342 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



At the next corner, on the north side, a house now totally demolished, was the original home 

 of the millionaire Cawthra family, already once alluded to. In the "Gazette and Oracle" for 

 Nov. 29, 1S06, the name " J. Cawthra" is for the first time seen, appended to an advertisement, 

 iu which he informs the inhabitants of York and the neighboring country that he had just 

 arrived from New York with a general assortment of " apothecary articles ;" and that the 

 public can be supplied with everything in that line genuine : also patent medicines : he 

 likewise intimates that he has brought a general assortment of Dry Goods, consisting of 

 " broad cloths, duffils, flannels, swansdoAvn, corduroys, printed calicoes, ginghams, cambric 

 muslins, shirting, muslins, men and women's stockings, silk handkerchiefs, bandana shawls, 

 pulicat and pockethandkerchiefs, calimancoes, dimity and check ; also a large assortment ol 

 men's, women's and children's shoes, hardware, coffee, tea and chocolate, lump and loaf sugar, 

 tobacco, &c., with many other articles : which he is determined to sell on very low terms at 

 his store opposite Stoyell's tavern. York, Nov. 27, 1806." 



Immediately across, at the corner on the south side, was a depot, insignificant enough, no 

 doubt, to the indifferent passer-by, but invested with much importance in the eyes of many of 

 the eany infantiles of York. Its windows exhibited, in addition to a scattering of white clay 

 pipes, and papers of pins suspended open against the panes for the public inspection, a display 

 of circular discs of gingerbread, some with jilain, some with scolloped edge ; also hearts, 

 fishes, little prancing ponies, parrots and dogs of tlie same tawny-hued material ; also endwise 

 iu tumblers and other glass vessels, numerous lengths or stems of prepared saccharine matter, 

 brittle in substance, white-looking, but streaked and slightly penetrated with some rich crimson 

 pigment ; likewise on plates and oval dishes, a collection of quadrangular viscous lumps, buff- 

 coloured and clammy, each showing at its ends the bold gashing cut of a stout knife which 

 must have been used in dividing a rope, as it were, of the tenacious substance into inch-sections 

 or parts. In the wrapping paper about all articles purchased here, there was always a sou23con 

 of the homely odors of boiled sugar and peppermint. The tariflT of the various comestibles 

 just enumerated was well known ; it was precisely for each severally, one half-penny. The 

 mistress of this establishment bore the Scottish name of Lumsden — a name familiar to us lads 

 in anotlier way also, being constantly seen bj^ us on the title-jiages of school-books, many of 

 which, at the time referred to, were imported from Glasgow, from the publishing-house of 

 Lumsden and Son. 



A little way down the street which crosses here, was Major Heward's house, long Clerk of 

 the Peace for the Home District, of whom we have had occasion to speak before. Several of 

 his sons, while pursuing their legal and other studies, became also "mighty hunters ;" distin- 

 guished, we mean, as enthusiastic sportsmen. Many were the exploits reported of them, in 

 this line. We give here an extract from Mr. McGrath's lively work, published in 1833, entitled 

 "Authentic letters from Upper Canada, Avith an Account of Canadian Field Sports." "Ireland," 

 he says, "is, in many places, remarkable for excellent cock-shooting, which I have myself 

 experienced in the most favorable situations : not, however, to be compared with this country, 

 where the numbers are truly wonderful. Were I to mention," Mr. McGrath continues, "what 

 I have seen in this respect, or heard from others, it might bring my graver statements into 

 disrepute. — As a specimen of the sport," he says, "I will merely give a fact or two of, not 

 unusual, success ; bearing, however, no proportion to the quantity of game. I have kno\'iTi 

 Mr. Charles Heward, of York," he proceeds to state, "to have shot in one day thirty brace at 

 Chippewa, close to the Falls of Niagara — and I myself," Mr. McGrath continues, " who am far 

 from being a first-rate shot, have frequently brought home from twelve to fourteen brace, my 

 brothers performing their part with equal success." — But the younger Messrs. Heward had a 

 field for the exercise of their sportsman skill nearer home than Chippewa. The Island, just 

 across the Bay, where the black-heart plover were said always to arrive on a particular day, 

 the 23rd of May, every year, and the marshes about Ashbridge's bay, and York harbour itself, 

 all abounded with wUd fowl. 



