TORONTO OF OLD. 345 



the highway is marked "Road to Quebec,"— with an arrow shewing the direction in wliich the 

 traveller must keep his horse's head, if he would reach that ancient city. The arrow, at the 

 end of the inscription just given, points slightly upwards, indicating the fact that the said 

 "Road to Quebec" trends slightly to the north after leaving Mr. Small's clearing. 



XVIIL— PROM BERKELEY STREET TO POWER AND TRINITY STREETS. 



"We now propose to pass rapidly down "the road to Quebec" as far as the Bridge. First we 

 cross, in the hollow, Goodwin's creek, the stream that enters the Bay by the cnt-stone Gaol. 

 On the knoll to the right was Pilkington's cottage, a little group of low white buildings in a 

 grove of pines and acacias. Parliament Street, which enters near here from the north, is a 

 memorial of the olden time, when, as we have seen, the Parliament Buildings of Uppcr'Canada 

 were situated in this neighbourhood. In an early section of these Recollections we observed 

 that what is now called Berkeley Street was originally Parliament Street, a name which, like 

 that borne by a well-known thoroughfare in Westminster, for a similar reason, indicated the 

 fact that it led down to the Houses of Parliament. The road that at present bears the name 

 of Parliamenl Street shews the direction of the track through the priniitive woods opened by 

 Governor Simcoe to his summer house on the Don, called Castle-Prank, of which fully, in its 

 place, hereafter. Looking up Parliament Street we are reminded that a few yards from where 

 Duke Street enters, li'^ed at an early period Mr. Richard Coates, an estimable and ingenious 

 man, whose name is associated in our memory with the early dawn of the fine arts in Fork. 

 Mr. Coates, in a self-taught way, executed, not unsuccessfully, portraits in oil of some of our 

 ancient worthies. Among things of a general or historical character, he painted also for David 

 Wilson, the founder of the "Children of Peace," the symbolical decorations of the interior of 

 the Temple at Sharon. He cultivated music likewise, vocal and Instrumental ; he built an 

 organ of some pretensions,in his own house, on which he performed ; he built another for David 

 Wilson at Sharon. Mr. Coates constructed, besides, in the yard of his house, an elegantly-fin- 

 ished little pleasure yacht of about nine tons burden. 



This passing reference to infant Art in York recalls again the name of Mr. John Craig, who 

 has before been mentioned in our account of the interior of one of the .many successive St. 

 Jameses. Although Mr. Craig did not himself profess to go beyond his sphere as a decorative 

 and heraldic painter, the spirit that animated him really tended to foster in the community a 

 taste for art in a wider sense. Mr. Charles Daly, also, as a skillful teacher of drawing in 

 water-colours and introducer of superior specimens, did much to encourage art at an early 

 date. In 1834 we find Mr. Daly promoting an exhibition of Paintings by the "York Artists 

 and Amateur Association," and acting as " Honorary Seceetary," when the Exhibition for the 

 year took jjlace. Mr. James Hamilton, a teller in the liank, produced, too, some noticeable 

 landscapes in oil. As an auxiliary in the cause, and a ministrant to the wants of artists at an 

 early period, we name, likewise, Mr. Alexander Hamilton ; who, in addition to supplying 

 materials in the form of pigments and prepared colours, contributed to the tasteful setting off 

 of the productions of pencil and brush, by furnishing them with frames artistically carved and 

 gilt.- — Out of the small beginnings and rudiments of Art at York, one artist of a genuine stamp 

 was, in the lapse of a few years, developed — Mr. Paul Kane ; who, after studying in the 

 schools of Europe, returned to Canada and made the illustration of Indian character and life 

 his specialty. By talent exhibited in this class of pictorial delineation, he acquired a distin- 

 guished reputation throughout the North American continent ; and by his volume of beautifully 

 illustrated travels, published in Loudon, and entitled " Wanderings of an Ai-tist among the 

 Indians of North America," he obtained for himself a recognized place in the literature of 

 British Art. 



In the hollow, a short distance to the west of Mr. Coates's, was one of the first buildings of 

 any size ever erected here wholly of stone. It was put up by Mr. Hutchinson. It was a large 

 square family house of three storeys. It stiU exists, but its material is hidden under a coating 

 of stucco. Another building, wholly of stone, was Mr. Hunter's house, on the west side of 

 Church Street. A portion of Hugill's Brewery likewise exhibited the same solid, English-looking 

 kind of structure. We now resume our route. 



7 



