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
John Claus spoke the prologue on this occasion, and the following boys
had parts assigned them in the proceedings. The names of some of them
appear in the account for 1819, just given: John Skeldon, George
Skeldon, Henry Mosley, John Doyle, Charles Heward, James Myers, John
Ridout, Charles Ridout, John FitzGerald, John Mosley, Saltern Givins,
James Sheehan, Henry Heward, Allan McDonell, William Allan, John
Boulton, William Myers, James Bigelow, William Baldwin, St. George
Baldwin, K. de Koven, John Knott, James Givins, Horace Ridout, William
Lancaster, James Strachan, David McNab, John Harraway, Robert Baldwin,
Henry Nelles, Warren Shaw, David Shaw, Daniel Murray.
In 1816, Governor Gore was at the head of affairs. He is advised, in the
Prologue spoken by John Claus, to distinguish himself by attention to
the educational interests of the country: (The collocation of names at
the end will excite a smile.)--
"O think what honour pure shall bless thy name
Beyond the fleeting voice of vulgar fame!
When kings and haughty victors cease to raise
The secret murmur and the venal praise,
Perhaps that name, when Europe's glories fade,
Shall often charm this Academic shade,
And bards exclaim on rough Ontario's shore,
We found a Wellesley and Jones in Gore!"
We have ourselves a good personal recollection of the system of the
school at York, and of the interest which it succeeded in awakening in
the subjects taught. The custom of mutual questioning in classes, under
the eye of the master, was well adapted to induce real research, and to
impress facts on the mind when discovered.
In the higher classes each lad in turn was required to furnish a set of
questions to be put by himself to his class-fellows, on a given subject,
with the understanding that he should be ready to set the answerer right
should he prove wrong. And again: any lad who should be deemed competent
was permitted to challenge another, or several others, to read or recite
select rhetorical pieces: a memorandum of the challenge was recorded:
and, at the time appointed, the contest came off, the class or the
school deciding the superiority in each case, subject to the criticism
or disallowance of the master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account