realized, as I was seized with a brain fever, and on partially recovering took cold, which resulted in inflammation of the lungs by which I was so reduced that my physician, the late Dr. James Graham, of Norfolk, pronounced my case hopeless, and my death was hourly expected.

After a severe illness Egerton Ryerson happily recovered.

His narrative further states that, "the next day after my recovery, I left home and became usher in the London District Grammar School, applying myself to my new work with much diligence and earnestness, so that I soon succeeded in gaining the good-will of parents and pupils, and they were quite satisfied with my services,-leaving the Head Master to his favorite pursuits of gardening and building !

During two years I was thus teacher and student, advancing considerably in classical studies. I took great delight in "Locke on the Human Understanding," Paley's Moral and Political Philosophy," and "Blackstone's Commentaries," especially the sections of the latter on the Prerogatives of the Crown, the rights of the subject, and the Province of Parliament."

In an address before the Ontario Teachers' Association in 1872, Doctor Ryerson said: As it has of late been stated, so confidently and largely, that I had yet to learn the elements of my native tongue. I began to suspect my own identity and to ask myself whether it was not a delusion that I had in boyhood not only studied, but, as I supposed, had mastered Murray's two octavo volumes of English Grammar and Kame's Elements of Criticism and Blair's Rhetoric, of which I still have the notes that I made in early life; and that I had been called to assist in teaching a special class of young persons in English Grammar when I was only fifteen years of age; and whether it was not a fancy that I had taught, as I supposed, with some degree of acceptance and success, what was then known as the London District Grammar School for two years, and had subsequently placed myself for a year under Dr. Law of Hamilton, an accomplished scholar in order to read Latin and Greek. (Ryerson Memorial Volume, pages

119-121.

Mr. P. K. Clyne, in the New Dominion Monthly for July, 1869, in an article on "Norfolk, or the Long-Point County," thus refers to its settlement and to the boyhood there of the Reverend Doctor Ryerson :

After undergoing many hardships which were only a foretaste of what they had to endure in the future, a company arrived in the Long Point region about the year 1780. This was then a solitary wilderness. These pioneer Loyalists went to work with zeal unsurpassed in clearing away the forest, in building roads and erecting houses as commodious as it was possible to erect out of rude materials. Among those who first came to the Long Point country, worthy of particular notice, were Colonel Ryerson, Colonel Backhouse, and Messieurs Walsh and Tisdale. In the pioneer home of Joseph Ryerson might have been seen a remarkably bright lad. Being extremely fond of books, he spent his spare moments in studying. So regular was his habits in this respect, that when a neighbour would drop in and ask for Egerton, the answer was sure to be: "You will find him in such a place, with a book." Notwithstanding he was placed in a position where opportunities for gaining an education were very meagre indeed, yet he overcame all obstacles-obstacles that he could not forget in after life, and which, like a true patriot, he set himself to remove. How much Doctor Egerton Ryerson, Chief Superintendent of Education, has done for the educational interests of Canada the reader is left to judge for himself. Of late the Doctor has made a practice of visiting the home of his childhood annually. Not always by rail and stage has he accomplished the journey from Toronto, but still clinging to the sport of his youthful days he would set forward in an open boat, and paddling it himself along the shores of the lakes would finally reach the place so dear to him, and which, no doubt, brought afresh to his memory many recollections both joyous and sad.

A rude log School House was constructed by the early settlers as soon as they could do so conveniently. A fire-place extended along nearly a whole side of the building. Logs of considerable length were rolled into this in cold weather for fuel, before which rude benches or hewed logs were placed as seats for the instructor and pupils. The close of the teacher's term was denominated "the last day." It was customary on this occasion for the children to turn the pedagogue out of doors by force, and for this purpose some whiskey was generally provided as a stimulant. Such was the state of educational institutions in the days of young Ryerson. What advancement has Education made since! We trace it step by step as onward it has advanced, until to-day Norfolk can proudly boast of Institutions and Teachers second to none of the kind in the world.-Ibid, page 122.

