Part 32 (1/2)
Denison's grandson, G. T. Denison _tertius_, is the author of a work on ”Modern Cavalry, its Organisation, Armament and Employment in War,”
which has taken a recognized place in English strategetical literature.
In accordance with an early Canadian practice, Capt. John Dennison set apart on his property a plot of ground as a receptacle for the mortal remains of himself and his descendants. He selected for this purpose a picturesque spot on land possessed by him on the Humber river, entailing at the same time the surrounding estate. In 1853,--although at that date an Act of Parliament had cancelled entails,--his heir, Col. G. T.
Denison, _primus_, perpetually connected the land referred to, together with the burial plot, with his family and descendants, by converting it into an endowment for an ecclesiastical living, to be always in the gift of the legal representative of his name. This is the projected rectory of St. John's on the Humber. In 1857, a son of Col. Denison's, Robert Britton Denison, erected at his own cost, in immediate proximity to the old Bellevue homestead, the church of St. Stephen, and took steps to make it in perpetuity a recognized ecclesiastical benefice.
The boundary of Major Littlehales' lot westward was near what is now Bathurst Street. In front of this lot, on the south side of Lot street, and stretching far to the west, was the Government Common, of which we have previously spoken, on which was traced out, at first ideally, and at length in reality, the arc of a circle of 1,000 yards radius, having the Garrison as its centre. Southward of the concave side of this arc no buildings were for a long time permitted to be erected. This gave rise to a curiously-shaped enclosure, northward of St. Andrew's Market-house, wide towards the east, but vanis.h.i.+ng off to nothing on the west, at the point where Lot Street formed a tangent with the military circle.
Of Portland Street and Bathurst Street we have already spoken in our survey of Front Street. Immediately opposite Portland Street was the abode, at the latter period of his life, of Dr. Lee, to whom we have referred in our accounts of Front and George Streets. Glancing northward as we pa.s.s Bathurst Street, which, by the way, north of Lot Street, was long known as Crookshank's Lane, we are reminded again of Mr. Murchison, whom we have likewise briefly commemorated elsewhere. The substantial abode to which he retired after acquiring a good competency, and where in 1870 he died, is to be seen on the east side of Bathurst Street.
The names which appear in the early plans of York and its suburbs, as the first possessors of the park lots westward of Major Littlehales', are, in order of succession, respectively, Col. David Shank, Capt.
Macdonell, Capt. S. Smith, Capt. ae. Shaw, Capt. Bouchette. We then arrive at the line of the present Dundas road, where it pa.s.ses at right angles north from the line of Queen Street. This thoroughfare is not laid down in the plans. Then follow the names of David Burns, William Chewitt and Alexander MacNab (conjointly), Thomas Ridout and William Allan (conjointly), and Angus Macdonell. We then reach a road duly marked, leading straight down to the French Fort, Fort Rouille, commonly known as Fort Toronto. Across this road westward, only one lot is laid off, and on it is the name of Benjamin Hallowell.
Most of the names first enumerated are very familiar to those whose recollections embrace the period to which our attention is now being directed. Many of them have occurred again and again in these papers.
In regard to Col. David Shank, the first occupant of the park lot westward of Major Littlehales', we must content ourselves with some brief ”Collections.” In the Simcoe correspondence, preserved at Ottawa, there is an interesting mention of him, a.s.sociated, as it appropriately happens, with his neighbour-locatees to the east and west here on Lot Street. In a private letter to the ”Secretary at War,” Sir George Yonge, from Governor Simcoe, dated Jan. 17th, 1792, announcing his arrival at Montreal, _en route_ for his new Government, still far up ”the most august of rivers,” Capt. Shank is spoken of as being on his way to the same destination in command of a portion of the Queen's Rangers, in company with Capt. Smith.
There is noted in the same doc.u.ment, it will be observed, a gallant achievement of Capt. Shaw's, who, the Governor reports, had just successfully marched with his division of the same regiment all the way from New Brunswick to Montreal, in the depth of winter, on snow-shoes.
