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Sesquicentennial of the Establishment of Parliamentary Government in Nova Scotia.

Laying the corner stone of a memorial tower at the Northwest Arm, Oct. 2, 1908. The Lieutenant-Governor is standing on the granite stone; at his right is Sir Sandford Fleming, who donated the site of the tower and first suggested the memorial.

Stationers report this year renewed inquiries for “Sketches and Traditions of the Northwest Arm” and they have sold the copies they had on hand. They could probably have sold more if they had them. It has therefore been decided to issue a third edition brought down to date. The first and second editions published twenty years ago have been rather widely distributed and there are none left. It is interesting to note this revival of interest in the Northwest Arm after the long interval of the war, explosion and postwar adjustments.

For three years following the first appearance of “Sketches and Traditions of the Northwest Arm” in 1908 there was marked increase in numbers visiting the Arm and in club activities due altogether to greater general appreciation of the charm and convenience of this lovely sheet of salt water. About the same time considerable residential development commenced and was stimulated by the important railway and terminal announcement of 1912. The new west-end may be said to have dated from that time.

Several large estates adjacent to the Arm became available for subdivision for perhaps the first time since 1864 when John D. Nash auctioned in building lots a large portion of the old Priory property and leading men of the day, Hon. Charles Tupper and others, bought sites for homes at the Northwest Arm. This preceded confederation when Tupper was premier of Nova Scotia. In 1912 Rosebank property passed to Halifax Realty Corporation Limited and became the centre of one of the most advanced town-planning developments in the modern history of Halifax. The Railway Department acquired a number of Arm properties by expropriation, one of which was turned over to the city and is now a public bathing place—Horseshoe Island. Dalhousie University purchased Studley and Birchdale properties. Fairfield became St. Mary’s Villa. The Armdale boat club was organized by A. P. Stoneman at Quinpool Road and Ashburn Golf and Country club on the Dutch Village Road.

Oaklands house, the Cunard mansion, was burned while being moved off the railway right-of-way. It had been purchased by Hon. F. B. McCurdy who was attempting to transfer the building to the Pearson property on Franklyn Street. W. M. P. Webster acquired Thornvale. John C. MacKeen purchased Bilton cottage and yacht. E. L. MacDonald bought the Anderson house at foot of Jubilee Road. W. P. Buckley bought the Cossey house on Pryor Street. Various other changes have occurred along the eastern shore of the Arm. O. E. Smith owns Belmont and is setting an example of fine development.

Through the extension of the tramway to the head of the Arm a settlement has been created at Armdale—churches, schools, shops and homes. There is a post-office and freight siding and a passenger station is promised. Simpsons mail order business is housed here in modern buildings.

The tramway extension and the motor car combined, possibly also high city taxation, have prompted large all year-round bungalow occupation around the head of the Arm and down the western shore. The time seems not far distant when a joint body representing the city and county will supervise in the public interest the further growth of population on the western shore of the Arm.

The railway bridges on the eastern shore are attractive structures. A valuable work was the construction of an intercepting sewer along the eastern shore to save the Arm from extensive pollution.

Similar to the development at the head of the Arm, which followed tramway extension to Armdale there is likely to be building activity along the lower part of the Arm through a recent tramway extension south on Tower Road and into Point Pleasant Park as far as the Martello Tower. There is a large amount of unimproved property in this direction. This extension also is helpful to people crossing the lower Arm ferries.

On later pages further reference is made to some of the changes briefly mentioned above. The outstanding fact is the renewed and increased popularity of the Northwest Arm notwithstanding the advent of “motor cars and highways”. The Waegwoltic for instance report this year so many new and reinstated members that the membership is the largest in the clubs history. Armdale House have had to turn down scores of applications for accommodation and a much larger hotel, including sea-plane facilities, is in contemplation. Some who did not think so a few years ago frankly say now—at the Arm—is where a modern hotel should have been located. Dredging the head of the Arm is much needed.

The sheets now being bound up were printed with the original editions and consequently it has not been possible to make alterations or additions in this edition.

Halifax Aug. 28, 1928.

DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY AND KINGS COLLEGE.

As already stated the well-known Studley property has been acquired by Dalhousie University as part of an ambitious project for merging or affiliating maritime educational institutions. Several fine buildings have been erected at the Studley property. Birchdale hotel was bought it is understood for a students residence and for access to the shore for recreation. It is now fairly apparent the amalgamation aimed at is not feasible and will be limited to Kings College which has moved from Windsor and will shortly commence erection of modern buildings on the Studley grounds. The affiliation of these two historic institutions and their location in modern buildings at the Northwest Arm is an event of unusual interest. Local friends and business institutions have contributed to this forward move and the Carnegie endowment fund has given substantial assistance.

BIRCHDALE AND ARMDALE

Following the sale of Birchdale property to Dalhousie University the late F. W. Bowes acquired Armdale property from Canadian Investors Limited who had bought it from MacCallum Grant who had bought from Hon. R. G. Beazley who bought from Dame Tupper and heirs of Sir Charles Tupper, deceased. Sir Charles died in 1915 and title descended to his grandson. He had previously deeded Armdale property in trust to his wife and sons. This property was made up of several parcels comprising in all nearly thirty acres including water lots. The most of the Quinpool Road portion including the site of the house was acquired from the Hosterman estate in 1864 before Nova Scotia entered Confederation. Additional Quinpool Road frontage was purchased in 1864 and 1870 at auction sales of building lots forming part of the Pryor estate. Frontage on Pryor Street now owned by W. P. Buckley was purchased by Sir Charles in 1886 from the Duffus estate. A letter some years ago from the late Sir Hibbert Tupper stated that his father did not transact confederation negotiations at Armdale as he did not own the property at that time. There is some error for as stated above the first Hosterman transfer was 1864 and a mistake in the deed was corrected in a new deed in 1867. It is from this property Armdale village takes its name. The first inroad on the Armdale estate was the railway right-of-way which cut off the familiar iron gates on Quinpool Road; these the railway transferred to Prince Arthur Street entrance. Lieutenant-Governor Grant retained the triangular piece of property on Quinpool Road and Prince Arthur Street severed by the railway right-of-way. The balance of the Quinpool Road frontage, except a lot promised the late Walter J. Busch, architect, and sufficient for a new right-of-way, was taken under option by Lorne club after the 1917 explosion wrecked their harbor premises. They had practically decided to move to the Arm and matters were all but arranged on that basis with the Relief Commission when at the last moment other interests prevailed on the Halifax M’s. P., to favor rebuilding on the harbour. Lots out of Armdale were then sold to Dr. A. W. Faulkner, W. P. Buckley, J. R. Clancey, F. W. Bowes, Mrs. J. W. Regan, Mrs. A. Webb, and others. Mr. Bowes took over the main property. Before his death he modernized the house and added a wing and operated the property as a hotel—Armdale House. It is recognized as the natural location for a summer hotel. Lately the present manager C. F. Bowes, who left college work in United States to temporarily take charge of the business at his father’s demise, states that far more accommodation is being applied for than is available. It is stated that in 1924 a fireproof hotel was proposed for this property but was not supported by members of Board of Trade hotel committee who feared the erection of an up-to-date hotel at the Arm would postpone the city’s desire for a modern commercial hotel downtown. Representatives of the C. P. R. took the same view and declined to assist. The foreign mortgage company stated they received several letters from Halifax advising against a loan at the Arm. They decided to communicate with a local trust company and on receiving a reply that a downtown location for a hotel was the only safe situation said they would have to reconsider their promise to supply the funds on mortgage. Later the real estate manager of the Trust Co. volunteered the information the above was the advice he had been authorized to send. However it seems inevitable that a modern hotel will be developed at the Northwest Arm and that it was merely deferred in 1924. Stone gate posts have been erected on Quinpool Road. A new cottage being built on one of the Armdale lots, part of the original Hosterman portion, is called Inskooom, the Micmac equivalent of Armdale and which literally translated from the Indian would be ‘beside a quiet water.’ The Tupper family came from Upper Saxony having to flee from persecution in 1522. One brother settled in Holland and a descendant was burgomaster of Rotterdam in 1815. Another brother settled in Kent and it was his descendant removed to New England and from this branch Charles Tupper, the grandfather of Sir Charles, came to Cornwallis in 1760. The Tupper shield in connection with the baronetcy incorporates the mayflower and the motto is “l’espoir est ma force”. The Buckley property on Pryor Street has been equipped for tourist camping.

BLINK BONNIE

This fine property on the north side of Quinpool Road opposite Armdale property was the residence of Chief Justice MacDonald of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. It is now being subdivided.

PINEHURST

Opposite Blink Bonnie is a fine residence built by Robert Pickford and later owned by Sir Robert Borden, wartime premier of Canada, now the property of Mrs. Robert O’Mullin. It was recently occupied by Hon. F. P. Bligh who will be succeeded in the residence by Capt. the Hon. J. F. Cahan, M. P. P., from Yarmouth, a hero of the Great War and deputy Minister of Highways.

TRAMWAY PARK

The property owned by the Nova Scotia Light and Power Co. Limited adjoining Point Pleasant Park on the lower portion of the Arm has been thrown open as a public field for picnicking and connected with the street railway system by an extension south on Tower Road. It attracts a lot of patronage.

ROSEBANK PARK

The Rosebank property was transferred in 1912 to Halifax Realty Corporation Limited who consulted Richard Power, superintendent of the public gardens, as to the best way to subdivide the property to save as many as possible of the beautiful trees on the southern side. At Mr. Power’s advice to employ a town planning expert the new company engaged Warren H. Manning of Boston, adviser to the Massachusetts Park Commission to lay out the streets and lots in collaboration with the city engineer. The common grid-iron subdivision was avoided and very few trees were sacrificed. A building line is established on all streets and the minimum size of lots is 40 × 120, many are larger. A central avenue named Connaught for Canada’s Royal Governor-General is 120 feet wide made up of a centre panel and two roadways each thirty feet and two sidewalks each fifteen feet. Mr. Manning recommended that a thirty foot building line be also established on Jubilee Road and Quinpool Road between Oxford Street and the Arm and that Connaught Avenue be laid down on the city plan from Point Pleasant Park to Fairview, diverging here and there from a straight line, always in sight of the Arm and passing through fields throughout. Also that the splitting of lots in Rosebank Park or the operation of any business there be prohibited. Mr. Manning appeared before the legislature and in due course special legislation was enacted carrying out his recommendations in respect to Rosebank Park, Jubilee Road, Quinpool Road and Connaught Avenue. When opened Connaught Avenue should be one of the notable boulevards of Canada. About the same time a bill was passed requiring the Tramway Company to extend across the common and out Quinpool Road to Armdale. The extension was constructed. A number of fine private residences have been built in Rosebank Park. The property was afterwards transferred to Ralph P. Bell who laid down concrete sidewalks, but omitted to plant trees on the bare sections towards Quinpool Road. Bell resold to a syndicate. The stone gate posts of Rosebank on Jubilee Road are on the lot originally sold to John W. Regan who built a residence there and sold it in 1927 to W. H. Dennis. These gate posts and adjoining sections of wall are sandstone and have been a landmark for upwards of a century having been constructed by the military when the property was the residence of the commanding officer of the garrison. The story is that this particular officer was attached to a regiment which had served in the Seven Years War and in charging through a rose garden in Prussia each man picked a flower and decorated his bayonet. The regiment was granted permission to adopt the Bingen rose as its badge, so the story goes, and the gates at Rosebank—hence the name—were carved accordingly. The soft sandstone of adjoining walls is carved with names, initials and dates—some as old as 1840—the pastime of boys of several generations loitering on summer days going to and from the Northwest Arm. The original Rosebank residence was purchased by W. A. Hart of the Green Lantern and remodelled. The city of Halifax now owns the bulk of the property, bought in at a tax sale.

CONTENTS

CORRECTIONS

Page 39, substitute John Jenny for the last name in the twenty-ninth line.

Page 48, delete initial “W” from first line.

Page 53, read “Akins” for “Akin.”

Page 54, John Howe, jr., referred to in the thirteenth line was John Howe 3rd. His father, John Howe, jr., was postmaster-general of Nova Scotia.

Page 59, we are informed Dr. Tomkins was not elected to the British House of Commons. He returned to Halifax and died in this city.

Page 101, add name of A. T. Weldon, omitted from the official list, to those present at the ceremony of laying the corner-stone of the historical tower.

Page 120, for “Leopard’s” read “Leppert’s.”

Page 157, third line, delete initial “A”. On same page, line twenty, read Sept. 3 for Sept. 4.

A correspondent thinks there should be a more extended reference to the Cunard family and Oaklands than is contained on pages 43 to 47.

It is suggested that a future edition should contain a reference to the heather in Point Pleasant Park, whether the park plant is indigenous or an importation.

It is stated that the Armview property, which is dealt with on pages 131-136, was included in the Hosterman grant and only passed through Dr. Charles Cogswell’s hands as mortgagee.

onsidering the amount of space in this booklet which is devoted to biographical references, a catchy and not altogether inappropriate title would be: “A Roll Call of the Northwest Arm.” An objection, however, could be fairly taken to that name that the phrase lacks comprehensiveness and does not convey a correct notion of the scope of the book.

A friend recommended calling the booklet A History of the Northwest Arm; but that again is not exactly what it is intended to be, and the term “history” is apt to arouse recollections of chronological lessons which are inflicted on school children, and might deter timid souls from perusing the contents of this volume. The ordinary stereotyped history is such a prosy article that no effort has been made here to imitate its style. A booklet dealing with the enchantment of the Northwest Arm should bear some measure of resemblance to the gaiety of a spot where the sun seems to shine its brightest and birds appear to trill their happiest lays. What a cruel act it would be to attempt to compress and imprison that warmth and gladness in the diction of a staid history, and reading columns of dates always gives the writer a feeling of examining inscriptions in a necropolis.

Proceeding then on the assumption that few persons care for a formal history as a souvenir of the lovely Northwest Arm, the matter within these two covers has been arranged on the plan by which the modern newspapers capture the attention of millions of people, namely, embodying only what is interesting and endeavouring to present that in an entertaining way.

The book in hand is designed to interest the public in the Northwest Arm, and indirectly in Halifax. To be of the greatest benefit therefore to the city, it requires to have a wide circulation, an end which has been constantly kept in view in inscribing these pages.

But admitting that the exact form of the standard historical tome has not been closely adhered to in the present instance, does not imply that any liberties have been taken with the facts themselves. Quite the contrary. There was no relaxation of vigilance in collecting and verifying the information which has been employed, and in that respect and as far as it goes this book is a history of the Northwest Arm worthy of being preserved, at least until such time as something better is brought out. There is probably no book written in which errors do not exist, but it is hoped and believed that the data that follows will be found in the main to be moderately accurate and reliable.

The Northwest Arm is a lovely inlet of the sea with a reputation almost world-wide for the charm of its scenery and the quiet beauty of its surroundings. It was a mecca of the aborigines who made annual pilgrimages to this spot to fish and hunt. It was second nature with the Indians to pick out the most pleasant locations for their wigwams, and they came in numbers for hundreds of miles to camp at the Northwest Arm. In fancy one can see the mirrored surface of the Arm broken by a thousand paddles, and the steep slopes of the containing hills clothed with the primeval forest right down to the water’s edge. “The memory of the red man, it lingers like a spell,” and adds a pathetic and picturesque touch to the story of the Arm.

History repeats itself. “The Arm” is once again the scene of light-hearted assemblages. In and outside of boat clubs it is estimated there are fifteen hundred boats and canoes. There are no shoals or mudbanks, and only six feet change of tide, so that boating can be carried on at any hour of the day. The water in the Arm is renewed twice in twenty-four hours. Children of tender years are at home in boats alone, and regattas are an animated picture, when hundreds of pleasure craft, containing thousands of gaily clad people, gather in a huge cluster.

Illuminated boat parades make a feature which is unsurpassed at Henley-on-Thames, at Venice, or on the Hudson. A fairy-like effect is produced by scores of decorated craft moving about the dark waters. With the shores lined with blazing bonfires and changing lights and aided by a brilliant pyrotechnic display, King Carnival annually delights thousands of visitors at the Northwest Arm.

The location of the military prison at Melville Island, its connection with the wars of the first Napoleon and with previous conflicts, and the boom that was stretched across the entrance of the Arm to prevent the incursion of hostile ships, throw about the Northwest Arm some of the glamour of martial romance.

As a part of Halifax harbor, the Northwest Arm is also associated with a critical period in British history which led to the settlement of Halifax. The second quarter of the 18th century found British pride humbled on every hand. Pitt took the helm at Westminster and initiated a vigorous policy by the establishment of a stronghold at Halifax, then called Chebucto Bay. Great doors turn upon small hinges. The fate of half a continent was determined by that step. Using Halifax as a base of operations, Louisburg was soon captured, and in the following year Quebec, the citadel of French military power in America also fell. The expedition which left Portsmouth, Eng., in 1749, to found the future city at Halifax, consisted of the sloop-of-war “Sphinx” and thirteen transports. It contained artizans to build the city, statesmen to govern it, soldiers to protect it, tradesmen and professional men, school masters, and even actors—a moving city the like of which the world has seldom seen, certainly never since. The colonists arrived at Halifax June 21st, midsummer, when nature was at her fairest. They feasted their eyes upon the virgin beauty of the Northwest Arm, which was the first locality to arrest their particular attention, and it was so calm and inviting, the settlers concluded it must be a river.

The Northwest Arm is about three miles long, and a quarter to three-quarters of a mile wide. About midway between the entrance and the head of the Arm projecting headlands form what is called The Narrows, and divide the Arm into two large basins or lake-like expanses of much beauty. The distance across this contracted part cannot be above six hundred feet. On the outer end of the promontory from the western shore, which is responsible for the greater part of this reduction in the span of the Arm, there has been commenced the erection of a lofty symbolical tower, to contain a museum of natural history and art gallery, intended to commemorate the establishment of representative government at Halifax, 1758. At this location the tower will be visible throughout the length of the Arm, and to the Atlantic, and like the figure at Bedloe’s Island, proclaim to the world the rule of constitutional liberty. The assembly at Halifax is the oldest elective gathering in the present outward British Empire. The seed of popular government, which was planted on Nova Scotia soil Oct. 2nd, 1758, has gradually spread to the ends of the King’s overseas dominions. Thus in peace as in war, Halifax has played a prominent part, and is already historic ground, and many of the men identified with the momentous events which have been referred to were residents of the Northwest Arm. Hon. Joseph Howe was born there, and nearly three-quarters of a century after the convening of the early Nova Scotia Assembly, became the leader of a burning and successful agitation to make the press free and to enlarge the scope of the authority of the representatives of the people by giving the province the boon of full responsible government.

The origin of the name, Northwest Arm, is described. A copy of an old military map never before published, shows the number of buildings at the Arm in 1784, and is reproduced here.

Passing rapidly from history to aquatic sports, from golden sunsets to radiant moonlight scenes, narrating a strange elopement of a full blooded Indian with the fair daughter of a merchant and the flight and pursuit across the Northwest Arm which followed, reviving the almost forgotten tale of the festival of St. Aspinquid which was annually celebrated on the shores of the Arm, and recounting the legends of the lonely grave on Deadman’s Island, this booklet strives to be different from a plain, matter-of-fact record of ancient affairs, and has been denominated “Sketches and Traditions of the Northwest Arm.”

Some of its most interesting chapters are probably those referring to the prominent men who have “passed this way.” A glimpse at the annals of the Northwest Arm is almost equal to a peep into a hall of fame—scientists, soldiers, statesmen, poets, orators, prelates, admirals, generals, captains of industry and kings of finance. The personal element, the strange play of human character is always fascinating, and here we have it in opulent variety and abundance.

Joseph Howe, already referred to, one of the greatest orators of his time, born and reared at the Northwest Arm and gifted with prophetic vision, predicted that a transcontinental railway would be built across the continent and that a union of the British North American provinces would be brought about. Another intellectual giant, Sir Charles Tupper, succeeded Howe in prominence and lived at the Northwest Arm and drank deeply of the inspiration of its beauty and associations. Long before Chamberlain awoke to consciousness that a globe-girdling Empire existed, and before he had galvanized the Colonial Office into life, antedating by many years the commencement of Rhodes’ colossal work in South Africa, or the founding of the Commonwealth of Australia, Tupper at the far-away Northwest Arm was contemplating a confederacy, larger in territory than the scope of Napoleon’s activities and greater in area than the United States of America. On July 1st, 1867, the Dominion of Canada was born. The legislative union which Howe had foretold and Tupper and his contemporaries executed, was bound together with bands of steel by Sir Sandford Fleming, when he and his associates constructed the Canadian Pacific Railway from ocean to ocean.

Howe, Tupper and Fleming! In addition to this trinity of stars there is a long array of illustrious names in the constellation of the Northwest Arm. They are included in The Roll Call in this sketch book. Imagine the Northwest Arm an immense valhalla and this volume a guide book such as the traveller is furnished with at the portals of Westminster Abbey or at the entrance of the Pantheon, near Ratisbon.

The best way to see the Northwest Arm is from the water, in a boat or canoe if you have time, but otherwise a motor boat is to be preferred. Make a start at Coburg Road, coast south as far as Point Pleasant Park, take a run off seaward if at all possible, then over to Purcell’s Cove, and turning about, slowly skirt the western shore of the Arm up to Deadman’s Island, into Melville Cove past the military prison, then round the head of the Arm and back along the upper eastern shore to the place of beginning. The circuit will prove to be one of the most interesting excursions in Halifax.

The author offers his grateful thanks to the many persons who very kindly furnished information for this book. He will be glad to receive further suggestions, corrections, additions or photographs relative to the Northwest Arm to incorporate in a probable future revised and enlarged edition. Particular acknowledgment is due Mr. Harry Piers for assistance in referring to old maps and records, and the writer is under a special obligation to Mr. George Mullane, a discriminating reader of colonial history, for much of the material in this volume.

J. W. R.

Halifax, Sept. 5th, 1908.

hen the first settlers, after weeks of sorrowing and fasting in the desert of the ocean, sailed into bright Chebucto Bay on June 21st, 1749, they noticed an opening on their left, which they concluded was the mouth of a river. On the morning of that perfect day in mid-June, the sky all sunshine, the earth all verdure, they named the high promontory that ended the long ridge of the Northwest Arm, Sandwich, after a statesman who ruled in the councils of George II. These first settlers who had passed the Gulf of the Atlantic feasted their eyes on this beautiful winding river-like water and named it Sandwich River. It was the season of our climate when nature appears at her best. The steep hills were one mass of tangled greenery interspersed with the blossoms of the Indian pear and other wild fruits which grew among the dark pines and softer hues of birch and maple. The traveller is in a mood to be pleased after a long sea voyage, and fair indeed these pioneers deemed the new land, which their children were “fondly to call their own.” The Micmacs had named this beautiful inlet of the ocean, Waegwoltic, or “end of the water”; the aborigines admired its beauty and camped above its wooded points and found abundant fish in its clear waters.