THE REVEREND DOCTOR RYERSON AS A TEACHER.

As to Dr. Ryerson's influence as a Teacher, the Reverend Doctor William Ormiston thus referred to it, at the Ontario Teachers' Convention in 1872, as reported in the Journal of Education for August, 1872, page 119. He said:

The Teacher has a reward peculiar to his work-a living, lasting memorial of his worth. The feelings of loving reverence which we entertain for those who have awakened our intellectual life, and guided us in our earliest attempts at the acquisition of knowledge, are as enduring as they are grateful. I shall never forget, as I can never repay, the obligations under which I lie to the venerable and honorable Chief Superintendent, Doctor Ryerson, not only for the kindly paternal greeting with which, as Principal, he welcomed me, a raw. timid, untutored lad, on my first entrance into Victoria College, when words of encouragement fell like dew-drops on my heart, and for the many acts of thoughtful generosity which aided me in my early career, and for the faithful friendship and Christian sympathy which has extended over nearly thirty years, unbroken and unclouded, a friendship which, strengthened and intensified by prolonged and endearing intimacy, I now cherish as one of the highest honours and dearest delights of my life; but especially for the quickening, energizing influence of his instructions as Professor, when he taught me how to think, to reason and to learn. How I enjoyed the hours spent in his lecture-room-hours of mental and moral growth never to be forgotten! I owe him much, and but for his presence here to-day. I would say more of what I think and feel of his character and worth. He has won for himself a place in the heart of many a young Canadian, and his name will be ever associated with the educational advantages and history of Ontario.

After the Reverend Doctor Ryerson's death, in February 1882, Doctor Ormiston thus referred to his experience at Victoria College, then under Doctor Ryerson's presidency. He said:

In the autumn of 1843, I went to Victoria College, doubting much whether I was prepared to matriculate as a freshman. Though my attainments in some of the subjects prescribed for examination were far in advance of the requirements, in other subjects I knew I was sadly deficient. On the evening of my arrival, while my mind was burdened with the importance of the step I had taken, and by no means free from anxiety about the issue, Dr. Ryerson, at that time Principal of the College, visited me in my room. I shall never forget that interview. He took me by the hand; and few men could express as much by a mere hand shake as he. It was a welcome, an encouragement, an inspiration, and an earnest of future fellowsnip and friendship. It lessened the timid awe I naturally felt towards one in such an elevated position-I had never before seen a Principal of a College-it dissipated all boyish awkwardness and awakened filial confidence. He spoke of Scotland, my native land, and of her noble sons, distinguished in every branch of philosophy and literature; specially of the number, the dil gence, the frugality, self-denial and success of her college students. In this way he soon led me to tell him of my parentage, past life and efforts, present hopes and aspirations. His manner was so gracious and paternal-his sympathy so quick and genuine - his counsel so ready and cheering-his assurances so grateful and inspiriting, that not only was my heart his from that hour, but my future career seemed brighter and more certain than it had ever appeared before.

Many times in after years have I been instructed, and guided, and delighted with his conversation, always replete with interest and information; but that first interview I can never forget, it is as fresh and clear to me to-day as it was on the morning after it took place. It has exerted a profound, enduring, moulding influence on my whole life. For what, under God, I am, and have been enabled to achieve, I owe more to that noble, unselfish, kind-hearted man than to anyone else.

As a Teacher he was earnest and efficient, eloquent and inspiring, but he expected and exacted rather too much work from the average student. His own ready and affluent mind sympathized keenly with the apt, bright scholar, to whom his praise was warmly given, but he scarcely made sufficient allowance for the dullness or lack of previous preparation which failed to keep pace with him in his long and rapid strides; hence his censures were occasionally severe. His methods of examination furnished the very best kind of mental discipline, fitted alike to cultivate the memory and to strengthen the judgment. All the students revered him, but the best of the class appreciated him most. His counsels were faithful and judicious; his admonitions paternal and discriminating; his rebukes seldom administered, but scathingly severe. student ever left his presence, without resolving to do better, to aim higher, and to win his approval. Story of My Life, (1883,) pages 17-19.

