TORONTO OP OLD. 161 



structure, round, which we might expect to find the remains of a moat ; a reproduction, in some 

 piotcits, as in name, of tlie huUdlng in the suburbs of London, in which was born tlie Judge's 

 immediate heir, Mr. H. J. Boulton, successively Solicitor-General for Upper Canada and Chief- 

 Justice of Newfoundland. 



We then passed the grounds and house of Chief-Justice Powell. In this place we shall only- 

 record our recollection of the profound sensation created far and wide by the loss of the Chief- 

 Justice's daughter in the packet-ship Albion, wrecked off the Head of Kinsale on the 22nd of 

 April, 1822. A voyage to the mother country at that period was still a serious undertaking. 

 TVe copy a contemporaneous extract from the Cork Southern Reporter : — "The Albion, whose loss 

 at Garrettstown Bay we first mentioned in our paper of Tuesday, was one of the finest class of 

 ships between Liverpool and New York, and was 500 tons burden. We have since learned some 

 further particulars, by which it appears that her loss was attended 'with circunrstances of a 

 peculiarly afllicting nature. She had lived out the tremendous gale of the entire day on Sun- 

 day, and Captain WiUiams consoled the passengers, at eight o'clock in the evening, with the 

 hope of being able to reach Liverpool on the day but one after, which cheering expectation 

 induced almost all of the passengers, particularly the females, to retire to rest. In some short 

 time, however, a violent squall came on, which in a moment carried away the masts, and, there 

 being no possibility of disengaging them from the rigging, encumbered the huU so that she 

 became unmanageable, and drifted at the mercy of the waves, tOl the light-house of the Old 

 Head was discovered, the wreck still nearing in ; when the Captain told the sad news to the 

 passengers, that there was no longer any hope ; and, soon after, she struck. From thencefor- 

 war(J all was distress and confusion. The vessel soon went to pieces, and, of the crew and 

 passengers, only six of the former and nine of the latter were saved." The names of the passen- 

 gers are added, as follows : "Mr. Benyon, a London gentleman; Mr. N. Eoss, of Troy, near 

 New York ; Mr. Conyers, and his brother-in-law. Major Gough, 6Sth regiment ; Mr. and Mrs. 

 Clarke, Americans ; Madame Gardinier and son, a boy about eight years of age ; Colonel Pre- 

 vost ; Mr. Dwight, of Boston ; Mrs. Mary Pye, of New York ; Miss Powell, daughter of the Hon. 

 WiUiam Dummer Powell, Chief-Justice of Upper Canada ; Eev. Mr. HiU, Jamaica, coming home 

 by the way of the United States ; Professor Fisher, of New Haven, Connecticut ; Mr. Gurnee, 

 New York ; Mr. Proctor, New York ; Mr. Dupont and five other Frenchmen ; Mrs. Mary Brew- 

 ster ; Mr. Hirst, Mr. Morrison, and Stephen Chase." The Weekly Register of York, of June 13, 

 1822, the number that contains the announcement of the wreck of the Albion packet, has also 

 the following paragraph : — " Our Attorney-General arrived in London about the 22nd of March, 

 and up to the 11th of April had daUy interviews of great length with ministers. It gives us real 

 pleasure to announce," — so continues the editorial of the Weekly Register — "that his mission is 

 likely to be attended with the most complete success, and that our relations with the Lower 

 Provinces will be put on a firm and advantageous footing. We have no doubt that Mr. Robin- 

 son win deserve the general thanks of the counti-y." A famdy party from York had embarked 

 in the packet of the preceding month, and were, as this paragraph intimates, safe in London on 

 the 22nd of March. The disastrous fate of the lady above named was thus rendered the more 

 distressing to friends and relatives, as she was present in New York when that packet sailed, 

 but was induced, through the influence of some obscure pique, not to embark therein along with 

 her more fortunate fellow townsfolk. 



After the house and grounds of Chief-Justice Powell came the property of Dr. Straehan, of 

 whom more hereaftar. It may be of some interest to note, as we pass, that the brick edifice 

 here erected in 1818, was, like other early buildings of this description in York, constructed of 

 materials imported from Kingston or Montreal ; recalling the parallel fact that the first bricks 

 used for building in New York were imported from Holland; just as, in the present day, 

 (though now, of course, for a different reason,) houses are occasionally constrncted at Quebec 

 with white brick manufactured in England. 



We next arrived at a large open space, much broken up by a rivulet—" EusseU's Creek,"— that 

 meandered most recklessly through it. This piece of ground was long known as Simcoe Place, 

 and was set apart in the later plan for the extension of York westward, as a Public Square 

 Overlooking this area from the north-west, at the present day, is one of the elms of the priginal 

 forest — an unnoticeable sapling at the period referred to, but now a tree of stately dimensions 



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