TORONTO OF OLD. 377 



passed had been purposely felled in that position as a part of the apparatus for helping the 

 boats up the hill. 



The table-land now attained was long known as the Poplar Plains. Stegmann uses the 

 expression in his Report. A pretty rural by-road that ascends this same rise near Rathnally, 

 Mr. McMaster's house, is still known as the Poplar Plains road. A house, rather noticeable, 

 to the left, but lying slightly back and somewhat obscured by fine ornamental trees that over- 

 shadow it, was the Iiome for many years of Mr. J. S. Howard, sometime Postmaster of York, 

 and afterwards Treasurer of the counties of York and Peel : an estimable man, and an active 

 promoter of all local works of beneficence. He died in Toronto in 1866, aged 68. This house 

 used to be kno^vn as Olive Grove ; and was originally built by Mr. Campbell, proprietor and 

 manager of the Ontario House Hotel, in York, once before referred to ; eminent in the Masonic 

 body, and father of Mr. Stedman Campbell, a local barrister of note, who died early. 

 Mashquoteh to the left, situated a short distance in, on the north side of the road which enters 

 Yonge Street here, is a colony transplanted from the neighbouring Spadina, being the 

 home of Mr. W. Warren Baldwin,, son of Dr. "W. W. Baldwin, the builder of Spadina. 

 "Mashquoteh" is the Ochipway for "meadow." We hear the same sounds in Longfellow's 

 " Mushkoda-sa," which is, by interpretation, "'prairie-fowl." 



XLVIII. — YONGE STREET— PROM THE SECOND CONCESSION (DEER PARK) TO 

 THE THIRD CONCESSION ROAD. 



Deer Park, to the north of the road that enters here, but skirting Yonge Street as well, had 

 that name given it when the property of the Heatli family, allied by marriage to the Boultons 

 of the Grange. On a part of this property was the house built by Colonel Carthew, once before 

 referred to, and now the abode of Mr. Fisken. Colonel Carthew, a half pay officer of Cornish 

 origin, also made large improvements on property in the vicinity of Newmarket. 



While referring before to Colonel Carthew's house on this spot, in Section xiii., we errone- 

 ously said that Deer Park was now the R. C. Cemeterj'. That Cemetery lies to the south of the 

 Concession Road, and was never a part of Deer Park. 



Just after Deer Park, to avoid a long ravine which lay in the line of the direct route north- 

 ward, the road swerved to the left and then descended, passing over an embankment, which 

 was the dam of an adjacent sawmill, a fine view of the interior of which with the saw usually 

 in active motion, was obtained by the traveller as he fared on. This was Michael Whitmore's 

 sawmill. Of late years the apex of the long triangle of Neman's land that for a great while lay 

 desolate between the original and subsequent lines of Yonge Street, has been happily utilized 

 by the erection thereon of a Church, Christ Clmrcli, an object well seen in the ascent and 

 descent of the street. Anciently, very near the site of Christ Church, a solitary longish wooden 

 building, fronting southward, was conspicuous ; the abode of Mr. Hudson, a provincial land 

 surveyor of mark. Looking back southward from near the front of this house, a fine distant 

 glimpse of the waters of Lake Ontario used to be obtained, closing the vista made in the forest 

 by Yonge Street. 



Before reaching Whitmore's sawmill, while passing along the brow of the biU overlooking the 

 ravine which was avoided by the street as it ran in the first instance, there was to be seen at 

 a little distance to the right, on some rough undulating ground, a house which always attracted 

 the eye by its affectation of " Gothic" in the out-line of its windows. On the side towards the 

 public road it showed several obtuse-headed lancet lights. This peculiarity gave the building, 

 otherwise ordinary enough, a slightly romantic air : it had the effect, in fact, at a later period, 

 of creating for this habitation, when standing for a considerable while tenantless, the reputation 

 of being haunted. This house and the surrounding grounds constituted Springfield Park, the 

 original Upper Canadian home of Mr. John Mills Jackson, an English gentleman, formerly of 

 Downton in Wiltshire, wlio emigrated hither prior to 1S06 ; but flndmg public aflairs managed 

 in a way which he deemed not satisfactory, he returned to England, where he published a 

 a pamphlet addressed to the King, Lords and Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, entitled, "A View of the Political Situation of the Province," a brochure that 

 made a stir in Upper Canada, if not in England, the local House of Assembly voting it a libel. 

 Our Upper Canadian Parliament partially acquired the habit of decreeing reflections on the 

 local government to be libels. Society in its infancy is apt to resent criticism, even when 