No

In 1872, the Reverend Doctor Ryerson wrote to Mr. Simpson McCall, of Vittoria and asked:

Will you have the kindness to let me know what is your own recollection as to the attendance at the School, especially in the winter months, and the impression of the neighborhood generally as to its efficiency during the two years that I taught it? Mr. McCall replied as follows: I can assure you that I have a vivid recollection of the London District School during the winters of 1821 and 1822, being an attendant myself. I also remember several of the scholars with whom I associated, viz. : H. V. A. Rapelje, Esq, late Sheriff of the County of Norfolk; Captain Joseph Bostwick, of Port Stanley; James and Hannah Moore.

The number generally attending during the winters of those two years, if I remember correctly, were from forty to fifty.

The School while under your charge was well and efficiently conducted, and was so considered and appreciated throughout the neighborhood at the time; and after you left the charge of the London District School it was generally regretted in the neighborhood.

I remember hearing this frequently remarked not only by pupils who attended the School under your tuition but also by their parents. Journal of Education for August, 1872, pages 113,

114.

THE REVEREND ROSSINGTON ELMS, OF YORK AND BROCKVILLE.

Mr. Elms was formerly a Master in The Old Blue School at York, and afterwards in the Johnstown District Grammar School at Brockville. In a sketch of The Old Blue School at York, by Mr. J. Ross Robertson, reference is thus made to Mr. Elms:

Mr. Rosington Elms, a tall, well-formed, well-educated Englishman, was one of the principal Assistants in the School, etc.

A writer in the Brockville Recorder, " A. S. B." in June, 1872, speaks of Mr. Elms as “a true representative of the Irish Hedge School Master" and gives the names of several persons who were educated by Mr. Elms.

In reply to this writer, " An Old Grammar School Boy," under date of July 19th, 1872, writes to the Editor of the Brockville Recorder, and says:

Mr. Elms had no brogue, spoke English correctly, and no one could detect his being an Irishman from his language or appearance, and he had the dress, manners and social habits of an educated gen leman. Whether he received his education in Ireland or in this country, I am unable to say, but Judge Steele, your present County Judge, who, I think, was connected in some way with the Elms family, will know. He may have completed his education under Doctor Strachan at the York Grammar School. He certainly was Usher there for some time before he was appointed Master of the Johnstown District School. Though somewhat severe as a disciplinarian, and using the rod without stint, if boys neglected to learn their lessons, he was an admirable Teacher, and the system of teaching practised by him was well calculated to make his pupils apt and intelligent scholars. A good test of his capacity as a Teacher, judging from results, was that no boy who went up from the District of Johnstown Grammar School, whilst he was the Master, to pass the Law Society, was plucked. After leaving Canada, he resumed his profession as a Teacher in the State of Indiana, and died there within the last ten or twelve years. Shortly after his death, his pupils there met and passed highly eulogistic resolutions as to his requirements as a scholar and skill as a Teacher.

The names of the three brothers mentioned were in the order of their ages, Stewart, Okill, and Ormond Jones. The two eldest are dead. Ormond is still living, and is the Registrar for the County of Leeds. The present Chief Justice Richards was for several years a pupil of the School, and continued to attend it until Mr. Elms resigned the situation. He was succeeded for a short time by the Reverend James Padfield, who I believe is now living at Burford. Adiel S. Buell, nephew of the Sheriff, after whom he was called, and son of the late William Buell, of Rochester, did attend for a short time.

