[179] 



CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



TORONTO OF OLD: 



A SERIES OF COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 



{Continued from Vol. XIII., p. 11-2.) 



BY THE REV. DR. SCADDING. 



XLL— QUEEN STREET— PROM BROCK STREET TO BATHURST STREET. 



The first occupant of the next lot (No. 16) westward was Mr. Baby, of whom we have 

 spoken in former sections. Opposite was the home of Bernard Turquand, an Englishman of 

 of note, for many years first clerk in the Receiver General's department. He was an early 

 promoter of amateur boating amongst us, a recreation with which possibly he had become 

 familiar at Malta, where he was long a resident. Just beyond, and on the same side, was the 

 dwelling-place of Major Winniett, — along, low, one-storey bungalow, of a neutral tint in colour, 

 its roof spreading out, verandah-wise, on both sides. 



After the name of Mr. Baby, on the early plan of the park-lots, comes the name of Mr. 

 Grant — "the Hon. Alexander Grant." During the interregnum between the death of 

 Governor Hunter and the arrival of Governor Gore, Mr. Grant, as senior member of the Execu- 

 tive Council, was President of Upper Canada. The Parliament that sat during his brief 

 administration, appropriated £800 to the purchase of instruments for illustrating the principles 

 of Natural Philosophy, "to be deposited in the hands of a person employed in the Education 

 of Youth ;" from the debris of which collection, preserved in a mutilated condition in one of 

 the rooms of the Home District School building, we ourselves, like others probably of our 

 contemporaries, obtained our very earliest inkling of the existence and significance of scientific 

 apparatus. In his speech at the close of the session of 1806, President Grant alluded to this 

 action of Parliament in the following terms : "The encouragement which you have given for 

 procuring of the means necessary for communicating of useful and ornamental knowledge to 

 the rising generation, meets with my approbation, and, I have no doubt, will produce the most 

 salutary efi'ects." Mr. Grant was also known as Commodore Grant, having had, at one time, 

 command of the Naval Force on the Lakes. 



After Mr. Grant's name appears that of "B. B. Littlehales." This is the Major Littlehales 

 with whom those who familiarize themseves with the earliest records of Upper Canada become 

 so well acquainted. He was the writer, for example, of the interesting Journal of an Exploring 

 Excursion from Niagara to Detroit in 1793, to be seen in print in the Canadian Literary Maga- 

 zine of May, 1834 ; an expedition undertaken, as the document itself sets forth, by the Lieut. 

 Governor, accompanied by Captain Fitzgerald, Lieutenant Smith of the 5th Regiment, and 

 Lieutenants Talbot,_ Grey and Givins, and Major Littlehales, starting from Niagara on the 4t 

 of February, arriving at Detroit on the 18th, by a route which was 270 miles in length. The 

 return began on the 23rd, and was completed on the 10th of the foUowuig month. It was in this 

 expedition that the site of London, on the Thames, was first examined, and judged to be " a 

 situation eminently calculated for the metropolis of all Canada." "Among other essentials,' 

 says Major Littlehales, " it possesses^the following advantages : command of territory, — inter, 

 nal situation, — central position, — facility of water-communication up and down the Thames 

 into Lakes Sb. Clair, Erie, Huron, and Superior, — navigable for boats to near its source, and 

 for small craft probably to the Moravian settlement, — to the southward by a small portage to 

 the waters flowing into Lake Hui-on — to the south-east by a carrying-place into Lake Ontario 

 and the River St. Lawrence ; the soil luxuriantly fertile,— the land rich and capable of being 

 easily cleared, and soon put into a state of agriculture, — a x:iinery upon an adjacent high knoll, 

 and other timber on the heights, well calculated for the erection of public buildings, — a climate 

 not inferior to any part of Canada." The intention of the Governor, at one time, was that the 



