Part 8 (1/2)
Durand, and _Te Deum_ and other anthems were sung. They then returned to the College, where, in the s.p.a.cious Examination Hall, a crowded a.s.sembly were addressed respectively by the Bailiff and President-director [Daniel de Lisle Brock, Esq.], Colonel de Havilland, the Vice-President, and the Rev. G. Proctor, B.D., the new Princ.i.p.al, on the antiquity, objects, apparent prospects, and future efficiency of the inst.i.tution.”
Under the new system the work of education was carried on by a Princ.i.p.al, Vice-Princ.i.p.al, a First and Second Cla.s.sical Master, a Mathematical Master, a Master and a.s.sistant of the Lower School, a Commercial Master, two French Masters and an a.s.sistant, a Master of Drawing and Surveying, besides extra Masters for the German, Italian, and Spanish languages, and for Music, Dancing, and Fencing. The course of instruction for the day scholars, and those on the foundation, included Divinity, History, Geography, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, English, Mathematics, Arithmetic, and Writing, at a charge in the Upper School of 3 per quarter; and in the Lower or Preparatory School, of 1 per quarter; for Drawing and Surveying, 15_s._ per quarter. The terms for private scholars (including all College dues and subscriptions for exhibitions and prizes of medals, &c.) varied from 60 annually with the Princ.i.p.al, to 46 annually with the First Cla.s.sical Teacher.
The exhibitions in the revived inst.i.tution were, first, one of 30 per annum for four years, founded by the Governor of Guernsey in 1826, to the best Cla.s.sical scholar, a native of the Bailiwick, or son of a native; secondly, four for four years, of, at least, 20 per annum, founded by subscription in 1826, to the best scholars, severally, in Divinity, Cla.s.sics, Mathematics, and Modern Languages; thirdly, one for four years, of 20 per annum, founded in 1827 by Admiral Sir James Saumarez, to the best Theological and Cla.s.sical scholar; fourthly, one of 20 per annum, for four years, from 1830, to the best Cla.s.sical scholar, given by Sir John Colborne in 1828. There were also two, from the Lower to the Upper School, of 6 per annum, for one year or more, founded by the Directors in 1829.
The foregoing details will, as we have said, be of some interest, especially to Canadians who have received from the inst.i.tution founded by Sir John Colborne in Russell Square an important part of their early training. ”Whatever makes the past, the distant and the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.” So moralized Dr. Johnson amidst the ruins of Iona. On this principle, the points of agreement and difference between the educational type and ant.i.type is this instance, will be acknowledged to be curious.
Another link of a.s.sociation between Guernsey and Upper Canada exists in the now familiar name ”Sarnia,” which is the old cla.s.sical name of Guernsey, given by Sir John Colborne to a towns.h.i.+p on the St. Clair river, in memory of his former government.
Those who desire to trace the career of Upper Canada College _ab ovo_, will be thankful for the following advertis.e.m.e.nts. The first is from the _Loyalist_ of May 2, 1829. ”Minor College. Sealed tenders for erecting a School House and four dwelling-houses will be received on the first Monday of June next. Plans, elevations and specifications may be seen after the 12th instant, on application to the Hon. Geo. Markland, from whom further information will be received. Editors throughout the Province are requested to insert this notice until the first Monday in June, and forward their accounts for the same to the office of the _Loyalist_, York. York, 1st May, 1829.”
The second advertis.e.m.e.nt is from the _Upper Canada Gazette_ of Dec. 17, 1829. ”Upper Canada College, established at York. Visitor, the Lieutenant-Governor for the time being. This College will open after the approaching Christmas Vacation, on Monday the 8th of January, 1830, under the conduct of the Masters appointed at Oxford by the Vice Chancellor and other electors, in July last. Princ.i.p.al, the Rev, J. H.
Harris, D.D., late Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Cla.s.sical Department: Vice Princ.i.p.al, The Rev. T. Phillips, D.D., of Queen's College, Cambridge. First Cla.s.sical Master: The Rev. Charles Mathews, M.A., of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Second Cla.s.sical Master: The Rev. W.
Boulton, B.A., of Queen's College, Oxford. Mathematical Department: The Rev. Charles Dade, M.A., Fellow of Caius College, Cambridge, and late Mathematical Master at Elizabeth College. French, Mr. J. P. De la Haye.
English, Writing and Arithmetic, Mr. G. A. Barber and Mr. J. Padfield.
Drawing Master, Mr. Drury. (Then follow terms, &c.) Signed: G. H.
Markland, Secretary to the Board of Education. York, Upper Canada, Dec.
2, 1829.”
After Russell Square on the left, came an undulating green field; near the middle of it was a barn of rural aspect, cased-in with upright, unplaned boards. The field was at one time a kind of _Campus Martius_ for a troop of amateur cavalry, who were instructed in their evolutions and in the use of the broadsword, by a veteran, Capt. Midford, the Goodwin of the day, at York.
Nothing of note presented itself until after we arrived at the roadway which is now known as Bay Street, with the exception, perhaps, of two small rectangular edifices of red brick with bright tin roofs, dropped, as it were, one at the south-west, the other at the north-west, angle of the intersection of King and York Streets. The former was the office of the Manager of the Clergy Reserve Lands; the latter, that of the Provincial Secretary and Registrar. They are noticeable simply as being specimens, in solid material, of a kind of minute cottage that for a certain period was in fas.h.i.+on in York and its neighbourhood; little square boxes, one storey in height, and without bas.e.m.e.nt; looking as if, by the aid of a ring at the apex of the four sided roof, they might, with no great difficulty, be lifted up, like the hutch provided for Gulliver by his nurse Glumdalc.l.i.tch, and carried bodily away.
