Queen Street From The Don Bridge To Caroline Street

We return once more to the Don Bridge; and from that point commence a

journey westward along the thoroughfare now known as Queen Street, but

which at the period at present occupying our attention, was

non-existent. The region through which we at first pass was long known

as the Park. It was a portion of Government property not divided into

lots and sold, until recent times.



Originally a great space extend ng from the first Parliament houses,

bounded southward and eastward by the water of the Bay and Don, and

northward by the Castle Frank lot, was set apart as a "Reserve for

Government Buildings," to be, it may be, according to the idea of the

day, a small domain of woods and forest in connection with them; or else

to be converted in the course of time into a source of ways and means

for their erection and maintenance. The latter appears to have been the

view taken of this property in 1811. We have seen a plan of that date,

signed "T. Ridout, S. G.," shewing this reserve divided into a number of

moderate sized lots, each marked with "the estimated yearly rent, in

dollars, as reported by the Deputy Surveyor [Samuel S. Wilmot]." The

survey is therein stated to have been made "by order of His Excellency

Francis Gore, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor."



The number of the lots is eighty-three. None of them bear a larger

amount than twenty dollars. Some of them consisting of minute bits of

marsh, were expected to yield not more than one dollar. The revenue from

the whole if realised would have been eleven hundred and thirty-three

dollars. In this plan, what is now Queen street is duly laid down, in

direct continuation of the Kingston Road westward, without regard to the

engineering difficulties presented by ravines; but it is entitled in

large letters, "Dundas Street." On its north side lie forty-six, and on

its south, thirty-seven of the small lots into which the whole reserve

is divided The scheme was never carried into effect.



The Park, as we remember it, was a tract of land in a state of nature,

densely covered, towards the north, with massive pines; and towards the

south, with a thick secondary growth of the same forest tree. Through

these woods ran a devious and rather obscure track, originating in the

bridle-road cut out, before the close of the preceding century, to

Castle Frank; one branch led off from it to the Playter-estate, passing

down and up two very steep and difficult precipices; and another,

trending to the west and north, conducted the wayfarer to a point on

Yonge Street about where Yorkville is now to be seen.



To the youthful imagination, the Park, thus clothed with veritable

forest--



The nodding horror of whose shady brows

Awed the forlorn and wandering passenger--



and traversed by irregular, ill-defined and very solitary paths, leading

to widely-separated localities, seemed a vast and rather mysterious

region, the place which immediately flashed on the mind, whenever in

poem or fairy tale, a wild or wold or wilderness was named. As time

rolled on, too, it actually became the haunt and hiding-place of lawless

characters.



After passing, on our left, the burial-plot attached to the first Roman

Catholic Church of York, and arriving where Parliament Street, at the

present day, intersects, we reached the limit, in that direction, of the

"Reserve for Government Buildings." Stretching from the point indicated,

there was on the right side of the way, a range of "park lots,"

extending some two miles to the west, all bounded on the south by what

at the present time is Queen Street, but which, from being the great

thoroughfare along the front of this very range, was long known as "Lot

Street." (In the plan above spoken of, it is marked, as already stated,

"Dundas Street," it being a section of the great military way, bearing

that name, projected by the first Governor of Upper Canada to traverse

the whole province from west to east, as we shall have occasion

hereafter to narrate.)



In the early plan of this part of York, the names of the first locatees

of the range of park-lots are given. On the first or easternmost lot we

read that of John Small. On the next, that of J. White.



In this collocation of names there is something touching, when we recall

an event in which the first owners of these two contiguous lots were

tragically concerned. Friends, and associates in the Public Service, the

one as Clerk of the Crown, the other as Attorney-General for Upper

Canada, from 1792-1800, their dream, doubtless, was to pass the evening

of their days in pleasant suburban villas placed here side by side in

the outskirts of the young capital. But there arose between them a

difficulty, trivial enough probably at the beginning, but which,

according to the barbaric conventionality of the hour, could only be

finally settled by a "meeting," as the phrase was, in the field, where

chance was to decide between them, for life or death, as between two

armies--two armies reduced to the absurdity of each consisting of one

man. The encounter took place in a pleasant grove at the back of the

Parliament Building, immediately to the east of it, between what is now

King Street and the water's edge. Mr. White was mortally wounded and

soon expired. At his own request his remains were deposited in his

garden on the park-lot, beneath a summer-house to which he had been

accustomed to retire for purposes of study.



