THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 93 



Association, while others have never visited Chedoke or Webster's 

 Falls, and I must confess that I have never yet gone to the top of our 

 City Hall, although in 1890 I went to the top of the Capitol at 

 Washington. These instances alone will show how much of practical 

 geography might be learnt at little or no expense if we would only 

 look about us while at home. 



Then to turn to history, how many have visited the scene of the 

 battle of Stony Creek ? How many are acquainted with the history 

 of even our own city and can tell where the first Protestant church 

 in Hamilton stood ? I had the actual building pointed out to me 

 on the occasion of a visit to Hamilton in 1878, the first visit that I 

 ever made here, and like many visitors I saw things then that I might 

 never see here when a resident. How many have read the history 

 of the first trip made to Hamilton or Burlington bay, of which we 

 have record ? Then to turn to the physical geography or history of 

 this neighborhood, how many have read a paper read before our 

 Association which advances the very plausible theory that the Grand 

 river once emptied into Hamilton bay ? Considerable interest might 

 be roused also amongst scholars if they were taught the origin of some 

 of the names of our cities or even our very streets. A visit to some 

 of our churchyards and cemeteries might also be made very inter- 

 esting from the historical suggestions that would arise from some of 

 the inscriptions. I remember one of my friends telling me how 

 impressed he was with the fact that no members were to be 

 found in Hamilton of some families whose names he had seen in 

 Hamilton cemetery, and the same could be said of most old ceme- 

 teries. 



By thus exciting an interest in the history of our own locahty, 

 we will cultivate a taste for investigations of a similar kind when 

 visiting other parts of our own country, and I think it will be found 

 as I have already intimated that we need not bewail the want of his- 

 torical associations in connection with the different points to be seen 

 when travelling on our own beautiful rivers and lakes. 



Quite as stirring scenes have been enacted here if we only had 

 the records, and it is a most favorable sign the interest shown in the 

 proceedings of the several historical clubs that have been formed 

 throughout the Dominion, and the mcreased patriotic sentiment 

 that is being fostered. 



