TORONTO OP OLD. 357 



mere site for a house and garden in the outskirts of the town, was his. The price paid for it 

 was £100. Its value in 1872 may be £100,000. 



The house of comparatively modern date, seen next after Mr. Bostwick, is associated with 

 the memory of Mr. de Blaquiere, who occupied it before building for himself the tasteful 

 residence, not far off, wliere he died ; now the abode of Mr. Jolni Heward. Mr. de Blaquiere 

 was the youngest son of the first Lord de Blaquiere, of Ardkill, in Ireland. He emigrated in 

 1837, and was subsequently appointed to a seat in the Legislative Council of Upper Canada. 

 In his youth he had seen active service as a midshipman. He was present at the battle of 

 Camperdown in the Bounty, commanded by Captain Bligh. He was also in the Fleet at the 

 Nore during the mutiny. He died suddenly here in his new house in 1860, aged 76. His fine 

 character and prepossessing outward physique are freshly remembered. Thus again and again 

 have we to content ourselves with the interest that attaches not to the birtli-places of men of 

 note, as would be the case in older towns, but to their death-places. Who of those that have 

 been born in the numerous domiciles that we pass are finally to be ranked as men of note, and 

 as creators consequently of a sentimental interest in their respective birth-places, remains to 

 be seen. In our portion of Canada there has been time for the ajiplication of the requisite test 

 in only a very few instances. 



XLVIL— TONGE STREET PROM YORKVILLE TO THE SECOND CONCESSION ROAD 



(DEER PARK). 



The First Concession Road-line derived its modern name of Bloor Street from a former resident 

 on its southern side, eastward of Yonge Street. Mr. Bloor, as we have previously narrated, 

 was for many years the landlord of the Farmers' Arms, near the market place of York, an inn. 

 conveniently situated for the accommodation of the agricultural public. On retiring from this 

 occupation with a good competency, he establishcl a Brewery on an extensive scale in the 

 ravine north of the first concession road. In conjunction with Mr Sheriff Jarvis, he entered 

 successfully into a speculation on land, projecting and laying out the village of Yorkville, which 

 narrowly escaped being Bloorville. Tliat name was proposed : as also was Bosedale, after the 

 Sheriff's homestead ; and likewise "Cumberland," from the county of some of the surrounding 

 inhabitants. The monosyllable "Blore" would have sufficed, without having recourse to a 

 hackneyed suffix. That is the name of a spot in Staffordshire, famous for a great engagement 

 In the wars between the Houses of Lancaster and York. But Yorkville was at last decided on> 

 an appellation preservative in part of the name just discarded in 1834 by Toronto. Mr. Bloor 

 was an Englishman, respected by every one. That his name should have become permanently 

 attached to the Northern Boulevard of the City of Toronto, a favourite thoroughfare, several 

 miles in extent, is a curious fact which may be compared with the case of Pimlico, the famous 

 west-end quarter of London. Pimlico has its name, it is said, from Mr. Benjamin Pinilico, for 

 many years the popular landlord of a hotel in the neighbourhood. Bloor Street was for a time 

 known as St. Paul's road : also as the Sydenham road. 



While crossing the First Concession Line, now in our northward journey, the moment comes 

 back to us when on glancing along the vista to the eastward, formed by the road in that 

 direction, we first noticed a church-spire on the right-hand or southern side. We had passed 

 that way a day or two previous, and we were sure no such object was to be seen there then; 

 and yet, unmistakeably now, there rose up before the eye a rather graceful tower and spire, of 

 considerable altitude, complete from base to apex, and coloured white. Tlie fact was : Mr. 

 J. G. Howard, a well-known local architect, had ingeniously constructed a tower of wood in a 

 horizontal, or nearly horizontal, position in the ground close by, somewhat as a shipbuilder puts 

 together "the mast of some vast ammiral," and then, after attending to the external finish of, 

 at least, the higher portion of it, even to a coating of lime- wash, had, in the space of a few 

 hours, by means of convenient machinery raised it on end, and secured it, permanently in a 

 vertical position. We gather some further particulars of the achievement from a contempurary 

 account. The Yorkville spire was raised on the 4th of August, 1841. It was 85 feet high, 

 composed of four entire trees or pieces of timber, each of that length, bound together pyramidf 

 cally, tapering from ten feet base to one foot at top, and made to receive a turned ball and 

 weather-cock. The base was sunk in the ground u;\til the apex was raised ten feet from the 

 ground; and about thirty feet of the upper part of the spire was completed, coloured and 



