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CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY. 



TORONTO OF OLD: 



A SERIES OF COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 



BY THE REV. DR. SCADDING. 



XLIV.— YONGE STREET— FROM THE BAY TO QUEEN STREET. 



The tourist of the present day, who, on one of our great lake-steamers, enters the harbour of 

 Toronto, observes, as he is borne swiftly along, an interesting suecession of street vistas, opening 

 at intervals inland, each one of them somewhat resembling a scene on the stage. He obtains 

 a glimpse for a moment of a thoroughfare gently ascending in a right line northward, with 

 appropriate groups of men and vehicles, reduced prettily to lilliputian size by distance. 



Of all the openings thus transiently disclosed, the one towards which the boat at length 

 shapes its course, with the clear intention of thereabout disburdening itself of its multifarious 

 load. Is quickly seen to be of preeminent importance. Thronged at the point where it descends 

 to the water's edge with steamers and other craft, great and small, lined on the right and left 

 up to the far vanishing-XJoint with handsome buildings, its pavements and central roadway 

 everywhere astir with life, its appearance is agreeably exciting and even impressive. It looks 

 to be, what in fact it is, the outlet of a great highway leading into the interior of a busy popu- 

 lous country. The railway station seen on the right, heaving up its huge semicircular metal 

 back above the subjacent buildings, and flanking tlie very sidewalk with its fine front and lofty 

 ever-open portals, miglit be imagined a porter's lodge proportioned to the dignity of the avenue 

 whose entrance it seems planted there to guard. 



We propose to pass, as rapidly as we may, up the remarkable street at the foot of which our 

 tourist steps ashore. It will not be a part of our plan to enlarge on its condition as we see it 

 at the present time, except hero and there as in contrast with some circumstance of the past. 

 We intend simply to take note, as we ramble on, of such recollections as maj"- spring up at par- 

 ticular points, suggested by objects or localities encountered, and to recall at least the names, 

 if not in every instance, characteristic traits and words and acts of some of the worthies of a 

 byegone generation, to whose toil and endurance the present occupants of the region which we 

 shall traverse are so profoundly indebted. 



Where Yonge Street opened on the harbour, the observer some forty years ago would only 

 have seen, on the east side, the garden, orchard and pleasure grounds of Chief Justice Scott, 

 with his residence situated therein, afterwards the abode of Mr. Justice Sherwood ; and on the 

 west side the garden, orchard, pleasure-grounds and house of Mr Justice Macaulay, afterwards 

 Chief Justice Sir James Macaulay, and the approaches to these premises were, in both cases, 

 not from Yonge Street but from Front Street, or from Market Street in the rear. 



The principal landing place for tlie town was for a series of years, as we have elsewhere 

 stated, at the southern extremity of Clmrch Street ; and then previously, for another series of 

 years, further to the east, at the southern extremity of Frederick Street. The country and local 

 trafBc found its way to these points, not by Yonge Street south of King Street, but by other 

 routes which have been already specified and described. 



Teams and solitary horses, led or ridden, seen passing into Yonge Street, south of King 

 street, either out of King Street or out of Front Street, would most likely be on their way to 

 the forge of old Mr. Philip Klinger, a German whose name we used to think had in it a kind of 

 anvil ring. His smithy, on the east side, just south of Market Street, now Wellington Street, 

 was almost the only attraction and occasion of resort to Yonge Street south of King Street. 



