TORONTO OP OLD. 353 



ancient corduroy causewaj', waH one thickot of wild willow, aider, and oihrtv aquatic slmibbcry, 

 among whiciv was conspicuous the spircea, known among boys as "seven-bark" or " nine-bark," 

 and prized by them for the beautiful hue of its rind, which, when rubbed, becomes a bright 

 scarlet. Here also the blue iris grew plentifully, and reeds, frequented by the marsh-lien ; and 

 the bulrush, with its long cat-tails, sheathed in chestnut-coloured felt, and jiointing upwards 

 like toy sky-rockets ready to be shot off. (These cat-tails, when dry and stripped, expand into 

 large, white, downy sjiheros of fluff, and actually were as inflammable as gunpowder, going off 

 with a mighty flash at the least touch of lire). The view from the old trefslework bridge, both 

 up and down the stream, was very picturesque, especially wlicn the forest, which clothed the 

 banks of the ravine on tlic right and left, wore the tints of autumn. Northward, while many 

 fine elms would be seen towering up from the land on a level with the river, the bold hills 

 above them and beyond were covered with lofty pines. Southward, in the distance, was a great 

 stretch of marsh, with the blue lake along tlic horizon. In the summer this marsh was one vast 

 jungle of tall flags and reeds, where would be found the conical huts of the muskrat, and where 

 would be heard at ceitain seasons the peculiar gulp of the bittern ; in winter, when crisp and 

 dry, here was material for a magnificent pyrotechnical display, which usually, once a year, came 

 off, affording at night to the people of the town a sjjectacle not to be contemned. Through a 

 portion of tliis marsh on the eastern side of the river, Mr, Justice Boulton, at a very early 

 period, cut, at a great expense, an open channel in front of some property of his : it was 

 expected, we believe, that the matted vegetation on the outer side of this cutting wonld float 

 away and leave clear water, when thus disengaged ; but no such result ensued: the channel, 

 however, has continued ojjen, and is known as the "Boulton ditch." It forms a communication 

 for skifl's between the Don and Ashbridgo's Baj'. At the west end of the bridge, just across 

 what is now the gore between Queen Street and King Street, there used to be the remains of a 

 military breastwork thrown up in the war of 1812. At the east end of the bridge, on the south 

 side of the road, there still stands a lowly edifice of hewn logs, erected before the close of the 

 last century, by the wi-iter's father, who was the first owner and occujjant of the lots on both 

 sides of the Kingston road at this point. The roadway down to the original crossing-place over 

 the river in the days of the Ferry, and the time of the first cordury bridge, swerving as it did 

 considerably to the south from the direct line of the Kingston road, must have been in fact a 

 trespass on his lot on the south side of the road : and we find that so notable an object was 

 the solitary house, just above the bridge, in 1800, that the bridge itself, in popular parlance, 

 was designated by its owner's name. Thus in the Upper Canada Gazette for March 8, 1800, we 

 read that at a Town Meeting, Jonathan Ashbridge was ajiijointed overseer of highways and 

 fence-viewer for the section of road "from Scadding's bridge to Scarboro'." In 1802 Mr. Ash- 

 ■faridge is again appointed to the same office, and the section of highway jjlaced under his charge 

 is on this occasion named "the Bay Road from Scadding's bridge to Scarboro'." (On this 

 occasion Mr. John Playter is apipointed overseer of higliwaj's "from the Bay Road to the Don 

 Mills." — During the absence in England of the builder and owner of the house just referred to, 

 it was occupied by Mr. Playter, before the erection of his own residence ; and here his eldest 

 son, Mr. Emanuel Playter, was born). Mr. Ashbridge is the early settler from whom Ash- 

 bridge's Bay has its name. HLs farm lay along the lower portion of tliat sheet of water. Next 

 to him, westward, was the property of Mr. Hastings, whose Christian name was "Warren. 

 Tears ago, when first beginning to read Burke, we remember wondering why the name of "the 

 great proconsul " of Hindostan looked so familiar to the eye ; when we recollected tliat in our 

 childhood we used frequently to see here along the old Kingston road the name Warbes 

 Ha-stings appended in conspicuous characters, to placards posted up, advertising a " Lost 

 Cow," or some other homely animal, gone astray. Adjoining Mr. Hastings' farm, still moving 

 we.st, was that of Mr. Mills, with whose name in our own mind is associated the memory of 

 "Hannah Mills," an unmarriad member of his household, who was the Sister of Charity of the 

 neigliVjourhood, ever ready in times of sickness and bereavement to render, for days and nights 

 together, kind]y,sympathetic and consolatory aid. — We transcribe the full list of the aijpointments 

 at the Town Meeting of 1800, for the sake of other old locally familiar names therein embodied ; and 

 also as showing the curious and almo.st incredible fact that in the language of the people, York 

 at that early period, 1800, was beginning to be entitled " the City of York !" "Persons elected 

 at the Town Meeting, held at Miles' Tavern, in the City of York, on the 3rd day of March, 1800, 



