TORONTO OF OLD. 339 



appraiser of York, a well-known am] excellent man. He had suffered the severe calamity of a 

 partial deprivation of the lower limhs by frost-bite ; hut he contrived to moye about with great 

 activity in a room or on the side-walk by means of two light chairs, shifting himself adroitly 

 from the one to the other. When required to go to a distance or to church, (where he was ever 

 punctually to be seen in his place), he was lifted by his son or sons into and out of a wagonette, 

 together with the chairs. 



On the same (north) side was the place where the Messrs. Lesslie, enterprising and successful 

 merchants from Dundee, dealt at once in two remunerative articles — books and drugs. The 

 left side of the store was devoted to the latter ; the right to tlie former. Their first head-quar- 

 ters in York had been further ujj the street ; but a move had been made to the eastward, to 

 Tje, as things were then, nearer the hw/rt of the town. This firm had houses carrying on the 

 same combined businesses in Kingston and Ehindas. There exists a Vironze medal or token, of 

 good design, sought after by collectors, bearing the legend, "E. Lesslie and Sons, Toronto and 

 Dundas, 1822." The date has been perjjlexing, as the town was not named Toronto in 1822. 

 The int<;ntion simply wa-s to indicate the year of the founding of the firm in the two towns ; 

 the first of which assumed the name of Toronto at the period the medal was really struck, viz., 

 18.31 On the obverse it bears a fi^re of Justice with scales and sword : on the reverse, a 

 Plough, with the mottoes, " Prosperity to Canada," " La Prudence et la Candeur." — A smaller 

 Token of the same firm is extant, on which " Kingston" is inserted between " Toronto" and 

 "Dundas." • 



Nearly opposite was the store of Mr. Monro. Regarding our King Street as the Broadway of 

 York, Mr. Monro was for a long time its Stewart. But the points about his premises that 

 linger now in our recollection the most, are a tasteful flower-garden on its west side, and a 

 trellised verandah in that direction, with canaries in a cage usually singing therein. Mr. 

 Monro was Mayor of Toronto in 1840. He also represented in Parliament the South Piiding of 

 York, in the Session of 1844-5. 



At tlie north-west corner, a little further on, resided Mr. Alexander Wood, whose name 

 appears often in the Re i)ort of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of 1812, to wliich reference 

 before has been made, and of which he was the Secretary. A brotiier of his, at first in copart- 

 nership with Mr. Allan, and at a later iieriod, independently, had made money, at York, by 

 business. On the decease of his brother, Mr. Alexander Wood came out to attend to the 

 property left. He continued on the same spot, until after the war of 1812, the commercial 

 operations wliich had been so prosperously begun, and then retired. At the time to which our 

 recollections are transporting us, the windows of the part of the house tliat had been the store 

 were always seen v.'ith the shutters closed. Mr. Wood was a bachelor ; and it was no uncosy 

 sight, towards the close of the shortening autumnal days, before the remaining front shutters 

 of the house were drawn in for the evening, to catch a glimpse, in jiassing, of the interior of 

 his comfortable quarter.s, lighted up by the blazing logs on the hearth, the table standing duly 

 spread close by, and the solitarj' himself ruminating in his chair before the fire, waiting for 

 candles and dinner to be brought in. On sunny mornings in winter he was often to be seen 

 pacing the sidewalk in front of his ijremises, for exercise, arrayed in a long blue over-coat, 

 with his right liand thrust for warmth into the cuff of his left sleeve, and his left hand into 

 that of his right. He afterwards returned to Scotland, where, at Stoneliaven, not far from 

 Aberdeen, he had family e.states known as Woodeot and Woodburnden. He died without 

 executing a will ; and it was .'jpme time before the rightful heir to his property in Scotland and 

 here was determined. It had been his intention, we believe, to return to Canada. The streets 

 that run eastward from Yonge Street, north of Carlton Street, named respectively "Wood" 

 and "Alexander," jjass across land that belonged to Mr. Wood. 



Many are the shadowy forms that rise before us, as we proceed on our way ; phantom-revi- 

 sitings from the misty Past ; the shapes and faces of enterprising and painstaking men, of whose 

 fortunes King Street hereabout was the cradle. But it is not necessary in these remmiscences 

 to enumerate all who, on the right hand and on the left, along the now comparatively deserted 

 portions of that great thoroughfare, amassed wealth in the olden tune by commerce and other 

 honourable pursuits, laying the foundation, in several instances, of opulent families. 



Quetton St. George, however, must not be omitted, builder of the solid and enduring house 

 on the comer opposite to Mr. Wood's ; a structure that, for its size and air of respectability ; 



