["Uplands," the Ancient H.B.C. Farm on Vancouver Island]
Onetime Natural Park and Grazing Ground Now Being Subdivided at Victoria
By C. H. FRENCH, District Manager for B.C.
When Victoria was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1843 all that tract of land between Cadboro Bay and The Willows was a park, being studded here and there with beautiful oak trees and plentifully supplied with grass in which the elk loved to scamper about.
Farm Required to Support Post
At all Hudson's Bay Company's forts, the self-supporting feature was always given first consideration. At Victoria it was not only necessary to raise sufficient grain, butter and beef to support the Fort, but also sufficient to supply Russian America, or Alaska as we now know it. Uplands was one of the first farms established to gain those ends.
The farm buildings were always just where they now are, but the road leading to them was different, in that where it now takes a bend where the golf links association put up their sign, it continued straight through the cultivated fields to the farm buildings. An examination will show the trees and rocks still marking this road.
Riding to Uplands for the View
The officers at the Fort had saddle horses and it was to the uplands they went when desiring a ride on horseback. Many officers of Her Majesty's ships immediately on landing made arrangements for a horseback ride to this wonderful piece of country.
It has an elevation—without seeming to climb—sufficient to present perhaps the finest marine view to be found anywhere. The view was obtainable from almost any part of the thousand acres contained in the farm.