236 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



of Upper Canada, who considered the Ports of Niagara and Osw^^o, * ■* * as English pro- 

 perty, together with the hanks of Lake Ontario, sent an English officer to the Captain, with an. 

 injunction, not to persist in his design of forming the settlements. The Captain," we are told, 

 "returned a plain and spirited answer, yet nevertheless conducted himself with a prudence 

 conformable to the circumstances. All these difficulties, howeyer," it is added, "are now 

 removed hy the prospect of the contmuance of peace, and still more so by the treaty [of amity 

 between France and the United States] newly concluded. 



VII.— KING STREET : DIGEESSION SOUTHWARDS AT CHURCH STREET : 

 MARKET LANE. 



Across Church Street from Clinkunbroomer's were the wooden buildings already referred to, 

 as having remaiaed long in a partially finished state, being the result of a piemature specula- 

 lion. From this point we are induced to turn aside from our direct route for a few moments, 

 .attracted by a street which we see a short distance to the south, namely, Market Lane, or G<A- 

 borne Street, as the modern phraseology is. In this passage was, in the olden time, the Masonic 

 Hall, a wooden building of two storeys. To the young imagination this edifice seemed to 

 possess considerable dignity, from being sua-mounted by a cupola ; the first structure in York 

 that ever enjoyed such a distinction. This ornamental appendage supported above the western 

 gable, by slender props, (intended in fact for the reception of a bell, winch, so far as our recol- 

 lection extends, was never supplied), would appear insignificant enough now ; but it was the 

 first budding of the architectural ambition of a young town, which leads at length to tui-rets, 

 pinnacles, spires and domes. A staircase on the outside led to the upper storey of the Masonic 

 Hall. In this place were held the first meetings of the first Mechanics' Institute, organized 

 under the auspices of Jloses Fish, a builder of York, and other lovers of knowledge of the olden, 

 time.. Here weve attempted the lii'st popular lectures. Here we remember hearing— certainly 

 some forty years ago — Mr. J ohn Fcnton read a paper on tlie manufacture of steel, using diagrams 

 in illustration : one of tltcm shewed the magnified edge of a well-set razor, the serrations aU 

 sloping in one direction, by which it might be seen, the lecturer remarked, that unless a man, 

 in shaving, gave the instrument a particular movemeut, he was likely "to get into a scrape." — 

 The lower part of the Masonic Hall was for a considerable while used as a school, kept succes- 

 sively by Mr. Stewart and Jlr. Appleby ; and afterwards by Mr. Caklicott. 



At the corner of Market Lane, on the north side, towards the Market, was Phair's Hotel, an 

 ordinary white frame building. The first theatre of Y^ork was extemporized in the ball-room of 

 this house. Wlien fitted up for dramatic purposes, that apartment was approached by a stair- 

 way on the outside. Here companies performed, lander the management, at one time, of Mr. 

 Archbold ; at another, of Jlr. Talbot ; at another, of Mr. Vaughan. The last-named manager, 

 ■while professionally at York, lost a sou by di-owning in the Bay. We well remember the poig- 

 nant distress of the fatlier at the grave, and that his head was bound round on the occasion 

 with a white bandage or napkin. Mrs. Talbot was a great favourite. She performed the part 

 of Cora in Pizarro, an<:l that of Little Piclde, in a comedy of that name, if our memory serves us. 

 Pizarro, Barbarossa, or'the Siege of jUgiers, All Baba, or the Forty Thieves, the Lady of the 

 Lake, the Miller and his Men, were among the pieces here represented. The body-guard of the 

 Dey of Algiers, we remember, consisted of two men, who always came in with mOitaiy precision 

 jUst after the hero, and placed themselves in a formal manner at fixed distances behind him, 

 like two sentries. They were in fact soldiers froMi tlie garrison, wc think. All this appeai-ed 

 very effective.— The dmrnatic appliances anil accessories at Phair's were of tlic humblest kind. 

 The dimensions of the stage must have been very limited : the ceiling of the whole room, we 

 know, was low. As for orchestra — in those days, the principal instrumental artist of the town 

 was Mr. Maxwell, who, well-remembered for his quiet manjiers, for the shade o-\'er one eye, in 

 which was some defect, and for his homely skill on the violin, was generally to be seen and 

 teard, often alone, but sometimes with an associate or two, here, as at all other entertainments 

 of importance, public and private. Nevertheless, at that period, to an unsophisticated yet 

 active imagination, innocent of acquaintance with more respectable arrangements, everything 

 seemed charming ; each scene, as the bell rang and the baize drew up, was invested with a 

 magical glamour, similar in kind, if not equal in degree, to that which, in the days of our grand- 



