| 2 |
Galt The Scottish-born novelist and promoter of
colonization John Galt (1779-1839) served as Superintendent of the Canada Company from
1826 to 1829, in which capacity he founded the town (now city) of Guelph, Ontario in 1827.
Two of Galt's subsequent novels of emigration and settlement in North America, Lawrie
Todd; or, The Settlers in the Woods (1830) and Bogle Corbet; or,
The Emigrants (1831), as well as his subsequent Autobiography (1833),
contain accounts of the founding of a settlement and the
ceremonial cutting of the first tree and both exerted a considerable influence on Canadian
poems of emigration and settlement such as Alexander McLachlan's The Emigrant (1861)
(see Explanatory Note to Chapter IV: Cutting the First Tree) and Isabella Valancy Crawford's Malcolm's
Katie (1884) (see 2: 147-164). "It was consistent with my
plan to invest our ceremony with a little mystery, the better to make it
remembered," recalls Galt in the chapter on "The Founding of
Guelph" (Chapter 9) in his Autobiography: "[W]e walked to
the brow of the neighbouring rising ground, and Mr. Prior having shewn the
site selected for the town, a large maple tree was chosen; on which,
taking an axe from one of the woodmen, I struck the first stroke. To
me at least the moment was impressive,—and the silence of the woods, that echoed to
the sound, was as the sigh of the solemn genius of the wilderness
departing for ever. The doctor [Dunlop; see the note to 2, below]
followed me, then, if I recollect correctly, Mr. Prior [see 11, below],
and the woodmen finished the work. The tree fell with a crash of
accumulating thunder, as if ancient Nature were alarmed at the entrance of
social man into her innocent solitudes with his sorrows, his follies, and
his crimes. I do not suppose that the sublimity of the occasion was
unfelt by the others, for I noticed that after the tree fell, there was a
funereal pause, as when the coffin is lowered into the grave; it was,
however, of short duration, for the doctor pulled a flask of whisky from
his bosom, and we drank prosperity to the City of Guelph"
(58-59). For a full and detailed account
of the planning, founding, and building of Guelph with numerous
illustrations, see Gilbert A. Stelter, "Guelph and the Early Canadian
Town Planning Tradition," Ontario History 77 (June 1985):
83-106.
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| 2 |
Dunlop Also a Scottish-born employee of the Canada
Company, William "Tiger" Dunlop (1792-1848) served briefly in Canada during the
War of 1812 and returned in 1826 after working for several years in India (hence the
nickname "Tiger"). Best known for his Statistical Sketches of Upper
Canada, for the Use of Emigrants (1832), he also published his "Recollections of
the American War, 1812-14" in The Literary Garland (Montreal) in 1847.
In his Autobiography 2:59, Galt records that after the
felling of the "large maple tree," Dunlop "christened the
town" Guelph and drank to its future from a whisky flask.
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| 18-20 |
Shakspeare. . .death. . . William Shakespeare
(1564-1616) died on April 23 (St. George's Day) and his birthday, though unknown, is traditionally celebrated
on the same day because he is known to have been baptized on April 26.
In his Autobiography 2:54, Galt records that the choice of St.
George's Day to "commence operations" was "not without design" because "[t]he founding of a
town" was an event "like the launching of a vessel, or the birth
of an enterprise," that required "solemnity" and a sense of
"boding" and "destiny."
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| 33 |
Her Churches, gems of modern art, / With
their lofty spires In 1877, Guelph boasted several churches in
the Gothic Revival style: St. Andrew's (1857) (architect: William Hay),
Knox (1868) and Dublin Street (1872) (architect: James Smith), and St.
George's Anglican (1869-73) and First Baptist (1871-74) (architect: Henry
Langley). For discussions and illustrations of the first two, see
Stelter, "Henry Langley and the Making of Gothic Guelph," Historic
Guelph 28 (September 1989): 4-30.
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