The digging of a public well here, in the direction of King Street, was an event of considerable interest in the town. Groups of school-boys every day scanned narrowly the progress of the undertaking; a cap of one or the other of them, mischievously precipitated to the depths where the labourers' mattocks were to be heard pecking at the shale below, may have impressed the execution of this public work all the more indelibly on the recollection of some of them. By referring to a volume of the _Upper Canada Gazette_, we find that this was in 1823. An unofficial advertisement in that periodical, dated June the 9th, 1823, calls for proposals to be sent in to the office of the Clerk of the Peace, "for the sinking a well, stoning and sinking a pump therein, in the most approved manner, at the Market Square of the said town (of York), for the convenience of the Public." It is added that persons desirous of contracting for the same, must give in their proposals on or before Tuesday, the first day of July next ensuing; and the signature, "by the order of the Court," is that of "S. Heward, Clerk of the Peace, H. D." (Home District). The tender of John Hutchison and George Hetherington was accepted. They offered to do the work "for the sum of £25 currency on coming to the rock, with the addition of seven shillings and sixpence per foot for boring into the rock until a sufficient supply of water can be got, should it be required." The work was done and the account paid July 30th, 1823. The charge for boring eight feet two inches through the rock was £3 1_s._ 3_d._ The whole well and pump thus cost the County the modest sum of only £28 1_s._ 3_d._ The charge for flagging round the pump, for "logs, stone and workmanship," was £5 2_s._ 4½_d._, paid to Mr. Hugh Carfrae, pathmaster.