eaving now the site of our ancient Court House, the spot at which we arrive in our tour is one of very peculiar interest. It is the intersection at right angles of the two great military ways carved out through the primitive forest of Western Canada by order of its first Governor. Dundas Street and Yonge Street were laid down in the first MS. maps of the country as highways destined to traverse the land in all future time, as nearly as practicable in right lines, the one from east to west, the other from south to north. They were denominated "streets," because their idea was taken from the famous ancient ways, still in several instances called "streets," which the Romans, when masters of primitive Britain, constructed for military purposes. To this day it is no unpleasant occupation for the visitor who has leisure, to track out the lines of these ancient roads across England. We ourselves once made a pilgrimage expressly for the purpose of viewing the intersection of Iknield Street and Watling Street, in the centre of Dunstable, and from our actual knowledge of what Canada was when its Yonge Street and Dundas Street were first hewn out, we realized all the more vividly the condition of central England when the Roman road-makers first began their work there.
Dundas Street has its name from the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1794. In that year Governor Simcoe wrote as follows to Mr. Dundas:—"Dundas Street, the road proposed from Burlington Bay to the River Thames, half of which is completed, will connect by an internal communication the Detroit and settlements at Niagara. It is intended," he says, "to be extended northerly to York by the troops, and in process of time by the respective settlers to Kingston and Montreal." In another despatch to the same statesman he says:—"I have directed the surveyor, early in the next spring to ascertain the precise distance of the several routes which I have done myself the honour of detailing to you, and hope to complete the Military Street or Road the ensuing autumn." In a MS. map of about the same date Dundas Street is laid down from Detroit to the Pointe au Bodêt, the terminus on the St. Lawrence of the old boundary line between Upper and Lower Canada. From the Rouge River it is sketched as running somewhat further back than the line of the present Kingston Road; and after leaving Kingston it is drawn as though it was expected to follow the water-shed between the Ottawa and the St. Lawrence. A road is sketched, running from the Pointe au Bodêt to the Ottawa, and this Road is struck at an acute angle by Dundas Street.
A manuscript note appears on the map, "The Dundas Street is laid out from Oxford to the Bay of Quinté; it is nearly finished from Oxford to Burlington Bay."
In 1799 the Constellation, a paper published at Niagara, informs its readers, under the date of Friday, August 2nd, in that year, that "the wilderness from York to the Bay of Quinté is 120 miles; a road of this distance through it," it then says, "is contracted out by Government to Mr. Danforth, to be cut and completed by the first of July next; and which, when completed, will open a communication round the Lake by land from this town [Niagara] with the Bay, Kingston, &c. Hitherto," the Constellation continues, "in the season of winter our intercourse with that part of the province has been almost totally interrupted. Mr. Danforth has already made forty miles of excellent road," the editor encourages his patrons by observing, "and procured men to the number sufficient for doing the whole extent by the setting in of winter. It would be desirable also," Mr. Tiffany suggests, "were a little labour expended in bridging the streams between Burlington Bay and York; indeed the whole country," it is sweepingly declared, "affords room for amendment in this respect."
It is plain from this extract that if the men of the present generation would have a just conception of what was the condition of the region round Lake Ontario seventy years ago, they must pay a visit to the head of Lake Superior and perform the journey by the Dawson road and the rest of the newly-opened route from Fort William to Winnipeg.
The Gazette of December 14, 1799, was able to speak approvingly of the road to the eastward. "The road from this town (York) to the Midland District is," it says, "completed as far as the Township of Hope, about sixty miles, so that sleighs, waggons, &c., may travel it with safety. The report which has been made to the Government by the gentlemen appointed to inspect the work is," the Gazette then proceeds to say, "highly favourable to Mr. Danforth, the undertaker; and less imperfections could not be pointed out in so extensive a work. The remaining part," it is added, "will be accomplished by the first of July next." The road to which these various extracts refer, is still known as the Danforth Road. It runs somewhat to the north of the present Kingston Road, entering it by the town line at the "Four Mile Tree."
Yonge Street, which we purpose duly to perambulate hereafter, has its name from Sir George Yonge, a member of the Imperial Government in the reign of George III. He was of a distinguished Devonshire family, and a personal friend of Governor Simcoe's.
The first grantee of the park-lot which we next pass in our progress westward was Dr. Macaulay, an army surgeon attached successively to the 33rd Regiment and the famous Queen's Rangers. His sons, Sir James Macaulay, first Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Colonel John Simcoe Macaulay, a distinguished officer of Engineers, are well remembered. Those who have personal recollections of Dr. Macaulay speak of him in terms of great respect. The southern portion of this property was at an early period laid out in streets and small lots. The collection of houses that here began to spring up was known as Macaulay Town, and was long considered as bearing the relation to York that Yorkville does to Toronto now. So late as 1833 Walton, in his Street Guide and Register, speaks of Macaulay Town as extending from Yonge Street to Osgoode Hall.
James Street retains the Christian name of Dr. Macaulay. Teraulay Street led up to the site of his residence, Teraulay Cottage, which after having been moved from its original position in connection with the laying out of Trinity Square off Yonge Street, was destroyed by fire in 1848. The northern portion of Macaulay Town was bounded by Macaulay Lane, described by Walton as "fronting the fields." This is Louisa Street.
Of the memorable possessor of the property on the south side of Queen Street, opposite Macaulay Town, Mr. Jesse Ketchum, we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, when we pass his place of abode in our proposed journey through Yonge Street. The existing Free Kirk place of worship, known as Knox Church, stands on land given by Mr. Ketchum, and on a site previously occupied by a long oblong red brick chapel which looked towards what is now Richmond Street, and in which a son-in-law of his, Mr. Harris, officiated to a congregation of United Synod Presbyterians. The donor was probably unconscious of the remarkable excellence of this particular position as a site for a conspicuous architectural object. The spire that towers up from this now central spot is seen with peculiarly good effect as one approaches Toronto by the thoroughfare of Queen Street whether from the east or from the west.