TORONTO OF OLD. 171 



Street in the west to the Reserve for Government Buildings in the east, of a "breadtli vai-ying 

 between four and five chains, following the line of Front Street on the one side, and tlie several 

 turnings and windings of the bank on the other, the area of land contained in this Mall was 

 "thirty acres, more or less, with allowance for the several cross streets leading from the said 

 town to the water." The paucity of open squares in the early plans of York may be partly 

 accounted for by this provision made for a spacious Public Walk. 



Wliile the archaeologist must regret the many old landmarks which were ruthlessly shorn away 

 in the construction of the modem esplanade, he must, nevertheless, contemplate with never- 

 ceasing admiration that great and laudable work. It has done for Toronto what the Thames 

 embankment has effected for London. Besides vast sanitary advantages accruing, it has created 

 space for the erection of a new front to the town. It has made room for a broad promenade 

 some two or three miles in length, not, indeed, of the far niente type, but witli double and treble 

 railway tracks abreast of itself, all open to the deep water of the hprbour on one side, and flanked 

 almost throughout the whole length on the otlier, by a series of warehouses, mills, factories and 

 depots, destined to increase every year in importance. The sights and sounds every day, along 

 this combination of roadways and its surroundings, are unlike anything dreamt of by the framers 

 of the old Patent of 1818. But it cannot be said that the idea contained in that document has 

 been wholly departed from : nay, it must be confessed that it has been grandly realized in a 

 manner and on a scale adapted to the requirements of these latter days. 



For some time, Front Street, aliove the Esplanade, continued to be a raised terrace, from 

 which pleasant views and fresh lake air could be obtained ; and attempts were made, at several 

 points along its southern verge, to establish a double row of shade trees,rwhich should recall in 

 future ages the primitive oaks and elms that overlooked the margin of the harbour. But soon 

 the erection of taU buildings on the newly-made land below, began to shut out the view and the 

 breezes, and to discourage attempts at ornamentation by the planting of trees. 



It is to be regretted, however, that ths title of Mall has not yet been applied to some public 

 walk in the to'mi. Archaic sounds like these— reeve, warden, provost, recorder. House of Com- 

 mons, railway (not road), dugway, mall — ^like the chimes in some of our towers, and the sung- 

 service in some of our churches — associated all with memories of the old world p cross the seas — 

 help, m cases where the- imagination is paramount, to reconcile the exile from the British Islands 

 to his adopted home, and even to attach him to it. Incorporated into our common local speech, 

 and so perpeti.iatod, they may also be hereafter subsidiary mementoes of our descent as a people, 

 when all connection, save that of history, with the ancient home of our forefathers, will have 

 ceased. 



The gravelled path above described, in conjunction vrith a track for wheels extending along 

 the cliff from the Fort to the town, and to the grounds of the Parliamentary buildings eastward 

 of the town, led at a period which falls within the limits of these recollections, to the construc- 

 tion, or rather, as we shall see, the reconstruction, of a carriage-drive to the sands beyond that 

 point, with bridges over the gres'ter and lesser Don. By these means the "Island" was reached 

 for a time, and the long lines of lake-beach on its southern side, eastwardtowards Scarborough 

 Heights, and westward towards the Light-house and Gibraltar Point. 



All the old accounts of York in the topographical dictionaries of "sixty years since," spoke 

 of the salubriousness of the peninsula which forms the harbour. Even the aborigines, it was 

 added, had recourse to that spot for sanatory purposes. All this was probably derived from 

 Surveyor-General Smyth's description of the locality accompanyiag the Map of Upper Canada, 

 published in London by W. Faden, Charing Cross. That document sets forth that "the long 

 beach or peninsula, which affords a most delightful ride, is considered so healthy by the Indians, 

 that they resort to it whenever indisposed." But during the long interval from 1SV2 to 1835, no 

 means of access to the healthy strand T-eferred to existed, except by boat. 



There were indeed two narrow necks, by which the long outer brealcwater which forms the 

 harbour was connected with the mainland ; one to the east, the isthmus proper ; the other, a 

 sandy ridge some distance to the west, passing across from the peninsula to the shore, and 

 dividing the included waters into two basins ; Ashbridge's Bay, to the east ; York Harbour, 

 to the west. The sandy ridge in question was in a measure the product of the silt brought 

 down by the Don, and thrown contiauaUy back by the waves in the bay after winds from 



