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
Let it be added, likewise, that in 1866, the sum of Fourteen thousand
nine hundred and forty-five dollars was expended in the purchase of a
peal of bells, and in providing a chamber for its reception in the
tower--a free gift to the whole community greatly surpassing in money's
worth the sum above named: for have not the chimes, with all
old-countrymen at least, within the range of their sound, the effect of
an instantaneous translation to the other side of the Atlantic? Close
the eyes, and at once the spirit is far, far away, hearkening, now in
the calm of a summer's evening, now between the fitful wind-gusts of a
boisterous winter's morn, to music in exactly the same key, with exactly
the same series of cadences, given out from tree-embosomed tower in some
ancient market-town or village, familiar to the listener in every turn
and nook, in days bygone.
And further, let it be added, that in 1870, to do honour to the memory
of the then recently deceased Bishop Strachan, the congregation of St.
James "beautified" the chancel of their church at a cost of Seven
thousand five hundred dollars, surrounding the spacious apse with an
arcade of finely carved oak, adding seats for the canons, a decanal
stall, a bishop's throne, a pulpit and desk, all in the same style and
material, elaborately carved, with a life-like bust in white marble of
the departed prelate, by Fraser of Montreal, in a niche constructed for
its reception in the western wall of the chancel, with a slab of dark
stone below bearing the following inscription in gilded letters:--
"NEAR THIS SPOT REST THE MORTAL REMAINS OF JOHN STRACHAN, FIRST
BISHOP OF TORONTO, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE NOVEMBER THE 1ST,
1867, IN THE NINETIETH YEAR OF HIS AGE AND THE TWENTY-NINTH OF
HIS EPISCOPATE. HIS CONSPICUOUS LABOURS, FORESIGHT, AND
CONSTANCY IN THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH AND COMMONWEALTH, AS AN
EDUCATOR, AS A MINISTER OF RELIGION, AS A STATESMAN, FORM AN
IMPORTANT PORTION OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF WESTERN CANADA. DURING
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS HE WAS RECTOR OF THIS CHURCH AND PARISH. IN
REMEMBRANCE OF HIM, THE CONGREGATION HAVE BEAUTIFIED THE CHANCEL
AND ERECTED THIS MEMORIAL. EASTER, 1870."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
XI.
KING STREET: DIGRESSION NORTHWARD AT CHURCH STREET: THE OLD DISTRICT
GRAMMAR SCHOOL.
Immediately north of the church plot, and separated from it by an
allowance for a street, was a large field, almost square, containing six
acres. In a plan of the date 1819, and signed "T. Ridout,
Surveyor-General," this piece of ground is entitled "College Square."
(In the same plan the church reservation is marked "Church Square;" and
the block to the west, "Square for Court House and Jail.") The fact that
the Jail was to be erected there accounts for the name "Newgate Street,"
formerly borne by what is now Adelaide Street.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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