Louis Charland, (nephew of David, and Sir Daniel Jones,) was the most promising boy in the School, and he was never flogged to my recollection. He died young, about the year 1832. If he had lived he would have taken a prominent part in the affairs of this country. His health

was undermined by his close attention to the business of the Registry Office; his uncle, the late Sir Daniel Jones, having made him Deputy Registrar. John Ross, he was the Honourable John Ross, who died a year ago last winter in Toronto. James Read was the son of the late J. L. Read, of Merrickville; he died many years ago at Chatham, Upper Canada. George Glassford is the present Deputy Registrar of the County of Leeds. The Gray mentioned was Frank Gray, stepson of the late James Gray; he died in this Town somewhere about the year 1850. James Scott died a few years ago at Port Hope, where he was a practising Lawyer. Christopher Leggo is Dr. Leggo of the city of Ottawa. Dr. George Dunham is of Newboro'. The Hubbell boys were James Hubbell, now living at Hubbell's Falls, near Pakenham, and his elder brother Jones Hubbell, who died many years ago. Wells is the present Judge Wells, of Chatham, Ontario. Landon was, I believe, a son of the late Heman Landon, of Augusta; he is now dead.

There

Amongst other pupils at the old Grammar School, where the present Archdeacon Patton, now of Belleville, Judge Sherwood, of Belleville, the late Judge Smart of the same place, the late Judge Friel, of L'Orignal, the late John Bogart, who died about 1843 or 1844. were many others, also, whose names I do not recall. Robert Hamilton was, I think, a son of a gentleman of the same name who resided at Queenstown, and was interested in the steamers Queenstown and Frontenac.

This is a world of progress and Canada advances, notwithstanding our neighbors think we are slow and unenterprising. Your correspondent ought to see the progress that has been made in his native town. He can find

but the Gaol Yard covers part of the spot where the old School House stood; yet on enquiry he will find the old building itself converted into a small dwelling at the corner of Home and Water Streets. Journal of Education for Ontario, Volume xxv., pages 87, 88.

THE REVERENDS SAMUEL ARMOUR, M.A., AND THOMAS PHILLIPS, D.D., OF York.

The Reverend Doctor Scadding, in his Toronto of Old, said: The immediate successor of Doctor Strachan* in the Old Blue School was Mr. Samuel Armour, .. whose profile resembled that of Cicero, as shown in some engravings. (Page 166.)

After referring to Mr. Elms, Mr. J. Ross Robertson said: Some years later the entire charge of the (Old Blue) School fell to the lot of the Reverend Samuel Armour, M. A., whose home on James Street will yet be remembered by old boys. Mr. Armour was a graduate of Glasgow University, a scholarly man, who had taken high honours in the Scotch commercial metropolis, and who, at the same time, had a mind of a sporting turn.

Referring to the successor of Mr. Armour, Dr. Scadding, in his Toronto of Old, said: The Master who succeeded Mr. Armour was the Reverend Doctor Phillips, who came out from England to take charge of the [District Grammar, or Old Blue] School. He had been previously Master of a School in Herefordshire. His degree was from Cambridge where he graduated as a B. A., of Queen's, in the year 1805. He was a venerable looking man,-the very ideal, outwardly, of an English country parson of an old type. According to the standards of the day, Doctor Phillips was an accomplished scholar and a good reader and writer of English. He introduced into the School at York the English Public School traditions of the strictest type. His text-books were those published and used at Eton, as Eton then was. regard to Doctor Phillips himself; there is this advantage to be named as enjoyed by those whose lot it was, in this new region, to pass a portion of their impressionable youth in the society of such a character; it furnishes them with a visible concrete illustration of much that otherwise would have been a vague abstraction in the pictures of English society set before the fancy in the Spectator and other standard literary productions of a century ago.

In

It was from Doctor Phillips that we received our first impressions of Cambridge life; of its outer form at all events; of its traditions and customs. †

Mr. George Anthony Barber accompanied Doctor Phillips to York in 1825, as his principal Assistant, and continued to be associated with him in that capacity, (Pages 167-170) and had charge for a time of the commercial and classical departments of the College. In 1844, he became local Superintendent of the Toronto Public School, and afterwards was appointed Secretary to the Board of School Trustees of the City. He died in 1875, aged 74 years.

