n passing George Street, as we intimated a moment ago, we enter the parallelogram which constituted the original town-plot. Its boundaries were George Street, Duchess Street, Ontario Street (with the lane south of it), and Palace Street. From this, its old core, York spread westward and northward, extending at length in those directions respectively (under the name of Toronto) to the Asylum and Yorkville; while eastward its developments—though here less solid and less shapely—were finally bounded by the windings of the Don. Were Toronto an old town on the European Continent, George Street, Duchess Street, Ontario Street and Palace Street, would probably now be boulevards, showing the space once occupied by stout stone walls. The parallelogram just defined represents "the City" in modern London, or "la Cité" in modern Paris—the original nucleus round which gradually clustered the dwellings of later generations.
Before, however, we enter upon what may be styled King Street proper, it will be convenient to make a momentary digression northwards into Duke Street, anciently a quiet, retired thoroughfare, skirted on the right and left by the premises and grounds and houses of several most respectable inhabitants. At the north-west angle of the intersection of this street with George Street was the home of Mr. Washburn; but this was comparatively a recent erection. Its site previously had been the brickyard of Henry Hale, a builder and contractor, who put up the wooden structure, possessing some architectural pretensions, on the south-east angle of the same intersection, diagonally across; occupied in the second instance by Mr. Moore, of the Commissariat; then by Dr. Lee, and afterwards by Mr. J. Murchison.
(The last named was for a long time the Stultz of York, supplying all those of its citizens, young and old, who desired to make an attractive or intensely respectable appearance, with vestments in fine broadcloth.)
A little to the north, on the left side of George Street, was the famous Ladies' School of Mrs. Goodman, presided over subsequently by Miss Purcell and Miss Rose. This had been previously the homestead of Mr. Stephen Jarvis, of whom again immediately.—Two or three of these familiar names appear in an advertisement relating to land in this neighbourhood, in the Gazette of March 23rd, 1826.—"For Sale: Three lots or parcels of land in the town of York, the property of Mrs. Goodman, being part of the premises on which Miss Purcell now resides, and formerly owned by Col. Jarvis. The lots are each fifty feet in width and one hundred and thirty in depth, and front on the street running from King Street to Mr. Jarvis's Park lot. If not disposed of by private sale, they will be put up at auction on the first day of May next. Application to be made to Miss Purcell, or at the Office of the U. C. Gazette. York, March 10, 1826."
Advancing on Duke Street eastward a little way, we came, on the left, to the abode of Chief Justice Sir William Campbell, of whom before Sir William erected here in 1822 a mansion of brick, in good style. It was subsequently, for many years, the hospitable home of the Hon. James Gordon, formerly of Amherstburgh.
Then on the right, one square beyond, at the south-easterly corner where Caroline Street intersects, we reached the house of Mr. Secretary Jarvis, a man of great note in his day, whose name is familiar to all who have occasion to examine the archives of Upper Canada in the administrations of Governors Simcoe, Hunter and Gore. A fine portrait of him exists, but, as we have been informed, it has been transmitted to relatives in England. Mr. Stephen Jarvis, above named, was long the Registrar of Upper Canada. His hand-writing is well-known to all holders of early deeds. He and the Secretary were first cousins; of the same stock as the well-known Bishop Jarvis of Connecticut, and the Church Historian, Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis. Both were officers in incorporated Colonial regiments before the independence of the United States; and both came to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. Mr. Stephen Jarvis was the founder of the leading Canadian family to which the first Sheriff Jarvis belonged. Mr. Samuel Peters Jarvis, from whom "Jarvis Street" has its name, was the son of Mr. Secretary Jarvis.
On the left, one square beyond the abode of Mr. Secretary Jarvis, came the premises and home of Mr. Surveyor General Ridout, the latter a structure still to be seen in its primitive outlines, a good specimen of the old type of early Upper Canadian family residence of a superior class; combining the qualities of solidity and durability with those of snugness and comfort in the rigours of winter and the heats of summer. In the rear of Mr. Ridout's house was for some time a family burial-plot; but, like several similar private enclosures in the neighbourhood of the town, it became disused after the establishment of regular cemeteries.
Nearly opposite Mr. Ridout's, in one of the usual long, low Upper Canadian one-storey dwellings, shaded by lofty Lombardy poplars, was the home of the McIntoshes, who are to be commemorated hereafter in connection with the Marine of York: and here, at a later period, lived for a long time Mr. Andrew Warffe and his brother John. Mr. Andrew Warffe was a well-known employé in the office of the Inspector General, Mr. Baby, and a lieutenant in the Incorporated Militia.
By one of the vicissitudes common in the history of family residences everywhere, Mr. Secretary Jarvis's house, which we just now passed, became afterwards the place of business of a memorable cutler and gunsmith, named Isaac Columbus. During the war of 1812, Mr. Columbus was employed as armourer to the Militia, and had a forge near the garrison. Many of the swords used by the Militia officers were actually manufactured by him. He was a native of France; a liberal-hearted man, ever ready to contribute to charitable objects; and a clever artizan. Whether required to "jump" the worn and battered axe of a backwoodsman, to manufacture the skate-irons and rudder of an ice-boat, to put in order a surveyor's theodolite, or to replace for the young geometrician or draughtsman an instrument lost out of his case, he was equally au fait. On occasion he could even supply an elderly lady or gentleman with a set of false teeth, and insert them.