434 CANADIAN LOCAL HISTORY : 



apparently to Jairus Ashley, some of StillweU's property has been seized. Under the editorial- 

 head of the Loyalist of December 27th of that year, we find the following item: "Sheriff's 

 Sale. — At the Court House, in the Town of York, on Saturday, 31st January next, will be sold. 

 Lot No. 30, in the first Concession of the Township of Vaughan, taken in execution as belonging 

 to Stillwell Wilson, at the suit of Jairus Ashley. Sale to commence at 12 o'clock noon." In 

 our paper on the early marine of York, we shall meet with Stillwell Wilson again. We shall 

 then find him in command of a slip-keel schooner plying on the Lake between York and Niagara. 

 The present owner of his lot, which, as we have seen, was also once Mr. Jackson's— Mr. Jacobin 

 Jackson's — is Mr. Cawthra. (Note the tendency to distinguish between individuals bearing 

 the name of Jackson by an epithet prefixed. A professional pugilist patronized by Lord Byron 

 was commonly spoken of as " Gentleman Jackson.") 



As we reached again the higher land, after crossing the dam of Wliitmore's mill, and return- 

 ing into the more direct line of the street, some rude pottery works met the eye. Here in the 

 midst of woods, the passer-by usually saw, on one side of the road, a one-horse clay-grinding 

 machine, laboriously in operation ; and on the other, displayed in the open air on boards sup- 

 ported by wooden pins driven into the great logs composing the walls of a low windowless 

 building, numerous articles of coarse brown ware, partially glazed, — pans, crocks, jars, jugs 

 demijohns, and so forth ; all which primitive products of the plastic art were ever pleasant to 

 contemplate. These works were carried on by Mr. John Walmsley. 



A tract of rough country was now reached, diflScult to clear and difBcult to traverse with a 

 vehicle. Here a genuine cordaroy causeway was encountered, a long series of small saw-logs 

 laid side by side, over which wheels jolted deliberately. In the wet season portions of it, being 

 afloat, would undulate under the weight of a passing load ; and occasionally a horse's leg would 

 be entrapped, and possibly snapped short by the sudden yielding or revolution of one of the 

 cylinders below. We happen to have a very vivid recollection of the scene presented along this, 

 particular section of Yonge Street, when the woods, heavy pine chiefly, after having been felled 

 in a most confused manner, were being consumed by fire, or rather while the effort was being 

 made to consume them. The whole space from near Mr. Walmsley's potteries to the rise 

 beyond which Eglinton is situated, was, and continued long, a chaos of blackened timbsr, 

 most dismaying to behold. To the right of this tract was one of the Church glebes so 

 curiously reserved in every township in the original laying-out of Upper Canada — one lot of 

 two hundred acres in every seven of the same area — in accordance with a public policy which 

 at the present time seems suflSciently Utopian. Of the arrangement alluded to, now broken 

 up, but expected when the Quebec Act passed in 1780 to be permanent, a relic remained down- 

 to a late date in the shape of a wayside inn, on the right near here, styled on its sign the 

 "Glebe Inn" — a title and sign reminding one of the " Church Stiles" and " Church Gates" not 

 uncommon as village ale-house designations in some parts of England. 



Hitherto the general direction of Yonge street has been north, sixteen degrees west. At the 

 point where it passes the road marking the northern limit of the third concession from the bay,. 

 it swerves seven degrees to the eastward. In the first survey of this region there occurred here- 

 a jog or Jault in the lines. The portion of the street proposed to be opened north failed, by a 

 few rods, to connect in a continuous right line with the portion of it that led southward intO' 

 York. The irregularity was afterwards corrected by slicing off a long narrow angular piece 

 from three lots on the east side, and adding the like quantity of land to the opposite lot — it 

 happening just here that the lots on the east side lie east and west, while those on the west 

 side lie north and south. After the third concession, the lots along the street lie uniformly 

 east and west. 



XLIX.— YONGE STREET PROM THE THIRD CONCESSION ROAD TO HOGG'S 



HOLLOW. 

 With young persons in general perhaps, at York in the olden time, who ever gave the cardinal 

 points a thought, the notion prevailed that Yonge Street was " north." We well remember our 

 own slight perplexity when we first distinctly took notice that the polar star, the dipper, and 

 the focus usually of the northern lights all seemed to be east of Yonge Street. That an impres- 

 sion existed in the popular mind at a late period to the effect that Yonge Street was north, was. 

 shown when, the pointers indicating east, west, north and south came to be afltsed to the apei: 