The Oracle of Saturday, January 4, 1800, records the duel in the

following words:--"Yesterday morning a duel was fought back of the

Government Buildings by John White, Esq., his Majesty's

Attorney-General, and John Small, Esq., Clerk of the Executive Council,

wherein the former received a wound above the right hip, which it is

feared will prove mortal." In the issue of the following Saturday,

January 11th, the announcement appears:--"It is with much regret that we

express to the public, the death of John White, Esq." It is added: "His

remains were on Tuesday evening interred in a small octagon building,

erected on the rear of his Park lot." "The procession," the Oracle

observes, "was solemn and pensive; and shewed that though death, 'all

eloquent,' had seized upon him as his victim, yet it could not take from

the public mind the lively sense of his virtues. Vivit post funera

virtus."



The Constellation at Niagara, of the date January 11th, 1800, also

records the event, and enjoying a greater liberty of expression than the

Government organ at York, indulges in some just and sensible remarks on

the irrational practice of duelling in general, and on the sadness of

the special case which had just occurred. We give the Constellation

article:



"Died at York, on the 3rd instant, John White, Esq., Attorney-General of

this Province. His death was occasioned by a wound he received in a duel

fought the day before with John Small, Esq., Clerk of the Executive

Council, by whom he was challenged. We have not been able to obtain the

particulars of the cause of the dispute; but be the origin what it may,

we have to lament the toleration and prevalency of a custom falsely

deemed honourable, or the criterion of true courage, innocency or guilt,

a custom to gratify the passion of revenge in a single person, to the

privation of the country and a family, of an ornament of society, and

support: an outrage on humanity that is too often procured by the meanly

malicious, who have preferment in office or friendship in view, without

merit to gain it, and stupidly lacquey from family to family, or from

person to person, some wonderful suspicion, the suggestions of a soft

head and evil heart; and it is truly unfortunate for Society that the

evil they bring on others should pass by their heads to light on those

the world could illy spare. We are unwilling to attribute to either the

Attorney-General or Mr. Small any improprieties of their own, or to say

on whom the blame lies; but of this we feel assured, that an explanation

might easily have been brought about by persons near to them, and a

valuable life preserved to us. The loss is great; as a professional

gentleman, the Attorney-General was eminent, as a friend, sincere; and

in whatever relation he stood was highly esteemed; an honest and upright

man, a friend to the poor; and dies universally lamented and we here

cannot refuse to mention, at the particular request of some who have

experienced his goodness, that he has refused taking fees, and

discharged suits at law, by recommending to the parties, and assisting

them with friendly advice, to an amicable adjustment of their

differences: and this is the man whom we have lost!"



For his share in the duel Mr. Small was, on the 20th January, 1800,

indicted and tried before Judge Allcock and a jury, of which Mr. Wm.

Jarvis was the foreman. The verdict rendered was "Not Guilty." The

seconds were--Mr. Sheriff Macdonell for Mr. Small, and the Baron DeHoen

for Mr. White.



(In 1871, as some labourers were digging out sand, for building

purposes, they came upon the grave of Attorney-General White. The

remains were carefully removed under the inspection of Mr. Clarke

Gamble, and deposited in St. James' Cemetery.)



Mr. White's park-lot became afterwards the property of Mr. Samuel

Ridout, sometime Sheriff of the County, of whom we have had occasion to

speak already. A portion of it was subsequently owned and built on by

Mr. Edward McMahon, an Irish gentleman, long well known and greatly

respected as Chief Clerk in the Attorney General's office. Mr. McMahon's

name was, for a time, preserved in that of a street which here enters

Queen Street from the North.



Sherborne Street, which at present divides the White park-lot from Moss

Park commemorates happily the name of the old Dorsetshire home of the

main stem of the Canadian Ridouts. The original stock of this family

still flourishes in the very ancient and most interesting town of

Sherborne, famous as having been in the Saxon days the see of a bishop;

and possessing still a spacious and beautiful minster, familiarly known

to architects as a fine study.



Like some other English names, transplanted to the American continent,

that of this Dorsetshire family has assumed here a pronunciation

slightly different from that given to it by its ancient owners. What in

Canada is Ri-dout, at Sherborne and its neighbourhood, is Rid-out.



On the park-lot which constituted the Moss-Park Estate, the name of D.

