Part 42 (1/2)
”Behold us at Richmond Hill,” he exclaims, ”having safely pa.s.sed the Slough of Despond which the vaunted Yonge Street mud road presents between the celebrated hamlet of St. Albans and the aforesaid hill.”
And again: ”We reached Richmond Hill, seventeen miles from the Landing, at about 8 o'clock (he was moving southward) having made a better day's journey than is usually accomplished on a road which will be macadamized some fine day;--for the Board of Works,” he proceeds to inform the reader, ”have a Polish engineer hard at work surveying it; of course, no Canadian was to be found equal to this intricate piece of engineering; and I saw a variety of sticks stuck up; but what they meant I cannot guess at. I suppose they were going to grade it, which is the favourite American term.”
The prejudices of the Englishman and Royal Engineer routinier here crop out. The Polish engineer, who was commencing operations on this subdivision of Yonge Street, was Mr. Casimir Stanislaus Gzowski, whose subsequent Canadian career renders it probable that in setting up ”the variety of sticks,” the meaning of which Capt. Bonnycastle does after all guess at, he understood his business. We are a.s.sured that this portion of Yonge Street was in fact conspicuous for the superior excellence of its finish.
Captain Bonnycastle indulges in a further little fling at civilians who presume to undertake engineering duties, in a story which serves to fill a page or two of his book, immediately after the above remarks on Yonge Street, about Richmond Hill. He narrates an incident of his voyage out:--
”A Character,” he says, ”set out from England to try his fortune in Canada. He was conversing about prospects in that country, on board the vessel, with a person who knew him, but whom he knew not. 'I have not quite made up my mind,' said the character, 'as to what pursuit I shall follow in Canada; but that which brings most grist to the mill will answer best; and I hear a man may turn his hand to anything there, without the folly of an apprentices.h.i.+p being necessary; for if he have only brains, bread will come; now what do you think would be the best business for my market?' 'Why,' said the gentleman, after pondering a little, 'I should advise you to try civil engineering; for they are getting up a Board of Works there, and want that branch of industry very much, for they won't take natives: nothing but foreigners and strangers will go down.' 'What is a civil engineer?' said the Character. 'A man always measuring and calculating,' responded his adviser, 'and that will just suit you.' 'So it will,' rejoined Character, and a civil engineer he became accordingly, and a very good one into the bargain, for he had brains, and had used a yard measure all his lifetime.”--Who ”the Character” was, we do not for certain know.
A short distance beyond Richmond Hill was the abode of Colonel Moodie, on the right,--distinguished by a flag-staff in front of it, after the custom of Lower Canada, where an officer's house used to be known in this way. (In the neighbourhood of Sorel, as we remember, in the winter of 1837, it was one of the symptoms of disaffection come to a head, when in front of a substantial habitan's home a flag-staff was suddenly seen bearing the inscription ”----, Capitaine, elu par le peuple.”)
Colonel Moodie's t.i.tle came from his rank in the regular army. He had been Lieut.-Colonel of the 104th regiment. Sad, that a distinguished officer, after escaping the perils of the Peninsular war, and of the war with the United States here in 1812-13, should have yet, nevertheless, met with a violent death in a petty local civil tumult. He was shot, as all remember, in the troubles of 1837, while attempting to ride past Montgomery's, regardless of the insurgent challenge to stop.
”Thou might'st have dreamed of brighter hours to close thy chequered life Beneath thy country's victor-flag, sure beacon in the strife; Or in the shadow of thy home with those who mourn thee now, To whisper comfort in thine ear, to calm thine aged brow.
Well! peaceful be thy changeless rest,--thine is a soldier's grave; Hearts like thine own shall mourn thy doom--meet requiem for the brave-- And ne'er 'till Freedom's ray is pale and Valour's pulse grown cold Shall be thy bright career forgot, thy gloomy fate untold.”
So sang one in the columns of a local contemporary paper, in ”Lines suggested by the Lamented Death of the late Colonel Moodie.”
