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
At the laying out of York, however, we find, from the plans, that the
name given in the first instance to the Front street of the town was,
not Palace Street, but King Street. Modern King Street was then Duke
Street, and modern Duke Street, Duchess Street. These street names were
intended as loyal compliments to members of the reigning family; to
George the Third; to his son the popular Duke of York, from whom, as we
shall learn hereafter, the town itself was named; to the Duchess of
York, the eldest daughter of the King of Prussia. In the cross streets
the same chivalrous devotion to the Hanoverian dynasty was exhibited.
George street, the boundary westward of the first nucleus of York, bore
the name of the heir-apparent, George, Prince of Wales. The next street
eastward was honoured with the name of his next brother, Frederick, the
Duke of York himself. And the succeeding street eastward, Caroline
Street, had imposed upon it that of the Princess of Wales, afterwards so
unhappily famous as George the Fourth's Queen Caroline. Whilst in
Princes Street (for such is the correct orthography, as the old plans
show, and not Princess Street, as is generally seen now,) the rest of
the male members of the royal family were collectively commemorated,
namely, the Duke of Clarence, the Duke of Kent, the Duke of Cumberland,
the Duke of Sussex, and the Duke of Cambridge.
When the Canadian town of York was first projected, the marriage of the
Duke of York with the daughter of the King of Prussia, Frederica
Charlotta Ulrica, had only recently been celebrated at Berlin. It was
considered at the time an event of importance, and the ceremonies on the
occasion are given with some minuteness in the Annual Register for 1791.
We are there informed that "the supper was served at six tables; that
the first was placed under a canopy of crimson velvet, and the victuals
(as the record terms them) served on gold dishes and plates; that
Lieutenant-General Bornstedt and Count Bruhl had the honour to carve,
without being seated, that the other five tables, at which sat the
generals, ministers, ambassadors, all the officers of the Court, and the
high nobility, were served in other apartments; that supper being over,
the assembly repaired to the White Hall, where the trumpet, timbrel, and
other music, were playing; that the flambeau dance was then began, at
which the ministers of state carried the torches; that the new couple
were attended to their apartment by the reigning Queen and the Queen
dowager; that the Duke of York wore on this day the English uniform, and
the Princess Frederica a suit of _drap d'argent_, ornamented with
diamonds." In Ashburton's "New and Complete History of England, from the
first settlement of Brutus, upwards of one thousand years before Julius
Cæsar, to the year 1793," now lying before us, two full-length portraits
of the Duke and Duchess are given.--New York and Albany, in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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