W. Smith appears in the original plan. Mr. D. W. Smith was acting

Surveyor-General in 1794. He was the author of "A Short Topographical

Description of His Majesty's Province of Upper Canada in North America,

to which is annexed a Provincial Gazetteer:"--a work of considerable

antiquarian interest now, preserving as it does, the early names,

native, French and English, of many places now known by different

appellations. A second edition was published in London in 1813, and was

designed to accompany the new map published in that year by W. Faden,

Geographer to the King and Prince Regent. The original work was compiled

at the desire of Governor Simcoe, to illustrate an earlier map of Upper

Canada.





We have spoken already in our progress through Front Street, of the

subsequent possessor of Mr. Smith's lot, Col. Allan. The residence at

Moss Park was built by him in comparatively recent times. The homestead

previously had been, as we have already seen, at the foot of Frederick

Street, on the south-east corner. To the articles of capitulation on the

27th April, 1813, surrendering the town of York to Dearborn and

Chauncey, the commanders of the United States force, the name of Col.

Allan, at the time Major Allan, is appended, following that of

Lieut.-Col. Chewett.



Besides the many capacities in which Col. Allan did good service to the

community, as detailed during our survey of Front Street, he was also,

in 1801, Returning Officer on the occasion of a public election. In the

Oracle of the 20th of June, 1801, we have an advertisement signed by

him as Returning Officer for the "County of Durham, the East Riding of

the County of York, and the County of Simcoe"--which territories

conjointly are to elect one member. Mr. Allan announces that he will be

in attendance "on Thursday, the 2nd day of July next, at 10 o'clock in

the forenoon, at the Hustings under the Colonnade of the Government

Buildings in the Town of York--and proceed to the election of one Knight

to represent the said county, riding and county in the House of

Assembly, whereof all freeholders of the said county, riding and county,

are to take notice and attend accordingly."



The writ, issuing from "His Excellency, Peter Hunter, Esq.," directs the

returning officer "to cause one Knight, girt with a sword, the most fit

and discreet, to be freely and indifferently chosen to represent the

aforesaid county, riding and county, in Assembly, by those who shall be

present on the day of election."



Two candidates presented themselves, Mr. A. Macdonell and Mr. J. Small.

Mr. Macdonell was duly elected, "there appearing for him," we are

briefly informed in a subsequent number of the Oracle, "112

unquestionable votes; and for J. Small, Esq. 32: majority, 80."



In 1804 there was another election, when the candidates were Mr. A.

Macdonell again, Mr. D. W. Smith, of whom above, and Mr. Weekes. The

address of the last-named gentleman is in the Oracle of May 24th. It

is addressed to the Free and Independent Electors of the East Riding of

York. He says: "I stand unconnected with any party, unsupported by any

influence, and unambitious of any patronage, other than the suffrages of

those who consider the impartial enjoyment of their rights, and the

free exercise of their privileges as objects not only worthy of the

vigilance of the legislator, but also essential to their political

security and to their local prosperity. The opportunity of addressing

myself to men who may be inclined to think with freedom, and to act with

independency, is to me truly desirable; and the receiving of the

countenance and support of those characters, must ever bear in my mind

impressions more than gratifying."



"It will not accord with my sentiments," the address proceeds to say,

"to express myself in the usual terms of zeal and fidelity of an

election candidate; inasmuch as that the principle of previous

assurances has frequently, in the exercise of the functions of a

representative, have been either forgotten or occasionally abandoned;

but I hope it will not be considered vaunting in me to assert that that

zeal and the fidelity which have manifested themselves in the discharge

of my duty to my clients, will not be abated in supporting a more

important trust--the cause of the public!"



In the Oracle of April 7th is an address put forth by friends on the

part of Mr. D. W. Smith, who is at the moment absent. It is "to the free

and independent electors of the County of Durham, the East Riding of the

County of York, and the County of Simcoe." It runs as follows: "The

friends of the Hon. D. W. Smith beg leave to offer that gentleman to

represent you in the ensuing Parliament. His honour, integrity and

ability, and the essential services which, in different capacities, he

hath rendered to the Province, are so well known and felt that his

friends consider the mentioning of his name only to be the most powerful

solicitation which they can use on the present occasion, to obtain for

him your favour and suffrage." To this address the following paragraph

is added on May the 5th: "The friends of Mr. Smith consider it as their

duty further to intimate, that from late accounts received from him in

England, it was his determination to set out from that country so as to

arrive here early in the summer of this present year."



