Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of OntarioScadding, Henry
History
Toronto of Old: Collections and recollections illustrative of the early settlement and social life of the capital of Ontario
Scadding, Henry
Toronto (Ont.) -- Description and travel; Toronto (Ont.) -- History
Local aspirants to the holy estate were thus unhappily, now and then, to
their great disgust, baulked of their first choice. But a residue was
always left, sufficient for the supply of the ordinary demand, and
manifold were the interlacings of local connections; a fact in which
there is nothing surprising and nothing to be condemned: it was from
political considerations alone that such affinities came afterwards to
be referred to, in some quarters, with bitterness.
Occasionally, indeed, a fastidious young man, or a disappointed widower,
would make a selection in parts remote from the home circle, quite
unnecessarily. We recall especially to mind the sensible emotion in the
congregation on the first advent amongst them of a fair bride from
Montreal, the then Paris of Canada; and several lesser excitements of
the same class, on the appearance in their midst of aerial veils and
orange blossoms from Lobo, from New York, from distant England. Once the
selection of a "helpmeet" from a rival religious communion, in the town
of York itself, led to the defection from the flock of a prominent
member; an occurrence that led also to the publication of two polemical
pamphlets, which made a momentary stir; one of them a declamation by a
French bishop; the other, a review of the same, by the pastor of the
abandoned flock.
The strictures on the intelligence and moral feeling of the feminine, as
well as the masculine portion of society at York, delivered by such
world-experienced writers as Mrs. Jameson, and such enlightened critics
as were two or three of the later Governors' wives, may have been just
in the abstract, to a certain extent, as from the point of view of old
communities in England and Germany; but they were unfair as from the
point of view of persons calmly reviewing all the circumstances of the
case. Here again the maxim applies: _Tout comprendre, c'est tout
pardonner_.
We have said that the long pew on the west side of the Governor's seat
was allotted to the military. In this compartment we remember often
scanning with interest the countenance and form of a youthful and
delicate-looking ensign, simply because he bore, hereditarily, a name
and title all complete, distinguished in the annals of science two
centuries ago--the Hon. Robert Boyle: he was one of the aides-de-camp of
Sir Peregrine Maitland. Here, also, was to be seen, for a time, a Major
Browne, a brother of the formerly popular poetess, Mrs. Hemans. Here,
too, sat a Zachary Mudge, another hereditary name complete,
distinguished in the scientific annals of Devonshire. He was an officer
of Artillery, and one of Sir John Colborne's aides-de-camp; for some
unexplained reason he committed suicide at York, and his remains were
deposited in the old military burying-ground. In this pew familiar forms
were also--Major Powell, Capt. Grubbe, Major Hillier, Capt. Blois, Capt,
Phillpotts, brother of the Bishop.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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