The early settlers on the peninsula of Halifax were content to dwell on their allotments within the palisades of the town, not daring to venture beyond the protection of the blockhouses and the enclosures. Those who were rash enough to do so often suffered the penalty of their indiscretion with their lives as is recorded in the history of the settlement. The Micmac lay in ambush and watched from a concealed point for the unwary, who ventured without an armed guard beyond the clearings which surrounded the pickets that enclosed the town.

In searching the first allotment book which records the parcels of land set apart for the settlers of Halifax, we find only the lands on the harbor side of the peninsula alloted to the first settlers; these lands were comprised within the limits of the town and within the north and south suburbs. In the first book containing allotments there is no mention of grants to any persons at the Northwest Arm. It appears that the lands bordering on the Arm were not taken up until long after the treaty with the Indians in 1760.

A military map dated 1751 shows the Northwest Arm labeled Hawke River. The names, Sandwich River and Hawke River, were probably never used except upon plans, because as early as 1752 in a grant of land to William Russell at Purcell’s Cove, the name Northwest Arm is used in the description. So far as known this is the first official document in which the name Northwest Arm appears. The early settlers had evidently soon convinced themselves that the lovely sheet of water on the west of the city was not a river, but an arm of the harbor. The Northwest Arm named itself.

his property was conveyed by Attorney-General Uniacke June 16th, 1816, to William Pryor, for £587. It was a part of the original grant to Major-General John Campbell, described as lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7, being part and parcel of a tract computed to contain 65 acres, being also a part of a division of letter G. in the middle division of five acre lots, and the whole of letter H. of the same division, which was granted to Major-General Campbell. The Jones and Stairs properties known as Bloomingdale and Fairfield, together with the Morrow property, Bircham, Thornvale, the estate of T. E. Kenny, Esq., and the residences of E. P. Allison and D. M. Owen were all included in this allotment. Major-General Campbell was commander-in-chief of the troops of the province in 1786. Akin, in his history of Halifax, states that on the 10th of October, 1786, arrived His Majesty’s ship “Pegasus,” commanded by His Royal Highness, Prince William Henry, afterwards King William IV. He was received at the king’s slip by the governor and Major-General Campbell, then in command of the garrison, and conveyed to Government House. Campbell had been in command of the British troops on the Penobscot, Maine during the revolutionary war. These properties in 1790 passed by purchase into the possession of Richard John Uniacke, sr., attorney-general of the province, and member of the old Council of Twelve. Lots 8, 9 and 10 were purchased from Stephen Hall Binney in 1833.

William Pryor, of William Pryor & Sons, was a prominent West India merchant. He was the son of John Pryor, also a merchant and a representative of the County of Halifax in the Provincial Assembly. The family were enterprising and successful traders for over a century. Their fleet of brigs were famous as fast sailers. In April, 1793, official notification was received in Halifax that the French Republic had declared war against Great Britain on February 1st of that year. In accordance with instructions from England, Sir John Wentworth announced that letters of marque or commission for privateers would be granted in the usual manner. The French lost no time in sending ships to cruise along our coast in search of captures for hard on the declaration of war came reports of privateers and frigates cruising in the Bay of Fundy and on the coast. Several Halifax and Liverpool (N. S.) ships were taken by the enemy and the captains and crews suffered imprisonment in the horrible prisons of the French West Indies. Among the number of those confined in Gaudeloupe, were Captains William Pryor, Jacobs and Lloyd. In 1800 several privateers had been fitted out by merchants of the town and the captures of French vessels were frequent. Among the captures from the enemy at that time the most remarkable was that of two prizes, one French and the other Danish, brought in by Capt. William Pryor in command of the privateer Nymph.

John Stayner also conveyed to William Pryor several lots of land bounded northerly by a road leading to the Northwest Arm, easterly by lots of William Pryor and Nicholas Thomas Hill, southerly by a stone wall and westerly by the waters of the Northwest Arm, containing lots No. 5, 6, 11, 12, formerly owned by Robt. Lyon. Robt. Lyon’s name appears 20th of July, 1811, among a number of merchants who petitioned the governor respecting the state of trade, etc., stating that they were agreed to take gold and silver coins at the following values, viz.: a Guinea, £1 3s. 4d.; Doubloon, £3 17s. 6d.; and Eagle, £2 10s.; and old French Guinea, £1 2s. William and Robert Lyon were dry goods merchants and their advertisements appear in the old Halifax newspapers.

John Stayner was a merchant and an ancestor of C. A. Stayner, City Club, Halifax. Stayner’s wharf, north of the Ferry Slip on Upper Water Street, was owned by him. In 1818 John Stayner is mentioned as having commenced to erect a building known as Brookside, on the western side of Spring Garden Road, near South Park Street, now known as the Dwyer property.

Coburg Road, according to Rev. Dr. Geo. Hill in his paper on the naming of streets, received this name from the property owned by the late William Pryor on the borders of the Arm. Pryor married Miss Barbara Foss, a German lady, whose father was landed on George’s Island when it was covered with spruce, fir and pine, and he naturally paid her a compliment by calling the street Coburg, after Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who at that time was married to the charming Princess Charlotte, daughter of George IV and the unfortunate Caroline, who died young and was sincerely mourned by the whole British nation. The cottage on the south side of Coburg Road now owned by Mr. Arundell, was once called Coburg House, being the Pryor residence. The fields adjoining were known as Coburg House fields.

Richard Clay, by deed of indenture, conveyed lot No. 6, August 20th, 1818, to William Pryor for £600. About the same time William Pryor received from the crown a grant of a water lot extending 150 feet into the Arm. This water lot included the foot of Coburg Road where Marr’s Ferry is located, and a search in the registry of deeds has failed to disclose any record of a conveyance of this water lot from the Pryor estate to the corporation of the City of Halifax. On January 25th, 1859, William Pryor devised, subject to debts of William Pryor & Sons and the legacies mentioned in the will, all his real and personal estate to sons, William, George and James, who were also his executors. They conveyed to Thomas L. Connolly, Archbishop of Halifax, Thornvale, now the property of T. E. Kenny, for $4,400, also a right-of-way from Coburg Road, which at first was considerably further down the hill than where the present right-of-way is located. This deed also conveyed the water lot opposite Thornvale. In 1867, for the sum of $6,000, the same parties conveyed to Thos. L. Connolly the land enclosing the field known as Coburg House Field.

Robert Morrow then received a conveyance of part of the land now comprised in Birchdale. By deed, April 27th, 1869, Arthur Ansell Boggs for $900 conveyed to Robert Morrow the balance of the property now known as Birchdale. Robert Morrow was a member of the well-known firm of William Stairs, Son & Morrow, and after his death his property passed into the hands of his son and then to the present owner, Fred. W. Bowes.

Richard John Uniacke to whom Major-General Campbell’s lands passed, was a striking and picturesque figure, and there was, says Senator Power, about his career a halo of romance. His first connection with the province of Nova Scotia came through Mr. Moses Delesdernier, a native of the Canton of Geneva, in Switzerland, but for many years a resident of this province—his monument may be seen in St. Paul’s cemetery. In 1774, Delesdernier went to Philadelphia to look for settlers to place upon land near Fort Cumberland, owned by himself and certain associates. One day, so tradition runs, while at the Delaware River side he noticed among those landing from a vessel which had just arrived from the West Indies, a tall athletic young man with a lively aspect and an elastic tread, whose dress and bearing were very unlike those of the ordinary immigrant. Struck with his appearance he accosted the young gentleman, asked him where he came from and was told that he was from the West Indies, and originally from Ireland. As to a further question as to his motive for coming to North America he said he left Ireland to seek his fortune. Finding there was nothing to be done in the island to which he had gone, he had come to see if there were better prospects on the mainland. Being asked what kind of work he would be prepared to do, young Uniacke, for he was the newly landed immigrant, replied that he was ready to do anything. Mr. Delesdernier, who had been interested in the youth at his first sight, thereupon employed him for the purpose of going to the Cumberland settlement and acting as a kind of clerk or superintendent for the proprietors. This he accordingly did.

In the second volume of Burke’s “Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland,” the lineage of Richard John Uniacke may be traced. He was the fourth son of Norman Uniacke of Castletown Roche in the county of Cork. Norman Fitzgerald Uniacke of Castletown was a third son of James Fitzgerald Uniacke, of Mt. Uniacke, Ireland, who commanded a troop of cavalry for William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne and whose military service is said to have been of material benefit to the Mount Uniacke branch of the family.

It would appear that young Uniacke remained at Cumberland with his employer from 1774 until the end of 1776. In May, 1775, he was married to the daughter of his employer. The groom was then 21 and the bride had not attained 13 years. In the latter part of 1776, Jonathan Eddy and other sympathizers with the revolted colonies laid siege to Fort Cumberland, but the fort having been reinforced by 200 marines under Major Batt, the undertaking was abandoned on November 28th and the rebels dispersed. Among those arrested on suspicion of being implicated in the rebellion and brought prisoner to Halifax, was Richard John Uniacke. Senator Power states that the sergeant of the guard charged with the duty of bringing the prisoners to the capital was an Irishman named Lawlor; that young Uniacke appealed to his fellow countryman to take the handcuffs off him pledging his honor at the same time to make no attempt to escape and that the sergeant granted his request. Lawlor afterwards left the army and settled back of Dartmouth. He was a Roman Catholic and made it a rule to come to Halifax every spring to make his Easter communion. After Uniacke’s admission to the Bar, when he was one of the leading men of the place he did not forget the comparatively humble man who had befriended him in the days of his distress, but always insisted that during these Easter visits Lawlor should make a home of his house. There is some mystery, says his biographer, as to young Uniacke’s life from 1776 until the spring of 1781.

Of the prisoners brought to Halifax charged with being concerned in Eddy’s rebellion, Dr. Clarke and Thomas Falconer were tried April 18th and 19th, 1777, respectively, and found guilty, but pleaded the King’s pardon before sentence and were respited. James Avery escaped jail. Uniacke, who had apparently promised to give evidence on behalf of the crown, failed to do so or to appear in court. It is supposed that some prominent Irishmen, of whom there were a number in Halifax at the time, and some of the officers of the garrison who knew Uniacke’s family in Ireland, used their influence to prevent his suffering from what might reasonably be looked at as a youthful escapade. The only evidence against Uniacke is contained in the deposition of William Milburn, and it is not altogether conclusive as to his guilt. Milburn swears that on or about the 11th November, 1776, being sent a message by Colonel Goreham commanding “ye garrison at Fort Cumberland to a place called No. 1 to one Mr. Smith, which having delivered and the next morning being about to return to the garrison, one Richard John Uniacke, who liveth at No. 1, aforesaid, said that he must go along with said Smith to the rebel camp, which the deponent at first refused, but said Uniacke insisted he must go, otherwise the rebel sentries would carry him there by force, and that Colonel Eddy, as he called him, of the rebels, would never forgive him if he would not go to him.”

This ends the episode connected with the arrest for rebellion. We find that a few years after this event Uniacke had left Halifax for Ireland and entered on the study of law. He was admitted to the Bar at Dublin and returned to Halifax and became Attorney-General of Nova Scotia. His son, Richard John Uniacke, jr., who afterwards was a judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, was one of the principals in the only instance of a fatal duel in Halifax. His opponent was William Bowie, a merchant. The place of combat was at the Grove, Richmond. The men met Wednesday, July 21st, 1819, as a result of some remarks made by Uniacke in the course of a trial in which Bowie was interested. Bowie fell mortally wounded and died the same day, aged 37 years, and a monument to him will be found in St. Paul’s. The survivor of the duel and the two seconds were tried Wednesday, April 21st, 1820, and were acquitted. It was said that the duel was not of young Uniacke’s seeking, but the murderous code of honor of that day left no alternative for him than to accept the challenge.

overed with glorious old trees, this large property fronting 470 feet on the eastern shore of the Arm, immediately on the north side of Coburg Road, has been a scene of many brilliant functions, having been the residence for nearly half a century of the late Hon. A. G. Jones, Governor of Nova Scotia, a gentleman of the old school, a man of integrity and popularity, a scholar and a splendid entertainer. Originally the property included “Fairfield,” which Mr. Jones sold to John Stairs, together with a right-of-way to Coburg Road and the boundary of the estate also embraced the field east of the right-of-way, now owned by T. H. Francis, who is erecting a handsome residence. Hon. Mr. Jones bought “Bloomingdale,” a name he himself conferred on the property, from William Pryor, who acquired it from Richard Uniacke, being part of the grant to Major-General John Campbell. Hon. A. G. Jones was a native of Digby county, of loyalist stock, and amassed a fortune in the West India business at Halifax. The firm of A. G. Jones & Co. were also agents for the Dominion and other steamship lines. The writer remembers with great pleasure the uniform courtesy experienced in calling at Mr. Jones’ office in gathering shipping intelligence for the Halifax press. On one occasion this courteous and successful merchant told how he had labored in private to acquire a fluent knowledge of the Spanish tongue, an accomplishment which was of great use to him in his intercourse with the West Indies, and he always contended that a knowledge of Spanish should be as general as possible in Nova Scotia to better enable our business men to get a full share of the extensive trade of Spanish America.

Mr. Jones was an able platform speaker and several times represented Halifax county in the Dominion Parliament. He was Minister of Militia in the first Liberal cabinet, and in his declining years it was a fitting act that this man of high ideals should be called to the post of Lieutenant-Governor of his native province, a position which he filled with dignity and capacity in keeping with the records of the long line of illustrious men who had been his predecessors in that high office. Like Mr. Howe, Mr. Jones died in Government House. He had not lived at his Arm residence for several years, except occasionally in summer, one of these occasions being the entertainment of Lord Minto, Governor-General of Canada. Hon. Mr. Jones took delight in trees, and the grove which he developed at his Arm property comprised cedar, sycamore, larch, oak, lime, Norwegian spruce, mountain ash, and other varieties and is accounted one of the finest in Nova Scotia. There are several ash trees on the property which were transferred from St. Paul’s square, forty years ago. Mr. Jones’ fancy ran to evergreens. He thus had foliage the year round, and at many functions at the Arm, evergreen branches from his own grounds were the central feature of the table decorations. Miss Alice Jones, daughter of Hon. A. G. Jones, is a well-known Canadian novelist. A son, Colonel Carleton Jones, is Director General of the Canadian Military Medical Service. Another son, W. G. Jones, is Spanish consul at Halifax, and a third, A. E. Jones, is a director of the Union Bank. The latter was recently appointed by the Canadian Government a special commissioner to attend a conference of representatives of the British West Indies to consider tariff reciprocity with the Dominion. W. G. Jones first succeeded Manuel DeZea as Spanish consul. Senor DeZea was a popular tenor singer in Halifax. He died in Guayaquil. After a couple of years, Senor Lluch De Diaz came out from Spain and took over the post which in those days covered business with Cuba and Porto Rico, former rich dependencies of the Spanish crown. De Diaz remained here two years and Mr. Jones became consul again.

The property was purchased from the Jones’ estate by F. W. Bowes, who transferred it to the present owners. “The Waegwoltic” is a unique combination of country and boating club organized this year, and has been greeted with unusual favor by the public of Halifax, the membership now being nearly 350, representing the business and professional life of the city, and making the club one of the strongest in the Maritime Provinces. The Waegwoltic is a mixed institution, having both lady and gentlemen members. Families of members are associates. Ladies and gentlemen are placed on an equal footing and the privileges of membership are open to both alike and freely taken advantage of by both sexes. A handsome boathouse was erected to accommodate 220 craft. The residence required only a few changes for a most comfortable club house. Tennis, quoits and billiards have been introduced, and skating, bowling and tobogganing will be fostered in winter. The club also plans up-to-date bathing facilities, motor boathouse, and large ball room and restaurant, and is giving special attention to out-door entertainment, including open air theatricals. The present Lieut.-Governor, Hon. D. C. Fraser, is an honorary member of the club. At the opening exercises, May 24th, at which the Halifax and Dartmouth City Councils and nearly every club of the two towns were represented. Governor Fraser declared that the establishment of this club, and of other boating clubs on the Arm, pointed to the new interest which the people of Halifax were taking in open air recreation, and he said there was no question the Northwest Arm was one of the most beautiful spots in the world. The directors of Bloomingdale Limited, the incorporated name of The Waegwoltic organization, are: John W. Regan (President), W. S. Davidson (Vice-President), George H. Parsons (Secretary), F. W. Bowes, Frank Colwell, G. A. Burbidge and C. J. Silliker. C. N. S. Strickland is Treasurer; J. H. Trefry is assistant secretary and assistant treasurer. In most cases a club is a separate organization from the company holding the real estate, but so far that plan has not been followed here, as the stockholders are the members, the purchase of stock being the condition precedent to joining the club, which is thus managed directly by the board of directors. A close and most effective organization has been established by dividing the work of the club between seven committees appointed by the executive from the general body of members, and linking these committees to the board of directors by decreeing that the chairman of each committee shall be a member of the directorate. The word Waegwoltic, is the name the Micmacs gave the Northwest Arm. This club has been visited by a great many tourists and affords strangers an excellent place from which to see and enjoy the beauties of the far famed Northwest Arm. Visitors to the property have to be provided with guest cards. These are freely accorded on application and recommendation of a member, but for a limited period and to a restricted number of guests. The club aims to help to attract to Halifax a desirable class of tourists and other visitors and thereby advertise and build up the city. A non-resident membership is established for persons visiting Halifax occasionally. Full membership may soon be difficult to obtain, the list being fairly large now. In winter the club will be useful to citizens who are members as a pleasant place to have skating or card parties and dancing. Musical concerts and smokers promise to be very attractive.

his racing organization has sent more representatives abroad than any other rowing club in the Maritime Provinces. It has been twelve years in existence and was formerly located on the harbour, with headquarters for a time at Power’s Wharf, and later at Butler’s Spar Yard. Then the club moved to the Northwest Arm, and located on the Cunard property, where the H. A. B. C. boathouse now stands. Forced to leave here, St. Mary’s found a friend in the late Geoffrey Morrow, who generously allowed the club, for a nominal rental, to build a boathouse for shells on his property at the foot of Coburg Road. The amount of the rental was always returned to the club by Mr. Morrow as his contribution. The purchaser of the Morrow property, F. W. Bowes, has continued this liberal arrangement. The club does not furnish accommodation for pleasure boats, being a purely amateur racing organization. Members, of whom there are one hundred at present, must be connected with St. Mary’s C. T. A. & B. S. The club was never more vigorous than at the present time. St. Mary’s was the first club to introduce the four-oared shell, local rowing prior to that event having been performed in lapstreak boats. This enterprising association has held the Maritime Province rowing championship several times. Its representatives have competed in the National Regatta at Philadelphia, Worcester and Springfield for the Championship of America. John O’Neil, the club’s single sculler, won the association singles at Springfield this year, and has rowed at other American gatherings. St. Mary’s four also won the four-oared race at Springfield this year. St. Mary’s club was represented at the Olympic trials this year at St. Catharine’s, Ont., and its members have competed at St. John, Sydney and other maritime points. Through the efforts of St. Mary’s club in sending crews abroad, valuable advertising has been obtained for this city. In some cases, Boston and other metropolitan daily papers have devoted columns of letterpress and illustrations to the visits of St. Mary’s representatives. J. L. Gowen is president of the club.

irchdale, on the southern side of Coburg Road and fronting on the Arm, is a property of ten acres adjoining the north of Thornvale, property of the late T. E. Kenny, and dividing with the latter property the block between Coburg Road and South Street. This property is now owned by F. W. Bowes, a director of the Carleton House, who bought it two years ago to make the experiment in conducting what had been long talked of in Halifax—a summer hotel. The venture was successful from the start and this year a modern wing containing about thirty rooms was added to the south of the old residence. A corresponding wing is proposed to be added to the north side, and plans are being prepared for the erection of a large independent building containing over two hundred rooms, with salt water baths, etc. Mr. Bowes was news editor of the Halifax “Chronicle” for a number of years, and afterwards editor of the “Echo,” and correspondent for leading English and American dailies. His father founded the Sackville “Borderer” over half a century ago, and this paper is now the Moncton “Daily Transcript.” Mr. Bowes worked in his father’s office for years before he came to Halifax to engage in journalism here.

Birchdale was formerly the property of Robert Morrow of the century old firm of William Stairs, Son & Morrow. The father of the late Robert Morrow was an Englishman and came to Halifax at the age of eighteen years, being engaged at Liverpool as a clerk for James Bain, a prominent Halifax merchant. John Duffus, an ancestor of the present Duffus family, was a fellow clerk and through him Morrow became acquainted with his friend’s sister and married her. Sir Samuel Cunard married another sister. Mr. Morrow, sr., sometime afterwards became head clerk in his brother-in-law’s (Cunard) office, where he remained until he was appointed United States Consul at this port, the first to hold that appointment in Nova Scotia.