On the 2nd of May Mr. Macdonell's address came out. He speaks like a

practised orator, accustomed to the outside as well as the interior of

the House. He delivers himself in the following vigorous style:--



"To the Worthy Inhabitants of the East Riding of the County of York, and

Counties of Durham and Simcoe: Friends and Fellow Subjects. In

addressing you by appellations unusual, I believe, on similar

occasions, no affectation of singularity has dictated the innovation: my

terms flow from a more dignified principle, a purer source of ideas,

from a sentiment of liberal and extensive affection, which embraces and

contemplates not only such of you as by law are qualified to vote, but

also such as a contracted and short-sighted policy has restrained from

the immediate enjoyment of that privilege. Your interests, inseparably

the same, and alike dear and interesting to me, have always been equally

my care; and your good-will shall indiscriminately be gratifying,

whether accompanied with the ability of advancing my present pursuit, or

confined to the wishes of my succeeding in it.



"The anxious anticipation of events, which has engaged so many persons

unto such early struggles to supplant me, forces me also to anticipate

the dissolution of parliament, in declaring my disposition to continue

(if supported by my friends at the next general election) in that

situation which I have now the honour of filling in parliament; a

situation, which the majority of suffrages which placed me in it,

justifies the honest pride of supposing, was not obtained without merit,

and inspires the natural confidence of presuming, will not be lost

without a fault.



"I stoop with reluctance, gentlemen, to animadvert upon some puny

fabrications calculated to mislead your judgment, and alienate your

favour. It has been said that I am canvassing for a seat elsewhere. No!

gentlemen: the satisfaction, the pride, of representing that division of

this Province, which, comprehending the capital, is consequently the

political head, is to me, too captivating an object of political

ambition to suffer the view of it to be intercepted in my imagination

for a moment, by the prospect of any inferior representation. Be

assured, therefore, gentlemen, that I shall not forsake my present post,

until you or life shall have forsaken me.



"Another calumny of a darker hue has been fabricated. I have been

represented as inimical to the provincial statute which restrains many

worthy persons migrating into this Province from voting at elections,

under a residence of seven years. A more insidious, a more bare-faced

falsehood, never issued from the lips of malice; for during every

session of my sitting in parliament, I have been the warmest, and

loudest advocate for repealing that statute and for rendering taxation

and representation reciprocal.



"I shall notice a third expedient, in attempting which, detraction (by

resorting to an imposture so gross as to carry its own refutation upon

the very face of it) has effectually avowed its own impotency:--It has

been whispered that I have endeavoured to increase the general rate of

assessments within the Home District. Wretched misrepresentation! I

should have been my own enemy indeed, if I had lent myself to such a

measure. On the contrary; my maxim has been, and shall ever continue to

be, that so much of the public burden as possible should be shifted from

the shoulders of the industrious farmers and mechanics, upon those of

the more opulent classes of the community; persons with large salaries

and lucrative employments: the shallow artifice of these exploded lies

suggests this natural reflection, that slander could find no real

foundation to build upon, when reduced to the necessity of rearing its

fabrics upon visions.



"To conclude, gentlemen, I have no interests separate from yours, no

country but that which we inhabit in common. In all situations, under

all circumstances, I have been the friend of the people and the votary

of their rights. I have never changed with the times, nor shifted sides

with the occasion; and you may therefore reasonably confide that I shall

always be, gentlemen, your most devoted and most attached servant, A.

Macdonell, York, 2nd May, 1804."



An attempt had also been made to induce Mr. R. Henderson to become a

candidate at this election. He explained the reason why he declined to

come forward, in the following card:--"The subscriber thinks it a duty

incumbent on him thus publicly to notify his friends who wished him to

stand as a candidate at the ensuing election for York and its adjacent

counties; that he declines standing, having special business that causes

his absence at the time of the election. He hopes that his friends will

be pleased to accept of his grateful acknowledgments for the honour they

wished to confer on him. But as there are several candidates who solicit

the suffrages of the Public, they cannot be at a loss. He leaves you,

gentlemen, to the freedom of your own will. He has only to observe that

were he present on the day of election, he would give his vote to the

Honourable David William Smith. I am, Gentlemen, your obedient and

obliged servant, R. Henderson, York, 26th May, 1804."



Mr. Henderson's occupation was afterwards that of a local army

contractor, &c., as may be gathered from an advertisement which is to

be observed in the Oracle of September 6, 1806:--"Notice. The

subscriber having got the contract for supplying His Majesty's troops at

the garrison with fresh beef, takes the liberty of informing the public

that he has engaged a person to superintend the butchering business, and

that good fresh beef may be had three times a week. Fresh pork and

mutton will be always ready on a day's notice; poultry, &c. Those

gentlemen who may be pleased to become customers, may rely on being well

served, and regularly supplied. If constant customers, &c., a note of

the weight will be sent along with the article. Families becoming

constant customers, will please to send a book by their servant, to have

it entered, to prevent any mistakes. The business will commence on

Monday, the 1st of September next. R. Henderson, York, Aug. 28, 1806."



