TORONTO OF OLD. 253 



third of the price of the pews that they purchased in the new church, not exceeding in number 

 those which they possessed in the old church : that no person be entitled to the privilege 

 granted by the last resolution who shall not have paid up the whole purchase money of his pew 

 in the old cliurch ; that the present church remain as it is, till the new one is finished ; that 

 after the new church is completed, the materials of the present one be sold to the highest 

 bidder, and the proceeds of the same be applied to the liquidation of any debt that may be 

 contracted in erecting the new church, or furnishing the same ; that the upset price of pews in 

 the new church be twenty-five pounds currency ;" and so on. 



The stone edifice then erected (measuring within about 100 by 75 feet), but never completed 

 In so far as related to its tower, was destroyed by fire in 1839. Fire, in truth, may be said to 

 be, sooner or later, the "naturjil death" of public buUdmgs in our climate, Avhere, for so many 

 months in every year, the maintenance within them of a powerful artificial heat is indispensa- 

 ble. Ten years after the re-edification of the St. James's burnt in 1839, its fate was again to be 

 totally destroyed. But now fire was communicated to it from an external source — from a 

 general conflagration raging at the time in the part of the town lying to the eastward. On this 

 occasion was destroyed in the belfry of the tower, a Public Clock, presented to the inhabitants 

 of Toronto, by Mr. Draper, on his ceasing to be one of their representatives in Parliament. 



XI.— KING STREET : DIGRESSION NORTHWARD AT CHURCH STREET : THE OLD 

 DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 

 Immediately north of the church plot, and separated from it by an allowance for a street, 

 was a large field, almost square, containing six acres. In a plan of the date 1819, and signed 

 "T. Ridout, Surveyor-General," this piece of ground is entitled "College Square." (In the 

 same plan the church reservation is marked "Church Square;" and the block to the west, 

 "Square for Court House and Gaol." The fact that the Jail was to be erected there accounts 

 for the name " Newgate Street," formerly borne by what is now Adelaide Street.) In the early 

 days, when the destined future was but faintly realized, "College Square" was probably 

 expected to become in time, and to continue for ever, an ornamental piece of ground round an 

 educational institution. The situation, in the outskirts of York, would be deemed convenient 

 and airy. For many years this six-acre field was the play-ground of the District Grammar 

 "School. Through the middle of it from north to south passed a shallow " swale," where water 

 collected after rains ; and where in winter small frozen ponds afforded not bad sliding-places, 

 In this moist region, numerous crayfish were to be found in summer. Their whereabouts was 

 always indicated by small clay chimneys of a circular form, built by the curious little nipping 

 creatures themselves, over holes for the admission of air. — In different places in this large area 

 were remains of huge pine-stumps, underneath the long roots of which, it was an amusement to 

 dig and form cellars or imaginary treasure-vaults and powder-magazines. About these relics 

 of the forest still grew remains of the ordinary vegetation of such situations in the woods ; 

 especially an abundance of the sorrel-plant, the taste of which will be remembered, as being 

 quite relishable. In other places were wide depressions shewing where large trees had once 

 stood. Here were no bad places, when the whim so was, to lie flat on the back and note the 

 clouds in the blue vault over head ; watch the swallows and house-martens when they came in 

 spring ; and listen to their quiet prattle with each other as they darted to and fro ; sights and 

 Bounds still every year, at the proper season, to be seen and heard in the same neighbourhood, 

 yielding to those who have an eye or ear for such matters a pleasure ever new ; sights and 

 sounds to this day annually resulting from the cheery movements and voices of the direct 

 descendants, doubtless, of the identical specimens that flitted hither and thither over the play- 

 ground of yore.— White clover, with other herbage that commonly appears spontaneously in 

 clearings, carpeted the whole of the six acres, with the exception of the places worn bare, 

 ■where favourable spots had been found for the different games of baU in vogue— amongst which, 

 however, cricket was not then in these parts included. After falls of moist snow in winter, 

 gigantic balls used here to be fonned, gathering as they were rolled along, until by reason of 

 their size and weight they could be urged forward no further : and snow-castles on a large scale 

 were laboriously built ; destined to be defended or captured with immense displays of gallantry, 

 Preparatory to such contest, piles of ammunition would be stored away within these structures. 



