation, in which his young kinsman Allan amusingly figures. Alive to pleasantry--as so many of our early worthies in these parts were--he undertook, it is said, for a small wager, to prove the absolute nudity of the knees, &c., of his feudal lord when at a ball in full costume: (the allegation, mischievously made, had been that the Chief was protected from the weather by invisible drawers.) The mode of demonstration adopted was a sudden cry from the ingenuous youth addressed to the Chief, to the effect that he observed a spider, or some such object running up his leg!--a cry instantly followed by a smart slap with the hand, with the presumed intention of checking the onward course of the noxious thing.

The loud crack occasioned by the blow left no room for doubt as to the fact of nudity; but the dignified Laird was somewhat disconcerted by the over zeal of his young retainer.

Again, at Kingston, the ever-conscious Chief having written himself down in the visitors' book at the hotel as The MacNab, his juvenile relative, coming in immediately after and seeing the curt inscription, instantly entered his protest against the monopoly apparently implied, by writing _himself_ down, just underneath, in conspicuous characters, as The Other MacNab--the genius of his coming fortunes doubtless inspiring the merry deed.--He held for a time a commission in the 68th, and accompanied that regiment to York in 1827. Riding along King Street one day soon after his arrival in the town, he observed Mr. Washburn, the lawyer, taking a furtive survey of him through his eyegla.s.s. The proceeding is at once reciprocated by the conversion of a stirrup into an imaginary lens of large diameter, lifted by the strap and waggishly applied to the eye.

Mr. Washburn had, we believe, pressed matters against the young officer rather sharply in the courts, a year or two previously. A few years later, when member for Wentworth, he contrived, while conversing with the Speaker, Mr. McLean, in the refreshment-room of the Parliament House, to slip into one of that gentleman's coat pockets the leg-bone of a turkey. After the lapse of a few minutes, Mr. MacNab, as chairman of a committee of the whole House, is solemnly seated at the Table, and Mr.

Speaker, in his capacity as a member, is being interrogated by him on some point connected with the special business of the committee. At this particular moment, it happens that Mr. Speaker, feeling for his handkerchief, discovers in his pocket the extraordinary foreign object which had been lodged there. Guessing in an instant the author of the trick, he extricates the bone and quick as thought, s.h.i.+es it at the head of the occupant of the Chair. The House is, of course, amazed; and Mr.

MacNab, in the gravest manner, directs the Clerk to make a note of the act.--We have understood that the house occupied by Mr. Fothergill (where we paused a short time since) was originally built by Allan MacNab, junior, but never dwelt in by him.

We now arrived at the Don bridge. The valley of the Don, at the place where the Kingston Road crosses it, was spanned in 1824 by a long wooden viaduct raised about twenty-five feet above the marsh below. This structure consisted of a series of ten trestles, or frames of hewn timber supporting a roadway of plank, which had lasted since 1809. A similar structure spanned the Humber and its marshes on the west side of York. Both of these bridges about the year 1824 had become very much decayed; and occasionally both were rendered impa.s.sable at the same time, by the falling in of worn-out and broken planks. The York papers would then make themselves merry on the well-defended condition of the town in a military point of view, approach to it from the east and west being effectually barred.

Prior to the erection of the bridge on the Kingston Road, the Don was crossed near the same spot by means of a scow, worked by the a.s.sistance of a rope stretched across the stream. In 1810, we observe that the Humber was also crossed by means of a ferry. In that year the inhabitants of Etobic.o.ke complained to the magistrates in session at York of the excessive toll demanded there; and it was agreed that for the future the following should be the charges:--For each foot pa.s.senger, 2d.; for every hog, 1d.; for every sheep, the same; for horned cattle, 2d. each, for every horse and rider, 5d.; for every carriage drawn by two horses, 1s. 3d. (which included the driver); for every carriage with one horse, 1s. It is presumed that the same tolls were exacted at the ferry over the Don, while in operation.

In 1824 not only was the Don bridge in bad repair, but, as we learn from a pet.i.tion addressed by the magistrates to Sir Peregrine Maitland in that year, the bridge over the Rouge in Pickering, also, is said to be, "from its decayed state, almost impa.s.sable, and if not remedied," the doc.u.ment goes on to state, "the communication between this town (York) and the eastern parts of the Province, as well as with Lower Canada by land, will be entirely obstructed."

At length the present earthwork across the marsh at the Don was thrown up, and the river itself spanned by a long wooden tube, put together on a suspension principle, roofed over and closed in on the sides, with the exception of oblong apertures for light. It resembled in some degree the bridges to be seen over the Reuss at Lucerne and elsewhere in Switzerland, though not decorated with paintings in the interior, as they are. Stone piers built on piles sustained it at either end. All was done under the superintendence of a United States contractor, named Lewis. It was at him that the _italics_ in Mr. Angell's advertis.e.m.e.nt glanced. The inuendo was that, for engineering purposes, there was no necessity for calling in the aid of outsiders.

From a kind of small Friar-Bacon's study, occupied in former years by ourselves, situated on a bold point some distance northwards, up the valley, we remember watching the pile-driver at work in preparing the foundation of the two stone piers of the Don bridge: from where we sat at our books we could see the heavy mallet descend; and then, after a considerable interval, we would hear the sharp stroke on the end of the piece of timber which was being driven down. From the same elevated position also, previously, we used to see the teams crossing the high frame-work over the marsh on their way to and from Town, and hear the distant clatter of the horses' feet on the loosely-laid planks.

