TORONTO OP OLD. 251 



huge bulk, its boldly-cMselled and only partially-finished limbs and drapery, raised aloft on a 

 plain pedestal of some Laurentian rock, would represent, not ill, the man whom it would com- 

 memorate—the character, roughly-outlined and incomplete in parts, but, when taken as a 

 whole, very impressive and even grand, which looms up before us, whichever way we look, in 

 our local Past.— One of the things that ennoble the old cities of continental Europe and give 

 them their own peculiar charm, is the existence of such objects in their streets and squares, at 

 once works of art for the general eye, and memorials of departed worth and greatness. With 

 what interest, for example, does the visitor gaze on the statue of Gutenberg, at Mayence ; and 

 at Marseilles on that of the good Bishop Belzune !— of whom we read, that he was at once "the 

 founder of a coUege, and a magistrate, almoner, physician and priest to his people."— The 

 space m front of the contemplated' west porch of the cathedral of St. James would be an 

 appropriate site for such a noble memorial-object as that which Mr. Macaulay suggests— just 

 at the spot where was the entrance, the one sole humble portal, of the structure of wood out 

 of which the existing pile has grown. 



Our notice of the assemblage usually to be seen within the walls of the primitive St. James's, 

 would not be complete, were we to omit all mention of Mr. John Fenton, who for some time 

 officiated therein as parish clerk. During the palmy days of parish clerks in the British 

 Islands, such functionaries, deemed at the time, locally, as indispensable as the parish minister 

 himself, were a very peculiar class of men. He was a rarity amongst them, who could repeat 

 in a rational tone and manner the responses delegated to him by the congregation. This arose 

 from the circumstance that he was usually an all but illiterate village rustic, or narrow-minded 

 small-townsman; brought into a prominence felt on all sides to be awkward. Mr. Fenton'a 

 peculiarities, on the contrary, arose from his intelligence, his acquirements, and his great self- 

 confidence. He was a rather small shrewd-featured person, at a glance not deficient in self- 

 esteem. He was a proficient in modern popular science,, a ready talker and lecturer. Being 

 only a proxy, his rendering of the official responses in church was marked perhaps by a little 

 too much individuality, but it could not be said that it was destitute of a certain rhetorical 

 propriety of emphasis and intonation. Though not gifted, in his own person, with much melody 

 of voice, his acquisitions included some knowledge of music. In those days congregational 

 psalmody was at a low ebb, and the small choirs that offered themselves fluctuated, and now 

 and then vanished wholly. Not unfrequently, Mr. Fenton, after giving out the portion of Brady 

 and Tate, which it pleased him to select, would execute the whole of it as a solo, to some 

 accustomed air, with graceful variations of his own. All this would be done with great coolness 

 and apparent self-satisfaction. While the Discourse was going on in the Pulpit above him, it 

 was his way, often, to lean himself resignedly back in a corner of his pew and throw a white 

 cambric handkerchief over his head and face. It illustrates the spirit of the day to add, that 

 Mr. Fenton's employment as official mouth-piece to the congregation of the English Church, 

 did not stand in the way of his making himself useful, at the same time, as a class-leader among 

 the Wesleyan Methodists. The temperament and general style of this gentleman did not fail of 

 course to produce irritation of mind in some quarters. The Colonial Advocate one morning 

 averred its belief that Mr. Fenton had, on the preceding Sunday, glanced at itself and its 

 patrons in giving out and singing (probably as a solo) the Twelfth Psalm : " Help, Lord, for 

 good and godly men do perish and decay ; and faith and truth from worldly men is parted clean 

 away ; whoso doth with his neighbour talk, his talk is aJl but vain ; for every man bethinketh 

 now to flatter, lie and feign ! "-Mr. F. afterwards removed to the United States, where he 

 obtained Holy Orders in the Episcopal Church. His son was a clever and ingenious youth. 

 We remember a capital model in wood of " Ceesar's Bridge over the Rhine," constructed by him 

 from a copper-plate engraving in an old edition of the Commentaries used by him in the 

 Grammar School at York. The predecessor of Mr. Fenton in the clerk's desk was Mr. 

 Hetherington— a functionary of the old-country village stamp. His habit was, after giving out 

 a psalm, to play the air on a bassoon ; and then to accompany with fantasias on the same 

 instrument such vocalists as felt inclined to take part in the singing. This was the day of 

 small things in respect of ecclesiastical music at York. A choir from time to time had been 

 formed. Once, we have understood, two rival choirs were heard on trial in the Church ; one of 

 them strong in instrumental resources, having the aid of a bass-viol, clarionet and bassoon 

 the other, more dependant on its vocal excellencies. The instrumental choir triumphantly 



