Toronto of Old Part 21

And still what changes wait thee, When at no distant day, The s.h.i.+ps of far off nations, Shall anchor in your bay; When one vast chain of railroad, Stretching from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, Shall bear the wealth of India, And land it at your door.

A short distance above the hop ground of which we have spoken, the Don pa.s.sed immediately underneath a high sandy bluff. Where, after a long reach in its downward course, it first impinged against the steep cliff, it was very deep. Here was the only point in its route, so far as we recall, where the epithet was applicable which Milton gives to its English namesake, when he speaks of--

"Utmost Tweed, or Ouse, or _gulphy_ Don."

This very noticeable portion of the river was known as the "Big Bend."

(We may observe here that in retaining its English name, the Don has lost the appellation a.s.signed to it by the French, if they ever distinguished it by a name. The Grand River, on the contrary, has retained its French name, notwithstanding its English official designation, which was the Ouse. The Rouge, too, has kept its French name. It was the Nen. The Indians styled this, or a neighbouring stream, Katabokokonk, "The River of Easy Entrance." The Thames, however, has wholly dropped its French t.i.tle, LaTranche. We may subjoin that the Humber was anciently called by some, St John's River, from a trader named St. John; and by some, as we have already learnt, Toronto River.

In Lahontan's map it is marked Tanaouate. No interpretation is given.--Augustus Jones, the early surveyor of whom we shall have occasion frequently to speak, notes in one of his letters that the Indian name for the Don was Wonscoteonach, "Back burnt grounds;" that is, the river coming down from the back burnt country, meaning probably the so-called Poplar Plains to the north, liable to be swept by casual fires in the woods. The term is simply descriptive, and not, in the modern sense, a proper name.)

Towards the summit of the high bluff just mentioned, the holes made by the sand-martins were numerous. Hereabout we have met with the snapping turtle. This creature has not the power of withdrawing itself wholly within a sh.e.l.l. A part of its protection consists in the loud threatening snap of its strong h.o.r.n.y jaws, armed in front with a beak-like hook bent downwards. What the creature lays hold of, it will not let go. Let it grasp the end of a stout stick, and the sportsman may sling it over his shoulder, and so carry it home with him. When allowed to reach its natural term of life, it probably attains a very great age.

We remember a specimen captured near the spot at which we are pausing, which, from its vast size, and the rough, lichen-covered condition of its sh.e.l.l, must have been extremely old. We also once found near here a numerous deposit of this animal's eggs; all white and spherical, of the diameter of about an inch, and covered with a tough parchment-like skin.

The ordinary lesser tortoises of the marsh were of course plentiful along the Don: their young frequently to be met with creeping about, were curious and ever-interesting little objects. Snakes too there were about here, of several kinds: one, often very large and dangerous-looking, the copper-head, of a greenish brown colour, and covered with oblong and rather loose scales. The striped garter-snake of all sizes, was very common. Though reported to be harmless, it always indulged, when interfered with, in the menacing action and savage attempts to strike, of the most venomous of its genus.--Then there was the beautiful gra.s.s-green snake; and in large numbers, the black water-snake. In the rank herbage along the river's edge, the terrified piping of a pursued frog was often heard.

It recurs to us, as we write, that once, on the banks of the Humber, we saw a bird actually in the grasp of a large garter-snake--just held by the foot. As the little creature fluttered violently in the air, the head of the reptile was swayed rapidly to and fro. All the small birds in the vicinity had gathered together in a state of noisy excitement; and many spirited dashes were make by several of them at the common foe.

No great injury having been as yet inflicted, we were enabled to effect a happy rescue.

From the high sandy cliff, to which our attention has been drawn, it was possible to look down into the waters of the river; and on a sunny day, it afforded no small amus.e.m.e.nt to watch the habits, not only of the creatures just named, but of the fish also, visible below in the stream; the simple sunfish, for example, swimming about in shoals (or _schools_, as the term used to be); and the pike, crafty as a fox, lurking in solitude, ready to dart on his unwary prey with the swiftness and precision of an arrow shot from the bow.

_3.--From the Big Bend to Castle Frank Brook._

Above the "Big Bend," on the west side, was "Rock Point." At the water's edge hereabout was a slight outcrop of shaly rock, where crayfish were numerous, and black ba.s.s. The adjoining marshy land was covered with a dense thicket, in which wild gooseberry bushes and wild black-currant bushes were noticeable. The flats along here were a favourite haunt of woodc.o.c.k at the proper season of the year: the peculiar succession of little twitters uttered by them when descending from their flight, and the very different deep-toned note, the signal of their having alighted, were both very familiar sounds in the dusk of the evening.

A little further on was "the Island." The channel between it and the "mainland" on the north side, was completely choked up with logs and large branches, brought down by the freshets. It was itself surrounded by a high fringe or hedge of the usual brush that lined the river-side all along, matted together and clambered over, almost everywhere by the wild grape-vine. In the waters at its northern end, wild rice grew plentifully, and the beautiful sweet-scented white water-lily or lotus.

This minute bit of insulated land possessed, to the boyish fancy, great capabilities. Within its convenient circuit, what phantasies and dreams might not be realized? A Juan Fernandez, a Barataria, a New Atlantis.--At the present moment we find that what was once our charmed isle has now become _terra firma_, wholly amalgamated with the mainland.

Silt has hidden from view the tangled lodgments of the floods. A carpet of pleasant herbage has overspread the silt. The border-strip of shrubbery and grape-vine, which so delightfully walled it round, has been improved, root and branch, out of being.

Near the Island, on the left side, a rivulet, of which more immediately, pouring down through a deep, narrow ravine, entered the Don. On the right, just at this point, the objectionable marshes began to disappear, and the whole bottom of the vale was early converted into handsome meadows. Scattered about were grand elm and b.u.t.ternut, fine ba.s.swood and b.u.t.tonwood trees, with small groves of the Canadian willow, which pleasantly resembles, in habit, the olive tree of the south of Europe.

Along the flats, remains of Indian encampments were often met with; tusks of bears and other animals; with fragments of coa.r.s.e pottery, streaked or furrowed rudely over, for ornament. And all along the valley, calcareous ma.s.ses, richly impregnated with iron, were found, detached, from time to time, as was supposed, from certain places in the hill-sides.

At the long-ago epoch when the land went up, the waters came down with a concentrated rush from several directions into the valley just here, from some accidental cause, carving out in their course, in the enormous deposit of the drift, a number of deep and rapidly descending channels, converging all upon this point. The drainage of a large extent of acreage to the eastward, also at that period, found here for a time its way into the Don, as may be seen by a neighbouring gorge, and the deep and wide, but now _dry_ water-course leading to it, known, where the "Mill road" crosses it, as the "Big Hollow."

Bare and desolate, at that remote era, must have been the appearance of these earth-banks and ridges and flats, as also those in the vicinity of all our rivers: for many a long year they must have resembled the surroundings of some great tidal river, to which the sea, after ebbing, had failed to return.

One result of the ancient down-rush of waters, just about here, was that on both sides of the river there were to be observed several striking specimens of that long, thin, narrow kind of hill which is popularly known as a "hog's back." One on the east side afforded, along its ridge, a convenient ascent from the meadows to the table-land above, where fine views up and down the vale were obtainable, somewhat Swiss in character, including in the distance the lake, to the south. Overhanging the pathway, about half-way up, a group of white-birch trees is remembered by the token that, on their stems, a number of young men and maidens of the neighbourhood had, in sentimental mood, after the manner of the Corydons and Amaryllises of cla.s.sic times, incised their names.

The west side of the river, as well as the east, of which we have been more especially speaking, presented here also a collection of convergent "hog's backs" and deeply channelled water-courses. One of the latter still conducted down a living stream to the Don. This was the rivulet already noticed as entering just above the Island. It bore the graceful name of "Castle Frank Brook."

_4.--Castle Frank._

Castle Frank was a rustic chateau or summer-house, built by Governor Simcoe in the midst of the woods, on the brow of a steep and lofty bank, which overlooks the vale of the Don, a short distance to the north of where we have been lingering. The construction of this edifice was a mere _divertiss.e.m.e.nt_ while engaged in the grand work of planting in a field literally and entirely new, the inst.i.tutions of civilization.

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 s.p.a.ce 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 circ.u.mscribed, 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 a.s.sumes. At the gable end, in the direction of the roadway from the nascent capital, was the princ.i.p.al 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, ma.s.sive 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, a.s.sociating 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 a.s.sistance 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 towns.h.i.+ps, 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 Roch.e.l.le, which figures in the history of the Huguenots.

The Iroquois at Niagara had given the Governor a t.i.tle, 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 a.s.sembled 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 pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d." 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-fis.h.i.+ng 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 quant.i.ty 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 s.p.a.cious 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 s.h.i.+ning 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 pa.s.s 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 p.r.i.c.kly 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 doc.u.ments 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 gla.s.s 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 br.i.m.m.i.n.g 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 princ.i.p.al 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 h.e.l.liwells, which has already been described. The mills and manufactories established here by that enterprising family const.i.tuted quite a conspicuous village. A visit to this cl.u.s.ter 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. h.e.l.liwell'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."

[Ill.u.s.tration]