356 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



senior, died in 1833, at Hamilton, wliere lie filled the post of Countj' Registrar. His eldest son 

 Mr. James Durand, when, in 1817, member for Halton, enjoyed the distinction of being expelled 

 from the House of Assembly. A Parliament had just expired. He oifered some strictures on 

 its proceedings, in an address to his late constituents. The new House, which embraced many 

 persons who had been members of the previous Parliament, was persuaded to vote the Address 

 to the electors of Halton a libel, to exclude its author from the House, and to commit him to 

 prison. His instant re-election by the county of Halton was of course secured. We observe 

 from the evidence of Mr. James Durand before the celebrated Grievance Committee of 1835, 

 that he was an early advocate of a number of the changes which have since been carried into 

 eifect. This Mr. Durand died m 1872 at Kingston, where he was Registrar for the County of 

 Frontenac. We have been enabled to make the corrections now given through the kindness of 

 Mr. Charles Durand, who, in a valuable communication, further informs us that besides being 

 among the earliest to engage in mercantile enterprise in Upper Canada, his father had also in 

 1805 a large interest in the extensive ilour mills in Chippewa, known as the Bridgewater Mills : 

 mills burnt by the retreating American army in 1812, at which period Mr. Durand, senior, was 

 in the command of one of the flank companies of Militia, composed of the first settlers in the 

 neighbourhood of the modern Hamilton : moreover he was the first who ever imported fox- 

 hounds into Upper Canada, a pack of which animals he caused to be sent Out to him from 

 England, being fond of the hunter's sport. With these he hunted near Long Point, on Lake 

 Erie, in 1805, over a region teeming at the time with deer, bears, wolves and wild turkeys. Mr. 

 Peter Des Jardins, from whom the Dundas Canal has its name, was in 1805, a clerk in the employ- 

 ment of Mr. Durand. 



But to push now on our way. To the north of our Sandhill, a short distance, on the east 

 side, was a sylvan halting place for weary teams, known as the Gardeners' Arms. It was an 

 unpretending rural wayside inn, furnished with troughs and pump. The house lay a little way 

 back from the road. Its sign exhibited an heraldic arrangement of horticultural implements. 

 Another rural inn, with homely name, might have been noted, while we were nearer Lot Street : 

 the Green Bush Tavern. But this was a name transferred from another spot, far to tlie north 

 on Yonge Street, when the landlord, Mr. Abrahams, moved into town. In the original locality, 

 the sign was a painted pine-tree or spruce of formal shape — not the ivy-bush, the sign referred 

 to by the ancient proverb when it said, "Win? needeth it not" — "Vino vendibili non opus 

 est suspensa hedera." 



On the right, beyond the Gardeners' Arms, appeared in this region at an early date, at a 

 considerable distance from each other, two or perhaps three flat, single- storey square cottages, 

 clapboarded and painted white, with flat four-sided roofs, door in the centre and one window 

 on either side : little wooden boxes set down on the surface of the soil apparently, and capable, 

 as it might seem, of being readily lifted up and ti'ansported to any other locality. They were 

 the first of such structures in the outskirts of York, and were speedily copied aod repeated in 

 various directions, being thought models of neatness and convenience. Opposite the quarter 

 where these little square hutches were to be seen, there are to be found at the present day, the 

 vineyards of Mr. Bevan ; to be found, we say, for they are concealed from the view of the 

 transient passenger by intervening buildings. Here again we have a scene presenting a telling 

 contrast to the same spot and its surroundings within the memory of living men : a considera- 

 ble area covered with a labyrinth of trellis work, all overspread with hardy grapes in great 

 variety and steadily productive. To this sight likewise we should introduce our timid, 

 hesitating new comer, as also to the» originator of the spectacle — Mr. Bevan, who after a forty- 

 years' sojourn in the vicinity of York and Toronto, continues as genuinely English in spirit and 

 tone now, as when he first left the quay of his native Bristol for his venture westward. While 

 engaged largely in the manufacture of various articles of wooden ware, Mr. Bevan adopted as 

 a recreation the cultivation of the grape, and the making of a good and wholesome wine. It is 

 known in commerce and to physicians, who recommend it to invalids for its real purity, as 

 Clintona. 



Just before reaching the first concession-road, where Yorkville now begins, a family residence 

 of an ornamental suburban character, put up on the left by Mr. Lardner Bostwick, was the first 

 of that class of building in the neighbourhood. His descendants still occupy it. Mr. Bostwick 

 was an early property owner in York. The now important square acre at the south-east angle 

 of the intersection of King Street and Yonge Street, regarded pro bably when selected, as a 