The tubular structure which succeeded the trestle-work bridge did not retain its position very long. The pier at its western extremity was undermined by the water during a spring freshet, and gave way. The bridge, of course, fell down into the swirling tide below, and was carried bodily away, looking like a second Ark as it floated along towards the mouth of the river, where at length it stranded and became a wreck.

On the breaking up of the ice every spring the Don, as is well known, becomes a mighty rus.h.i.+ng river, stretching across from hill to hill.

Ordinarily, it occupies but a small portion of its proper valley, meandering along, like an English tide-stream when the tide is out. The bridge carried away on this occasion was notable so long as it stood, for retaining visible marks of an attempt to set fire to it during the troubles of 1837.

The next appliance for crossing the river was another tubular frame of timber, longer than the former one; but it was never provided with a roof, and never closed in at the sides. Up to the time that it began to show signs of decay, and to require cribs to be built underneath it in the middle of the stream, it had an unfinished, disreputable look. It acquired a tragic interest in 1859, from being the scene of the murder, by drowning, of a young Irishman named Hogan, a barrister, and, at the same time, a member of the Parliament of Canada.

When crossing the high trestlework which preceded the present earth-bank, the traveller, on looking down into the marsh below, on the south side, could see the remains of a still earlier structure, a causeway formed of unhewn logs laid side by side in the usual manner, but decayed, and for the most part submerged in water, resembling, as seen from above, some of the lately-discovered substructions in the lakes of Switzerland. This was probably the first road by which wheeled vehicles ever crossed the valley of the Don here. On the protruding ends of some of the logs of this causeway would be always seen basking, on a warm summer's day, many fresh-water turtles; amongst which, as also amongst the black snakes, which were likewise always to be seen coiled up in numbers here, and among the shoals of sunfish in the surrounding pools, a great commotion would take place when the jar was felt of a waggon pa.s.sing over on the framework above.

The rest of the marsh, with the exception of the s.p.a.ce occupied by the ancient corduroy causeway, was one thicket of wild willow, alder, and other aquatic shrubbery, among which was conspicuous the _spiraea_, known among boys as "seven-bark" or "nine-bark" and prized by them for the beautiful hue of its rind, which, when rubbed, becomes a bright scarlet.

Here also the blue iris grew plentifully, and reeds, frequented by the marsh hen; and the bulrush, with its long cat-tails, sheathed in chestnut-coloured felt, and pointing upwards like toy sky-rockets ready to be shot off. (These cat-tails, when dry and stripped, expand into large, white, downy spheres of fluff, and actually are as inflammable as gunpowder, going off with a mighty flash at the least touch of fire.)

The view from the old trestlework bridge, both up and down the stream, was very picturesque, especially when the forest, which clothed the banks of the ravine on the right and left, wore the tints of autumn.

Northward, while many fine elms would be seen towering up from the land on a level with the river, the bold hills above them and beyond were covered with lofty pines. Southward, in the distance, was a great stretch of marsh, with the blue lake along the horizon. In the summer this marsh was one vast jungle of tall flags and reeds, where would be found the conical huts of the muskrat, and where would be heard at certain seasons the peculiar _gulp_ of the bittern; in winter, when crisp and dry, here was material for a magnificent pyrotechnical display, which usually, once a year, came off, affording at night to the people of the town a spectacle not to be contemned.

Through a portion of this marsh on the eastern side of the river, Mr.

Justice Boulton, at a very early period, cut, at a great expense, an open channel in front of some property of his: it was expected, we believe, that the matted vegetation on the outer side of this cutting would float away and leave clear water, when thus disengaged; but no such result ensued: the channel, however, has continued open, and is known as the "Boulton ditch." It forms a communication for skiffs between the Don and Ashbridge's Bay.

At the west end of the bridge, just across what is now the gore between Queen Street and King Street, there used to be the remains of a military breastwork thrown up in the war of 1812. At the east end of the bridge, on the south side of the road, there still stands a lowly edifice of hewn logs, erected before the close of the last century, by the writer's father, who was the first owner and occupant of the land on both sides of the Kingston road at this point. The roadway down to the original crossing-place over the river in the days of the Ferry, and the time of the first corduroy bridge, swerving as it did considerably to the south from the direct line of the Kingston road, must have been in fact a trespa.s.s on his lot on the south side of the road: and we find that so noteworthy an object was the solitary house, just above the bridge, in 1799, that the bridge itself, in popular parlance, was designated by its owner's name. Thus in the _Upper Canada Gazette_ for March 9, 1799, we read that at a Town Meeting Benjamin Morley was appointed overseer of highways and fence-viewer for the section of road "from Scadding's bridge to Scarborough." In 1800 Mr. Ashbridge is appointed to the same office, and the section of highway placed under his charge is on this occasion named "the Bay Road from Scadding's bridge to Scarborough."

This Mr. Ashbridge is the early settler from whom Ashbridge's Bay was so called. His farm lay along the lower portion of that sheet of water.

Next to him, westward, was the property of Mr. Hastings, whose Christian name was Warren. Years ago, when first beginning to read Burke, we remember wondering why the name of "the great proconsul" of Hindustan looked so familiar to the eye: when we recollected that in our childhood we used frequently to see here along the old Kingston road the name Warren Hastings appended in conspicuous characters, to placards posted up, advertising a "Lost Cow," or some other homely animal, gone astray.--Adjoining Mr. Hasting's farm, still moving west, was that of Mr. Mills, with whose name in our mind is a.s.sociated the name of "Hannah Mills," an unmarried member of his household, who was the Sister of Charity of the neighbourhood, ever ready in times of sickness and bereavement to render, for days and nights together, kindly, sympathetic and consolatory aid.