The men
were thrown off unhurt, but the poor animals were very much cut and
bruised.
I crossed Lake Ontario to Toronto in the Peerless, a very smart, safe,
iron steamer, with the saloon and chief weight below. The fittings of this
beautiful little vessel are in perfect taste. We stopped for two hours at
the wharf at Niagara, a town on the British side, protected once by a now
disused and dismantled fort. The cars at length came up, two hours after
their time, and the excuse given for the delay was, that they had run over
a cow!
In grim contrast to the dismantled English Fort Massassaqua, Fort Niagara
stands on the American side, and is a place of considerable strength.
There I saw sentinels in grey uniforms, and the flag of the stars and
stripes.
Captain D - - of the Peerless brought his beautiful little vessel from
the Clyde in 6000 pieces, and is justly proud of her. I sat next him at
dinner, and found that we knew some of the same people in Scotland. Gaelic
was a further introduction; and though so many thousand miles away, for a
moment I felt myself at home when we spoke of the majestic Cuchullins and
the heathery braes of Balquidder. In the Peerless every one took wine or
liqueurs. There was no bill of fare, but a long list of wines and spirits
was placed by each plate. Instead of being disturbed in the middle of
dinner by a poke on the shoulder, and the demand, "Dinner ticket, or fifty
cents," I was allowed to remain as long as I pleased, and at the
conclusion of the voyage a gentlemanly Highland purser asked me for my
passage and dinner money together.
We passed a number of brigs and schooners under full sail, their canvass
remarkable for its whiteness; their hulls also were snowy white. They
looked as though "they were drifting with the dead, to shores where all
was dumb."
Late in the evening we entered the harbour of Toronto, which is a very
capacious one, and is protected by a natural mole of sand some miles in
extent. Though this breakwater has some houses and a few trees, it is the
picture of dreary desolation.
The city of Toronto, the stronghold of Canadian learning and loyalty,
presents an imposing appearance, as seen from the water. It stands on
ground sloping upwards from the lake, and manufactories, colleges,
asylums, church spires, and public buildings, the whole faced by a
handsome line of quays, present themselves at once to the eye.
A soft and familiar sound came off from the shore; it was the well-known
note of the British bugle, and the flag whose silken folds were rising and
falling on the breeze was the meteor flag of England. Long may it brave
"the battle and the breeze"! English uniforms were glancing among the
crowd on the quay, English faces surrounded me, English voices rang in my
ears; the négligé costumes which met my eyes were in the best style of
England. A thrill of pleasure went through my heart on finding, more than
4000 miles from home, the characteristics of my own loved land.
But I must add that there were unpleasant characteristics peculiarly
English also. I could never have landed, the confusion was so great, had
not Captain D - - assisted me. One porter ran off with one trunk, another
with another, while three were fighting for the possession of my valise,
till silenced by the cane of a custom-house officer. Then there was a
clamorous demand for "wharfage," and the hackman charged half a dollar for
taking me a quarter of a mile. All this somewhat damped my ecstacies, and
contrasted unfavourably with the orderly and easy way in which I landed on
the shore of the United States.
At Russell's Hotel I rejoined Mr. and Mrs. Walrence, who said "they would
have been extremely surprised if a lady in their country had met with
the slightest difficulty or annoyance" in travelling alone for 700 miles!
My ecstacies were still further toned down when I woke the next morning
with my neck, hands, and face stinging and swollen from the bites of
innumerable mosquitoes.
CHAPTER X.
The Place of Council - Its progress and its people - English hearts -
"Sebastopol is taken" - Squibs and crackers - A ship on her beam-ends -
Selfishness - A mongrel city - A Scot - Constancy rewarded - Monetary
difficulties - Detention on a bridge - A Canadian homestead - Life in the
clearings - The bush on fire - A word on farming - The "bee" and its produce
- Eccentricities of Mr. Haldimands - A ride on a troop-horse - Scotch
patriotism - An English church - The servant nuisance - Richard Cobden.
The people of Toronto informed me, immediately on my arrival in their
city, that "Toronto is the most English place to be met with out of
England." At first I was at a loss to understand their meaning. Wooden
houses, long streets crossing each other at right angles, and wooden side-
walks, looked very un-English to my eye. But when I had been for a few
days at Toronto, and had become accustomed to the necessarily-unfinished
appearance of a town which has only enjoyed sixty years of existence, I
fully agreed with the laudatory remarks passed upon it. The wooden houses
have altogether disappeared from the principal streets, and have been
replaced by substantial erections of brick and stone. The churches are
numerous, and of tasteful architecture.
