98 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



What particular advantage was secured, we may ask, by altering the name of that street from 

 "Sayer" to " Chestnut?" As a name imposed by the donor of the land, commemorative of a 

 name which he desired in perpetuity to honour, the appellation "Sayer" should have beeu 

 respected. 



It is unfortunate when persons, apparently without serious retrospective thought, apparently 

 ■witliout sympathy with the local past, have a momentary chance to make changes of tliia kind, 

 Chancery might well be invoked to undo in some instances what has been done, and to 

 prohibit like inconsiderate doings in the future. Equity would surely say that a citizen's 

 private right should not be infringed, so long as it worked no harm to the community, and that 

 perplexity in the registration and description of property should not needlessly be created. 



And again, if it was deemed necessary to obliterate "Sayer," why, in particular, was 

 " Chestnut" selected as the new designation ? The street, now so named, is in no way remark- 

 able for trees yielding that esculent. The name of the donor of the land would have been less 

 objectionable. " Elm Street," which intersects this street to the north, probably in some vague 

 way suggested a tree-name. " Elm Street," however, might better have suggested the propriety 

 of regulatmg the imposition of street names by a principle. The name "Elm street" had a 

 reason for its existence. Many persons still remember a solitary Elm, a relic of the forest, 

 which was long conspicuous just where Elm Street enters Yonge Street. 



As to Pine Street and Sumach Street in the east : there is a fitness also in their names, for 

 these streets pass through a region where, as is still remembered, pines and sumachs abounded. 



[Since the writing of our xxviith section, the name of " MoMahon Street" has been super- 

 seded by that of " Ontario Street" — a thoroughfare that is now supposed to extend to York- 

 ville. At the same time, by way of compensation perhaps, the namd of "Sherbourne Street" 

 is made to supersede that of " Caroline Street," down to the water's edge. " Caroline Street," 

 as we have seen in Section i. of these papers, had a good old historic significance ; and, accord- 

 Jngly, it should not have been lightly blotted out. In view of the origin of the name (see 

 Section xxviii.), " Sherbourne," as applied to what was Caroline Street, especially in its lower 

 portion, is altogether without point or meaning. It simply serves to difference the street 

 from other streets ; and the name " Caroline" did that already. — Note, that the site of Mr. 

 MeMahon's residence was on a portion — not of the Small parlc-lot. as stated in Section xxvii., 

 but — of the adjoining "White park-lot. — Note also, that towards the end of Section vi., " Baty," 

 copied from Liancourt, should be "Berzcy;" likewise that in Section viii., •' Lord Stanley" 

 should be " Lord Derby."] 



Although by so doing we shall forestall ourselves a little, we shall here say what we have to 

 say in regard to another change in a street name near Osgoode Hall. WiUiam Street, immedi- 

 ately west of the Avenue leading to the University, has in recent times been changed to Simcoe 

 Street. It is true, William Street was nearly in a line with Simcoe Street ; nevertheless, 

 starting as it conspicuously did somewhat to the west of that line on the north side of a great 

 intersecting thoroughfare, it was a street sufficiently distinct to be entitled to retain an inde- 

 pendent name. Here again, an item of local history has been obscured by the change. 

 William Street was a record on the soil of the first name of an early Chief Justice of Upper 

 Canada, who projected the street and gave the land. Dummer Street, the next street westward, 

 bears his second name. Of "Powell," his third name, we have already elsewhere spoken, and 

 which again almost immediately have to speak. [Note, that an excellent portrait of Chief 

 Justice Powell exists in the possession of his descendants in Toronto, but not in Osgoode 

 Hall, as was stated in Section ix. of these papers.] 



When the proposal comes up for an alteration in " Dummer Street," with the hope perhaps 

 of improving its fame along with its name, let the history of March Street be recalled. In the 

 case of March Street, the rose, notwithstanding a change of name, retained its perfume : and 

 the Colonial Minister of the day. Lord Stanley, received but a sorry compliment when his 

 name was made to displace that of the Earl of March. (It was from this second title of the 

 Duke of Richmond that March Street had its name.) It is probable that the Dummer Street 

 of to-day, like the March Street of yesterday, would, under another name, continue much the 

 Bame. In aU such localities, it is not a change of name that avails : but the presence of the 

 schoolmaster and home-missionary, backed up by landlords and builders possessed of reason' 

 able ideas in regard to matters sanitary as well as monetary. 



