The notices in his book, of early colonial life have now to us an archaic sound. We give his narrative of the overturn of a family party on their way home from church. "The difficulty of descending a steep hill in wet weather may be imagined," he says, "The heavy rains had made it (the descent south of Thornhill) a complete puddle which afforded no sure footing to man or beast. In returning from church, the ladies and gentlemen I speak of," he continues, "had this steep hill to descend. The jaunting car being filled with people was too heavy to be kept back, and pressed heavy upon the horses. The intended youthful bridegroom (of one of the ladies) was, I was told, the charioteer. His utmost skill was ineffectually tried to prevent a general overturn. The horses became less manageable every moment. But yet the ladies and gentlemen in the vehicle were inapprehensive of danger, and their mirth and jocularity betrayed the inward pleasure they derived from his increasing straggles. At last the horses, impatient of control, and finding themselves their own masters, jerked the carriage against the parapet of the road and disengaged themselves from it. The carriage instantly turned over on its side; and as instantly all the ladies and gentlemen trundled out of it like rolling pins. Nobody was hurt in the least, for the mire was so deep that they fell very soft and were quite imbedded in it. What apologies the gentleman made I am unable to tell, but the mirth was perfectly suspended. I overtook the party at the bottom of the hill, the ladies walking homewards from the church and making no very elegant appearance."
As an example of the previously undreamt of incidents that may happen to a missionary in a backwoods settlement, we mention what occurred to ourselves when taking the duty one fine bright summer morn, many years ago, in the Thornhill Church, yet in its primitive unenlarged state. A farmer's horse that had been mooning leisurely about an adjoining field, suddenly took a fancy to the shady interior disclosed by the wide-open doors of the sacred building. Before the churchwardens or any one else could make out what the clatter meant, the creature was well up the central passage of the nave. There becoming affrighted, its ejection was an awkward affair, calling for tact and manoeuvring.
The English Church at Thornhill has had another incumbent not undistinguished in literature, the Rev. E. H. Dewar, author of a work published at Oxford in 1844, on the Theology of Modern Germany. It is in the form of letters to a friend, written from the standpoint of the Jeremy Taylor school. It is entitled "German Protestantism and the Right of Private Judgment in the Interpretation of Holy Scripture." The author's former position as chaplain to the British residents at Hamburg gave him facilities for becoming acquainted with the state of German theology. Mr. Dewar, to superior natural talents, added a refined scholarship and a wide range of accurate knowledge. He died at Thornhill in 1862.
The incumbent who preceded Mr. Dewar was the Rev. Dominic E. Blake, brother of Mr. Chancellor Blake; a clergyman also of superior talents. Previous to his emigration to Canada in 1832, he had been a curate in the county of Mayo. He died suddenly in 1859. It is remarked of him in a contemporary obituary that "his productions indicated that while intellect was in exercise his heart felt the importance of the subjects before him." These productions were numerous, in the form of valuable papers and reports, read or presented to the local Diocesan Society.
It is curious to observe that in 1798, salmon ascended the waters of the Don to this point on Yonge Street. Among the recommendations of a farm about to be offered for sale, the existence thereon of "an excellent salmon fishery" is named. Thus runs the advertisement (Gazette, May 16, 1798): "To be sold by public auction, on Monday, the 2nd of July next, at John McDougall's hotel, in the town of York, a valuable Farm, situated on Yonge Street, about twelve miles from York, on which are a good log-house, and seven or eight acres well improved. The advantages of the above farm, from the richness of its soil and its being well watered, are not equalled by many farms in the Province; and above all, it affords an excellent salmon fishery, large enough to support a number of families, which must be conceived a great advantage in this infant country. The terms will be made known on the day of sale."
As we move on from Thornhill with Vaughan on the left and Markham on the right, the name of another rather memorable early missionary recurs, whose memory is associated with both these townships—Vincent Philip Mayerhoffer.
Notwithstanding its drawbacks, early Canadian life, like early American life generally, became, in a little while, invested with a curious interest and charm; by means, for one thing, of the variety of character encountered. A man might vegetate long in an obscure village or country town of the old mother country before he rubbed against a person of V. P. Mayerhoffer's singular experience, and having his wits set in motion by a sympathetic realization of such a career as his.
He was a Hungarian; born at Raab in 1784; and had been ordained a presbyter in the National Church of Austria. On emigrating to the United States, he, being himself a Franciscan, fell into some disputes with the Jesuits at Philadelphia, and withdrew from the Latin communion and attached himself, in company with a fellow presbyter named Huber, to the Lutheran Reformed. As a recognized minister of that body he came on to Buffalo, where he officiated for four years to three congregations, visiting at the same time, occasionally, a congregation on the Canada side of the river, at Limeridge. He here, for the first time, began the study of the English language. Coming now into contact with the clergy of the Anglican communion, he finally resolved to conform to the Anglican Church, and was sent by Bishop Stewart, of Quebec, to the German settlement in Markham and Vaughan. Here he officiated for twenty years, building in that interval St. Stephen's Church in Vaughan, St. Philip's in the 3rd concession of Markham, and the Church in Markham village, and establishing a permanent congregation at each.
He was a vigorous, stirring preacher in his acquired English tongue, as well as in his vernacular German. He possessed also a colloquial knowledge of Latin, which is still a spoken language in part of Hungary. He was a man of energy to the last: ever cheerful in spirit, and abounding in anecdotes, personal or otherwise. It was from him, as we remember, we first heard the afterwards more familiarized names of Magyar and Sclave.