The grazing ground of Mr. Henderson's fat cattle was extensive. In the

same paper we have a notice bearing his signature, announcing that "the

subscriber has a considerable number of fat cattle running at large

between the town and the Humber. They are all branded on the horns with

R. H." The notice continues: "If any of said cattle should be offered

for sale to butchers or others, it is hoped no one will purchase them,

as they may suppose them to be stolen. A number of fat cattle is still

wanted, for which cash will be paid."



The result of the election at York in 1804 is announced in the Oracle

of June 16. As was probably to be expected, Mr. Macdonell was the man

returned. Thus runs the paragraph: "On Monday last the 11th instant, the

election of a Knight to represent the counties of Durham and Simcoe and

the East Riding of the County of York, took place at the Government

Buildings in this town. At the close of the poll, Angus Macdonell was

declared to be duly elected to represent the said counties and riding.

We have not yet been able to collect any further returns," the Editor

adds, "but as soon as practicable they will be laid before the public."



On the 4th of the following August, accordingly, the following complete

list was given of members returned at the election of 1804. Alexander

Macdonell and W. B. Wilkinson, Esqrs., Glengarry and Prescott. Robert

Isaac D. Grey, Esq., Stormont and Russell. John Chrysler, Dundas. Samuel

Sherwood, Esq., Grenville. Peter Howard, Esq., Leeds. Allan McLean,

Esq., Frontenac. Thomas Dorland, Esq., Lennox and Addington. Ebenezer

Washburn, Esq., Prince Edward. David McGregor Rogers, Esq., Hastings and

Northumberland. Angus Macdonell, Esq., Durham, Simcoe and East Riding of

York. Solomon Hill and Robert Nelles, Esqrs., West Riding of York, First

Lincoln, and Haldimand. Isaac Swayzey and Ralph Clench, Esqs., 2nd, 3rd

and 4th Ridings of Lincoln. Benaiah Mallory, Esq., Norfolk, Oxford and

Middlesex. John McGregor, Esq., Kent. Matthew Elliott and David Cowan,

Esqrs., Essex.



The Mr. Weekes who, as we have seen, was an unsuccessful candidate for a

seat in parliament in 1804 was nevertheless a member of the House in

1806, representing the constituencies to which he had previously offered

himself. In 1806 he was killed in a duel with Mr. Dickson at Niagara,

another victim to the peculiar social code of the day, which obliged

gentlemen on certain occasions of difference to fire pistols at each

other. In the Oracle of the 11th of October, 1806, we read the

announcement: "Died on Friday, the 10th instant, at night, in

consequence of a wound received that morning in a duel, William Weekes,

Esq., Barrister-at-law, and a Member of the House of Assembly for the

counties of York, Durham and Simcoe." In the next issue of the paper,

dated October 25, 1806, we have a second record of the event in the

following terms, with a eulogy on Mr. Weekes' character: "It is with

sentiments of the deepest regret that we announce to the public the

death of William Weekes, Esq., Barrister-at-law in this Province; not

only from the melancholy circumstances attendant on his untimely death,

but also from a view of the many virtues this Province is deprived of by

that death. In him the orphan has lost a father, the widow a friend, the

injured a protector, society a pleasing and safe companion, and the Bar

one of its ablest advocates. Mr. Weekes was honest without the show of

ostentation. Wealth and splendour held no lure for him; nor could any

pecuniary motives induce him to swerve in the smallest degree from that

which he conceived to be strictly honourable. His last moments were

marked with that fortitude which was the characteristic of his life,

convinced of the purity of which, he met death with pleasure.



"His funeral was delayed longer than could have been wished, a form of

law being necessary previous to that ceremony. He was interred on

Tuesday, the fourteenth. His funeral," it is added, "was attended by a

respectable assemblage of people, from the house of John MacKay, Esq.,

in the following order:--mourners, John MacKay, Esq.; three Members of

the House of Assembly, of which he was a member: viz., Ralph Clench, J.

Swayzey, Robert Nelles; Dr. West, Surgeon of the American Garrison, Dr.

Thomas, 41st Regt., Dr. Muirhead, Niagara; the Gentlemen of the Bar; the

Magistrates of the place; and a numerous concourse of people from town

and country."