In 1854, Robert Morrow, the owner of Birchdale, married Helen, daughter of William Stairs, the founder of the firm of that name, and became a partner in the business, taking the place of John Stairs, who retired to engage in business for himself. The senior Morrow was greatly interested in the study of geology, shells and corals, and was in advance of his age in Halifax in this respect, as such studies were considered eccentric and of doubtful utility to one engaged in mercantile affairs. He also disclosed considerable skill in poetical composition and when a youth won a prize while he was attached to a newspaper in Liverpool, England. His son, Robert Morrow, was fond of natural history. When the latter acquired the Birchdale property at the Arm he expended a large amount of money in improving it, and in the basement of the residence which he erected, he had a small aquarium installed for studying the habits of fish, samples of which he regularly received from fishermen around the coast. He had a laboratory and wrote several papers on scientific matters connected with his favorite study of marine biology. Built at a time when labor and material were cheap compared with present day prices, the residence which Mr. Morrow established on the Arm was one of the finest of all the beautiful homes which rich men and gentlemen of refined taste built on the slopes of the Arm. The property was called Bircham on account of the great number of Scottish silver birch trees imported and planted on the property. There are other varieties of imported trees. An account of the expenditure on this property shows that it cost the Morrow estate between $50,000 and $75,000. The late Geoffrey Morrow, also of the firm of Stairs, Son & Morrow, Ltd., received the property from his father and resided there for some time. This property is beautifully situated on the upper portion of the Arm, which here expands into a large basin, and from its terraced slopes there is afforded a wide view of water, hill and forest. The hotel is a resort of many summer tourists and city people patronize it the year round on account of the charms and accessibility of its situation. The builder of Bircham, Robert Morrow, read two papers before the old Literary and Historical Society of Halifax in 1865, relating to Greenland and Vinland, which secured his election as a member of the Copenhagen Society of Northern Antiquarians.

hornvale, which was a part of the estate of late William Pryor, is one of the finest and most highly improved properties on the shores of the Northwest Arm. It fronts on South Street and is also reached by a right-of-way from Coburg Road, the latter method of communication is used almost exclusively. Coburg Road being well graded, and being the continuation of beautiful Spring Garden Road, is the most convenient and agreeable way to reach the Arm from the city, and it is intended to widen it throughout. Thornvale was formerly the rural retreat of that able prelate, Thomas L. Connolly, Archbishop of Halifax, a warm-hearted and hospitable Irishman who identified himself with the best interests of city and Dominion. He wielded a trenchant pen and was a powerful advocate of the confederation of the North American provinces and thereby helped to bring about the act of 1867, the corner stone of the present Dominion of Canada. Archbishop Connolly succeeded the Right Rev. William Walsh, who was the first Archbishop of the diocese, in 1858. The former resided at Thornvale for several years. The Archbishop afterwards sold this property to the late T. E. Kenny, son of Sir Edward Kenny, whose estate now includes Thornvale, and he himself purchased another property further up the Arm on the road to the Dutch Village. This is still owned by the Roman Catholic corporation. T. E. Kenny was for a number of years a member of the mercantile house of T. & E. Kenny, having a branch in London, and extensively interested in foreign shipping. Mr. Kenny represented Halifax County in the House of Commons for several terms. He was identified with the Cotton Factory, Sugar Refinery, and various industrial enterprises, but was best known in banking and commercial circles as President of the Royal Bank of Canada, formerly the Merchants’ Bank of Halifax, an institution with very large resources and operating branches from coast to coast in Canada, and others in some of the principal cities of the United States, Cuba and the West Indies. It is no secret that while a member of the House of Commons, Mr. Kenny’s advice on financial matters was prized by the Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and the Halifax representative was more than once pressed to enter the Dominion cabinet. The Kenny family is intimately connected with another well-known family—the Henrys—who have contributed two members to the judiciary, one to the bench of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and one to the bench of the Supreme Court of Canada. W. A. Henry, the first judge, was a half brother of Lady Kenny, wife of Sir Edward Kenny. The late Lady Daly, wife of Sir Malachy B. Daly, former governor of Nova Scotia, was a sister of T. E. Kenny. Thornvale covers a point of land which juts out into the waters of the Arm and commands a variable view of the Arm north and south. The present house was erected about the same time as most of the neighboring residences; the old building which it replaced was removed in sections and re-erected back off Coburg Road, near the new residence of H. M. Pride. The name of the property related to a thorn hedge which formerly bordered the water front. It was bestowed by Archbishop Connolly. Among others who have been entertained at Thornvale by T. E. Kenny was Sir John A. Macdonald. E. G. Kenny, son of T. E. Kenny, is colonel of 66th P. L. Fusiliers, Halifax. A brother, George Kenny, is a captain of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Malta. Other brothers of E. G. Kenny are J. B. Kenny, a member of the leading Halifax law firm, McInnes, Mellish, Fulton & Kenny; Louis Kenny, of Pembroke, Ont., and Patrick Kenny, a student at the conservatory of music at Munich. The daughters of the late T. E. Kenny are Mrs. George Primrose, wife of Rear-Admiral George Ansen Primrose, Eastbourne, Eng.; Mrs. George Will, wife of Colonel George Will, R. A., Aberdeen, Scotland; Mrs. George Weston, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Weston, R. A. M. C., Prospect, Bermuda, and Mrs. Joseph R. Bridson, wife of Captain J. R. Bridson, R. N., Portsmouth, Eng.

t the foot of South Street is Robinson’s Ferry. Nearby are the fine premises of two large boat clubs—Northwest Arm Rowing Club and Halifax Amateur Boating Club. Citizens point to these organizations, particularly the former, with gratitude for their share in “discovering” the Northwest Arm. It seems almost incredible that ten years ago, outside of boats belonging to the handful of people who controlled the land on the waterfront of the Arm, there were less than fifty pleasure craft on this unrivalled sheet of water distant only a mile and a half from the City Hall. Strange as that seems now, it was nevertheless true a decade ago. The proprietor of a property located in the vicinity of the boat clubs, which we are discussing, has told the writer he could recognize nearly every boat that came around his point as belonging to one of his neighbors. To do that at the present time, with fifteen hundred summer craft gliding about the Arm, one would require to have a memory like a city directory.

The people of Halifax, as a whole, formerly knew little more about the Northwest Arm than that the city being built on a peninsula there must be salt water on the western side. Witness the change. Regattas on the Arm are regularly attended by thousands of spectators, and aquatic illuminations by tens of thousands. Visitors to Halifax bear away praises of the beauty of the Northwest Arm to distant lands, and citizens proudly declare the Arm is worth more to Halifax than millions of money. The extension of the street railway, electric lighting, and telephone systems helped to perform the miracle, and various circumstances conspired to enable the public to get a foothold on the exclusive ground surrounding the Arm which had been parcelled out in large estates from earliest times and remained in the possession of a few families.

TEN PIONEERS.

An early executive committee of the Northwest Arm Rowing Club.

Of the two clubs mentioned above, the nearer to South Street, the N. W. A. R. C., is the older and is the pioneer boating club on the Arm. The founders, perhaps a dozen strong, met in the Church of England Institute May 23rd, 1899, to form a boat club at the Northwest Arm. It was decided at the meeting to go ahead with the proposal. R. T. MacIlreith was elected chairman and W. B. MacCoy, secretary. The promoters had canvassed the matter to some extent in advance of the meeting, and had concluded to make a start in a very limited way, but they had no vision of the extent of Arm boating in 1908. They were pathfinders. A small boatshed was erected. The movement met with instant favor. Before the end of the first summer season a large wing was added at one end of the original modest building. This latter is the centre of the club’s present handsome boat house. Still other persons applied for membership and for boat and canoe accommodation, and a second and corresponding wing was attached to the opposite end of the boathouse. Later on the second story was added with observation roof, committee room, dance hall, etc. Every year minor improvements are made in connection with the building, the floats, electric illuminating conveniences, etc. The club owns a shed for housing racing shells on the opposite shore of the Arm on R. T. MacIlreith’s property. The boathouse is outlined in colored incandescent lamps and in this respect the club is ahead of other Arm clubs. The Northwest Arm Rowing Club initiated band concerts at the Arm, and has taken up amateur shell racing strongly and has been well represented in local regattas. The club was incorporated in 1900 and held its first annual meeting April 3rd of that year. The officers elected were: President, R. T. MacIlreith; Vice-President, W. L. Payzant; 2nd Vice-President, G. C. Hart; Treasurer, J. A. Clark; Secretary, W. B. MacCoy; Executive, H. B. Clarke, George Fluck, J. L. Gowen, S. S. Wetmore, George Tracey. The officers for 1908, are: President, A. D. Johnstone; Vice-President, W. J. Butler; 2nd Vice-President, John Jenny; Treasurer, C. W. Blethen; Secretary, Wm. Crowe; Executive, W. B. MacCoy, R. T. MacIlreith, James Turner, W. B. Hopgood, F. R. Hart. There are 198 berths in the boathouse. All are occupied. The membership of the club is about 275. The club has been a success financially as well as other ways. Besides erecting and equipping the boathouse and making miscellaneous expenditures, a piece of land on the waterfront immediately south of the boathouse was purchased and is owned by the club in fee-simple. All this has been done out of revenue entirely, showing the good management with which the organization has been blessed. The land on which the boathouse stands was leased from T. E. Kenny for ten years, when the lease may be renewed for a similar period, or the club can buy the site outright at a figure to be assessed by independent arbitrators not to include improvements. At the falling in of the lease next year it is safe to expect that the club will exercise its option of purchase.

Armdale Boating Club—Northwest Arm, Halifax.

The establishment of the Halifax Amateur Boating Club in 1904 was a development of the interest in Arm boating which had been engendered by the success of the older club, just as the boating movement at the Northwest Arm culminated in 1908 in the organization of The Waegwoltic on the broad lines of a social and recreation club combined with boating facilities. The formation of the second club strengthened the first club by increasing the public support of a new proceeding, and it is eloquent testimony of the deep-rooted popularity of the Northwest Arm with the people of Halifax that the third club has obtained three hundred and fifty members in one season, the great majority of this number being recruits to the ranks of the Northwest Arm devotees. The story of the progress of the H. A. B. C. is a repetition of the success of the N. W. A. R. C. in the matter of volume of applications for membership and the necessity for enlarging the boathouse to provide additional accommodation for boats and canoes. The H. A. B. C. boathouse, when first erected, contained berths for about one hundred and seventy-five craft. The building was later extended and now has a capacity fully one hundred more than its original large number and is therefore the largest boathouse on the Northwest Arm. It stands on part of Oaklands property. The members of the H. A. B. C. have taken an active part in aquatics and illuminations at the Northwest Arm, and for several years joined with their neighbors, the N. W. A. Rowing Club in a series of band concerts during summer months. This year The Waegwoltic was admitted to the musical partnership and each of the three clubs gave the public two concerts. The first officers of the Halifax Amateur Boating Club were: President, A. M. Bauld; Vice-President, A. A. Haliburton; Treasurer, J. F. Barry; Recording Secretary, J. A. Irwin; Executive, Dr. F. Woodbury, G. H. Parsons, W. B. Rankin, O. M. Hill, R. B. Huestis, T. S. Bowser, H. W. Dobey, Alex. McKenzie, J. S. Jost, Samuel Fenn, J. L. Putnam and J. H. Winfield. The officers for 1908 are as follows: President, A. A. Haliburton; Vice-President, J. E. Burns; Treasurer, J. F. Barry; Secretary, R. J. Anderson; Executive Committee, Fred Gregoire; Gordon Isnor, J. D. Walsh, G. M. Wood, T. S. Bowser, G. D. Wallace, H. F. Bethel, Oswald DeYoung, H. D. Brunt, Charles Collins, F. A. Palmer, A. M. Bauld.

H. A. B. C. EXECUTIVE, 1908.

KEY (read from left to right)—Back row: Fred Gregoire, Oswald DeYoung, T. S. Bowser, Charles Collins. Front row: R. J. Anderson. J. E. Burns, President A. A. Haliburton, A. M. Bauld.

aklands, a splendid property comprising about forty acres with magnificent brick residence, conservatory, vinery, green house, stable and barns, boating and bathing houses, cottage, etc., occupies over two thousand feet on the water front of the Northwest Arm, and runs back from the eastern shore of the Arm about three thousand five hundred feet. The principal entrance to the estate is at the iron gates on Robie Street, where its lodge is located. From here the main drive or approach to the residence forms a curving avenue a half mile in length, arched with oak, birch, pine, beech, maple, hawthorn, poplar and many other varieties of trees and shrubs. The residence is situated nine hundred feet from the water front, and placed on a beautiful terrace. As at present comprised, Oaklands is made up of several parcels of land. The largest division of twenty-four acres, which includes four acres of water lot, was originally owned by William Taylor, under grant from the Crown, October 28, 1786. He conveyed it to his granddaughter, Mary E. Brenton, in 1802, who sold it to Richard Tremain, in 1815, the year of “Waterloo.” The next year Mr. Tremain acquired additional land from John Howe, jr. This latter portion was a section of the old commissioner’s farm, or Belmont, the property of Hon. Henry Duncan, member of the old “Council of 12,” and Dockyard Commissioner at Halifax, during the active period in naval and military affairs of the American War of Independence. A favorite place for bathers on the shore of Oaklands is still known as Tremain’s Rock. At Richard Tremain’s death about 1854, Oaklands extended easterly from the shore of the Northwest Arm, about sixteen hundred feet, being less than half of the distance now covered by this property, and the entrance at that time was on Oakland Road, and not as now on Robie Street. In 1861 the heirs of Richard Tremain conveyed the land then held and known as Oaklands, to William Cunard, who in 1862 added to it some nine acres purchased from John W. Ritchie, and still further extended it by purchase of a tract from Robert Davis, in 1863. The Davis lot was also at one time part of the original Belmont. In 1871 Mr. Cunard disposed of the property to Hon. P. C. Hill, Premier of Nova Scotia, by whom it was mortgaged to the conveyor. It has been occupied by Lord Alex. Russell, while commander-in-chief of the troops in Canada, and by Colonel Leach, R. E. Lord Russell died last year. From his family, Russell Square, London, takes its name, as a large part of the surrounding property belongs to the Duke of Bedford. The present duke is a nephew of the late Lord Russell. Mrs. P. C. Hill was a daughter of Enos Collins. William Cunard, who built the Oaklands residence, was the second son of Sir Samuel Cunard, a native of Halifax who established the first regular steam communication across the Atlantic. The service which he instituted between Liverpool, Halifax, Philadelphia, and New York, has since developed into the great Cunard line, the ships of which now hold the blue ribbon of the Atlantic. After the retirement of Sir Edward Cunard, an elder brother of the owner of Oaklands, the business interests of the great steamship company devolved upon William Cunard, which necessitated his removal to England, where he resided until his death. The baronetcy remained in the family of the eldest son of Sir Samuel. In building Oaklands residence during the American Civil War, Mr. Cunard took advantage of the high gold rate by purchasing most of the materials in the United States. The building material is of Philadelphia pressed brick, with freestone trimmings and dressed granite foundation. The balconies, veranda and supporting columns are of iron made in Scotland. The building throughout is finished in black walnut and birch, its doors, locks, etc., being made in Boston. The rooms are spacious and lofty, and the fittings and conveniences are now up-to-date. In 1904 the northern part of this property was purchased by Roderick Macdonald, of Macdonald & Co., Ltd., of Halifax, who erected the large boathouse now occupied by the H. A. B. C. under lease from the owner for a term of years. In 1906 Mr. Macdonald acquired the residence and the balance of the property, and has since resided at Oaklands.

At the northern end of Oaklands, a name which the property bore at a very early date, the width of the Northwest Arm is contracted to about six hundred feet, with seven to nine fathoms of water, and from this point there is afforded one of the finest views of the lower or southern basin of the Arm. There is another splendid view at the southern end of Oaklands estate. Here the Northwest Arm is much wider, and from a point stretching out into the water known as Oaklands Point, a view can be had which compasses the entire length of the Northwest Arm. Northward can be seen the Bridge at the head of the Arm, and looking southward the view is an uninterrupted one out the bay to the heaving Atlantic, across which the Mauretania, Lusitania and other leviathans of the Cunard fleet ply with ferry-like regularity at express speed between Europe and America. Opposite Oaklands, on the western shore of the Arm is the Dingle, part of which has been deeded to the Lieut.-Governor of Nova Scotia in trust for a public park. On an elevation on this area there was recently laid the corner-stone of a memorial tower, intended to commemorate the beginning of representative government in Nova Scotia. About twenty years ago Sir Sandford Fleming, the owner of the Dingle, made an offer for the purchase of the northern part of Oaklands, having in view the possibility at some future time of bridging the Northwest Arm at this point. Oaklands is within a mile and a half of the general post-office, and may be said to be a park and farm combined, being capable of cutting quite a large tonnage of hay and producing quantities of roots, etc. This is typical of the comfortable homes men of wealth fifty years ago established for themselves on the Northwest Arm. Oaklands Cove is a favorite bathing place. James Tremain, a brother of Richard Tremain mentioned above, was a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia at one time; another brother owned the adjoining property, Belmont. This family was descended from John and Jonathan Tremain, who came from New York and settled here before the Revolution. They conducted a small rope walk in Bland’s Fields, and another in Dartmouth, near the site of the present works of the Consumers Cordage Co. The house on South Street occupied by Mr. Justice Drysdale, was built by the original John Tremain.

he property of Thomas W. Ritchie, Esq., and of George Ritchie and the Misses Ritchie, is one of the finest estates on the eastern bank of the Northwest Arm, though not now nearly as large as it was originally when it comprised Marlborough Woods and other parcels of land. Belmont has been known for over a century as the residence of gentlemen prominent in the affairs of the province of Nova Scotia. The successive owners of this suburban domain have been noted for their hospitality, and some of the most brilliant events in the gay society of the days of the city’s naval and military eminence have taken place within its precincts. The owners and occupants have been judges, naval officers and merchants eminent in the history of this port. According to statement of title dated 1843, Belmont comprised 90½ acres. The first mention of the property in the abstract of title is that of lot No. 13 in letter B., and lot No. 1 in letter E., situated in the south division of five acre lots; these parcels were conveyed by Samuel Sprague to John Schnedier on March 19th, 1774, for £1 10s. On September 24th, 1790, lots No. 5 and 6 in the south division of five acre lots, letter E., were conveyed by George Vanput to Henry Duncan, a connection of the famous naval commander, Viscount Duncan, for £7 in fee-simple. On November 11th, 1790, Schnedier conveyed the property bought from Samuel Sprague as above to Henry Duncan for £8 10s. Hannah Crafts, Thomas Towell and Arch. Wilson sold Hon. Henry Duncan lot No. 3 on November 11th, 1790, for £3 10s. Hon. Henry Duncan, on November 31st**, 1790, received from the crown a grant of 18 acres. Thomas Cochran, in exchange for lot No. 13, which originally belonged to Samuel Sprague, conveyed part of lots Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 in letter B., south division, five acre lots, 8 acres and 13 rods in all, to Hon. Henry Duncan, R. N. Thus we see how the estate of Belmont, or as it was then known “Commissioner’s Farm,” was acquired. The name, Belmont, was conferred on the property probably to continue the name of Duncan’s ancestral home in Dundee. Commander Henry Duncan entered the navy at an early age and was in active service in the East and in the West Indies. He was commissioner of the Halifax Dock Yard during the latter part of the war with the revolted American colonies. He was associated with Alex. Brymer in large business transactions and was president of the North British Society in 1796. In some Dock Yard letter books of date 1783, we find the following copy of a letter to the master shipwright at the navy yard:—

“You are hereby required and directed to inspect into His Majesty’s ships named in margin, and cause them to be repaired as far as possible. Halifax, November 20th, 1783. Henry Duncan.”

**[Transcriber Note: The month of November only has 30 days.]

The ships referred to were the “Mercury,” “Bonnette,” and the “Observer.” The latter was a brig-of-war and fought a severe engagement off Halifax harbor with the American privateer CJack,” of Salem, Mass., making her a prize and killing her captain and a number of her crew. The “Jack” was brought into Halifax and condemned in the admiralty court.

Again, Governor Parr writes to Commissioner Duncan about the necessity of having the provincial schooner “Greyhound” repaired. The commissioners of the admiralty at London also write to the master shipwright at the Dockyard immediately after the peace with the American colonies as follows: “We have your letter of the 10th June last relative to the damage to the “Stanislaus,” prison ship, has sustained from the prisoners which were on board of her and the difference of the estimate delivered for repairing the same, and acquaint you we have referred it to Commissioner Duncan.”

In the old letter books now in possession of the Historical Society of Nova Scotia, there are a number of letters from the famous admiral, Sir Robt. Digby, superintending the evacuation of New York by the British, recommending that a number of loyalist pilots be put on the list of pilots at Halifax at half pay. He specially mentions one, Killgrew, who lost his health through the severity of treatment endured in the prisons of the Americans during the late war.

On the 3rd January, 1788, Lieutenant-Governor Parr appointed Henry Duncan, Commissioner of the Navy Yard, and Attorney-General Blowers to be members of His Majesty’s Council in Nova Scotia.

Edward B. Brenton purchased the Belmont estate from Hon. Henry Duncan. He was the son of Judge Brenton who was impeached with Judge Deschamps by two loyalist lawyers, Jonathan Sterns and William Taylor. The Brentons were a leading Rhode Island family who sided with the crown in the revolutionary war. Hon. John Halliburton, who was the father of the Chief Justice of that name, married Susannah Brenton, while surgeon of a frigate commanded by Lord Colville who had visited Newport, R. I., in the year 1780. Dr. Halliburton became acquainted with the family of the Hon. Jahleel Brenton, whose son and grandson were well-known admirals in the British navy. He married Miss Brenton on the 4th of January, 1767. This alliance caused him to adopt the colony of Rhode Island as his home and follow his profession among his newly found friends and acquaintances. When open hostilities commenced between Great Britain and the Colonies, Dr. Halliburton was banished for refusing to subscribe to the test ordered by the revolutionary assembly. Dr. John Halliburton was granted by the crown some of the roads at Belmont. They were the proposed streets through the five acre lots, and this grant is dated June 1st, 1803.

Brenton, the owner of Belmont, was a barrister. In 1801 it was proposed to establish a bank in Halifax by means of a joint stock company, the capital of which was to be £50,000, in shares of £100 each. A committee of management was named, consisting of Edward B. Brenton, William Forsythe, Foster Hutchinson, Lawrence Hartshorn, James Foreman, James Fraser and Capt. John Beckwith. They required a monopoly, which was refused by the House of Assembly, and the project fell through. There was no public bank in Halifax until many years after this date, when the Halifax Banking Co. was chartered, which is today amalgamated with the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Edward Brenton’s name appears in many transactions of a public nature and he appears to have been a prominent citizen and an influential lawyer. In 1802 he was Judge Advocate, a legal position connected with the garrison of that day.

On August 12th, 1815, the property of Belmont was conveyed to John Howe, jr., by Edward B. Brenton and his wife Catherine for £1,800 sterling, Howe executing an indenture of mortgage of £995. Brenton sold another parcel of land to John Howe, jr., at Belmont for £148 at the same time. John Howe, jr., must have resided some years in the house at Belmont before he is recorded as purchasing the property, because we find it stated by Akin in his History of Halifax “that two fires occurred this year (1811), one at Commissariat Building, Hollis Street, the site of the present Bank of Nova Scotia, and the other at Belmont, John Howe’s residence at the Northwest Arm.”

On August 11th, 1816, Edward Brenton gave John Howe, jr., a release of mortgage amounting to £996 13s. 4d., while next day John Howe executed a new mortgage to Henry H. Cogswell for £800. In 1842, John Howe raised a further sum of £400 upon the property from H. H. Cogswell. In 1843, a deed of trust was executed by John Howe, sr., in favor of John Howe, jr., Joseph Howe and Joseph A. Seivewright. The above mentioned executors executed a deed of sale dated May 22nd, 1844, for £550 to William Clark, and on May 23rd, 1844, Henry H. Cogswell assigned all the lots mentioned in the mortgage to him dated 12th of August, 1816, to William Clark.

