Part 25

All the way from the site of the town of York to the front of this building, a narrow carriage-road and convenient bridle-path had been cut out by the soldiers, and carefully graded. Remains of this ancient engineering achievement are still to be traced along the base of the hill below the Necropolis and elsewhere. The brook--Castle Frank Brook--a little way from where it enters the Don, was spanned by a wooden bridge. Advantage being taken of a narrow ridge, that opportunely had its commencing point close by on the north side, the roadway here began the ascent of the adjoining height. It then ran slantingly up the hill-side, along a cutting which is still to be seen. The table-land at the summit was finally gained by utilizing another narrow ridge. It then proceeded along the level at the top for some distance through a forest of lofty pines, until the chateau itself was reached.

The cleared space where the building stood was not many yards across. On each side of it, the ground precipitously descended, on the one hand to the Don, on the other to the bottom of the ravine where flowed the brook. Notwithstanding the elevation of the position, the view was circumscribed, hill-side and table-land being alike covered with trees of the finest growth.

Castle Frank itself was an edifice of considerable dimensions, of an oblong shape; its walls were composed of a number of rather small, carefully hewn logs, of short lengths. The whole wore the hue which unpainted timber, exposed to the weather, speedily assumes. At the gable end, in the direction of the roadway from the nascent capital, was the principal entrance, over which a rather imposing portico was formed by the projection of the whole roof, supported by four upright columns, reaching the whole height of the building, and consisting of the stems of four good-sized, well-matched pines, with their deeply-chapped, corrugated bark unremoved. The doors and shutters to the windows were all of double thickness, made of stout plank, running up and down on one side, and crosswise on the other, and thickly studded over with the heads of stout nails. From the middle of the building rose a solitary, massive chimney-stack.

We can picture to ourselves the cavalcade that was wont, from time to time, to be seen in the summers and autumns of 1794-'5-'6, wending its way leisurely to the romantically situated chateau of Castle Frank, along the reaches and windings, the descents and ascents of the forest road, expressly cut out through the primitive woods as a means of access to it.

First, mounted on a willing and well-favoured horse, as we will suppose, there would be General Simcoe himself--a soldierly personage, in the full vigour of life, advanced but little beyond his fortieth year, of thoughtful and stern, yet benevolent aspect--as shewn by the medallion in marble on his monument in the cathedral at Exeter--revolving ever in his mind schemes for the development and defence of the new Society which he was engaged in founding; a man "just, active, enlightened, brave, frank," as the French Duke de Liancourt described him in 1795; "possessing the confidence of the country, of the troops, and of all those who were joined with him in the administration of public affairs." "No hillock catches his eye," the same observant writer remarks, "without exciting in his mind the idea of a fort which might be constructed on the spot, associating with the construction of this fort the plan of operations for a campaign; especially of that which should lead him to Philadelphia, _i. e._, to recover, by force of arms, to the allegiance of England, the Colonies recently revolted."

By the side of the soldier and statesman Governor, also on horseback, would be his gifted consort, small in person, "handsome and amiable," as the French Duke again speaks, "fulfilling," as he continues to say, "all the duties of the mother and wife with the most scrupulous exactness; carrying the latter so far," DeLiancourt observes, "as to be of great assistance to her husband by her talent for drawing, the practice of which, in relation to maps and plans, enabled her to be extremely useful to the Governor," while her skill and facility and taste in a wider application of that talent were attested, the French traveller might have added, by numerous sketch-books and portfolios of views of Canadian scenery in its primitive condition, taken by her hand, to be treasured up carefully and reverently by her immediate descendants, but unfortunately not accessible generally to Canadian students.

This memorable lady--memorable for her eminent Christian goodness, as well as for her artistic skill and taste, and superior intellectual endowments--survived to the late period of 1850. Her maiden name is preserved among us by the designation borne by two of our townships, East and West "Gwillim"-bury. Her father, at the time one of the aides-de-camp to General Wolfe, was killed at the taking of Quebec.

Conspicuous in the group would likewise be a young daughter and son, the latter about five years of age and bearing the name of Francis. The chateau of which we have just given an account was theoretically the private property of this child, and took its name from him, although the appellation, by accident as we suppose, is identical, in sound at all events, with that of a certain "Castel-franc" near Rochelle, which figures in the history of the Huguenots.