At a certain period in the history of Yonge Street, as indeed of all the leading thoroughfares of Upper Canada, about 1830-33, a frequent sign that property had changed hands, and that a second wave of population was rolling in, was the springing up, at intervals, of houses of an improved style, with surroundings, lawns, sheltering plantations, winding drives, well-constructed entrance-gates, and so on, indicating an appreciation of the elegant and the comfortable.
We recall two instances of this, which we used to contemplate with particular interest, a little way beyond Richmond Hill, on the left: the cosy, English-looking residences, not far apart, with a cl.u.s.ter of appurtenances round each--of Mr. Larratt Smith, and Mr. Francis Boyd.
Both gentlemen settled here with their families in 1836.
Mr. Smith had been previously in Canada in a military capacity during the war of 1812-13, and for many years subsequently he had been Chief Commissary of the Field Train Department and Paymaster of the Artillery.
He died at Southampton in 1860.
Mr. Boyd, who emigrated hither from the county of Kent, was one of the first, in these parts, to import from England improved breeds of cattle.
In his house was to be seen a collection of really fine paintings, amongst them a Holbein, a Teniers, a Dominichino, a Smirke, a Wilkie, and two Horace Vernets. The families of Mr. Boyd and Mr. Smith were related by marriage. Mr. Boyd died in Toronto in 1861.
Beyond Mr. Boyd's, a solitary house, on the same side of Yonge Street, lying back near the woods, used to be eyed askance in pa.s.sing:--its occupant and proprietor, Mr. Kinnear, had in 1843 been murdered therein by his man-servant, a.s.sisted by a female domestic. It was imagined by them that a considerable sum of money had just been brought to the house by Mr. Kinnear. Both criminals would probably have escaped justice had not Mr. F. C. Capreol, of Toronto, on the spur of the moment, and purely from a sense of duty to the public, undertaken their capture, which he cleverly effected at Lewiston in the United States.
The land now began to be somewhat broken as we ascended the rough and long-uncultivated region known as the Oak Ridges. The predominant tree in the primitive forest here was the pine, which attained a gigantic size; but specimens of the black oak were intermingled.
Down in one of the numerous clefts and chasms which were to be seen in this locality, in a woody dell on the right, was Bond's Lake, a pretty crescent-shaped sheet of water. We have the surrounding property offered for sale in a _Gazette_ of 1805, in the following terms; ”For Sale, Lots No. 62 and 63, in the first concession of the towns.h.i.+p of Whitchurch, on the east side of Yonge Street, containing 380 acres of land: a deed in fee simple will be given by the subscriber to any person inclined to purchase. Johnson Butler. N.B. The above lots include the whole of the Pond commonly called Bond's Lake, the house and clearing round the same.
For particulars enquire of Mr. R. Ferguson and Mr. T. B. Gough at York, and the subscriber at Niagara. March 23, 1805.”
Bond's farm and lake had their name from Mr. William Bond, who so early as 1800 had established in York a Nursery Garden, and introduced there most of the useful fruits. In 1801 Mr. Bond was devising to sell his York property, as appears from a quaint advertis.e.m.e.nt in a _Gazette_ of that year. He therein professes to offer his lot in York as a free gift; the recipient however being at the same time required to do certain things.
”To be given away,” he says, ”that beautifully situated lot No. one, fronting on Ontario and d.u.c.h.ess Streets: the buildings thereon are--a small two-and-a-half storey house, with a gallery in front, which commands a view of the lake and the bay: in the cellar a never failing spring of fine water; and a stream of fine water running through one corner of the lot; there is a good kitchen in the rear of the house, and a stable sufficient for two cows and two horses, and the lot is in good fence.
