246 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY: 



scheme of civilization whicli was been wrought out through them, and yet independently off 

 them : that with our own eyes we have seen them, again and again, engaged within consecrated 

 waUs, in solemn acts which expressed, in spite of the vicissitudes which their destiny had 

 brought with it, their unaffected faith in the unseen, and their living hope in relation to 

 futurity. All this, we say, now seems like a dream of the night, or a mystic revelation of the 

 scenes of a very distant period and in a very distant locality, rather than the recollections of a 

 few short years and of the spot on which we stand. The names, however, which we shaU give 

 wUl have a sound of reality about them : they will be recognized as famUiar, household words 

 still perpetuated, or, at all events, stUl freshly remembered, amongst us. 



Prom amongst the venerable heads and ancestral forms which recur to us, as we gaze down 

 in imagination from the galleries of the old wooden St. James's of York, we will single out, in 

 addition to those already spoken of, that of Mr. Eidout, sometime Surveyor-General of the 

 Province, father of a numerous progeny, and tribal head, so to speak, of more than one family 

 of connections settled here, bearing the same name. He was a fine typical representative of the 

 group to which our attention is directed. He was a perfect picture of a cheerful, benevolent- 

 minded Englishman ; of portly form, well advanced in years, his hair snowy- white naturally ; 

 his usual costume, of the antique style already described. — Then there was Mr. Small, Clerk of 

 the Crown, an Englishman of similar stamp. We might sketch the rest separately as they rise 

 before the mind's eye ; but we should probably, after all, convey an idea of each that would be 

 too incomplete to be interesting or of much value. We therefore simply name other members 

 of the remarkable group of reverend seniors that assembled habitually in the church at York. 

 Mr. Justice Boulton, Colonel Smith, sometime President of the Province ; Mr. Allan, Mr. 

 M'Gill, Mr. Crookshank, Major Heward, Colonel Wells, Colonel Mtzgibbon, Mr. Dunn, Dr. 

 Macaulay, Dr. Baldwin, Dr. Lee, Mr. Samuel Ridout, Mr. Chewett, Mr. McNab (Sir Allan's 

 father) ; Mr. Stephen Jarvis, who retained to the last the ancient fashion of t3dng the hair in 

 a queue. We might go on with several others, also founders of families that still largely people 

 York and its vicinity ; we might mention old Captain Playter, Captain Denison, Mr. Scarlett, 

 Captain Brooke and others. Filial duty would urge us not to omit, in the enumeration, one 

 who, though at a very early period removed by a sudden casualty, is vividly remembered, not 

 only as a good and watchful father, but also as a venerable form hannonizing perfectly in 

 expression and costume with the rest of the group which used to gather in the church at York. — 

 Of course, mingled with the ancients of the congregation, there was a due proportion of a 

 younger generation. There was for example Mr. Simon Washburn, a bulky and prosperous 

 barrister, afterwards Clerk of the Peace, who was the first, perhaps, in these parts, to carry a 

 glass adroitly in the eye. There was Dr. Grant Powell, a handsome reproduction, on a larger 

 scale, of his father the Chief, as his portrait shews ; there were the Messrs, Monro, George and 

 John ; the Messrs. Stanton ; the Messrs. Gamble, John and WiUiam ; Mr. J. S. Baldwin, Mr. 

 Lyons, 'Mr. Beikie, and others, all men of note, distinguishable from each other by individual 

 traits and characteristics that might readily be sketched. — And lastly in the interstices of the 

 assemblage was to be seen a plentiful representation of generation number three ; young men 

 and lads of good looks, for the most part, well set-up limbs, and quick faculties ; in some 

 instances, of course, of fractious temperament and manners. As ecclesiastical associations are 

 at the moment uppermost, we note an ill habit that prevailed among some of these younglings 

 of the flock, of loitering long about the doors of the church for the purpose of watching the 

 ajTivals, and then, when the service was well advanced, the striplings would be seen sporadi- 

 cally coming in, each one imagining, as he piassed his fingers through his hair and marched 

 v/ith a shew of manly spirit up the aisle, that he attracted a degree of attention ; attracted, 

 perhaps, a glance of admiration from some of the many pairs of eyes that rained influence form 

 a large pew in the eastern portion of the north gallery, where the numerous school of Miss 

 Purcell and Miss Rose held a commanding position. 



It would have been a singular exception to a general law, had the interior into which we are 

 now gazing, and whose habitues we are now recalling, not been largely frequented by the femi- 

 nine portion of society at York. In their place seated, in various directions along the galleries 

 and in the body of the old wooden church, were to be regularly seen fine specimens of the ven- 

 erable great grandmamma of the old English and Scottish type (in one or two instances to be 

 thought of to tliJs day with a degree of awe by reason of the vigour, almost masculine, of their 