In 1857, Belmont passed to Judge J. W. Ritchie, and is now held by Thomas W. Ritchie. John Howe, jr., who resided at Belmont was a son of a Boston loyalist by a first marriage. His father, John Howe, sr., came to Halifax when the British evacuated Boston, March, 1776, and for 57 years was printer and publisher of the “Nova Scotia Gazette” and “Halifax Journal.” His son John was associated with him in business. John Howe, sr., was the father of the Hon. Joseph Howe by his second wife, and he also resided at the Northwest Arm, but farther south than Belmont, on a part of the property now owned by B. F. Pearson. There his famous son Joseph was born, whose monument stands in the south end of the Province Building Square, Halifax. John Howe, jr., afterwards was appointed postmaster at St. John, N. B., to which place he removed in 1837; he died in that city some time in the nineties of that century, and some of his descendants still reside there. In their time, the Howes seemed to have been active business men, because their names are connected with real estate transactions in many parts of Halifax, between 1820 and 1840. David Howe, son of John Howe, published a paper at St. Andrew’s, N. B.

n the eastern side of the Northwest Arm, Marlborough Woods, the property of the Northwest Arm Land Company, is situated. It was formerly a portion of the Belmont estate, which included the Taylor fish lot as well as Commissioner’s Farm, and was conveyed by Thomas and George Ritchie, executors of Judge J. W. Ritchie, to R. L. Borden, who sold a small portion of the land to the Halifax Golf Club, on which to build a clubhouse, and the remaining part, an extensive area, was deeded in 1895 to the Northwest Arm Land Company, of which Hy. Roper is vice-president. The Land Co. has sold a number of lots to Halifax gentlemen, who have erected cottages on this delightful spot. The location is an ideal one and commands a charming outlook. On the other side of the water, here only about a quarter of a mile wide, rise knolls clothed with almost every variety of wood, bare rocky hills with beautiful little bays bathing their base, greater coves eating into the land here and there, while a vast country covered with forest and dotted with lakes, stretches far beyond. Among those who have cottages at Marlborough are H. M. Pride, manager Amherst Boot & Shoe Co.; H. Roper, Russell Twining, J. A. Clark, manager Eastern Canada Savings & Loan Co. and Dr. G. H. Fluck. Henry Roper is manager of S. M. Brookfield, Limited, building contractors, who have erected many of the modern buildings in Halifax. Some years ago plans were drawn for a large summer hotel called The Anglo-Saxon, to be erected at Marlborough, but the project fell through. Joseph Howe, who was born a little below Marlborough, and who loved the locality, was never tired of praising the “Arm’s enchanted ground,” while for the Arm itself his feelings were those of a lover for his mistress. The Old Exhibition Building on Tower Road, now used as a work-shed to shelter the stonemasons employed building the new Church of England Cathedral, may later be taken down and re-erected at Marlborough Woods for use as an ice and roller skating rink, with prospective tramway extension. Mr. Roper calls his cottage at Marlborough the Ideal bungalow. J. A. Clark’s pretty summer home is labelled Swastika Cottage and Mr. Twining’s residence, Langley Cottage.

hese properties are owned by Walter Thomson and Senator McKeen respectively. They adjoin and were comprised in an original grant to William and George Castaffin, made in 1784. Pine Hill College property was a portion of this grant. In 1806, William Peck, a son-in-law of one of the Castaffins, conveyed the property to John Halliburton, a naval surgeon at the Dockyard Hospital, and father of Chief Justice Halliburton, who owned the Bower. Mr. Thomson’s father purchased the Fernwood land which contains 4½ acres from the Halliburton family.

Maplewood, on which a lovely new house has been built by Senator McKeen, was formerly the property of William Hare, father-in-law of Professor Weldon, Dean of the Law Faculty of Dalhousie College. It afterward became the property of the late M. B. Almon, jr., by whom it was transferred to the present owner. General Sir Patrick MacDougall lived at Maplewood at one time. General Sir John Ross also resided there. Lord Aberdeen, Governor-General of Canada, used this property as his residence the summer he spent in Halifax. Members of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron thought of buying Maplewood before it was purchased by Senator McKeen, and preliminary overtures were opened, but were not completed. Had this plan been carried out the yachting headquarters would have been on the Northwest Arm in addition to the Arm’s boating and canoeing eminence. Hon. David McKeen is president of the Halifax Electric Tramway Co., Ltd., and identified with numerous other financial and industrial institutions.

erhaps no other spot on the Northwest Arm is more interesting to the generation that is fast passing away than Pine Hill property. Pictures that have been preserved of the old substantial residence will readily recall to the older residents of the city many pleasing recollections of the past. This house was built in the early forties by a wealthy gentleman named Samuel Story, who was also noted for his numerous peculiarities. It is related that on summer mornings he would gallop on horseback at full speed through the town regardless of life or limb. The property was sold after a few years to the late James W. Fenerty, and it was in this house that Arthur Fenerty of the Customs Department, was born. For a number of years the house was tenanted by the late Dr. Tomkins, a Congregationalist clergyman, pastor of the old Salem Church on Argyle Street, who later returned to England and entered the legal profession becoming one of the most brilliant and accomplished members of the Inner Temple. He afterwards became a member of the House of Commons and won for himself the reputation of being one of the most scholarly and ablest speakers in the English Parliament. Surgeon General J. D. McIllree, inspector of hospitals, resided in the old house after Dr. Tomkins’ departure for England and remained there until his recall in 1864. Then the property was purchased by Edward Albro, father of J. E. Albro, and in 1871 the dwelling was razed and the present building erected. In 1879 the property was sold to the Presbyterian body for a college, when another story was added to it. Two-thirds of the Presbyterian clergy at present in Nova Scotia are graduates of this school, which has had a number of able scholars on its teaching faculty. R. A. Falconer, President of the University of Toronto, and Dr. Gordon, Principal of Queen’s University, Kingston, were both connected with Pine Hill at the time of receiving their respective appointments. What is probably the largest telescope in Nova Scotia was presented to Pine Hill by George S. Campbell of Halifax.

The present principal of the college is Dr. Robert Magill, a cultured Irishman. Mrs. Magill is a daughter of Edward Stairs, president of Wm. Stairs, Son & Morrow, Ltd.

ne of the prettiest villas on the Northwest Arm is Bilton Cottage, between Emscote and Pine Hill. The land was originally part of the property conveyed by John Howe to Robert Lawson, by deed dated 1836. The latter sold it in 1846 to Patrick Connolly, who transferred the property to James Fenerty in 1851. In 1867, Fenerty sold the property to Sophia Uniacke and a year later Mrs. Uniacke passed the property to Colonel Conrod Sawyer, who altered and improved the house and gave the property the name of Bilton Cottage in remembrance of his home in England. Colonel Sawyer’s executors sold the property to the testator’s son Harry Sawyer in 1895, and he in turn transferred it to M. R. Morrow, agent of the Dominion Coal Co., in 1898. In 1907 Mr. Morrow sold the property to Captain Rose of the United States Navy, retired. Captain Rose lives at Bilton Cottage and is an active member of the Yacht Squadron. Mrs. Rose is a native of Charlottetown, P. E. I. The old cottage has been beautifully furnished and renovated since coming into the possession of Captain Rose, and is one of the prettiest estates on the Arm.

n a long, low cottage of one story and a pitch, which stood on the eastern slope of the Northwest Arm, Joseph Howe, Nova Scotia’s famous parliamentarian and statesman, was born December, 1804. The building was about 300 yards southwest of the Presbyterian Theological College, within easy access of the waters of the Arm, and on the grounds of what is now Emscote, the residence of B. F. Pearson, M. P. P. Mr. Sydenham Howe, a son of Joseph Howe, writes: “The cottage in which my father was born stood on the site of the house at present occupied by Hon. B. F. Pearson. It was destroyed by fire many years ago. I am not sure of the date, but think it was previous to 1840. I visited the place many times in company with my father, who pointed out the remains of the old cellar, and I saw the present house in course of erection on the same spot. The spring frequently referred to in my father’s poems was quite near the road running north and south, and on every occasion on which my father and I walked about the old place, he clambered over the old stone wall which used to border the property and drank from the old familiar spring, as I have also often done, even when he was not my companion. (The location is now indicated by the red pump which can be seen from the road.) My father’s half brother, John Howe, jr., owned Belmont and lived there in summer for years and moved into Halifax in the winter. He died in 1843, and he was for years King’s Printer and Postmaster General in succession to his father, and it was in his office that Joseph Howe learned the ‘art preservative.’ ” It is a coincidence that Joe Howe’s paper, the “Nova Scotian,” and the site of his birthplace should both come into the possession of the same man, and Mr. Pearson states that when he agreed to buy Emscote he did not know that this was where Howe was born.

In his youth, Joe Howe loved to bathe in the salt water, and one evening, according to a book, “The Makers of Canada,” recently published, while taking a solitary swim in the Arm, he was seized with cramp and felt himself sinking. He cast an agonized look around and caught sight of the dearly loved cottage on the hillside, where his mother was just placing a lighted candle on the window sill. The thought of the grief which would overshadow that woman’s heart on the morrow inspired him to give a last despairing kick. The cramp was dispelled, and hastily swimming ashore the youth who was one day to become a foremost statesman of his time sank down exhausted, but thankful for his deliverance. It was long before he could summon courage to acquaint his parents of the circumstances. On the slopes of this beautiful spot the young Howe loved to read or to take a boat and row along the winding shores of the sparkling waters, which combined all the beauty of lake and river scenery in one, or to paddle his skiff to the opposite shore and land and climb the forest-clad hill. Often he would frequent the lake above Lawson’s, where his name is still perpetuated amongst anglers by a stand on Williams’ Lake known as Howe’s rock.

The Howes loved the shores of the Northwest Arm and made their homes upon its wooded slopes. John Howe, jr., the half brother of Joseph, we have seen lived at Belmont for many years. John Howe, sr., owned part of the Emscote land and the Uniacke lot, and conveyed this property to John Howe, jr., on June 25th, 1823, for £325, the deed being witnessed by Joseph Doby and R. G. Morse, and it refers to various buildings on the property. The deed was recorded the following year. This property was conveyed by John Howe, jr., to Robt. Lawson, Feb. 24th, 1836, for £500. This comprised lots number 6 and 7, letter D., in the south division of farm lots on the peninsula, about 4¼ acres.

In 1825, John Howe, sr., received a grant from the crown of 7 acres, called lot number 8, letter E., south division.

On September, 1847, Lawson mortgaged to Hon. Enos Collins half the property he had received. Collins afterward obtained a conveyance of the land and deeded it to Patrick Connolly, the father of the present Rev. John Connolly, S. J., an eloquent Jesuit pulpit orator. Then Lawson is recorded deeding a right-of-way now known as Francklyn Street to Patrick Connolly. On June 3rd, 1861, Connolly conveyed to Henry C. D. Twining the property and right-of-way for £161, and Twining conveyed the property to Maurice MacIlreith, the father of Ex-Mayor MacIlreith, for the sum of £400. MacIlreith sold it to Anne Vass, July, 1863. She passed the property in 1864 to William Cunard for $10,000, and Cunard passed it on to his brother-in-law, Colonel G. W. Francklyn. The north half of the Howe property which adjoins Pine Hill College also fell into the hands of Patrick Connolly in 1846, through purchase from Robert Lawson. Connolly deeded this portion to J. W. Fenerty in Nov., 1851, and Fenerty conveyed it in 1867 to Sophia Uniacke, who sold part of it to Colonel Francklyn, the father of G. E. Francklyn. The property was named Emscote after a village in Warwickshire, Eng., near Colonel Francklyn’s old home. The John Howe grant passed into the hands of Patrick Moran in 1847. From Moran it went to J. W. Johnston, jr., in 1854, for £200. From Johnston it was transferred to William Fitzgerald, and from him to one Lannon, the father of Joe Lannon the pugilist. From Lannon a part went to Connolly and a part to James Reardon, and eventually both portions came into the hands of the Francklyn family in 1882. The balance of Emscote was a grant from the Dominion Government to George Francklyn of part of the old Penitentiary property.

In 1825, John Howe, sr., owned the whole of the present site of Tower Road village, with the exception of one parcel of land in the centre, which was owned by J. W. Johnston, jr., the late judge in equity, Joseph Howe’s famous adversary in the fight for responsible government—a curious coincidence. The property owned by John Howe, sr., south of Pine Hill Theological College, and where his famous son Joseph was born, was originally owned by Nathaniel Mason and Jonathan Sterns. Mason kept a fish house there in 1784. Jonathan Sterns, who owned the property before it came into the possession of Howe, was a loyalist lawyer of Marblehead, Mass., who was prescribed for addressing Generals Gage and Howe, and forced to leave Boston on the withdrawal of the British troops, and accompanied them here where he settled. He married a sister of Judge Robie, who studied law in his office. Sterns was an uncompromising opponent of the patriotic party in the American Revolution. He was an able lawyer, and in his early career in Halifax was the prime mover in the effort to impeach the Judges Brenton and Deschamp, which fell through owing to the opposition of the old council.

Judge Johnston became premier of Nova Scotia and helped to develop responsible government. He was one of the founders of Acadia College, Wolfville, N. S., and occupies a large place in provincial history, which is well described in a series of valuable articles from the pen of Rev. Dr. Saunders.

A statue to Howe in the Provincial Building Square contains this inscription: “Journalist, Orator, Poet, Statesman, Prophet, Patriot, Briton. Born at Halifax Dec. 13th, 1804. Died at Government House, June 1st, 1873.” Grant’s “Life of Howe” contains the following reference to the Arm: “He was born Dec., 1804, in an old-fashioned cottage on the steep hillside that runs up from the city side of the Northwest Arm, a beautiful inlet of the sea that steals up the entrance of the harbor for three or four miles into the land behind the city of Halifax. A lawn, with oak trees round the edges, and a little garden with apple and cherry trees surrounded the house.” Hon. B. F. Pearson, the present owner of this historic property, is a member of the provincial assembly representing his native county of Colchester, and a member of the local government without portfolio. As the promoter of numerous enterprises he has conferred great benefit upon the province, but in an unobtrusive way. He took a leading part in organizing the Halifax Street Railway and the Nova Scotia Telephone Co. He interested H. M. Whitney, of Boston, in Cape Breton coal and brought about the establishment of those giant industries, Dominion Coal and Dominion Steel. Mr. Pearson is identified with the Dominion Chair Co., Midland Railway Co., Annapolis Iron Co., and a score of other useful enterprises. He is the principal owner of the Halifax “Chronicle,” St. John “Sun,” and Glace Bay “Gazette,” and has many warm personal friends.

djoining Emscote, on the shores of the Northwest Arm is the site of the old provincial penitentiary, which was certainly a pleasant situation for the convicts. Happily this prison was long since removed. The prison was built by the Nova Scotia Government in the thirties. When the Dominion Government erected the federal prison at Dorchester, N. B., which was to serve as a place of confinement for the convicted felons from the three Maritime Provinces, the penitentiary at the Arm fell into disuse as a prison, and was temporarily occupied by the inmates of the Poor Asylum after the destruction of the City Home by fire in Nov. 2, 1882, when 32 people lost their lives. A portion of the land surrounding the prison passed into possession of George E. Francklyn by grant. The building and property was afterwards acquired by Henry M. Whitney, of Boston, and others, for the establishment of coke and gas works to light Halifax. These were operated for a while and abandoned. Part of the property is now owned by B. F. Pearson. Part of the remainder, which includes the site of the old prison, is the property of Chas. Brister. The street railway company owns the balance adjoining the park and the public bathing-house. It was from the old penitentiary that Jones, Hazelton, Anderson and Johnston, the ship Saladin pirates and murderers were conveyed on July 30th, 1844, to the place of execution, guarded by an escort of the 52nd Regiment. They were executed on the South Common, near the front of what is now the Victoria General Hospital. The old prison was also the scene of the life imprisonment and death of Mate Douglas of the brig “Zero,” the accomplice of Doucey, a colored seaman who was hung at Halifax about 1866 for the murder of the captain of the “Zero,” off the Nova Scotia coast. On the prison property there was for many years the grave of an unknown woman who died at the penitentiary. The grave was situated on the bank near the shore, surrounded by a railing, and was kept in order by the authorities of the prison. The grave was unmarked and the mound is probably now obliterated, and the secret of the slumberer, so far as known, remains secure in the forgotten grave. Death was not the only means of release for long time convicts. Sometimes they escaped across the Arm, and “Prisoner’s Cave” is still to be seen in the rugged, hilly country on the western shore of the Arm near Williams’ Lake. The legend is that an escaped prisoner from the penitentiary swam across the Arm and remained in hiding in the cave for a long time until search for him had been abandoned, he being supplied with food meanwhile by residents of the locality, whose compassion had been excited by stories of suffering within the prison walls. The entrance to the cave is difficult to find in the maze of woods and boulders which surrounds it, unless one is familiar with the location. A hole in the rock in the roof served as a vent for smoke.

The walls of the penitentiary building are still standing. While gutting the building to fill it with gas plant, the workmen of the Lighting Company, in demolishing the stone cells, obtained enough granite to make foundations for several other buildings which were erected. The venture of the People’s Heat and Light Co., for which the penitentiary property and the adjoining property were acquired, proved disastrous for the investors, but the result was fortunate for the preservation of the Arm as a pleasure resort and recreation ground. Noxious fumes and smoke from the gas plant would have polluted the atmosphere and played havoc with the beauty of the surroundings.

oint Pleasant Park, which is situated at the extremity of the peninsula of Halifax, commands a broad view of the Atlantic. On the east side it is bounded by Halifax Harbor, and on the south and west by the beautiful sheet of water known as the Northwest Arm. The Park is Imperial property, but is leased to the city for an indefinite period at a nominal rent of a shilling a year. Once a year all roads leading into it are closed for twenty-four hours to maintain the ownership and prevent any possible claim to a public right-of-way. The roads through the Park were originally built by the military under the direction of Colonel Montague, of the Royal Engineers, and are kept in capital order and enable the visitor to drive through all portions of the Park. There are very beautiful views of the harbor, the ocean, and the Northwest Arm from different points. Point Pleasant Park is unrivalled in Canada, and is beautiful beyond comparison. Its woodlands, driving roads and riding paths, twisting and twining with serpentine grace in and out through the forest of spruce and pine, with glimpses now of the harbor, now of the Northwest Arm, anon of the broad ocean rolling in through the entrance of Chebucto Bay, and breaking on the beach at one’s very feet, enchant the spectator. Picturesque Canada thus describes this charming resort: “Broad carriage drives of a most excellent smoothness wind through the natural forest, the shimmer of the sea ever and anon closing the vista. Footpaths abound where one might lose himself most enjoyably among the labyrinth of rocks, trees and tall brackens. Shut your eyes and ears to the plashing ocean all round, and fancy yourself in the Black Forest of Germany. There are the mossy reaches under tall pines, the wealth of wild flowers, the sweet resinous odour as the paths go up and up, you care not whither. Where are the ruins? There is a good substitute in the old Martello Tower.”

Emscote, Residence of Hon. F. B. McCurdy, looking into Purcell’s Cove.

Site of the birthplace of Hon. Joseph Howe, Dec. 13, 1804.

Along the shores are fortifications commanding the entrance to the harbor and Northwest Arm. Here also are found the remains of old batteries and entrenchments of the eighteenth century. On the Northwest Arm side of Point Pleasant Park may be seen the Chain Rock. This was at one time the landing place of a strong boom that obstructed the entrance up the Arm, and the ring and bolt remained in the rock until surreptitiously removed by souvenir hunters a few years ago. The boom was protected by a battery. The foundations of the entrenchments are still visible. In these days of peace there is no chain, and the place is a favorite resort for bathers, a public bath house being situated there. In the old, troubled days of war a chain of fortifications encircled the water front of Point Pleasant Park. The remains of these works are apparent today at every commanding position.

In the Park at the southern end, a famous South Carolina loyalist cleared a lot of land and built a stone house where he resided. This officer was Colonel Fanning, not he of the same name the fiery officer who was refused the benefits of the Act of Oblivion by the State of South Carolina, but a gentleman who was rewarded for his attachment to the crown of Great Britain by being appointed Governor of St. John Island, afterwards renamed Prince Edward Island. At another period he was Governor of Cape Breton. The land which he cleared in the Park is still known as the colonel’s fields.

he ferry across the entrance of the Northwest Arm, conducted by Robert J. and Charles Purcell at Point Pleasant, has been a familiar object to the people of Halifax for a long period of years. Early records indicate that communication between the outlying fortifications on the farther side of the Arm and the city was originally carried on by man-of-war pinnaces and flat bottomed scows stationed at the Royal Engineer Yard, King’s Wharf, Ordnance Yard (now known as the Gun Wharf), and H. M. Dockyard. A system of signalling by a heliographic code was also in use. A notable instance of the value of the signal code occurred in the transmission by the late Chief Justice Halliburton, (then a subaltern on duty at York Redoubt), to the look-out station at Fort George, Citadel Hill, of news of the stranding of H. M. S. La Tribune on Thrum Cap on 23rd November, 1797. Boats were at once despatched both from the Dockyard and the R. E. Lumber Yard to the scene of disaster. The sad loss of life under the cliffs at the western entrance of Herring Cove (known since as Tribune Head) is one of the most pathetic episodes in the annals of the neighborhood. There were only six survivors out of the whole ship’s company. More convenient transit between Point Pleasant and the opposite side of the Arm leading to York Redoubt became a matter of necessity as the years rolled on, but it was not till 1853, that a regular ferry service between the two points was undertaken. The places selected were Purcell’s Cove, or rather Island Cove, inside of Spectacle Island, on the western side, and Point Pleasant at the southernmost end of the peninsula, about three miles from the centre of Halifax. Joseph Purcell, uncle of Robert and Charles Purcell, the present proprietors, made a beginning single-handed from the Purcell’s Cove side, a flag pole being used at Point Pleasant, to display a signal when a passage across was needed. Mischievous urchins having given much trouble through false signals on several occasions, a hut was erected at Point Pleasant, and a sturdy Irishman, Kennedy by name, engaged to look after the ferry on Halifax side. On the death of the founder of the ferry, his nephew James had charge for three years. Kennedy having also died, Robert Carteel who had married the widow Purcell, took up the management. The colonel commanding the Royal Engineers gave Carteel permission to build a house on the site of the hut, allowing him the use of materials from some old military buildings in the vicinity. Carteel conducted the ferry in conjunction with James and Samuel Purcell for fifteen years till 1870, when Major W. A. Purcell, the well-known taxidermist, conducted the service till 1890, his brother Charles taking the Island Cove portion. Since 1890, another brother, Robert J. has run the ferry from the Ferry Station at the Point on the Halifax side.