The Iroquois at Niagara had given the Governor a title, expressive of hospitality--Deyonynhokrawen, "One whose door is always open." They had, moreover, in Council declared his son a chief, and had named him Tioga; or Deyoken, "Between the Two Objects;" and to humour them in return, as Liancourt informs us, the child was occasionally attired in Indian costume. For most men it is well that the future is veiled from them. It happened eventually that a warrior's fate befell the young chieftain Tioga. The little spirited lad who had been seen at one time moving about before the assembled Iroquois at Niagara, under a certain restraint probably, from the unwonted garb of embroidered deerskin, in which, on such occasions, he would be arrayed; and at another time clambering up and down the steep hill-sides at Castle Frank, with the restless energy of a free English boy, was at last, after the lapse of some seventeen years, seen a mangled corpse, one in that ghastly pile of "English dead," which, in 1812, closed up the breach at Badajoz.

Riding with the Governor, out to his rustic lodge, would be seen also his attached secretary, Major Littlehales, and one or other of his faithful aides-de-camp, Lieutenant Talbot or Lieutenant Givins; with men in attendance in the dark green undress of the famous Queen's Rangers, with a sumpter pony or two, bearing packages and baskets filled with a day's provender for the whole party. A few dogs also, a black Newfoundland, a pointer, a setter, white and tan, hieing buoyantly about on the right and left, would give animation to the cavalcade as it passed sedately on its way--

"Through the green-glooming twilight of the grove."

It will be of interest to add here, the inscription on General Simcoe's monument in Exeter Cathedral:--"Sacred to the memory of John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-General in the army, and Colonel of the 22nd Regiment of Foot, who died on the 25th day of October, 1806, aged 54. In whose life and character the virtues of the hero, the patriot and the Christian were so eminently conspicuous, that it may justly be said, he served his king and his country with a zeal exceeded only by his piety towards God." Above this inscription is a medallion portrait. On the right and left are figures of an Indian and a soldier of the Queen's Rangers. The remains of the General are not deposited in Exeter Cathedral, but under a mortuary chapel on the estate of his family elsewhere.

Our cavalcade to Castle Frank, as sketched above, was once challenged on the supposed ground that in 1794 there were no horses in Western Canada.--Horses were no doubt at that date scarce in the region named; but some were procurable for the use of the Governor and his suite. In a "Journal to Detroit from Niagara, in 1793, by Major Littlehales," printed for the first time in the _Canadian Literary Magazine_, for May, 1833, we have it mentioned that, on the return of an exploring party, they were met at the end of the plains, near the Salt Lake Creek, by Indians, "bringing horses for the Governor and his suite." The French _habitans_ about Sandwich and Detroit were in possession of horses in 1793, as well as their fellow countrymen in Lower Canada.

After the departure of General Simcoe from Canada, Castle Frank was occasionally made the scene of an excursion or pic-nic by President Russell and his family; and a ball was now and then given there, for which the appliances as well as the guests were conveyed in boats up the Don. At one time it was temporarily occupied by Captain John Denison, of whom hereafter. About the year 1829, the building, shut up and tenantless at the time, was destroyed by fire, the mischievous handiwork of persons engaged in salmon-fishing in the Don. A depression in the dry sand just beyond the fence which bounds the Cemetery of St. James, northward, shews to this day the exact site of Castle Frank. The quantity of iron that was gathered out from this depression after the fire, was, as we remember, something extraordinary, all the window shutters and doors having been, as we have said, made of double planks, fastened together with an immense number of stout nails, whose heads thickly studded the surface of each in regular order.

The immediate surroundings of the spot where Castle Frank stood, fortunately continue almost in their original natural state. Although the site of the building itself is outside the bounds of the Cemetery of St. James, a large portion of the lot which at first formed the domain of the chateau, now forms a part of that spacious and picturesque enclosure. The deep glen on the west, immediately below where the house was built, and through which flows (and by the listener may be pleasantly _heard_ to flow) the brook that bears its name, is to this day a scene of rare sylvan beauty. The pedestrian from the town, by a half-hour's easy walk, can here place himself in the midst of a forest solitude; and from what he sees he can form an idea of the whole surrounding region, as it was when York was first laid out. Here he can find in abundance, to this day, specimens, gigantic and minute, of the vegetation of the ancient woods. Here at the proper seasons he can still hear the blue jay; the flute notes of the solitary wood-thrush, and at night, specially when the moon is shining bright, the whip-poor-will, hurriedly and in a high key, syllabling forth its own name.