”It is with infinite pleasure,” writes Governor Simcoe to Sir George Yonge, ”that I received your letter of the 1st of April by Capt.
Littlehales. On the 13th of June,” he continues, ”that officer overtook me on the St. Lawrence, as I was on my pa.s.sage in batteaux up the most august of rivers. It has given me great satisfaction,” the Governor says, ”that the Queen's Rangers have arrived so early. Capt. Shaw, who crossed in the depth of winter on snow-shoes from New Brunswick, is now at Kingston with the troops of the two first s.h.i.+ps; and Captains Shank and Smith, with the remainder, are, I trust, at no great distance from this place,--as the wind has served for the last 36 hours, and I hope with sufficient force to enable them to pa.s.s the Rapids of the Richelieu, where they have been detained some days.” Governor Simcoe himself, as we learn from this correspondence, had landed at Quebec on the 11th of November preceding (1791), in the ”Triton,” Capt. Murray, ”after a bl.u.s.tering pa.s.sage.”
In addition to the lot immediately after Major Littlehales', Col. Shank also possessed another in this range, just beyond, viz., No. 21.
The Capt. Macdonell, whose name appears on the lot that follows Col.
Shank's first lot, was the aide-de-camp of Gen. Brock, who fell, with that General, at Queenston Heights. Capt. Macdonell's lot was afterwards the property of Mr. Crookshank, from whom what is now Bathurst Street North had, as we have remarked, for a time the name of Crookshank's Lane.
Capt. S. Smith, whose name follows those of Capt. Macdonell and Col.
Shank, was afterwards President Smith, of whom already. The park lot selected by him was subsequently the property of Mr. Duncan Cameron, a member of the Legislative Council, freshly remembered. At an early period, the whole was known by the graceful appellation of Gore Vale.
Gore was in honour of the Governor of that name. Vale denoted the ravine which indented a portion of the lot through whose meadow-land meandered a pleasant little stream. The southern half of this lot now forms the site and grounds of the University of Trinity College. Its brooklet will hereafter be famous in scholastic song. It will be regarded as the Cephissus of a Canadian Academus, the Cherwell of an infant Christ Church. The elmy dale which gives such agreeable variety to the park of Trinity College, and which renders so charming the views from the Provost's Lodge, is irrigated by it. (The cupola and tower of the princ.i.p.al entrance to Trinity College will pleasantly, in however humble a degree, recall to the minds of Oxford-men, the Tom Gate of Christ Church.)--After the decease of Mr. Cameron, Gore Vale was long occupied by his excellent and benevolent sister, Miss Janet Cameron.
On the steep mound which overhangs the Gore Vale brook, on its eastern side, just where it is crossed by Queen Street, was, at an early period, a Blockhouse commanding the western approach to York. On the old plans this military work is shown, as also a path leading to it across the Common from the Garrison, trodden often probably by the relief party of the guard that would be stationed there in anxious times.
In the valley of this stream a little farther to the west, on the opposite side of Queen Street, was a Brewery of local repute: it was a long, low-lying dingy-looking building of hewn logs; on the side towards the street a railed gangway led from the road to a door in its upper storey. Conspicuous on the hill above the valley on the western side was the house, also of hewn logs, but cased over with clap-boards, of Mr.
Farr, the proprietor of the brewery, a north-of-England man in aspect, as well as in staidness and shrewdness of character. His spare form and slightly crippled gait were everywhere familiarly recognized. Greatly respected, he was still surviving in 1872. His chief a.s.sistant in the old brewery bore the name of Bow-beer. (At Canterbury, we remember, many years ago, when the abbey of St. Augustine there, now a famous Missionary College, was a Brewery, on the beautiful turretted gateway, wherein were the coolers, the inscription ”Beer, Brewer,” was conspicuous; the name of the brewer in occupation of the grand monastic ruin being Beer, a common name, sometimes given as Bere; but which in reality is Bear.)
The stream which is here crossed by Queen Street is the same that afterwards flows below the easternmost bastion of the Fort. A portion of the broken ground between Farr's and the Garrison was once designated by the local Government--so far as an order in Council has force--and permanently set apart, as a site for a Museum and Inst.i.tute of Natural History and Philosophy, with Botanical and Zoological Gardens attached.