A much needed change is about to be made in the location of the ferry house at Point Pleasant, the present landing place being inconvenient and much exposed. The buildings are likewise badly dilapidated and out of repair. It should be borne in mind, that the need of discerning signals from the opposite shore, at the distance of over a mile was an essential factor in running the ferry, when first started, as it was largely used by the military authorities for the troops, as well as for workmen and supplies in construction of the forts. The building of a modern ferry house and more sheltered landing place will be a great boon to not a few local residents, in addition to affording visitors an opportunity of enjoying scenic views of rare beauty in the vicinity of Purcell’s Cove, Falkland Village, Ferguson’s Cove, York Redoubt and Herring Cove. The twelve and sixteen oar man-of-war cutters of bygone days held in readiness at the R. E. yard have been replaced by convenient steam-tugs and launches which make the round of the forts at regular hours daily.

Quite a little squadron of these up-to-date craft now convey the troops and supplies to the various military stations at George’s and McNab’s Island and round the whole expanse of the harbor, which in former times were almost entirely dependent (as far as the forts on the Northwest Arm side were concerned) on the unpretending ferry enterprise of successive generations of the Purcell family. The Point Pleasant ferry is now under the supervision of the Park Commission, and a small subsidy is granted to supplement the fares, together with residential privileges, the land occupied, however, being still under the control of the Imperial Government, who formerly paid a small subsidy for the conveyance of troops across.

Jollimore’s ferry about the centre of the Arm proper is likewise aided by a small subsidy from the Local Government of the Province. Samuel Jollimore and his sons now conducting this convenient “bridge of boats,” began operating a ferry in 1880, straight across from the Cove to the Cunard property then occupied by the late P. C. Hill. Several commodious boats now run passengers across to a convenient landing place on the property of Roderick Macdonald, Esq., near the foot of South Street, a couple of hundred yards from the Electric Tram line, in a few minutes, at any time day or night. The morning and evening trips for business residents are practically continuous, the distance in sheltered water being but a quarter of a mile.

Boutilier’s ferry from South Street landing to Boutilier’s Point is also available to the public at almost instant notice, from either side.

Longley’s ferry from Jubilee Road to Melville Park runs at frequent intervals on much the same route as that utilized by the Imperial Government formerly in making connections with Melville Island.

The river-like surface of the Arm renders the brief transit across a mere bagatelle for the possessors of boats or canoes, constituting domestic ferries from club house to bungalow at will.

At Coburg Road, Adam Marr, a veteran harbour boatman, has conducted a successful boat slip for five years past—since the rise of boating on the Arm rendered business on the harbour less attractive than formerly. Boats can be obtained here to convey passengers to any part of the Arm. Telegraph and telephone cables, some of them the private military lines of communication with the outlying fortresses and Melville prison, cross the Arm at several points. The Nova Scotia Telephone Co. has one hundred instruments on the western shore of the Arm.

he first license of the quarry lots on the western shore of the Northwest Arm was made, during the administration of the government of Nova Scotia by the Hon. Michael Wallace, President of the Council and Treasurer of the Province. This property is known as the Queen’s Quarries and was licensed to the principal officers of the Ordnance department, Halifax. The deed recites as follows: “License is hereby granted to Gustavus Nicolls, Esq., a colonel in His Majesty’s army and commanding the Royal Engineers, at Halifax, the Hon. Charles Morris, Surveyor General, and Sir Rupert De George, Bart., Secretary of the Province of Nova Scotia and to their successors in the said offices of commanding Royal Engineers, Surveyor General and Secretary of the Province, to occupy during pleasure in trust for the use of His Majesty.” Colonel Nicolls built the Citadel. The quarries were formerly granted to Robt. Dickey and escheated.

They adjoined land granted William Russell, Esq., in the year 1752. Russell’s grant fixes the early naming of the inlet from Chebucto Bay as Northwest Arm. This grant comprised the parcel of land known as Purcell’s Cove and Island. These were formerly known as Mackerel Cove and Russell’s Island, and are so marked on the old map attached to the grant of the quarries. Russell’s grant extended back as far as Flat Lake off the Herring Cove Road. The quarries grant comprised 200 acres and ran north to John Trider’s property, beginning at Indian Cove, so named because in early days the Micmacs resorted to it for the purpose of fishing and celebrating festivals. A spot between the military wharf and a small peninsula is named Indian Path, by which the aborigines gained the lakes situated beyond the boundaries of the quarries. From these quarries the Citadel bastions and escarpments were built, and from the adjoining iron stone deposits the walls of the dockyard were renewed. Some of the stone of which the beautiful facade of St. Mary’s Cathedral is constructed, came from these government quarries (the balance came dressed from Quincy, Mass.), as also did the granite which was used in the various fortifications that command and protect Halifax Harbor today.

The land adjoining the quarries at the north was formerly granted to Henry Ferguson and afterwards passed to John Trider, who was a government contractor and built the stone house at the foot of Inglis Street.

The water lot in front of the land occupied by the quarries was granted by the Nova Scotia government to Lord Panmure, Secretary of State for War. This grant is signed by Charles Tupper, Provincial Secretary, and Sir Gaspard LeMarchant, Lieut.-Governor. The Queen’s Quarry property is now owned by Havelock McC. Hart, who purchased the same from the British Government for the sum of $1,000 on the occasion, two years ago, of the withdrawal of Imperial troops from this station after a continuous occupation for more than 150 years. Mr. Hart is a member of a family of very successful Halifax merchants, one of whom, Jairus Hart, an uncle, was President of the Bank of Nova Scotia, and a munificent citizen.

Purcell’s Cove is the original of the bridge scene on the drop screen at the Academy of Music. Among others who summer here is William Dennis, proprietor and editor of the Halifax Herald and Evening Mail, and a striking figure in Canadian journalism. He is interested financially in various provincial industries, and a liberal supporter of athletics and aquatics, a patron of numerous charities and a friend of home enterprise. F. D. Morton and A. R. Cogswell have bungalows at Purcell’s.

Passing beyond the beautiful cove and island known as Purcell’s, we come to a fishing village clinging to the side of the hill north of York Redoubt. The hamlet is named Falkland in honor of Lady Falkland, who was a liberal contributor to the local church building fund, and was the wife of a lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia. She was said to be a daughter of the morganatic alliance of the celebrated Mrs. Jordan and King William IV. The village is the home of a hardy race of fisher folk and pilots, and climbs the steep in a very picturesque manner, and viewed at a distance from Halifax with its combination of two churches and the fortress on the summit of the hill above, presents the aspect of a scene in the mountains of Spain, with castle and village overlooking a wide expanse of sea.

York Redoubt is a modern fortress of great strength, at the extreme end of the long line of hills that form the western boundaries of the Northwest Arm.

Beyond the Redoubt are a number of small coves inhabited by those who depend upon the ocean as a means of livelihood. Between these and Herring Cove is Spion Kop, a work of recent construction, the guns of which command the approach of the harbor for miles seaward; it is called after one of the notable engagements of the last Boer war in South Africa.

The next important cove, Herring Cove, is a deep inlet in the iron-bound coast, the birthplace of many famous fishermen crews renowned in aquatic contests, and the home of that great champion oarsman, George Brown. On a headland overlooking the ocean near the cove is a rugged cairn erected to this oarsman’s memory. Brown was born at Herring Cove 1839, and died July 8, 1875, only 36 years of age. Mr. J. W. Power, of the Halifax Acadian Recorder, states that Brown beat William Schaeff at Springfield, Mass., July 8, 1874, and Evan Morris at St. John, September 24, 1874. Both races were for the championship of America.

Ironstone is now being obtained at Queen’s Quarries for the new Church of England cathedral at Halifax. There are two distinct quarries—ironstone and granite. St. Paul’s Parish Hall on Argyle Street contains a great deal of ironstone from here, and the stone enjoys the peculiar quality of not rusting.

he land on which this club is located was formerly a portion of the Lawson property. It is on the west side of the Northwest Arm, and immediately opposite Fernwood, property of Walter Thomson, who was a son of James Thomson and a nephew of Cathcart Thomson, whose wife was a Miss Howe. The Lawson property in its original state comprised 450 acres and extended from Henry Ferguson’s grant adjoining the Queen’s Quarries to the boundaries of Jollimore Village. The executors of Hon. Charles Hill, a prominent merchant of Halifax, and a member of the legislative and executive councils, and the executor of George Mackintosh, conveyed to Robert Lawson, January 1, 1836, lot No. 1. Henry Lawson deeded the same lot to William Lawson, sr., May 1, 1843. William Lawson, sr., by will dated 29th October, 1844, devised all his real estate situate on the west side of the Northwest Arm to Henry Lawson. Henry Lawson conveyed to Ann Lawson on June 14, 1878, for $10,000 a large part of the above-mentioned property. On August 19, 1881, Henry Lawson received a grant of water lot named lot No. 2. Then he conveyed a part of lots Nos. 1 and 2 to Frederick Tremaine Miles. This included the privilege to cut ice from Williams’ Lake. Lawson also sold to the Atlantic Sugar House Co., December 1, 1881, a portion of lot No. 1, and a part of water lot No. 2.

By will of Ann Lawson, dated November 13, 1900, John T. Ross was appointed sole executor. All the residue of the estate, real and personal, was devised to Ross in trust to convert into money for the benefit of the Old Men’s Home. The executor conveyed to the Club Building Co., Ltd., by indenture April 5, 1906, for the consideration of $6,000, lots Nos. 1 and 2, except portions conveyed away by Henry Lawson as mentioned above.

The Club Building Co., Ltd., leased to George W. C. Hensley, Edward A. Kirkpatrick and Daniel A. Murray, trustees of the Saraguay Club, the property purchased from John T. Ross for a period of 10 years, with option for renewals. Parties identified with the Saraguay Club have since acquired the property of the defunct Atlantic Sugar House Co. in order to extinguish certain water-power rights in a stream common to both properties. W. A. Black, of the progressive steamship firm of Pickford & Black, and a former M. P. P., of Halifax, is president of the club.

Robert Lawson, who owned part of this property, and the John Howe property on the east side of the North West Arm, ran a corn mill for many years. He was a grandson of John Lawson, who, was born in Boston Mass., and came to Halifax in the 18th century. He was engaged in the mercantile business under the firm name of Prescott and Lawson; Collins and Allison afterwards succeeded to their business, which was carried on at the present Pickford & Black’s wharf. John Lawson’s son, William, was also a prominent merchant, and one of the founders and first president of the Bank of Nova Scotia. His portrait by Field the artist, hangs in the directors’ room of the bank. The Saraguay is a country club owning large wooded grounds, with bathing and boating facilities, and intersected with roads and drives. The clubhouse is the former residence of Henry Lawson, with certain improvements. Robert Lawson’s house has been unoccupied for some years. It is back from the Arm towards Williams’ Lake. Max Aitken, a rising figure in financial circles in Montreal, occupies a summer cottage on the Saraguay property a part of each year. It is called the Three Penny Lot, which was the annual rental paid for the property years ago to Henry Lawson. Between the Saraguay property and the sugar refinery site is a small lot formerly owned by Miles and by Chittick, the Dartmouth ice-man. There is a connection with Williams’ Lake at the rear, and natural ice was formerly cut at the lake for commercial uses, and brought to the shore by a huge trestle for shipment, some of it going to the United States. A large ice house was erected on the shore of the Arm for storing the ice, which was cut in blocks about two feet square. The ice house no longer exists. Bungalows have been erected on the property and were occupied for several seasons by four young men who entertained with skill and hospitality, and the place came to be affectionately spoken of as the “Sign of the Four.” Saraguay is an Indian word meaning “north branch.”

he progenitors of the Lawsons of Halifax were three brothers, John, William and David, who came from the United States; but little is known of their antecedents. They have been described as loyalists, but several stones in St. Paul’s bearing the name of Lawson are older than 1780, the earliest being John Shatford Lawson, Sept. 2, 1772. Descendants of the Lawsons became extensively interested in land at the Northwest Arm. Thomas W. Lawson, of Boston, is a great-grandson of the original William Lawson. He was born in New England, but his parents were married in Halifax. E. Lawson Fenerty is a first cousin of the coiner of “Frenzied Finance.” Mrs. M. J. Katzman Lawson wrote “A History of Dartmouth, Preston and Lawrencetown,” and won the Akins prize. Henry and Robert Lawson, who owned large tracts of land on both sides of the Arm, had eleven brothers and sisters. Walter Lawson, chief accountant of the Union Bank of Halifax, is a nephew. Robert Lawson’s old home, near the Atlantic Refinery, was occupied for a time by Rev. Dr. George Hill, chancellor of the Halifax University and rector of St. Paul’s. Colonel Lawson, who resides in Halifax, was formerly connected with the Military College at Sandhurst. The wife of the late Principal George M. Grant was a Miss Lawson.

oscobel, the residence of F. D. Corbett, comprises forty acres and extends back to Williams’ Lake. The property has been greatly improved since the present owner acquired it in July, 1888. Up to the time that the property was knocked down to him at a public sale which he happened to attend, Mr. Corbett had no notion of living at the Arm, but he realized that it would be a very nice place for his family for the summer. The estate was originally purchased from J. G. Jollimore and J. P. Boutilier by Henry C. D. Twining, clerk of the House of Assembly. He devised it to his son Henry St. George Twining, familiarly known to the last generation as “Drag,” in reference to St. George and the Dragon. Miss Violet Twining, daughter of Henry St. George Twining, is now Marchioness of Donegal, and resides in London. The name Boscobel was conferred on the property by Henry C. D. Twining for no special reason as far as known. It is the name of a parish in Shropshire, England, where Charles II. fled after his defeat at Worcester, 1651. On the way to Boscobel House the king had his long hair cut, his hands and face smeared with soot, and for his royal dress he substituted the homely suit of a countryman and leathern doublet. It was here at Boscobel Wood the monarch hid in the branches of an oak tree, and watched Cromwell’s soldiers passing beneath the tree in search of him—the story of the Royal Oak familiar to every school boy. Mr. Corbett has lately contributed $10,000 to the Halifax Children’s Hospital building fund. He has been an extensive traveller and possesses a valuable private library and a number of works of art. Mr. Corbett founded the firm of F. D. Corbett & Co., steamship agents, of which he was head, until his retirement several years ago, when his partner, George S. Campbell, became the head of the business now known as Geo. S. Campbell & Co. W. S. Davidson and R. A. Corbett, only son of F. D. Corbett, are the other partners. Mr. Campbell is a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia, chairman of the Board of Governors of Dalhousie University, and a patron of numerous useful enterprises.

his property lies on the western shore of the Arm, sloping gently back with a lake at the rear. It has been improved by cutting roads and walks through the trees, giving a park-like effect, and the owner has erected a number of pretty cottages for summer occupation. The proprietor is A. E. Haliburton-Gilpin, son of the late Archdeacon Gilpin, and a brother of the late Dr. Edwin Gilpin, jr., a scientist of international repute, and for many years Deputy Commissioner of Public Works and Mines in Nova Scotia. Mr. Gilpin resides at “Elgin,” St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. He acquired part of the property from Henry Lawson, and the balance from the late Hibbert Binney, Bishop of Nova Scotia, who had a summer cottage at this location. “Bishop’s Cottage” is still in good repair. On his mother’s side, Mr. Gilpin is a descendant of Thomas Chandler Haliburton, the author of “Sam Slick,” and other works of history and humor. Judge Haliburton was connected with the Chandler family of New Brunswick. He was a member of the supreme court bench of Nova Scotia, and afterwards removed to England, and was elected to the House of Commons. A son, Lord Arthur Haliburton, was connected with the higher branches of the British Civil Service for some years, while another son is a noted archaeologist and spends much of his time in the ruins of ancient Egypt. The Gilpin family first settled in Nova Scotia at Annapolis.

he Northwest Arm is a place of wonderful beauty, and it is no surprise, therefore, that it is a grateful retreat for the busy citizens of Halifax, where the cares of business may be temporarily laid aside amid the charm of calm waters and the attractions of a glorious landscape, beauties which appeal to the visitor to the Arm in whichever direction the eye is turned. Everything here is pleasing. The hill-tops, health laden breezes, fleecy clouds, and views of the blue ocean with incoming and departing ships in the foreground of the picture are all inviting and restful. Jollimore Village on the western side of the Northwest Arm has become a centre for city residents for summer seasons, and the shore and hillsides are dotted with cottages in Tyrolean fashion, with St. Augustine’s rural church, embowered in trees, nestling midway up the steep slope. A ferry connects with the cars at South Street, and a half hour is ample for the “villagers” to reach their places of business in the city. Jollimore Village is named after a fisherman, who with a number of others, came from Terrance Bay many years ago, not in search of the picturesque, which their summer visitors now admire, but in quest of an opportunity to pursue their honorable calling of fishers, the finny inhabitants at that time abounding in the clear waters of the Arm. Several generations of the descendants of these honorable toilers by the sea had passed across the stage since the first residents of the village built their humble cottages on the acclivity that slopes up from the water, before the citizens of Halifax were to learn that such an ideal spot for summer bungalows was at their very door. But at last the discovery was made, and the locality has now become the popular home, for a part of the year, of many prominent people of Halifax. Crowning a succession of artificial terraces rising from a neat retaining wall at the waterside is the pretty villa of Ex-Mayor MacIlreith. W. J. Butler, whose father was vice-president of the Royal Bank, owns an aerie cottage which commands a wide sweep of the Arm valley and part of the city opposite. From this lookoff one can see the Northwest Arm’s many points of historic interest, and few places in the world possess greater attractions in this respect than the lovely sheet of water down at our feet. Sometimes unruffled and reflective as a mirror, anon stirred by a gentle breeze and flashing like dancing diamonds, or asleep in the majesty of a moonlight night, the Northwest Arm is one of the beauty spots of the earth. A. E. McManus owns a cottage just on the southern limits of the village, which was built by Colonel Curren, and has named it “Unadilla,” “the house of peace.” The name is South American Indian, and a souvenir of a trip to Patagonia in search of a new El Dorado, one of Mr. McManus’ two sons being a member of the ship’s company. G. H. Jost, an architect who has designed many buildings in Maritime Canada, is one of the “villagers.”

JOLLIMORE OR ARM VILLAGE ON THE WESTERN SHORE OF THE NORTHWEST ARM

he Dingle is a large property on the western shore of the Northwest Arm owned by Sir Sandford Fleming, who was chief engineer in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the promoter of the British Pacific cable, to girdle the globe, and identified with other large undertakings. Sir Sandford has decided to donate part of this property to the city of Halifax as a public park, as nearly the entire shore surrounding the Arm is owned by clubs and private individuals, and there is not much opportunity for boating parties to land and picnic if they are unconnected with the present proprietors. The Dingle property is bounded on the north by the Melville Island property, and on the south by Jollimore Village. The land was originally granted to William McGrannigan. Sir Sandford purchased it from several owners and their heirs. A large part of the Dingle belonged to the estate of Arthur Murphy, an Irishman, part to that of Mrs. Palmer, who was a Jollimore, and a part to the Boutilier family. The latter exchanged with Sir Sandford for a piece of land within the Jollimore Village boundaries. William Cunard owned the high point on which a memorial tower is to be erected. Fairy Cove is in the bounds of the Dingle, and in old days was a resort for bathers, who would row across from the peninsula. Most of the land is still primeval forest with a few clearings, where picnickers resort by permit. It is an ideal spot for outing parties and it was on this account that an effort was made to get it for the use of the public. Sir Sandford’s offer to the city of part of the property, is on condition that a tower be erected there in connection with the 150th anniversary of the establishment of representative government in Nova Scotia, the tower to be in sections of different material, showing the development of elective institutions in Canada. Halifax, says Sir Sandford, was the constitutional birthplace of the outward British Empire as it exists today, all the other overseas territories included in the empire having secured their elective assembly after Nova Scotia, which is also the first province in the Dominion of Canada. Joe Howe, who led the fight for responsible government in Canada, was born on the Northwest Arm. It is not clear where the name of the Dingle was derived from, but Sir Sandford Fleming thinks it was copied from the well-known district of that name in Ireland, near Bantry. Sir Sandford Fleming was born in Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland, January 27, 1827. He studied civil engineering and came to Canada 1845, and was chief engineer, 1863, on the construction of the Intercolonial Railway—the road projected to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific—in Nova Scotia. He lived in Halifax on Brunswick Street more than forty years ago, and conceived a great fancy for the Northwest Arm as a place of residence, and resolved that some day he would buy property there. In addition to owning the Dingle he owns a house, “The Lodge,” on Oxford Street, between South Street and Coburg Road, which was built by William Duffus. Sir Sandford was knighted in 1897. He has published “The Intercolonial, a history, 1832-76”; “England and Canada”; “Time and His Notation,” and other works. He was the originator of “standard time.” In 1880 he was elected for a term of three years Chancellor of Queen’s University, Toronto. The London Morning Post places him in the front rank of colonial statesmen, and Lord Strathcona says his name is that of a man who has done great and good work not alone for Canada, but for the whole British Empire. The suggested public park at The Dingle is proposed to be called the Sir Sandford Fleming Park. Sir Sandford formerly had a bungalow on the top of the high hill opposite The Waegwoltic. He formerly owned Coburg Cottage property, and exchanged it with the late T. E. Kenny for a property on South Street.

n October 2, 1908, the sesquicentennial of the establishment of representative government in Nova Scotia and in what is now the Dominion of Canada was fittingly celebrated at Halifax under the auspices of the Canadian Club. The Northwest Arm was chosen as the scene for the ceremonies because it is the recognized pleasure-ground of the citizens, and has been the home of distinguished men. In the midst of a rain storm, in the presence of a handful of mackintoshed spectators, surrounded by dripping foliage and under the canopy of a gray sky, an event of imperial significance transpired on the western shore of the famous Northwest Arm. Alongside the water of the same ocean across which the original settlers came to found homes in the untamed wilderness, there was laid the corner-stone of a memorial tower of imposing proportions designed to symbolize the inception and gradual development of representative institutions in Canada. Appropriately enough a small clearing was made for the occasion, just like what probably took place one hundred and fifty years previous, when the hardy first settlers started their community and organized their pioneer assembly beneath the shadow of the same varieties of native trees—maple, beech, spruce, etc.—that furnished a natural setting for the recent spectacle at the Northwest Arm. When completed the proposed tower is to correspond with the splendid structure which the glowing future promises this great Canadian Dominion. Toward the top the tower will be ornamented with windows of rich design, belvedere, cornice, parapet and observation cupola. The earlier sections of the memorial must be simple, in harmony with the rugged period in Canadian history when the golden west was unknown, and only the roar of the waterfall broke the savage stillness of the heart of a new continent. Rough native stone will be the building material for the base of the monument. A block of granite for a corner-stone typified the enduring principles of the British constitution transplanted on Canadian soil in 1758. In a receptacle in the stone were placed copies of the Halifax dailies, pamphlets relating to the tower and the Canadian Club, volume of provincial statutes of 1908, last session’s printed debates of both branches of the legislature, and newspaper accounts of the unveiling, August 19, 1908, at the Province Building of a tablet bearing the names of the first assemblymen. It is a coincidence that including Governor Lawrence and clerk David Lloyd in the count, the number of persons whose names are mentioned on the tablet as being present in an official capacity at the first opening of the Nova Scotia assembly in 1758, is the precise number of witnesses who, according to an official pamphlet issued by the Canadian Club, on the same day one hundred and fifty years later chanced to be in attendance and saw the corner-stone laid of a tower to commemorate that first meeting of pioneers. The names given in the Canadian Club pamphlet are: Lieutenant-Governor Fraser, Sir Sandford Fleming, K. C. M. G.; J. B. Kenny, D. Macgillivray, A. McKay, W. T. O’B. Hewitt, C. E.; John Willis, A. H. Mackay, LL.D.; John W. Regan, S. M. Brookfield, W. R. McCurdy, J. A. Chisholm, K. C.; Dr. E. D. Farrell, James Roue, Rod. Macdonald, G. S. Campbell; Mr. and Mrs. T. Critchley, Sandford Critchley, Oswald Critchley, Toronto; Mrs. Hugh Fleming, Ottawa—just twenty-one. The governor represented the Crown from which popular rights were wrested in the good old days, but which is now a valuable member of the constitution. Sir Sandford Fleming had himself crossed the prairies in a Red River cart, locating a line for the railway that afterwards penetrated the great west and did more than any one other thing to raise Canada to the proud status which the tower at the Northwest Arm is ultimately intended to symbolize. Representatives of the puissant fourth estate, the press, and of the public educational system are included in the above list. Free schools and a free press are outgrowths or complements of popular government. The other spectators represented the sovereign people themselves. The governor read a telegram from London from Lord Crewe, Secretary of State for the Colonies, congratulating Nova Scotia on a century and a half of parliamentary government. Another from Lord Grey, governor-general of Canada, was dated at Grand Forks, British Columbia, where His Excellency happened to be, and expressed similar sentiments. As His Honor declared the corner-stone of the tower well and truly laid, cannon thundered forth a salute from the Citadel as an acknowledgment of the supremacy of the civil power. A photographer snapped the group, and the picture is reproduced herewith, a practical illustration of the facilities our forefathers did not enjoy; they were able nevertheless to leave to their descendants the priceless heritage of representative government.