”The conditions are, with the person or persons who accept of the above present, that he, she or they purchase not less than two thousand apple-trees at three s.h.i.+llings, New York currency, each; after which will be added, as a further present, about one hundred apple, thirty peach, and fourteen cherry trees, besides wild plums, wild cherries, English gooseberries, white and red currants, &c. There are forty of the above apple trees, as also the peach and cherry trees, planted regular, as an orchard, much of which appeared in blossom last spring, and must be considered very valuable: also as a kitchen garden, will sufficiently recommend itself to those who may please to view it.--The above are well calculated for a professional or independent gentleman; being somewhat retired--about half-way from the Lake to the late Attorney General's and opposite the town-farm of the Hon. D. W. Smith [afterwards Mr. Allan's property.] Payment will be made easy; a good deed; and possession given at any time from the first of November to the first of May next. For further particulars enquire of the subscriber on the premises. William Bond. York, Sep. 4, 1801.”--The price expected was, as will be made out, 750 dollars. The property was evidently the northern portion of what became afterwards the homestead-plot of Mr. Surveyor General Ridout.
It would appear that Mr. Bond's property did not find a purchaser on this occasion. In 1804 he is advertising it again, but now to be sold by auction, with his right and t.i.tle to the lot on Yonge Street. In the _Gazette_ of August 4, 1804, we read as follows:--”To be sold by auction, at Cooper's tavern, in York, on Monday, the twentieth day of August next, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon (if not previously disposed of by private contract), that highly cultivated lot opposite the Printing Office [Bennett's] containing one acre, together with a nursery thereon of about ten thousand apple, three hundred peach, and twenty pear trees, and an orchard containing forty-one apple trees fit for bearing, twenty-seven of which are full of fruit; thirty peach and nine cherry trees full of fruit; besides black and red plums, red and white currants, English gooseberries, lilacs, rose bushes, &c., &c., also a very rich kitchen garden.
”The buildings are a two-and-a-half storey house, a good cellar, stable and smokehouse. On the lot is a never-failing spring of excellent water, and fine creek running through one corner most part of the year. The above premises might be made very commodious for a gentleman at a small expense; or for a tanner, brewer, or distiller, must be allowed the most convenient place in York. A view of the premises (by any person or persons desirous of purchasing the same) will be sufficient recommendation. The nursery is in such a state of forwardness that if sold in from two to three years (at which time the apple trees will be fit to transplant) at the moderate price of one s.h.i.+lling each, would repay a sum double of that asked for the whole, and leave a further gain to the purchasers of the lot, buildings, and flouris.h.i.+ng orchard thereon. A good t.i.tle to the above, and possession given at any time after the first of October next.
”Also at the same time and place the right as per Register, to one hundred acres in front of lot 62, east side Yonge Street, for which a deed can be procured at pleasure, and the remainder of the lot procured for a small sum. It is an excellent soil for orchard, grain and pasture land. There is a field of ten acres in fence besides other clearing. It is a beautiful situation, having part of the Lake commonly called Bond's Lake, within the said lot, which affords a great supply of Fish and Fowl. Terms of payment will be made known on the day of sale. For further particulars enquire of the subscriber on the former premises, or the printer hereof. William Bond. York, 27th June, 1804.”
Thirty years later we meet with an advertis.e.m.e.nt in which the price is named at which Lot No. 63 could have been secured. Improvements expected speedily to be made on Yonge Street are therein referred to. In a _Gazette_ of 1834 we have: ”A delightful situation on Yonge Street, commonly called Bond's Farm, containing 190 acres, beautifully situated on Bond's Lake upon Yonge Street, distant about 16 miles from the city of Toronto: price 350. The picturesque beauty of this lot,” the advertis.e.m.e.nt says, ”and its proximity to the flouris.h.i.+ng capital of Upper Canada, make it a most desirable situation for a gentleman of taste. The stage-coaches between Toronto and Holland Landing and Newmarket pa.s.s the place daily; and there appears every prospect of Yonge Street either having a railroad or being macadamized very shortly. Apply (if by letter, free of postage) to Robert Ferrie, at Hamilton, the proprietor.”
In the advertis.e.m.e.nt of 1805, given above, Bond's Lake is styled a pond.