The project, originated by Dr. Dunlop, Dr. Rees and Mr. Fothergill, and patronized by successive Lieutenant-Governors, was probably too bold in its conception, and too advanced to be justly appreciated and earnestly taken up by a sufficient number of the contemporary public forty years ago. It consequently fell to the ground. It is to be regretted that, at all events, the land, for which an order in Council stands recorded, was not secured in perpetuity as a source of revenue for the promotion of science. In the Canadian Inst.i.tute we have the kind of a.s.sociation which was designed by Drs. Dunlop and Rees and Mr. Fothergill, but minus the revenue which the ground-rent of two or three building lots in a flouris.h.i.+ng city would conveniently supply.
Capt. aeneas Shaw, the original locatee of the park-lot next westward of Colonel Shank's second lot, was afterwards well known in Upper Canada as Major General Shaw. Like so many of our early men of note he was a Scotchman; a Shaw of Tordorach in Strathnairn. Possessed of great vigour and decision, his adopted country availed itself of his services in a civil as well as a military capacity, making him a member of the legislative and executive councils. The name by which his house and estate at this point were known, was Oakhill. The primitive domicile still exists and in 1871 was still occupied by one of his many descendants, Capt. Alex. Shaw.--It was at Oakhill that the Duke of Kent was lodged during his visit to York in his second tour in Upper Canada.
The Duke arrived at Halifax on the 12th of September, 1799, after a pa.s.sage from England of forty-three days, ”on board of the Arethusa.”
Of Col. Joseph Bouchette, whose name is read on the following allotment, we have had occasion already to speak. He was one of the many French Canadians of eminence who, in the early days, were distinguished for their chivalrous attachment to the cause and service of England. The successor of Col. Bouchette in the proprietors.h.i.+p of the park lot at which we have arrived, was Col. Givins.--He, as we have already seen, was one of the companions of Gov. Simcoe in the first exploration of Upper Canada. Before obtaining a commission in the army, he had been as a youth employed in the North-West, and had acquired a familiar acquaintance with the Otchibway and Huron dialects. This acquisition rendered his services of especial value to the Government in its dealings with the native tribes, among whom also the mettle and ardor and energy of his own natural character gave him a powerful influence.
At the express desire of Governor Simcoe he studied and mastered the dialects of the Six Nations, as well as those of the Otchibways and their Mississaga allies.--We ourselves remember seeing a considerable body of Indian chiefs kept in order and good humour mainly through the tact exercised by Col. Givins. This was at a Council held in the garden at Government House some forty years since, and presided over by the then Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Colborne.
Col. Givins was Superintendent of Indian Affairs down to the year 1842.
In 1828 his name was connected with an incident that locally made a noise for a time. A committee of the House of a.s.sembly, desiring to have his evidence and that of Col. Coffin, Adjutant General of Militia, in relation to a trespa.s.s by one Forsyth on Government property at the Falls of Niagara, commanded their presence at a certain day and hour. On referring to Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor at the time, and also Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, permission to obey the mandate of the House was refused. Col. Givins and Col. Coffin were then arrested by the Sergeant-at-arms, after forcible entry effected at their respective domiciles, and were kept confined in the common gaol until the close of the session.
The following is Col. Coffin's letter to Major Hillier, private secretary to the Governor, on the occasion: ”York, March 22nd, 1828.
Sir,--I beg leave to request that you will state to the Lieutenant Governor that in obedience to the communication I received through you, that His Excellency could not give me permission to attend a Committee of the House of a.s.sembly for the reason therein stated, that I did not attend the said Committee, and that in consequence thereof, I have been committed this evening to the common gaol of the Home District, by order of the House of a.s.sembly. I have therefore to pray that His Excellency will be pleased to direct that I may have the advice and a.s.sistance of the Crown Officers, to enable me take such steps as I may be instructed on the occasion. I have the honour, &c., N. Coffin, Adjt. Gen. of Militia.”