This duel, as we have been informed, was fought on the United States

side of the river, near the French Fort.



Mr. Weekes, we believe, was an unmarried man. He was fond of solitary

rambles in the woods in search of game. Once he was so long missing that

foul play was suspected; and some human remains having been found under

a heap of logs on the property of Peter Ernest, Peter Ernest was

arrested; and just as the evidence was all going strongly against him,

Mr. Weekes appeared on the scene alive and well.



One more of these inhuman and unchristian encounters, with fatal result,

memorable in the early annals of York, we shall have occasion to speak

of hereafter when, in our intended progress up Yonge Street, we pass the

spot where the tragedy was enacted.



Mr. Weekes was greatly regretted by his constituents. "Overwhelmed with

grief," they say in their address dated the 20th September, 1806, to the

gentleman whom they desire to succeed him, "at the unexpected death of

our late able and upright Representative; we, freeholders of these

Counties of York, Durham and Simcoe, feel that we have neglected our

interests in the season of sorrow. Now awake, it is to you we turn;

notwithstanding the great portion of consolation which we draw from the

dawning of our impartial and energetic administration. (The allusion is

to Gov. Gore.)



"Fully persuaded that the great object of your heart is the advancement

of public prosperity, the observance of the laws, and the practice of

religion and morality, we hasten with assurances of our warmest support,

to invite you from your retreat to represent us in Parliament. Permit

us, however, to impress upon you, that as subjects of a generous and

beloved King; as a part of that great nation which has for so long a

time stood the bulwark of Europe, and is now the solitary and

inaccessible asylum of liberty; as the children of Englishmen, guarded,

protected and restrained by English laws; in fine, as members of their

community, as fathers and sons, we are induced to place this confidence

in your virtue, from the firm hope that, equally insensible to the

impulse of popular feeling and the impulse of power, you will pursue

what is right. This has been the body of your decisions; may it be the

spirit of your counsels! (Signed by fifty-two persons, residing in the

Town and Township of York.)" The names not given.



These words were addressed to Mr. Justice Thorpe. His reply was couched

in the following terms: "Gentlemen: With pleasure I accede to your

desire. If you make me your representative I will faithfully discharge

my duty. Your confidence is not misplaced. May the first moment of

dereliction be the last of my existence. Your late worthy representative

I lament from my heart. In private he was a warm friend; at the Bar an

able advocate, and in Parliament a firm patriot. It is but just to draw

consolation from our Governor, when the first act of his administration

granted to those in the U. E. list and their children, what your late

most valuable member so strenuously laboured to obtain. Surely from this

we have every reason to expect that the liberal interests of our beloved

sovereign, whose chief glory is to reign triumphantly enthroned on the

hearts of a free people, will be fulfilled, honouring those who give and

those who receive, enriching the Province and strengthening the Empire.

Let us cherish this hope in the blossom; may it not be blasted in the

ripening." A postscript is subjoined: "P. S. If influence, threat,

coercion or oppression should be attempted to be exercised over any

individual, for the purpose of controlling the freedom of election, let

me be informed.--R. T."



In 1806 Judges were not ineligible to the Upper Canadian Parliament. Mr.

Justice Thorpe and Governor Gore did not agree. He was consequently

removed from office. Some years later, when both gentlemen were living

in England as private persons, Mr. Thorpe brought an action for libel

against Mr. Gore, and obtained a favourable verdict.



We now proceed on our prescribed course. So late as 1833, Walton, in his

"York Commercial Directory, Street Guide, and Register," when naming the

residents on Lot Street, as he still designates Queen Street, makes a

note on arriving at two park lots to the westward of the spot where we

have been pausing, to the effect, that "here this street is intercepted

by the grounds of Capt. McGill, S. P. Jarvis, Esq., and Hon. W. Allan;

past here it is open to the Roman Catholic Church, and intended to be

carried through to the Don Bridge."



The process of levelling up, now become so common in Toronto, has

effectually disposed of the difficulty temporarily presented by the

ravine or ancient water-course, yet partially to be seen either in front

of or upon the park lots occupied by the old inhabitants just named; and

Queen Street, at the present hour, is an uninterrupted thoroughfare in a

right line, and almost on a level the whole way, from the Don in the

east to the Lunatic Asylum in the west, and beyond, on to the gracefully

curving margin of Humber Bay.--(The unfrequented and rather tortuous

Britain Street is a relic of the deviation occasioned by the ravine,

although the actual route followed in making the detour of old was

Duchess Street.)