To Sir Sandford Fleming is due the credit of calling public attention to the fact that the Nova Scotia assembly of 1758 was one of the earliest elective parliaments in the present overseas British Empire. He explained the matter very carefully and fully in several pamphlets, letters and public addresses. He said: “At a most notable gathering held at Oxford University scarcely a month ago, it was pointed out by the distinguished speakers that a century and a half ago was perhaps the most glorious period in British history. At that period were being laid far and wide the foundations of an ideal world-empire. Men, worthy of the great races from which they had sprung, became prominent agents in welding into a united political organization many sea-separated lands; while men great in military skill, such as Clive, Wolfe and Montcalm, and others, had each their place in the evolution of history. One of the prime movers in the hands of a higher Power, was William Pitt, the great Commoner. That remarkable man had great wisdom, great foresight and great designs. For a time he guided the destinies of England and influenced the future of many people geographically remote from England. The records of history bring out clearly what followed the adoption of his policy, and in that policy Nova Scotia appears prominently as a pioneer. One of the first steps to render a great empire possible—one of the essentials to its permanency—was to extend to the people free civil government. In the march of human progress, the fall of Quebec was, in the mind of Pitt, absolutely necessary, and it is impossible to avoid associating the conflict on the Plains of Abraham in September, 1759, with the statesman who directed the steps of Wolfe to the great Canadian citadel. A considerable time, however, before Quebec became British, even before the fall of Louisburg, steps had been taken to establish parliamentary government in Nova Scotia. The British prime minister was imbued with the most lofty patriotism, and his penetration led him to see the supreme value of constitutional government and a free people. Whatever objections were therefore raised at home or abroad to the policy laid down, they were at once overruled by the master mind in London. As previously arranged, elections were held among the settlers of Nova Scotia in the summer of 1758, and nineteen out of the twenty elected representatives met in Halifax in General Assembly for the first time, on October 2nd of that year. In the development of history it occasionally turns out that a matter which at the time may be regarded as of no great moment, will in the course of years prove to be of imperishable importance. The meeting of an assembly of nineteen representative Nova Scotians in 1758 has so proved. Similar general assemblies have met in the same locality each year for a century and a half, and as will be seen from the statement that follows, the same policy has been adopted wherever applicable throughout the Empire in both hemispheres.”

Then followed a list of British colonial legislatures with date of first meeting: Nova Scotia, 1758; Prince Edward Island, 1773; New Brunswick, 1786; Upper Canada, 1792; Lower Canada, 1792; Newfoundland, 1833; Upper and Lower Canada, 1841; Cape Colony, 1853; New Zealand, 1854; New South Wales, 1855; Victoria, 1856; South Australia, 1856; Tasmania, 1856; Queensland, 1859; Upper and Lower Canada, 1866; Quebec, 1867; Dominion of Canada, 1867; Manitoba, 1871; British Columbia, 1872; West Australia, 1890; Natal, 1893; Commonwealth of Australia, 1901; Orange River, 1907; Transvaal, 1907. Nova Scotia takes her place as the elder sister in the British constitutional family, writes Sir Sandford, and the cradle of the Empire, and Halifax its constitutional birthplace.

PROPOSED HISTORICAL TOWER AT NORTHWEST ARM, HALIFAX.

The proposed tower is also a suggestion of Sir Sandford Fleming’s. The corner-stone is located on part of one hundred acres of land on the western shore of the Northwest Arm, which Sir Sandford has generously deeded to the lieutenant-governor in trust for the citizens of Halifax as a free public park forever. The Park is to be called after the donor in memory of his philanthropy. The new park possesses about two thousand five hundred feet of water front, or nearly half the entire shore line of The Dingle estate. It includes beautiful Fairy Cove and stretches from Jollimore Village northward to a point near the “stone wharf.” Breaking out from the park shore is a bold, inconvenient headland, which obstructs the clear sweep of the Arm at its full width, and reaches almost to the middle of “the stream,” forming The Narrows. This granite promontory, with its capping of ironstone and conglomerate, leaves the shore at right angles like a flying buttress for the hills of the western shore of the Arm, and at its extremity rises to a lovely knoll of ninety feet elevation, with water on three sides, a natural stage from which some mythical god might deliver his fulminations. This is Tower Point. It occupies a commanding position on the Arm, is conspicuously visible from all directions, and dominates a panoramic view of the whole length of the Arm, the city and of the entrance to Halifax’s peerless harbor. The top of the knoll on Tower Point is worthy to be the site of the projected imperial tower, and the forum for the great message which the structure will convey to posterity. The tower will be 35 feet diameter, and 100 feet high, and will form a magnificent lookoff, and a landmark for commerce passing in and out of this ocean gateway. The deed of trust from Sir Sandford Fleming to the lieutenant-governor authorizes the latter to convey the valuable park land to the city of Halifax just as soon as the completion of the historical tower in accordance with the donor’s general design is reasonably assured. The structure is estimated to cost $15,000, and the Canadian Club of Halifax, which has undertaken to raise the funds for the memorial, is entrusted with the supervision of the erection. Letters expressing interest in the project have come from Lord Strathcona, Lieutenant-Governor Dunsmuir of British Columbia, from premiers, ex-premiers and ministers, from universities and educational departments and various organizations. Lord Milner, late British commissioner in South Africa, while journeying across Canada on a holiday, wrote from Winnipeg, September 28th, 1908, enclosing a subscription for the tower, and urging the importance of the event it is intended to celebrate. Sir Sandford Fleming has himself given a large donation, and a general appeal, which ought to merit a prompt and satisfactory response, is being made to Canadians at home and abroad in order to have the interest in the historical memorial at the Northwest Arm as widespread and as popular as possible. A symbolical tower is not a common object. The famous monuments of Europe, like the Campanile, or leaning tower of Pisa, were merely expressions of the prosperity of the time. The monument of London marks the ending of the great fire, which is depicted in a series of immense paintings in the Royal Exchange. Bunker Hill obelisk is one of a large class of military memorials. Grant’s Tomb, the Royal Albert Mausoleum, the Taj of Agra, the Sphinx and the Pyramids signalize particular things. The Arc du Triomphe and the memorials of Berlin are of the same variety. It is difficult to recall a symbolical tower representing an evolutionary process and covering a long period in its different sections. The historical tower at the Northwest Arm will be unique among the world’s memorials.

alifax people know all about the beauties and attractions of the Northwest Arm. They have gathered upon its banks to witness aquatic sports for years. They have traversed it in steam craft, sailing boats, skiffs and canoes, in calm and storm, by day and night. They have picnicked along its shores, camped on its banks and summered at its various points. To them it is as an old friend, yet ever new and ever pleasing, and they call it the most picturesque inlet of the sea in America. Passing over the many and varied beauties of the Northwest Arm, attention is now directed to a deep cove near its head in which is situated an islet known as Melville Island, reached by a bridge from the mainland, and named after that Scottish statesman who was the second Pitt’s secretary of the navy in the stirring times following the breaking out of the great French revolution. Melville Island bore several names before it was purchased by the British government for the imprisonment of seamen captured during the wars between Great Britain and France, and Great Britain and the United States. It was once called Kavanagh’s Island. A little later on we find the property surrounding the cove and the island named McGrannigan’s. Akins calls it Cowie’s Island, and tradition reports that Cowie was a commissariat officer and that he had a female servant hanged for theft in the days when ferocious laws disgraced the statute books of Great Britain, and were copied in this country. A number of silver spoons which were missing constituted the charge against the unfortunate domestic, but in the spring these were found where they had been accidentally laid and had been covered with snow. The story goes that the people of the town showed great indignation against Cowie for the execution of the girl.

MELVILLE ISLAND MILITARY AND NAVAL PRISON.

The first view shows the prison buildings, and causeway connecting the island with the shore. The lower photo shows the bridge under which boats pass at low tide, and an enlarged view of the gate of the prison and sentry box.

There are several traditions of an equally sad nature lingering among the people, regarding this historic spot. On Deadman’s Island within the Cove, near where the military prison is located there are a cross and slab which mark the last resting place of John Dixon. Little or nothing is known of the person whose lonely grave is placed in this secluded spot. But legend, ever ready to furnish forth and embellish a story, relates a romantic tale connected with the man whose mortal remains rest on the island. It relates that the inmate of the lonely tomb was a young soldier who died at the prison by his own hand. And legend further declares that he was the victim of the cruel father of his sweetheart, who was colonel of the regiment to which the young man was attached. The story runs that Dixon was an orderly of good family, although in the ranks, and of handsome physique, and that living at the colonel’s quarters his duties threw him much in the company of the beautiful daughter of the commander, a girl of eighteen years. They loved in secret for some time, until this attachment becoming known to the father, the young man was sent back to the duties of private soldier, where he had been only a short time, when a charge of theft from a comrade was trumped up against him. He was tried by court-martial, found guilty and sentenced to penal servitude at Melville Island military prison. The victim of this false accusation pined away in the dreary solitude of the prison, and finally, it is said, committed suicide, and on account of the manner of his death his body was committed to the grave at night. This is the tale told of him whose dust reposes on Deadman’s Island, and the soldiers who guard the prison approaches have for over fifty years transferred the tale of unfortunate love from one regiment to another, and also the trust of keeping the grave and headstone in repair, down to the present day. A. E. Gunning, of Halifax, years ago retouched the inscription on the slab, which had become faint with time. Some people think the unknown slumberer was a French prisoner, and that there are other graves on Deadman’s Island. Others declare the grave is that of some poor castaway whose body was found floating in the cove. The inscription on the slab is as follows:

LONE GRAVE AT DEADMAN’S ISLAND, MELVILLE COVE, NORTHWEST ARM.

The Hon. Joseph Howe, when a lad of sixteen, wrote a poem descriptive of the Northwest Arm and Melville Island. The island then had been abandoned as a naval prison for ten years, as the peace following the exile of Napoleon made a prison of this kind unnecessary. Howe writes:

And again the young poet says:

At the period when Howe saw the old naval prison it had long been deserted and was then fallen into ruins. The large, red building had formed a prison and had been formerly a fish house, where green fish were cured and stored, and this was in a very dilapidated condition. Some years after this the island again became the site of a prison and the imperial military authorities removed the old wooden structure and erected the present substantial brick and stone prison building surrounded by high walls, capped with broken bottles set in cement, and with the approaches dominated by the guns of the guards.

One of the stories which used to be told about Melville Island was that the prison officials kept a shark swimming about the waters of the island and regularly fed it, and circulated this story among the prisoners to prevent them trying to escape.

The project seems to have originated with Sir John Sherbrooke when governor of Nova Scotia, to remove prisoners of war from Halifax to Pictou or Louisburg, but nothing came of it. The government was informed that owing to the intercourse which Mitchell, the American agent, held with American prisoners of war on Melville Island, no less than ten licensed vessels had been seized and condemned in the United States. The Transport Board, of which Sir Rupert George was at the head, reported their opinion in favor of changing the place for prisoners, and in particular recommended putting them out of the reach of such an agent as Mitchell, but the reply received was that unless Louisburg had been much altered within the last few years great expense must be incurred in buildings, and that there would be difficulty in supplying provisions there. Lord Bathurst, by letter January 29, 1814, directed Sir John Sherbrooke to “lose no time in removing all American prisoners of war now on parole at Halifax; that you will take every opportunity of sending the other prisoners not on parole to this country, and that you will immediately place Mr. Mitchell under the same restrictions in point of residence which the American government have imposed on Major Barclay.” Colonel Barclay, the British agent of prisoners of war in the United States, had been compelled to reside in the interior, while Mr. Mitchell, the American agent, resided at Halifax. About this time the following published notice was given:

NOTICE.

Mr. Miller was a naval officer retired. He married an aunt of the late Hugh Blackadar of the Halifax Recorder. His residence was at the southwest corner of Water and North streets.

“Within a half hour’s walk west of our little metropolis of Halifax, there is,” Murdoch says in his history of Nova Scotia, “a charming, romantic inlet of the Chebucto Bay, called the Northwest Arm, and on the furthest or west shore a deep cove within which lies a small islet called Melville Island. The combination of forest scenery, villas and clear, deep water to be found here is hardly surpassed in beauty and attractiveness by any other place in the province. About the beginning of the 19th century this little islet was purchased by the British government and appropriated to the purpose of a naval prison. The war with France brought a crowd of sailors of that nation here, who had been taken in ships of war, privateers and merchant vessels. While the officers were prisoners on parole, the common men of the crews were lodged and provided for in this establishment. They were, generally speaking, cheerful, industrious and well behaved, so much so that very many were permitted to hire themselves out to farmers and others in the neighborhood of Halifax, or as domestics in some instances. In the large building occupied as a prison, those who remained were clean, orderly and even happy. Many of them spent their time in making boxes, dominoes and many other small articles. The people of the town were permitted to visit this prison and purchase these little objects. As the Northwest Arm is usually frozen in winter, parties from town frequently crossed on the ice from Pryor’s wharf, below “Jubilee,” to the island. The prisoners lived in a large wooden edifice very strongly built and comfortable. It was divided by partitions of plank and timber, which, however, only went part way up to the roof, into compartments on each side, the centre passage being wide open. The hammocks and other accommodation of the men were in these compartments. At the upper end of the place there was a kind of bazaar where every prisoner who had something to sell displayed his wares. One man had a kind of puppet show with vocal accompaniments. Another had a metal wheel revolving, forming a lottery—all prizes; you put down your eight of a dollar or so, and you got perhaps a toothpick or may be something of greater value. They had very pretty models of ships of war made of bone and the rigging of hair. When war with the United States was declared, the prison became overcrowded and the conditions not as cheerful as when the prison was solely occupied by the French sailors.” Deadman’s Island and valuable land surrounding Melville Cove are now owned by C. F. Longley and are used as a public pleasure resort known as Melville Park, with dance pavilion. A motor ferry connects with the wharf at Jubilee Road to take people to the Park, but telephone connection has been suspended owing to a conflict between several interests as to the right to erect poles and string wires on the public road to Melville. Mr. Longley is the pioneer in this particular feature of Northwest Arm attractions. The north shore of charming Melville Cove is occupied by an increasing number of tents and bungalows. This spot is extremely popular with Northwest Arm campers. The residents of Melville colony have arranged several very pretty joint illuminations of their premises, particularly this year. The Halifax Amateur Boating Club selected Melville Cove at which to hold a successful “At Home” in 1907. W. R. Geldert, of Truro, lived at Jubilee on the eastern shore of the Arm fifty years ago with his uncle, the late J. M. Geldert. He remembers visiting Deadman’s Island and seeing a number of shallow graves which had been uncovered by a heavy storm, and human skeletons exposed. Rev. T. L. Draper, of Louisburg, is a son of a former governor of Melville Island. “Azimghür” and “Have-a-Rest” are the names of two of the numerous villas at Melville Cove.

Henry Dundas, first Lord Melville (1742-1811), was nicknamed “Starvation Dundas” from having introduced the word starvation into the English language in a speech in Parliament, in 1755, in a debate on American affairs.

property on the western shore of the Northwest Arm which was familiar to many people for years as an objective for Sunday-school picnics and other excursions by water was known as Hosterman’s. This formerly belonged to Thomas Hosterman, who willed it to his sons John and Charles. They married daughters of John Howe, jr. Part of John Hosterman’s portion was formerly in possession of Rev. Aaron Cleveland, great-great-grandfather of the late Grover Cleveland, twice President of the United States. Rev. Mr. Cleveland was a New England Congregationalist clergyman who removed to Halifax in 1750 and settled here for a time, but later returned to the United States. There is no mention in the Crown Lands office of a Northwest Arm grant to Cleveland, but a grant of the Melville Island property, consisting of 160 acres, dated 1752 to Robert Cowie, refers to Aaron Cleveland’s property as bounding this grant on the north. Associated with Cleveland’s name in the ownership of the property at the Arm was a Chadwick and an Auborg. There is recorded a grant of a township lot in the centre of Halifax city to Rev. Aaron Cleveland. He ministered in the old Mather’s church which stood on the site of the present Exchange Building, corner of Hollis and Prince streets. It was burned New Year’s Day, 1859, in the Hollis Street fire, but there is a wooden model of the edifice in the Legislative Library. Mather’s was the second church opened in Halifax for public worship. It was built at the expense of the government as a dissenting meeting house, and Cleveland was the first officiating clergyman. Most of the dissenters of the town had also come from New England. The congregation is now known as St. Matthew’s Presbyterian, on Pleasant Street. Aaron Cleveland was also the ancestor of Thomas Wentworth Higginson (a friend of Longfellow’s, still living), Clarence Stedman the poet, and other descendants noted in American literature. Cleveland was born at Cambridge, Mass., 1715, and was educated at Harvard. He remained in Halifax three years and returned to New England. Later he went to England and embraced the Anglican faith. He was sent back to America by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and came to Halifax in 1754 to settle up his affairs. H. H. Banks lived at the Hosterman property for several years. This fine estate is now owned by G. Edmonds. Many years ago a big whale wandered into the Northwest Arm and was driven ashore at the Hosterman property after an exciting experience. One of the Hostermans was in the boat which secured the prize. The skeleton of the cetacean, measuring nearly one hundred feet, was mounted at Walton Hall.

he head of the Northwest Arm at one time was a busy manufacturing centre. Chocolate Lake, near the Arm, derives its name from a chocolate mill that was operated there at one time. This was a spice and snuff mill afterwards. Then Hosterman & Black made a great deal of money importing grain and grinding flour. This building was afterwards used for a rolling mill and a nail factory, and is now part of Brandram-Henderson’s paint works. In the same vicinity there were several shingle and lumber mills, corn mills, etc., and near at hand was Leopard’s shipyard, conducted by a merchant and ship-builder of that name. Numerous vessels were launched there, and a map dated 1828 mentions this shipyard.

efore the destruction of the military magazine, which stood on the harbor front, north of the Dockyard, the merchants of Halifax who handled explosives, had the privilege of storing them in that building. The magazine mysteriously blew up one night in the fifties of the last century. After the accident the hardware merchants and others who dealt in powder had no place to safely store dynamite. To meet the need they obtained an old building from John E. Hosterman, that stood on the site of the residence now occupied by James Billman, at the head of the Northwest Arm, which they converted into a magazine. In 1873 the Merchants’ Magazine Company of Halifax, composed of dealers in explosives, erected the present safe and substantial stone and steel building on property conveyed to them by John E. Hosterman. This property in 1905 passed by purchase to Thomas J. Egan, who still owns it. The magazine is west of the Melville Island Road, and is still used as a storehouse for explosives. The situation was selected on account of its isolated position and inaccessibility. Austen Bros., as agents of Curtis’s & Harvey, Ltd., manufacturers of high class explosives, London, E., are the present lessees of the premises. The Austens are connections of the Howe family. H. E. Austen has made a study of ornithology, and possesses a splendid collection of native birds mounted by himself.