As we pa.s.s eastward of Bay Street, the memory comes back of Franco Rossi, the earliest scientific confectioner of York, who had on the south side, near here, a depot, ever fragrant and ambrosial. In his specialities he was a superior workman. From him were procured the fas.h.i.+onable bridecakes of the day; as also the _noyeau, parfait-amour_, and other liqueurs, set out for visitors on New Year's Day. Rossi was the first to import hither good objects of art: fine copies of the Laoc.o.o.n, the Apollo Belvidere, the Perseus of Canova, with other cla.s.sical groups and figures sculptured in Florentine alabaster, were disseminated by him in the community.
Rossi is the Italian referred to by the author of ”Cyril Thornton” in his ”Men and Manners in America,” where speaking of York, visited by him in 1832, he says: ”In pa.s.sing through the streets I was rather surprised to observe an _affiche_ intimating that ice-creams were to be had within. The weather being hot, I entered, and found the master of the establishment to be an Italian. I never ate better ice at Grange's”--some fas.h.i.+onable resort in London, we suppose. The outward signs of civilization at York must have been meagre when a chance visitor recorded his surprise at finding ice-creams procurable in such a place.
Great enthusiasm, we remember, was created, far and near, by certain panes of plate gla.s.s with bra.s.s divisions between them, which, at a period a little later than Cyril Thornton's (Captain Hamilton's) visit, suddenly ornamented the windows of Mr. Beckett's Chemical Laboratory, close by Rossi's. Even Mrs. Jameson, in her book of ”Winter Studies and Summer Rambles,” referring to the shop fronts of King Street, p.r.o.nounces, in a naive English watering-place kind of tone, ”that of the apothecary” to be ”worthy of Regent Street in its appearance.”
A little farther on, still on the southern side, was the first place of public wors.h.i.+p of the Wesleyan Methodists. It was a long, low, wooden building, running north and south, and placed a little way back from the street. Its dimensions in the first instance, as we have been informed by Mr. Petch, who was engaged in its erection, were 40 by 40 feet. It was then enlarged to 40 by 60 feet. In the gable end towards the street were two doors, one for each s.e.x. Within, the custom obtained of dividing the men from the women; the former sitting on the right hand of one entering the building; the latter on the left.
This separation of the s.e.xes in places of public wors.h.i.+p was an oriental custom, still retained among Jews. It also existed, down to a recent date, in some English Churches. Among articles of inquiry sent down from a Diocesan to churchwardens, we have seen the query: ”Do men and women sit together indifferently and promiscuously? or, as the fas.h.i.+on was of old, do men sit together on one side of the church, and women upon the other?” In English Churches the usage was the opposite of that indicated above: the north side, that is, the left on entering, was the place of the women; and the south, that of the men.
In 1688, we have Sir George Wheler, in his ”Account of the Churches of the Primitive Christians,” speaking of this custom, which he says prevails also ”in the Greek Church to this day:” he adds that it ”seems not only very decent, but nowadays, since wickedness so much abounds, highly necessary; for the general mixture,” he continues, ”of men and women in the Latin Church is notoriously scandalous; and little less,”
he says, ”is their sitting together in the same pews in our London churches.”
The Wesleyan chapel in King Street ceased to be used in 1833. It was converted afterwards for a time into a ”Theatre Royal.”
Jordan Street preserves one of the names of Mr. Jordan Post, owner of the whole frontage extending from Bay Street to Yonge Street. The name of his wife is preserved in ”Melinda Street,” which traverses his lot, or rather block, from east to west, south of King Street. Two of his daughters bore respectively the unusual names of Sophronia and Desdemona. Mr. Post was a tall New-Englander of grave address. He was, moreover, a clockmaker by trade, and always wore spectacles. From the formal cut of his apparel and hair, he was, quite erroneously, sometimes supposed to be of the Mennonist or Quaker persuasion.
So early as 1802, Mr. Post is advertising in the York paper. In the _Oracle_ of Sept. 18, 1802, he announces a temporary absence from the town. ”Jordan Post, watchmaker, requests all those who left watches with him to be repaired, to call at Mr. Beman's and receive them by paying for the repairs. He intends returning to York in a few months. Sept. 11, 1802.” In the close of the same year, he puts forth the general notice: ”Jordan Post, Clock and Watchmaker, informs the public that he now carries on the above business in all its branches, at the upper end of Duke Street. He has a complete a.s.sortment of watch furniture. Clocks and watches repaired on the shortest notice, and most reasonable terms, together with every article in the gold and silver line. N. B.--He will purchase old bra.s.s. Dec 11, 1802.”
Besides the block described above, Mr. Post had acquired other valuable properties in York, as will appear by an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Weekly Register_ of Jan. 19, 1826, from which also it will be seen that he at one time contemplated a gift to the town of one hundred feet frontage and two hundred feet of depth, for the purpose of a second Public Market. ”Town Lots for Sale. To be sold by Auction on the Premises, on Wednesday the first day of February next, Four Town Lots on King Street, west of George Street. Also, to be leased at the same time to the highest bidder, for twenty-one years, subject to such conditions as will then be produced. Six Lots on the west side of Yonge Street, and Twenty on Market Street. The Subscriber has reserved a Lot of Ground of One Hundred Feet front, by Two Hundred Feet in the rear, on George Street, for a Market Place, to be given for that purpose. He will likewise lease Ten Lots in front of said intended Market. A plan of the Lots may be seen and further particulars known, by application to the Subscriber.
Jordan Post. York, Jan. 4, 1826.”
[Ill.u.s.tration]