TORONTO OF OLD. 3 



Iroquois at Niagara, under a certaint restrain probably, from the unwonted garb of embroidered 

 deerskin, in wliicli on sucli occasions, he would be arrayed ; and at another time clambering up 

 and down the steep hill-sides at Castle Frank with the restless energy of a free English boy, was 

 at last after the lapse some seventeen years, seen a mangled corse, one in that ghastly pile ot 

 "English dead," which in 1812, closed up the breach at Badajoz. 



Biding with the Governor, out to his rustic lodge, would be seen also his attached secretary, 

 Major Littlehales, and one or other of his faithful aides-de-camp. Lieutenant Talbot or Lieuten- 

 ant Givins ; wth men in attendance in the dark green undress of the famous Queen's Rangers, 

 with a sumpter pony or two, bearing packages and baskets filled with a day's provender for 

 the whole party. A few dogs also, a black Newfoundland, a pointer, a setter, white and tan, 

 hieing buoyantly about on the right and left, would give animation to the cavalcade as it passed 

 sedately on its way — 



" Through the green-glooming twilight of the grove." 



It will be of interest to add here, the inscription on General Simcoe's monument in Exeter 

 Cathedral : — "Sacred to the memory of John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-General in the Army, 

 and Colonel of the 22nd Regiment of Foot, who died on the 25th day of October, 1806, aged 54. 

 In whose life and character the virtues of the hero, the patriot and the Christian were so 

 eminently conspicuous, that it may justly be said, he served his king and his country with a 

 zeal exceeded only by his piety towards God." Above this inscription is a medallion portrait. 

 On the right and left are figures of an Indian and a soldier of the Queen's Rangers. The remains 

 of the General are not deposited in Exeter Cathedral, but under a mortuary chapel on the estate 

 of his family elsewhere. 



Our cavalcade to Castle Frank, as sketched above, has been challenged on the supposed ground 

 that in 1794 there were no horses in Western Canada. Horses were no doubt at that date scarce 

 in the region named ; but some were procurable for the use of the Governor and his suite. In a 

 "Journal to Detroit from Niagara, in 1793, by Major Littlehales," printed for the first time in 

 the Canadian Literary Magazirie, for May, 1833, we have it mentioned that, on the return of an 

 exploring party, they were met at the end of the plains, near the Salt Lake Creek, by Indians, 

 "bringing horses for the Governor and his suite." The French habitans about Sandwich and 

 Detroit were in possession of horses in 1793, as well as their fellow-countrymen in Lower Canada. 



After the departure of General Simcoe from Canada, Castle Frank was occasionally made the 

 scene of an excursion or pic-nic by President Russell and his family ; and a ball was now and 

 then given there, for which the appliances as well as the guests were conveyed in boats up the 

 Don. At one time it was temporarily occupied by Captam John Denison, of whom hereafter. 

 About the year 1829, the building, shut up and tenantless at the time, was destroyed by fire, 

 the mischievous handiwork of persons engaged in salmon-fishing in the Don. A depression in 

 the dry sand just beyond the fence that bounds the Cemetery of St. James, northward, shews to 

 this day the exact site of Castle Frank. The quantity of iron that was gathered out from this 

 depression after this fire, was, as we remember, something extraordinary, all the window- 

 shutters and doors, having been, as we have said, made of double planks, fastened together 

 with an immense number of stout nails, whose heads thickly studded the surface of each in 

 regular order. 



The immediate surroundings of the spot where Castle Frank stood, fortunately continue almost 

 in their original natural state. Although the site of the building itself is outside the bounds of 

 the Cemetery of St. James, a large portion of the lot which at first formed the domain of the 

 chateau, now forms a part of that spacious and picturesque enclosure. The deep glen on the 

 west, immediately below where the house was buUt, and through which flows (and by the listener 

 may be pleasantly heard to flow) the brook that bears its name, is to this day a scene of rare 

 sylvan beauty. The pedestrian from the town, by a half-hour's easy walk, can here place himself 

 in the rnldst of a forest solitude ; and from what he sees he can form an idea of the whole 

 surrounding region, as it was when York was first laid out. Here he can find in abundance, to 

 this day, specimens, gigantic and minute, of the vegetation of the ancient woods. Here at the 

 proper seasons he can still hear the blue-jay ; the flute notes of the solitary wood-thrush, and at 

 night, specially when the moon is shining bright, the whip-poor-wUl, hurriedly and in a high 

 key, syllabling forth its own name. 