Just south of the magazine site is the residence of John Egan. The house was built by Sergeant Macnamara, an old Indian mutiny hero, who named it Azimghür, in recollection of the victory over the Sepoy rebels at that place. The sergeant was among the Europeans who fought with the gallant Gourkhas, the native allies of Great Britain, in this battle. Their force numbered only 1200 under Captain Boileau, who ordered Sumshai Sing to push his men forward at double quick. Splendidly the Gourkhas responded to their leader’s command, and rushing forward they drove the enemy from their positions in a desperate hand to hand conflict, and captured three guns. Tradition says in this battle Macnamara killed three men with his own hand.

bout three miles from the Dingle is a granite rocking-stone, resting on a strata of bed rock which rises to the surface of the ground. It is twenty feet in length, fourteen in breadth, nine in height, and seventy-four in circumference. It is estimated to weigh one hundred and sixty-two tons, and sways on a pivot of twelve by six inches. It is easily set in motion with the aid of a small wooden lever, but is said to have been so nicely balanced some years ago that a push of the hand was sufficient to oscillate this big glacial foot-ball.

n the year 1784, according to a large military plan of the peninsula of Halifax, surveyed by Capt. Blaskowitz of the Royal Engineers, under orders from Lieut.-Colonel Morse, R. E., there were eight buildings on the shores of the Northwest Arm. These were situated on the eastern side of the Arm and are labelled on the plan “Fisheries.” Mason’s Fishery stood a little below the property now occupied and owned by Hon. B. F. Pearson. Williams’ Fishery was near Maplewood, opposite the Lawson property, and Williams’ Lake, which is shown in the old map, was in all probability named after the Williams who owned the fishery. At Horseshoe Island Nathaniels’ Fishery was erected, and three buildings stood on the island. Purcell’s Cove Island is named Russell’s Island, and Melville Island is called Kavanagh’s. In 1784 apparently not a single inhabitant occupied the western shore of the Northwest Arm, all that part being still an unbroken forest. Near the site of the present St. Agnes Chapel there is a property marked Brymer’s Farm, where there were several buildings. Alexander Brymer was a rich merchant of Halifax in the latter part of the 18th century. He was twice president of the North British Society, and a member of the old Council of Twelve. His town residence stood on the present site of Jerusalem Warehouse, which formerly belonged to Thomas Saul. It was called Brymer’s Palace, and history states that the interior of the residence was elegantly designed, and the rooms embellished with rich carvings. Brymer married a daughter of Governor Parr (who was a widow of a Captain Dobson), in London, where he removed 1801 after amassing a fortune of £250,000. Mr. Brymer was a man of generous instincts, and figured as a patron of several young Nova Scotians whom he assisted to rise in life, one of them being Andrew Blecher, the father of the famous Arctic explorer of that name.

he Northwest Arm was the site of the first zoological garden in America. This was started by the late Andrew Downs in 1847, sixteen years before the Central Park collection at New York was opened to the public. The Philadelphia Garden did not open until July, 1874. The Cincinnati Zoo opened 1875, St. Louis 1877, and Lincoln Park Garden, Chicago, 1881. Mr. Downs commenced with a piece of land five acres, but by 1863 he had enlarged his premises to one hundred acres, then called Walton Cottage at Dutch Village at the head of the Arm, embracing wood and field, stream and pond, hill and valley. The property is now owned by Dr. Doull. This became a popular resort, and many anecdotes, says Harry Piers in an article contributed to the Nova Scotian Institute of Science, were connected with the naturalist’s life in this lovely spot. King Edward when Prince of Wales, visited Downs’ garden in 1860, as did nearly every notable person who came this way, including Prince Jerome Bonaparte, King Victor Emmanuel’s daughter, Lord and Lady Falkland, Captain Sir Richard Grant, the African explorer, and others.

In 1864 Mr. Downs visited Europe, being complimented by a free passage in a British war vessel, the “Mersey,” Captain Caldwell. He carried with him several living specimens, two cases of mounted birds and a stuffed moose, which he presented to the London Zoo. In Europe he received courtesies from many scientific men. He remembered once seeing Audubon with whom he also corresponded, and he was a friend of Charles Watterton, the naturalist at whose house, Walton Hall in England, he had been a guest. Mr. Downs also corresponded with Frank Buckland, and most of the foremost zoologists of his time. Another friend, Charles Hallock, founder and proprietor of Forest and Stream, graphically described an early visit to Downs’ garden at the Northwest Arm, Halifax, in an article which he published January 4, 1893, entitled, “The First American Zoo.” Hallock says the gothic cottage was overhung with woodbines and honeysuckles, and surmounted at all points with antlers of elk and moose. All ’round the cottage were bird houses perched on poles, and a cloud of pigeons circled and tumbled about. In the house were paintings and engravings, water colors, busts, and case after case of birds, insects, etc. Hallock says there was a magnificent view from the veranda and bay windows, “the Northwest Arm stretching away toward the ocean with its bays, inlets, wooded hills and far-reaching points of land that are blue and only half distinct in the hazy atmosphere of a summer day.” There were fowls of all kinds, beavers, seals, mink, otter, deer, caribou, foxes, wolves, snakes, lizards and generally the birds, fishes, beasts and reptiles of every country. There was also a horticultural garden, and the whole estate was diversified with fountains, cascades, paths, ponds and shade trees.

In the latter part of 1867 Mr. Downs was proposed for superintendent of Central Park menagerie, New York, being recommended by Professor Spencer F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution. He received an offer of the position and sold his animals and grounds, and went to New York, but was displeased at a cool reception given him by one of the commissioners, and returned to Halifax at the end of about three months and did not accept the appointment. Soon afterwards he purchased a new property at the Arm, since successively owned by S. A. White, Captain W. H. Smith, R. N. R., and Alex. Stephen, a former Mayor of Halifax; now controlled by T. J. Egan, and son-in-law D. Chisholm of Sheet Harbor, and called “Rockwood Cottage.” Colonel Egan is himself a taxidermist, but unfortunately his fine collection of birds was destroyed by the Water Street fire a few years ago. He is the author of an interesting history—“Halifax Volunteer Battalion, 1859-1887.” Rockwood adjoined Mr. Downs’ old place, and here he built a house and started a new zoological garden, which he continued to improve for about three years. Then he lived for years on Agricola Street, surrounded by living animals and specimens, and about 1890 built a museum annex to his house and placed therein his extremely fine collection of mounted native birds, comprising about fourteen cases. After Mr. Downs’ death this collection was placed in the lecture room of the County Academy, Halifax, and is now in a deplorable state of preservation for want of care. T. J. McGrath occupied the Downs house on Agricola Street. Mr. Downs’ taxidermic work was very fine, and he received many awards at exhibitions in England and elsewhere, including a bronze medal, London, 1861 and 1862, bronze medal Dublin 1865, silver medal Paris 1867. Sir Wyville Thomson in a critical article on the Natural History section of the Paris Exhibition in Illustrated London News, August 24, 1867, made special reference to Mr. Downs’ collection of birds. Mr. Downs claimed he had stuffed about 800 moose heads. He supplied King Victor Emmanuel with many thousand dollars’ worth of animals and specimens. At one time this sovereign had in his acclimatization garden at Pisa a number of living moose and caribou supplied by the Nova Scotian naturalist. Specimens of the latter’s taxidermic work were supplied other European monarchs and large quantities went to the great museums and private collections on both sides of the Atlantic and a number are incorporated in the provincial museum at Halifax. Mr. Downs was a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London, and wrote a number of papers on birds and natural history. He was born in New Brunswick, N. J., September 27, 1811, and came to Halifax at the age of fourteen with his father and mother. His father had landed here from Scotland when he first came to America. Young Downs started as a plumber in Halifax, and gradually drifted into natural history. He died August 26, 1892.

esidents at the head of the Northwest Arm, which has always been a popular section of the Arm with many people, point out the fine view of the whole length of the Arm to be had from this district. In the early morning and at twilight the picture might well adorn an artist’s canvas, and is referred to in Hallock’s account of his visit many years ago to Downs’ zoological garden. The head of the Arm is spanned by a stone bridge, with rustic parapets, and pierced by an arched culvert for the passage of a murmuring stream. Several roads spread out fan fashion from each end of the bridge, which in respect to the people that have passed this way for many years resembles the narrow part of an hour glass, the spreading roads being the bulbs. There are pretty whitewashed churches near both ends of the bridge, and not far away the silent churchyards. High up on the east side is St. Agnes Chapel, and near it the palace of the late Archbishop Connolly. An increasing number of business men of the city have pitched their tents at the head of the Arm for the summer, and some of them for the entire year. The land rises rather abruptly on both sides of the bridge, and from the cottages and bungalows on the slopes there is a fine view of the Arm and surrounding country, and of the people coming and going along the different roads and crossing the bridge and disappearing from sight.

Armview on the western slope, with seashore on one side and the shore of Chocolate Lake on the other side of it, was formerly a part of the property of Dr. Charles Cogswell, a member of one of the old Halifax families connected with the original government of the province. This family had property in different parts of the city, including the historic Carleton House. A Miss Cogswell married Captain William R. Boardman, of the Royal Navy, who has risen to the rank of admiral. James Cogswell, father of Mrs. Boardman, and brother of Dr. Cogswell, was killed at sea May 3, 1867, by a wave which boarded the Cunard steamship “China”, bound from Liverpool to Halifax and Boston. His remains were brought to land and the funeral took place May 8th. On board the same ship was the late Hon. Joseph Howe, returning from an unsuccessful mission to England to endeavor to prevent the passage of the British North America Act confederating the provinces of Canada into the present Dominion. The “China” was one of the last mail steamships of the Cunard line making Halifax a port of call en route to the States. The Cunard line had been founded by a Halifax man, and this city witnessed the beginning of the trans-Atlantic steamship business as the pioneer American terminus. The Intercolonial Railway was not built until the seventies, and the absence of connection with the railway system of the continent was partly responsible for the withdrawal of the Cunard line from Halifax.

Dr. Cogswell’s fine estate at the head of the Arm has been sold in portions by his executors. Dr. Trenaman, city medical officer, is the owner of one part. The balance of the estate is now the property of Frank Colwell. Dr. Cogswell died in England about 1893. He took considerable interest in sea-birds, and admired the industry of the kingfisher, and he is credited with introducing the kingfisher into the crest of the city of Halifax. There is a weather vane surmounted by the kingfisher on St. James Church, in which Dr. Cogswell was interested, and a house in which he resided on Quinpool Road bore the same emblem. The city coat of arms is supposed to have been designed by the doctor during a visit he paid to the Herald’s College in London. Dr. Cogswell was also a patron of aquatics, and for a number of years there was an annual competition on the harbor for the Cogswell belt, which was captured at different times by George Brown, Warren Smith and other notable scullers. In 1883, the £100 which he had invested for the purpose of providing this annual trophy, and which was to be representative of the harbor championship, was increased to $1,000 and the competition was thrown open to professional scullers. In 1903 this was changed by medals being substituted for a belt and the entries restricted to amateurs. A silver medal is given annually to the winner of the amateur sculling championship, and a gold medal for three wins by the same oarsman. In addition to the thousand dollars now invested for the above purpose, Dr. Cogswell gave $4,000 to trustees to invest and pay the interest therefrom to the city school board to encourage military drill in the public schools. The estate of Dr. Cogswell was finally settled the present year, 1908, and in that connection Mrs. Boardman, one of the heirs, revisited Halifax after an absence of thirty years, and with her family returned to England via Vancouver, Japan, India and Suez, the entire trip round the world including long stops in Nova Scotia and India, occupying about fifteen months. James Cogswell owned the Bower property at the time of his death, having acquired it from the Halliburton estate. It was afterward divided between two of his children, and one portion, the title of which remains in the family, is called The Oaks. The other section, including the old Bower House, was sold a few years ago to W. B. A. Ritchie, K. C., former law partner of R. L. Borden, and one of the most distinguished men at the Nova Scotia bar. Mr. Ritchie is a member of the well-known family of that name that came from Annapolis, and furnished many able judges and lawyers to Nova Scotia and Canadian jurisprudence.

In addition to the Cogswell conveyance there are two other names of interest on Mr. Colwell’s title to Lakewood, now Armview, one of whom, Geizer, represents the family after whom Geizer’s Hill, a couple of miles from the head of the Arm, was named. They are said to be connections of the Duke of Guise. Another name is Kidston, a collateral branch of a rich family of merchants in Glasgow. One of the Halifax Kidstons in the 17th century, conducted a hardware and lumber business out of which grew the firm of William Stairs, Son & Morrow. He sold out and removed to Glasgow, Scotland, and established the great house of William Kidston & Sons in 1810. This firm was extensively interested in Nova Scotia shipping and their packets, most of them built in this province, brought out many of the old generation of Presbyterian clergymen. In a history of the Stairs and Morrow families published in 1906 by the late George Stairs, there is included among other MSS. of the late Hon. W. J. Stairs a letter regarding the Kidstons. The writer states that the “first seagoing vessel that went up this river (the Clyde) to the Broomielaw, was a small brig built at Maitland, N. S., for Mr. Kidston; she sailed from the Market Wharf, Halifax, and returned again.” This was the beginning of the enormous foreign trade and tonnage of the Clyde River, Scotland. The barque “Roseneath”, 60 years later, was the last Nova Scotia built ship owned and managed by the Kidstons of Glasgow.

C. W. Outhit, James Billman, the Misses Flinn, and other well-known Halifax people have permanent residences at the head of the Northwest Arm.

Near the foot of Quinpool Road is the estate of Hon. James McDonald, former chief justice of the supreme court of Nova Scotia, secretary of the province at the passing of the Confederation Act in the house of assembly, and a distinguished member of the bench and bar. James A. McDonald, barrister, Halifax, is a son; a daughter married Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper, former member of the Dominion cabinet.

uring Governor Lawrence’s time, Indians made an attack upon a saw mill at the head of the Northwest Arm. A line of blockhouses ran from here to the Basin, as a defence against Indian incursions. In the attack on the mill three men were tomahawked and killed. Their bodies were buried by a rescuing party of soldiers from one of the blockhouses, and were three times dug up by the Indians in defiance of the guard for the purpose of securing the scalps. The blockhouses were built of square timbers with loopholes for musketry. They were of great thickness, and had parapets around the top and a platform at the base, with a well for the use of each post. The foundation of the centre blockhouse, which stood at the foot of the present Kline Street, was still to be seen in 1848. In early days an old road ran east of the present Dutch Village Road to the Basin, and ended in the rear of Lockhart’s Hotel. Just north of the Arm Bridge, in a field through which runs the stream that passes under the bridge, a beaver dam once existed, and above this, tradition states, stood a strong Micmac encampment. It is probable that the Indians resented the encroachments of the pale-faces upon their ancient domain, and this led to the attack on the settlers at the saw mill.

t Dutch Village, near the head of the Northwest Arm, Titus Smith, a naturalist and “philosopher,” as he was called, resided. He followed agricultural pursuits in the village. He frequently contributed to the newspapers of Halifax on subjects connected with his favorite studies of natural history and geology. Mr. Smith was remarkable for the vast and varied information he acquired in botany, natural history, etc. With a familiar knowledge of most that nature and books could teach an inquiring mind, he united unfeigned simplicity and kindness that rendered him an agreeable visitor to all houses in the town. Titus Smith received a classical education from his father, who was a graduate of Harvard College, Cambridge, and a minister of the Sandemanian sect. The family were United Empire Loyalists. An uncle of Titus Smith’s is the original of Hawke-Eye, one of the leading characters in Cooper’s famous novel “The Last of the Mohicans.” Smith’s grave is in the woods above Dutch Village on the road leading to Geizer’s Hill. His descendants are in the United States, and several have attained prominence. This quaint village built by the early German settlers and called after them, was also the residence of several other naturalists of repute. I. Mathew Jones, and his father-in-law Colonel Myers of the Imperial army, resided there for a number of years. Captain Hardy, who afterward became a general and wrote “Forest Life in Acadie,” lived near the head of the Arm sixty years ago. He was a keen sportsman, and was concerned in the first discovery of gold in Nova Scotia at Tangier. Dutch Village was also known as Westenwald. Ravenswood, the residence of Thomas Forhan, is one of the pretty homes of this locality, and is probably named after the hero of Scott’s novel, “The Bride of Lammermoor.”

tanyan,” the house at the head of the Northwest Arm alongside the bridge, and commanding a view of the whole Arm, is the residence of County Councillor Henry Piers, a descendant of Lewis Piers, one of the original founders of Halifax in 1749. Mr. Piers formerly resided in a house of the same name at Willow Park, now part of the provincial exhibition grounds, that had been in the possession of the family since 1784. In 1897 he built the present residence upon the Arm on property purchased from the estate of Dr. Cogswell. This land had originally been granted on 10th August, 1811, to Major Alexander Ligertwood, of the 60th or Royal American Regiment of Foot, who from about 1808 till his death in January 1815 was successively military secretary at Halifax to Lieutenant-General Sir George Provost, and deputy quartermaster-general at the same place. The name Stanyan, like many other property names at the Northwest Arm, had been an old family name in England, being derived from Temple Stanyan, a literary man and friend of Addison.

rmdale on the eastern shores of the Northwest Arm at the foot of Quinpool Road, is a large property belonging to Sir Charles Tupper, former premier of Nova Scotia, one of the “Fathers of Confederation,” a member of the Dominion cabinet during several parliaments, High Commissioner for Canada in London, and finally Premier of Canada. Sir Charles is one of the few surviving statesmen who were connected with the federation of the British North American provinces in 1867 into the present Dominion of Canada. He was an opponent of Howe in the provincial arena, and for more than fifty years has been a prominent figure in public life in this country. He is at present residing at Parkside, Vancouver, B. C., with his son Sir Hibbert Tupper. Writing under date July 4, 1908, to James A. McDonald, barrister, of Halifax, Sir Charles says: “I bought the woods (at Armdale) from Henry Pryor, and the land where Armdale house is and all that open field in front from Hosterman, and the other portion belonged to the William Pryor estate.” Sir Charles in his letter states that Grant’s “Life of Howe” indicates that Armdale was Howe’s birthplace, but this is clearly a mistake. Grant’s reference is quoted elsewhere, and if it relates to Armdale, the author labored under a misapprehension. The house at Armdale was erected by Sir Charles Tupper, and a reminiscence of that event is that before going ahead with the house Sir Charles invited the late Hon. A. G. Jones to accompany him to the property one afternoon to help select the location. Shortly after the defeat of the conservative government of Canada in 1896, Sir Sandford Fleming and the late Hon. A. G. Jones were at the Windsor Hotel in London on Pacific Cable business. Sir Charles Tupper came in, having just arrived from Canada, and encountered the two first named in the rotunda. There had been a coolness between Jones and Tupper on political matters. Sir Charles remarked that he had sustained a bad reverse in the Canadian elections. The presence of a third party, a mutual friend, proved a convenient bridge for the two old friends to shake hands most cordially. With the exception of peers of the realm no Canadian, and only a very few Englishmen have received as many of the highest Imperial distinctions as the Right Hon. Sir Charles Tupper. In 1867 he was created a Companion of the Bath; in 1879, a Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George; in 1886 of the Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George; in 1888 a Baronet of the United Kingdom, and in 1907 a member of the King’s Imperial Privy Council for Great Britain, which gives him the title of Right Honorable. In addition to these Imperial honors this veteran empire-builder is an honorary LL.D. of the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh. He was born in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, July 2, 1821. William Robertson, president of the Union Bank of Halifax, resided at Armdale for five years. This property is mentioned in Sir Charles Tupper’s commission as a baronet, and at his death will pass to his eldest son. Only a few months ago, Sir Charles, although in his 87th year, travelled from Vancouver to London to receive the high appointment of a Privy Councillor, and His Majesty the King allowed Sir Charles to bring his stout walking stick with him at the Royal audience, and showed the aged statesman other marks of his favor for his inestimable services to the British race.

ubilee is a large property below Rosebank, and derived its name from the house built by John Pryor in the year of George Third’s jubilee, which was celebrated with eclat in 1810. The house, estate, and road were christened Jubilee. The land and buildings were conveyed to the late Mr. Yeomans. The Pryor family in the early part of the 19th century owned all the lands fronting on the Northwest Arm from Quinpool Road to South Street. This family was the first to erect villas on this part of the Arm, and many social events in early days graced with hospitality this lovely spot. Mrs. Graveley, S. R. Cossey, Sir Charles Tupper, R. L. Borden, leader of the Conservative party in the Canadian House of Commons, and others owned part of the original Jubilee property. The Borden residence, Pinehurst, was built by Robert Pickford, of Pickford & Black, steamship owners, who sold it to R. L. Borden. After the latter’s removal to Ottawa, this fine estate was taken temporarily by M. C. Grant, Imperial German consul at Halifax, and son-in-law of the late Hon. D. McN. Parker, and later by Major Ogilvie. The property has lately been repurchased by Mr. Pickford, who when he first owned it called the estate Westbourne. Quinpool Road was named after one Quinn whose place was near where Dence’s is now. Visitors to the Arm in July using Jubilee Road will be sure to notice the profusion of forget-me-nots lining the road on both sides for hundreds of feet.

Jubilee Boat Club—Northwest Arm, Halifax.

osebank, overlooking the beautiful Northwest Arm, comprising nearly thirty acres studded with enormous old willows, the residence of the late Senator Almon, had many rare curios. One of the first things that attracted attention on entering the house was a brass cannon mortar captured at the Redan, Crimea, the day after the Nova Scotia heroes, Parker and Welsford, were killed. In honor of their memory a lion monument stands in old St. Paul burying ground, Pleasant Street, Halifax. On the walls of the billiard room at Rosebank hung oil paintings of Dr. Johnstone, son of a loyalist of Georgia, and a member of the old Georgia colonial council, and of Rev. Dr. Byles, a grandson of Increase Mather, both ancestors of Senator Almon. Carefully posted in an album were original letters from Pope, the poet, 1627, Benedict Arnold, Isaac Watts, Benjamin Franklin, the Duke of Wellington, Belle B. Harding, the famous southern spy, and the autographs of Queen Anne, George II, and Lord North. On the shelves of the library were many rare old books including five folio volumes of Pope’s translation of the Odyssey of Homer with an autograph letter from Pope to Dr. Mather. There were original copper plates of Increase Mather, Richard Mather and Mather Byles. There was a St. Helena medal given to the survivors of the wars of Napoleon. The medal was presented by an old French soldier to Dr. Almon, who attended him during his last illness at the Poor Asylum where he died. There was a walking stick of the unfortunate Major Andre, whom Washington ordered hanged as a spy. The stick was given by Major Andre, when adjutant-general of New York, to a sergeant of his staff, and by the latter given to Mr. Williamson, an old-time Halifax merchant. There was also a Malacca stick, with a gold head, owned by Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, besides many other souvenirs of New England colonial days and of the prominent men of the old colonies. These relics were brought to Halifax by ancestors of the Almon family, who were among the loyalists. Rosebank is on the north side of Jubilee Road, and extends north to Quinpool Road. Its late owner, Senator Almon, occupied a high position in the medical profession, and many of the older medicos of Halifax of ten years ago studied with him, and delighted to recount the pleasant and profitable hours spent under Dr. Almon’s training. Dr. W. Bruce Almon is a grandson. Mrs. W. B. Graveley, wife of the manager of the Bank of Montreal at Halifax, is a daughter of Senator Almon. Rosebank is at present occupied by W. H. Waddell, proprietor of the Arnold School for Boys, and remains of the old pheasant house are still to be seen on the property.

n Professor DeMille’s novel “Cord and Creese,” published by Harpers in the Dodge Club series, is the following reference to the Northwest Arm and The Priory property. Paolo Langhetti, a musician, who is an occupant of The Priory, is made (in the course of a letter dated 1847, addressed to a friend in England) to say: “I live for the most part in a cottage outside of the town, where I can be secluded and free from observation. Near my house is the Northwest Arm. I cross it in a boat and am at once in a savage wilderness. From the summit of a hill named Mount Misery I can look down upon the city which is bordered by such a wilderness. The winter has passed since my last entry and nothing has occurred. I have learned to skate. I went out on a moose hunt with Colonel Despard. The gigantic horns of a moose which I killed are now over the door of my studio. I have joined in some festivities and have done the honors of my house. It is an old-fashioned wooden structure which they call The Priory.”