_5.--On to the Ford and the Mills._

We now resume our ramble up the valley of the Don. Northward of the gorge, where Castle Frank Brook entered, and where so many other deep-cut ravines converge upon the present channel of the stream, the scenery becomes really good.

We pass along through natural meadows, bordered on both sides by fine hills, which recede by a succession of slight plateaux, the uppermost of them clothed with lofty pines and oaks: on the slope nearest to "the flats" on the east, grew, along with the choke-cherry and may-flower, numbers of the wild apple or crab, beautiful objects when in full bloom. Hereabout also was to be found the prickly ash, a rather uncommon and graceful shrub. (The long-continued precipitous bank on the west side of the Don completely covered with forest, with, at last, the roof of the rustic chateau appearing above, must have recalled, in some slight degree, the Sharpham woods and Sharpham to the mind of anyone who had ever chanced to sail up the Dart so far as that most beautiful spot.)

Immediately beyond the Castle Frank woods, where now is the property known as Drumsnab, came the estate of Captain George Playter, and directly across on the opposite side of the river, that of his son Captain John Playter, both immigrants from Pennsylvania. When the town of York was in the occupancy of the Americans in 1813, many of the archives of the young province of Upper Canada were conveyed for safe keeping to the houses of these gentlemen. But boats, with men and officers from the invading force, found their way up the windings of the Don; and such papers and documents as could be found were carried away.

Just below Drumsnab, on the west side of the stream, and set down, as it were, in the midst of the valley, was, and is, a singular isolated mound of the shape of a glass shade over a French clock, known in the neighbourhood as the "Sugar Loaf." It was completely clothed over with moderate sized trees. When the whole valley of the Don was filled with a brimming river reaching to the summit of its now secondary banks, the top of the "Sugar Loaf," which is nearly on a level with the summit of the adjacent hills, must have appeared above the face of the water as an island speck.

This picturesque and curious mound is noticed by Sir James Alexander, in the account which he gives of the neighbourhood of Toronto in his "L'Acadie, or Seven Years' Explorations in British America":--"The most picturesque spot near Toronto," says Sir James, "and within four miles of it, is Drumsnab, the residence of Mr. Cayley. The mansion is roomy and of one storey, with a broad verandah. It is seated among fields and woods, on the edge of a slope; at the bottom winds a river; opposite is a most singular conical hill, like an immense Indian tumulus for the dead; in the distance, through a vista cut judiciously through the forest, are seen the dark blue waters of Lake Ontario. The walls of the principal room are covered with scenes from Faust, drawn in fresco, with a bold and masterly hand, by the proprietor."--(Vol. 1. p. 230.)

In the shadow thrown eastward by the "Sugar Loaf," there was a "Ford" in the Don, a favourite bathing-place for boys, with a clean gravelly bottom, and a current somewhat swift. That Ford was just in the line of an allowance for a concession road; which from the precipitous character of the hills on both sides, has been of late years closed by Act of Parliament, on the ground of its supposed impracticability for ever,--a proceeding to be regretted; as the highway which would traverse the Don valley at the Ford would be a continuation of Bloor street in a right line; and would form a convenient means of communication between Chester and Yorkville.

In the meadow on the left, just above the Ford, a little meandering brook, abounding in trout, entered the Don. Hereabouts also was, for a long while, a rustic bridge over the main river, formed by trees felled across the stream.

Proceeding on our way we now in a short time approached the great colony of the Helliwells, which has already been described. The mills and manufactories established here by that enterprising family constituted quite a conspicuous village. A visit to this cluster of buildings, in 1827, is described by Mr. W. L. Mackenzie, in his "Sketches of Canada," published in London, by Effingham Wilson, in 1833. At page 270 of that work, the writer says: "About three miles out of town, in the bottom of a deep ravine, watered by the river Don, and bounded also by beautiful and verdant flats, are situated the York Paper Mills, distillery and grist-mill of Messrs. Eastwood & Co.; also Mr. Shepard's axe-grinding machinery; and Messrs. Helliwell's large and extensive Brewery. I went out to view these improvements a few days ago, and returned much gratified with witnessing the paper-manufacture in active operation--as also the bold and pleasant scenery on the banks of the Don. The river might be made navigable with small expense up to the brewery; and if the surrounding lands were laid out in five-acre lots all the way to town, they would sell to great advantage."

XVIII.

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 extending 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: