149 



CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



fThe following "Collections and Recollections" were not desigued for tlie pages of the Cana- 

 4,10,11 Joiirnal; l)ut a desire having been expressed in several quarters that they should appear 

 •there, (" reserving all rights," as the English publishing phrase is, we insert them) ; still fearing 

 that the matters which form their staple will be deemed scarcely worthy of so notable a record. 

 Their perusal, however, may have the effect ot suggesting to some of our readers the propriety — 

 the prudence, even — of entrusting to the care of the Editing Committee documents more valua- 

 ble, that may be in their possession, and narratives of more force, of which they are the depo- 

 sitories, illustrative of the early history of the country, displaying traits in the character of 

 indi^^.dual worthies, or affording glimpses of society in different localities, while yet our settle- 

 ments were in their infancy. In that case we shall not regret the publication in these pages of 

 our own trivial notes and reminiscences, as it may lead to the setting apart, permanently, of a 

 few pages in each number of the Journal for the reception and preservation of much peculiar 

 matter which, to the historical investigator hereafter, will be of interest, and occasionally of 

 importance. — Ed. Cak. Jour.] 



TORONTO OF OLD: 



A SERIES OP COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS- 



BY THE EET. DR. SCADDING. 



I.— PALACE STREET TO THE JIARKET-PLACE 

 In Rome, at the present day, the parts that are the most attractive to the tourist of arcbseo- 

 iogical tastes, are those that are the most desolate ; those that, apart from their associations, 

 are the most unuiviting. It is the same with many another venerable town of the world beyond 

 the Atlantic, of far less note than the old Imperial capital ; with Avignon, for example, with 

 JNismes, and Vienno, in Prance ; vrifh Paris itself, also, to some extent ; with Chester, and York, 

 and St. Albans, the Verulam of the Roman xieriod, in England. It is the same with our Ameri- 

 ■can towns, wherever any relics of their brief past are extant. Detroit, we remember, had once 

 a quaint, dilapidated, priniseval quarter. It is the same with our ovm Toronto. He that would 

 examine the vestiges of the original settlement, out of which the actual town has grown, must 

 betake himself, ia the first instance, to localities deserted now by the footsteps of fashion, and 

 be content to contemplate objects that, to the iudifferent eye, will seem commonplace and 

 insignificant To invest such ijlaees and things with any degree of interest will appear difficult. 

 An attempt in that direction may even be pronounced ^^sionary. Nevertheless it is a duty 

 which we owe to our forefathers to take what note we can of the labours of their hands ; to for- 

 bid, so far as we may, the utter oblivion of their early efforts, and deeds, and sayings, the out- 

 come of their ideas, of their humours and anxieties ; to forbid even, so far as we may, the utter 

 oblivion of the form and fashion of their persons. The excavations which they made in the 

 construction of their dwellings, and in their engineeriag operations, ci^^l and military, were 

 neither deep nor extensive ; the materials which they employed were, for the most part, soft 

 and perishable. In a few years all the original edifices of York, the infant Toronto, together 

 srith all the primitive delvings and cuttings, wiU, of necessity, have vanished. Natural decay 



