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
Riding with the Governor, out to his rustic lodge, would be seen also
his attached secretary, Major Littlehales, and one or other of his
faithful aides-de-camp, Lieutenant Talbot or Lieutenant Givins; with men
in attendance in the dark green undress of the famous Queen's Rangers,
with a sumpter pony or two, bearing packages and baskets filled with a
day's provender for the whole party. A few dogs also, a black
Newfoundland, a pointer, a setter, white and tan, hieing buoyantly about
on the right and left, would give animation to the cavalcade as it
passed sedately on its way--
"Through the green-glooming twilight of the grove."
It will be of interest to add here, the inscription on General Simcoe's
monument in Exeter Cathedral:--"Sacred to the memory of John Graves
Simcoe, Lieutenant-General in the army, and Colonel of the 22nd Regiment
of Foot, who died on the 25th day of October, 1806, aged 54. In whose
life and character the virtues of the hero, the patriot and the
Christian were so eminently conspicuous, that it may justly be said, he
served his king and his country with a zeal exceeded only by his piety
towards God." Above this inscription is a medallion portrait. On the
right and left are figures of an Indian and a soldier of the Queen's
Rangers. The remains of the General are not deposited in Exeter
Cathedral, but under a mortuary chapel on the estate of his family
elsewhere.
Our cavalcade to Castle Frank, as sketched above, was once challenged on
the supposed ground that in 1794 there were no horses in Western
Canada.--Horses were no doubt at that date scarce in the region named;
but some were procurable for the use of the Governor and his suite. In a
"Journal to Detroit from Niagara, in 1793, by Major Littlehales,"
printed for the first time in the _Canadian Literary Magazine_, for May,
1833, we have it mentioned that, on the return of an exploring party,
they were met at the end of the plains, near the Salt Lake Creek, by
Indians, "bringing horses for the Governor and his suite." The French
_habitans_ about Sandwich and Detroit were in possession of horses in
1793, as well as their fellow countrymen in Lower Canada.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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