TORONTO OF OLD. 159 



the water on the preceding day had failed. Delay would have occasioned an awkward settling 

 of the ponderous mass. We shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the early shipping of the 

 harbour. The lot extending northward from the Ontario House corner to King Street was the 

 property of Attorney-General MacdonneU, who, while in attendance on General Brock as Pro- 

 vincial aide-de-camp, was slain in the engagement on Queenston Heights. His death created 

 the vacancy to which, at an unusually early age, succeeded Mr. John Beverley Robinson, after- 

 wards the distinguished Chief Justice of Upper Canada. Mr. Macdonnell's remains are deposited 

 with those of his military chief under the column on Queenston Heights. He bequeathed the 

 property to which our attention has been directed, to a youthful nephew, on certain conditions, 

 one of which was that he should be educated in the tenets of the Anglican. Church, notwith- 

 standmg the Eoman Catholic persuasion of the rest of the family. 



The track for wheels that here descended to the water's edge from the north. Church Street 

 subsequently, was long considered a road remote from the business part of the town, like the 

 road southward of Charing-cross, as shewn in Aggas's early map of London. A row of frame 

 buildings on its eastern side, in the direction of King Street, perched high on cedar posts over 

 excavations generally filled with water, remained in an unfinished state until the whole began 

 to be ou.t of the perpendicular and to become gray with the action of the weather. It was evi- 

 dently a premature undertaking; the foUy of an over-sanguine speculator. Yonge Street 

 beyond, where it approached the shore of the harbour, was unfrequented. In spring and 

 autumn it was a notorious slough. In 1S30, a small sum would have purchased any of the 

 building lots on either side, between Front Street and Market Street. 



Between Church Street and Yonge Street, now, we pass a short street uniting Front Street 

 with "Wellington Street. Like Salisbury, CecU, Craven, and other short but famous streets off 

 the Strand, it retains the name of the distinguished person whose property it traversed in the 

 first instance. It is called Scott Street, from Chief Justice Thomas Scott, whose residence and 

 grounds were here. Mr. Scott was one of the venerable group of early personages of whom we 

 shall have occasion to siseak. He was a man of fine culture, and is spoken of aftectionately by 

 those who knew hiin. His stature was below the average. A heavy, overhanging forehead 

 intensified the very thoughtful expression of his countenance, which belonged to the class sug- 

 gested by the cxxrrent portraits of the United States' jurist, Kent. We sometimes, to this day, 

 fall ui with books from his library, bearing his famUiar autograph. Mr. Scott was the first 

 chairman and president of the "Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada," organized at 

 York m 1S12. His name conseqviently appears often in the Report of that Association, printed 

 by WiUiam Gray in Montreal in 1817. The objects of the Society were " to afford relief and aid 

 to disabled militiamen and their famOies ; to reward merit, excite emulation, and commemorate 

 glorious exploits, by bestowing medals and other honorary marks of public approbation and 

 distinction for extraordinary instances of personal courage and fidelity in defence of the Pro- 

 vince." The preface to the Report mentions that "the sister-colony of Nova Scotia, excited by 

 the barbarous conflagration of the town of Newark and the devastation on that frontier, had, by 

 a Legislative act, contributed largely to the relief of this Province." In an appeal to the British 

 public, signed by Chief Justice Scott, it is stated that "the subscription of the town of York 

 amounted in a few days to eiglit hundred and seventy-five pounds five shillings. Provincial cur- 

 rency, dollars at five shillings each, to be paid annually during the war ; and that at Kingston 

 to upwards of four hundred pounds." 



Scott Street conducts to the site, on the north side of Hospital Street, westward, of the home 

 of Mr. James Baby, and eastward, to that of Mr. Peter MacdougaU, two notable citizens of 

 York. 



A notice of Mr. Baby occurs in Sibbald's Canadian Magazine for March, 1833. The following 

 is an extract: "James Baby was born at Detroit in 1762. His family was one of the most 

 ancient in the colony ; and it was noble. His father had removed from Lower Canada to the 

 neighbourhood of Detroit before the conquest of Quebec, where, in addition to the cultivation 

 of lands, he was connected with the fur-trade, at that tune, and for many years after, the great 

 staple of the country. James was educated at the Roman Catholic Seminary at Quebec, and 

 returned to the paternal roof soon after the peace of 1783. The famUy had ever been distin- 

 guished (and indeed all the higher French families) for their adherence to the British crown ; 