The Reverend Doctor A. N. Bethune, the successor of the first Bishop of Toronto, came to York in 1819, as Assistant Teacher in the Grammar School. -Mr. J. Ross Robertson's Old Blue School.

+Doctor Phillips retired in 1834. He died in 1849 at Weston, near Toronto, aged 68, and his body was borne to the tomb by his old pupils. -The Old Blue School.

Mr. J. Ross Robertson adds: Doctor Phillips, the new Principal of the Old Blue School, was an extremely affable man, with kindly voice for all who sought his friendship, an educationist, with tried experience, one who possessed the faculty of planting the seeds of scholastic knowledge in the brain of every boy who showed the slightest aptitude for the acquirement of mental food, which would be useful in fighting battles in the business fields of after life. To know him was to love him, and his personal contact with the boys, who valued his friendship and training, left an impression that was productive of the best results. . He was appointed Vice-Principal of Upper Canada College in 1830.

was well known as the father of cricket in old Upper Canada. -The

THE REVEREND DOCTOR JOSEPH H. HARRIS, FIRST PRINCIPAL OF UPPER CANADA

COLLEGE, 1830-1838.

In his

The Reverend Doctor Scadding says: Doctor Harris himself had been highly distinguished at the University of Cambridge, where he had been a Fellow of Clare Hall. spare and wiry figure, as well as the aquiline outline of his features, he bore a considerable resemblance to the "Iron Duke," a resemblance also to be traced in the personal qualities of a strong dislike for verbiage and display, and the possession of great firmness, decision and energy.

To the Reverend Doctor Harris is due the now well-known selection from Horace (Carmen iv, 4, ll. 33-36,) which is appended to the labels, inserted in the prize books annually given at Upper Canada College:

Rendered thus:

Doctrina sed vim promovet insitam,
Rectique cultus pectora roborant ;
Utcumque defecere mores,
Dedecorant bene nata culpæ.

Yet training quickens power inborn,
And culture nerves the soul for fame,
But he must live a life of scorn

Who bears a noble name,

Yet blurs it with the soil of infamy and shame.

Doctor Harris resigned the Principalship in 1838. Not long after his retirement, and his return to England he was presented with the living of Tor Mohun in Devonshire. He died at Torquay in 1881, in the 81st year of his age, greatly respected and beloved-The Reverend Doctor Scadding in the History of Upper Canada College, 1893, pages 25, 26 and 29.

THE REVEREND MESSIEURS CHARLES DADE AND CHARLES MATHEWS.

Mr. Dade was a man of unusual attainments in science and general learning. At the University of Cambridge, he obtained the high Wrangler's degree in the Mathematical Tripos, distinguishing himself in the examination for classical honours. He was elected a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. He gained what is called the Member's Prize in 1826 ... a distinction only attained by first rate scholars. He resigned in 1838, and died on the 2nd of May, 1872, at his residence, Georgetown, Esquessing, in the 70th year of his age. His former pupils erected a monument to his memory at Georgetown.

Mr. Mathews, the first Classical Master, was a graduate of Pembroke College; a brilliant classical scholar and a proficient in Hebrew. He was one of those who had the power of inspiring in pupils a strong love of s'udy, and a true taste in regard to nice points in the Greek, Latin and English classics. After his retirement from Upper Canada College in 1843, he resided in the Island of Guernsey, where he died in 1877.-The Reverend Doctor Scadding in the History of Upper Canada College, pages 25, 33, 34 and 37.

THE REVEREND W. BOULTON AND MR. JOHN KENT.

Mr. Boulton, son of the Honourable Mr. Justice Boulton, was the second Classical Master. He was a graduate of Queen's College, Oxford, and was, before coming back to Canada, a Master in the old endowed Blundell's School at Tiverton, Devonshire.—Ibid., page 25.

Mr. Kent, the resident Master, lived at the east end of the Boarding house.* He ruled that the boys should rise at six o'clock in the summer mornings, and at seven in the winter. Note by Mr. Robertson.-John Kent: an excellent man, and still living in the Island of Madeira (1893).