Scenes at the Northwest Arm.

(1) The Waegwoltic grounds and clubhouse. (2) Formal opening of The Waegwoltic, May 24, 1908. (3) Tennis at The Waegwoltic.

The house was situated on the north side of Jubilee Road, and just east of Pryor Street. It was destroyed by fire about 1870. The property now has a neat retaining wall to give finish and protection to the seashore. The Priory was the residence of Edward Pryor, whose son, O. Pryor, is in the customs service at Halifax. The property is now owned and occupied by C. W. Anderson, who also owns property on the water front between Jubilee Road and Coburg Road formerly in the possession of Henry Pryor, stipendiary magistrate of the city. The Priory was also the residence of James Scott about forty years ago. He was head of the Army and Navy Depot, and one of the merchant princes of the city, who entertained lavishly at his beautiful place at the Arm. These social functions were participated in by naval and military officers, and the prominent people of the community. Edward Stairs, president of the century old firm of William Stairs, Son & Morrow, Ltd., and head of the useful and successful Stairs family, married a daughter of James Scott. Mr. Stairs is a keen business man, and one of the most public-spirited citizens of this old capital city. His father, the late Hon. W. J. Stairs, was president of the Union Bank, and declined a proffer of the post of Lieutenant-Governor of the Province.

The present Anderson house was built about 1880 by George Greer. William Duffus occupied this house for a time. Another member of this family, James Duffus, had a residence at Dutch Village. The Duffus family has been prominent in Halifax business circles since the latter part of the 18th century, and is related by marriage with the Cunard, Morrow, Salter, Murdoch (the historian) and other old families. General Ogilvie, for whom one of the forts in Point Pleasant Park is named, was also a connection of the Duffus family. The Anderson residence is called The Cottage.

n the city block fronting the Arm between Coburg Road and Jubilee Road, there is the land once owned by Henry Pryor, the first stipendiary magistrate of the city of Halifax. He purchased it in 1838. This property is bounded on the north by Jubilee Road, and extends south along the shore of the Arm 600 feet and eastwardly along Jubilee Road 600 feet. The northern part of it has been secured for the purpose of a new boating club which will be established early next year. The location is an ideal one for that object, and is situate opposite the old military prison at Melville Island. After the death of Henry Pryor this property was owned by Dr. James Walker of St. John, an experienced Eastern traveller and student, who conveyed it to Nelson H. Gardner, who sold it to C. W. Anderson, by whom part of it was conveyed to W. H. Gunnell of New York. From him it lately passed to Arthur A. Haliburton, and from him to John E. Burns, of the city water works department. There is considerable water front to the property, which will give excellent facilities for the erection of a boathouse. The old residence on this property was destroyed by fire while occupied by Clarence J. Spike. Mrs. (Dr.) A. C. Hawkins of Halifax was a sister of C. J. Spike. Their father was city health inspector at one time, but for many years in early life was in the printing trade, and at one time was associated with his friend Joe Howe in local publications.

Lord Panmure, who was Secretary of State for War under Lord Palmerston during the latter part of the Crimean War, and who is referred to on page 81 as the recipient of a grant of a water lot at Queen’s Quarries, Northwest Arm, was eleventh Earl of Dalhousie. The tenth Earl was Governor-General of India. The ninth Earl was a general officer at Waterloo and came to Nova Scotia after the peace of 1815, and was Governor of this Province 1816-20. One of the prominent acts of his gubernatorial regime at Halifax was laying the corner stone of old Dalhousie college in 1820. This institution was named after him and uses the motto of the family ora et labora. Lord Dalhousie then became Governor-General of Canada. The eighth Earl of Dalhousie succeeded to the title and estate of his uncle, Lord Panmure, in 1782, and thenceforth the titles were merged.

tudley, the site of the “Studley Quoit” club, is situated a little back from the shores of the Northwest Arm. The club has been famous for its hospitality, and has entertained at its grounds members of royal families and many eminent personages who have visited our city. It is beautifully placed on the slope facing the Arm. It owes its name to Sir Alex. Croke, a judge of the vice-admiralty court of Halifax during the French war, which was renewed 1803 and did not end till the exile of Napoleon in 1815. Judge Croke was lineally descended from the Sir George Croke who so ably defended the cause of national liberty in the case of Hampden’s ship money. In the year after his arrival in Halifax, Judge Croke bought the property comprising forty acres, situate on the peninsula of Halifax, to which he gave the name of Studley in recollection of the estate of that name which belonged to his family in Oxfordshire, England. The site commands a view of the Northwest Arm and of the entrance to the harbor. On this he built a large and commodious house; the grounds he laid out with much taste. The estate was wooded; in a pretty grove he erected a bower, inscribing on its portals some lines, which we quote:

In this retreat Judge Croke is said to have composed a certain poem alluding to laxity in Government House circles, which he afterwards put in private circulation in manuscript form; this and his satires on Halifax society created great excitement among the good people of the town. Sir Alexander Croke was administrator of the Province of Nova Scotia while the lieutenant-governor, Sir George Provost, was away on service of the Crown in Martinique, W. I. He continued in Halifax till the year 1815, when he returned to England, spending the rest of his life at Studley Priory, his family seat. He died there on the 27th December 1843, in the 85th year of his age. Besides his literary fame he had some reputation as an artist; he made sketches of Nova Scotia scenery while here, which at the time of his death were hanging on the walls of Studley Priory. Some of his paintings were well spoken of by Mr. West, President of the Royal Academy. The estate of Studley Priory was held by Sir Alexander’s son John, who in 1871 was his fourth and only surviving son. John Croke was a Nova Scotian by birth and was probably born at Studley, Northwest Arm. For this abstract on Sir Alexander Croke we are indebted to the late Sir Adams G. Archibald. Studley Club this year celebrated its golden jubilee. Coburg Road was formerly called Studley. During Judge Croke’s stay in Halifax there was great activity in naval circles—exciting captures on the coast and many prizes and their cargoes of silks, liquors, etc., to adjudicate on in the vice-admiralty court. The original Studley house was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. In the Bluenose of Saturday, October 6, 1900, vol. 1, No. 1, Lewis E. Smith, the artist and designer, gives a sketch of an old bell hanging at Studley with the date 1809 on it in bold relief. The Chesapeake’s flag was recently sold in London to W. W. Astor; perhaps, though not likely, this is also the bell of the United States frigate vanquished off Boston harbor and convoyed into Halifax by the Shannon. The Chesapeake was sent to England. Studley is now the residence of Dr. Robert Murray, a veteran journalist, for fifty years editor of the Presbyterian Witness.

CELEBRATING THE GOLDEN JUBILEE OF STUDLEY QUOIT CLUB, AUG. 24, 1908.

Studley Quoit Club was organized August 24, 1858, with a membership of fourteen, most of whom had been identified with the defunct Bedford Quoit Club, an association of gentlemen who met on certain Saturday afternoons to pitch quoits. The membership of the club has increased to one hundred. In 1873 the limit was thirty. In 1879 the number reached forty playing members, and twenty non-playing members. In 1893 the players numbered fifty, and in 1896 the number was sixty with forty non-playing, at which number it now stands, not including an Imperial service list of seven or eight, the limit for this class being twenty-five. The club colors are green for the grass, blue for the sky, and dark brown for the background of pine trees. In 1863 a section of the membership seceded and formed the Chebucto Quoit Club in Dartmouth, but which later disbanded. The first president was Samuel W. DeBlois. Dr. Howard Murray is the present incumbent of that office, and the lieutenant-governor is honorary president.

airfield adjoining the Waegwoltic grounds, is the property of Mrs. James A. Fraser, and was acquired by the late Mr. Fraser from John Stairs, who bought the land from Hon. A. G. Jones and raised the present building and named the situation Fairfield. Between business hours Mr. Stairs gave special attention to the growing of flowering shrubs, while not neglecting the cultivation of ornamental trees, and it is said there was good-natured rivalry between Mr. Stairs and Mr. Jones, the latter being more successful in developing a splendid grove of evergreens. Trim hedges border clean gravelled walks at Fairfield, which are well kept, and notable in the approach to the residence is a cluster of magnificent rhododendrons.

Probably the first illumination on the Arm was that tendered by Captain W. G. Stairs of African exploration fame, September 4, 1890, just prior to his departure for England after a visit of three months to his parents at Fairfield. The city council had presented him with an address of congratulation on his success in Africa, and for the honor thereby conferred on his native city. The reception accorded the explorer by his friends at the Arm was a brilliant affair. The grounds and residence of T. E. Kenny, Mrs. Robert Morrow, Hon. A. G. Jones, Sandford Fleming, Clarence J. Spike (Hillside), C. W. Anderson, William Robertson and F. D. Corbett were decked with Chinese lanterns and colored fire, and bonfires were placed at points of vantage. At the shore of Hillside a cluster of strong electric lamps spelled the word “Stairs.” Yachts from the R. N. S. Y. Squadron were decorated with lamps and moored along both shores, and numerous steam craft and boats, lighted from stem to stern, participated in the general tribute. Captain (then Lieutenant) Stairs left shortly after for London to take the post of adjutant at Woolwich, but was permitted to accept an engagement with the Belgian government to return to Africa, where he took command of an expedition to go to Chinde, at the source of the Congo, where fresh trouble existed. A melancholy interest attaches to the farewell illumination on the Arm in Halifax because the intrepid young officer died of fever June 1892, far from home at the mouth of the Zambesi, where he had returned to the coast from the interior. Captain Stairs had crossed Africa in 1888-1890 as second in command under Stanley, of the Emin Pasha relief expedition, and was several times wounded. One of his exploits was the ascent of Mount Ruwenzori, in the Mountains of the Moon, 10,667 feet altitude. Captain Stairs wore Turkish, Egyptian and Zanzibar decorations. He was born at Halifax 1863, and graduated in engineering at Kingston. He was connected with the Royal Engineers for some years and was then attached to the 41st Welsh. A tablet has been erected to his memory at his alma mater, and another at Rochester Cathedral, near Chatham, Eng., the headquarters of the engineers’ branch of the Imperial service. H. B. Stairs, barrister of Halifax, brother of the explorer, went to Africa in 1899, being in command of “H” company of the First Canadian contingent sent to the Boer war. He was at Paardeberg and other engagements. Hillside property was once the residence of Henry Pryor and is now owned by C. W. Anderson, with a right-of-way to Jubilee Road.

Illuminations at the Arm at the present time are much more elaborate than anything undertaken twenty years ago, and strangers who have visited different countries declare that the Arm illuminations surpass anything of the kind they have ever seen abroad. The numerous decorated boats and the bonfires and illuminations round the shores of the Arm constitute a fairy picture. This year the Canadian cruiser Canada, Captain Knowlton, participated in the annual illumination on the Arm, and was outlined from stem to stern in electric lamps, the same as the ship was decorated at the Quebec tercentenary. This was the first war vessel which had come into the Northwest Arm and illuminated.

large field on the north side of Coburg Road, situated east of the land recently acquired by W. T. Francis as the site for a residence, is owned by Brenton H. Collins, and there are several other parcels of property on the Peninsula belonging to the same estate. The most extensive is Gorsebrook, where Enos Collins, the founder of the Halifax branch of the family, resided during the great part of a long life marked by striking success in financial and commercial ventures. He was the owner of privateers, and was personally an officer in these enterprises licensed in early days but not permitted in present day naval warfare. Enos Collins was a native of Liverpool, where his father conducted a substantial business. He engaged in business in Halifax and became a member of the early Legislative and Executive Councils. His name is also familiarly known in connection with the establishment of the Halifax Banking Company, now absorbed by the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Gorsebrook was purchased from John Moody, a merchant and loyalist, a native of New York. Thomas Moody, the father of the latter, was the daring officer and scout in the ranks of the Massachusetts Loyalists, who penetrated Washington’s lines while the American army lay in camp outside of New York City, and succeeded in bringing valuable intelligence to General Howe, the British commander, as to the strength and disposition of the enemy’s forces. Gorsebrook extends from Tower Road west, almost to the shores of the Northwest Arm. The new portion of Inglis Street, connecting with Marlborough Woods, cuts the Collins demesne nearly in halves. On the north division of the property the links of the Halifax Golf Club are located. Brenton H. Collins, son of Enos Collins, resides in England; he was born in Halifax. John Wimburne Laurie, M. P., major general of the British Army, married Frances Robie, a sister of Brenton H. Collins. She is a granddaughter of the late Chief Justice Halliburton, and a great-granddaughter of Bishop Charles Inglis of Nova Scotia, who was rector of Trinity, New York, at the time of the Revolution, and who, it is narrated, continued to offer prayers for the success and safe-keeping of the king, although warned with guns levelled at him that he would be shot unless he desisted. Major-General Laurie was present at the siege of Sebastopol, and was twice wounded and was mentioned in despatches for gallant defence of advanced positions against a superior force of Russians. He also saw active service in the Indian mutiny, being attached to a field force with irregular cavalry and camel corps, which executed a number of forced marches during the suppression of the great rebellion. The general has an estate at Oakfield, on the line of the Intercolonial Railway, a few miles from Halifax, where some of his family annually come from England to spend part of the season. General Laurie came to Canada at the time of the Trent affair and was afterward connected with the Canadian militia for a number of years, and later represented Shelburne, N. S., in the Canadian parliament. Professor D. Northall-Laurie, a nephew of General Laurie, is a member of the Alpine and Primrose Clubs of London, and occupied the chair of chemistry at King’s College, near the Old Curiosity Shop at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Professor Laurie is president of a new company engaged in the manufacture of various products from sulphate of lime—gypsum—in Cape Breton, and makes his headquarters at Port Hastings, where the works are located.

Three families—Collins, Cogswell and Cunard—were neighbors on the southern portion of the Halifax peninsula in early days, and were intimate in business. The “Three C’s” was the way they were referred to after founding the Halifax Banking Co. William Cunard in later years was a director of the Bank of Nova Scotia, and one of the first directors of the Merchants’ Bank, now the Royal Bank of Canada. A sister of William Cunard married Colonel Francklyn, father of G. E. Francklyn.

change such as Rip Van Winkle experienced, has occurred at the Northwest Arm in recent years. Property was considerably depressed in value a few years ago, and changed hands for low record prices. It is recovering, and during the last two years there have been more transactions in real estate at the Arm than for ten years previous. The construction of a new trunk line sewer built on the shore and discharging at Point Pleasant must soon be taken up seriously. There should be a continuous driveway from Point Pleasant Park along the eastern shore of the Arm, but not at the water front as has been proposed, where it would irreparably damage private property, but laid out in serpentine fashion, alternately receding and approaching the Arm, according as circumstances permit. Such a boulevard is within measurable distance; a shore frontage driveway and promenade will not be built in fifty years, if ever. Spring Garden Road and Coburg Road should have one name and be made of uniform width throughout.

Among the modern villas which have been built at the Arm since the recent revival of interest in this beautiful sheet of water as a place of residence, one of the most attractive is the residence of W. L. Payzant, barrister, on Oxford Street, commanding an extensive view of the upper Arm. The property is prettily enclosed in shrubbery, which has grown very rapidly, illustrating how well vegetation thrives on the western slope of the peninsula, protected from the dust and coal smoke of the city. John Young Payzant, father of W. L. Payzant, is a leading citizen of Halifax and identified with some of the important interests of the city. The family came to Nova Scotia under Governor Cornwallis and is of Huguenot origin. The great-grandfather of Mr. Payzant, sr., with some of his family, were massacred by Indians on an island in Lunenburg county, while his wife and the balance of the family were carried captives to Quebec, and were present at the conquest of that city by Wolfe and the heroic defence of Montcalm. John Y. Payzant studied law with the late Hon. J. W. Johnston, and was admitted to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1864, and at once began to practise in Halifax and became very successful. He is President of the Bank of Nova Scotia, and a director in the street railway and numerous other large institutions. In private life Mr. Payzant is a popular resident, a keen sportsman and a scholarly writer. W. L. Payzant is secretary of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. A. W. Redden and C. J. Silliker have finished attractive homes near W. L. Payzant’s residence. E. P. Allison and Hon. D. M. Owen occupy fine residences on Oxford Street. The extension of the rails of the Halifax Tramway Co. to the Arm has done much to bring the Northwest Arm to its present prominence.

mong the annual festivals, says Murdoch the historian, which have been lost sight of in the passage of years, was the celebration of St. Aspinquid, known as the Indian Saint. St. Aspinquid’s day appeared in the Nova Scotia almanacks from 1774 to 1786. The festival was celebrated on the seventh day after the first new moon in the month of May. The tide being low at that time, many of the principal inhabitants of the town on these occasions assembled on the shore of the Northwest Arm and partook of a dish of clam soup, the clams being collected on the spot at low water. There is a tradition that during the American trouble, when agents of the revolted colonies were active to gain over adherents, the good people of Halifax in 1776 were celebrating St. Aspinquid; the wine having circulated freely, the Union Jack was hauled down and replaced by the Stars and Stripes. This was soon reversed, but all those persons who held public offices immediately left the grounds and St. Aspinquid was never after celebrated in Halifax. The feast of St. Aspinquid was of New England origin, and was brought to Halifax by the settlers from those colonies who threw in their lot with those from Old England. Murdoch apparently knew nothing of the origin of the above feast, a sketch of which we append. From “New England Legends,” by Samuel Adams Drake, we glean the following account of St. Aspinquid. He was born in 1588 and was nearly 100 years old when he died. He was converted to Christianity, possibly by the French Jesuits, and was baptized when he was about 40 years old, receiving the name by which he was afterwards known, and he at once set about his long active ministration among the people of his own race to whom he became a tutelary saint and prophet. For no less than fifty years he is said to have wandered from east to west and from north to south, preaching the gospel to sixty-six different nations, healing the sick and performing those miracles which raised him in the estimation of his own people to the character of being endowed with supernatural powers. These wanderings had carried him from the shores of the Atlantic to the Californian sea. Growing venerable in his good work, warned that he must soon be gathered to his fathers, the saint at last came home to die among his own people. Having called the sachems of the different tribes together they carried the body of their patriarch to the summit of Mount Agamenticus. Previous to performing the rite of sepulture and agreeable to the customs held sacred by these people, the hunters of each tribe spread themselves throughout the forests. A great number of wild beasts were slaughtered as a sacrifice to the manes of the departed saint. Tradition affirms that that day there were slain and offered up between six and seven thousand wild animals. Mt. Agamenticus, where the Indian saint is supposed to have been born and where his mortal remains were finally returned to the earth, is on the borders of Maine. Lowell and other American poets make reference to Mt. Agamenticus, the locality of the legend of the Indian saint. The Maine Indians were a branch of the Micmacs. The Halifax Gazette of June, 1770, contained an account of the feast of St. Aspinquid as follows: “On Thursday last, being the 31st day of May, the festival of St. Aspinquid was celebrated at Northwest Arm at Nathan Ben Saddi Nathan’s and at Captain Jordan’s, both fishermen, when elegant dinners at both places were provided, consisting of various kinds of fish, etc. After dinner at Mr. Nathan’s were discharged a number of cannon, and at Mr. Jordan’s, muskets, and many loyal toasts were drunk in honor of the day. At Mr. Jordan’s the toasts, after the usual manner, were the twelve sachem chiefs of the twelve tribes, who were general friends and allies of the English.” The Indian Saint was called the “grand sachem of all the northern Indian tribes.” The town of York, New Hampshire, near the Maine boundary, was at one time called Agamenticus. It was settled in 1624, and in 1641 at the instance of Sir Ferdinand Georges was given a city charter and government and renamed Georgeana. This was undoubtedly the first English city on the continent of America.

t is estimated that, at the present time, between the three boat clubs, the Saraguay Club and private parties, there are from 1,200 to 1,500 boats and canoes on the Northwest Arm. In addition there are twenty motor boats, and the number is growing. Then there are racing shells belonging to St. Mary’s and others. A few years ago it was all but arranged that the Lorne Club, located at Richmond on the harbor front, should be transferred to the Northwest Arm by taking from the Acadia Sugar Refinery in exchange for its present club premises adjoining the Richmond Refinery, the Morrow property now owned by F. W. Bowes. Negotiations to this end progressed far toward consummation but a hitch occurred and the project was called off. It is a coincidence that some members of the Northwest Arm Rowing Club at one time contemplated securing the same property and transferring their present boathouse in sections from South Street to the foot of Coburg Road. The club not being unanimous the undertaking did not come to a head. The popularity of boating and canoeing on the Arm dates from the formation of the Northwest Arm Rowing Club eight years ago. The waters of the Arm are almost invariably smooth, and well adapted for boating, and for ladies and children to enjoy this favorite maritime pastime in safety. Owing to the great increase in the number of small boats, and the number of power craft attracted to the Arm sight seeing, this inlet of the harbor is not quite as satisfactory for training scullers as it was prior to 1900, at a time when practically the only boats on the Arm were those owned by the few owners of land on the water front. The Arm used to be a favorite place for shell practice. The four who competed at the Philadelphia centennial, known as the Centennial Crew, made their headquarters at Lawson’s Mills on the western shore. They were John J. Nickerson, Caleb Nickerson, Obed Smith, Warren Smith, of Sambro, and William Flemming of Herring Cove. Police-Sergeant Nickerson and Caleb Nickerson survive. These men were trained under the auspices of the Fishermen’s Rowing Association, an organization of Halifax men interested in boating, and coached by the veteran oarsman, Jeremiah Holland, who was also the trainer of the Pryor or Fishermen Crew that astonished the rowing fraternity by their performance at the aquatic carnival held at Halifax in 1871, in which the scullers of the world competed. The Pryors were large owners of property at the Northwest Arm and were patrons and promoters of aquatics. The Centennial Crew practised on the Arm three times a day in a shell, early in the morning, in the forenoon and in the evening. The course was three miles in length, and commenced at the bluff just above Lawson’s Mills and extended a mile and a half to a turning buoy moored off Horseshoe Island and return. For practice this crew used the boat “Tangier,” which was formerly owned by the Barton crew. Their single shell was the scull “Thomas Wasson,” built for the late George Brown. They were seated in a new shell at Philadelphia named the “Nova Scotian,” built to order by Robert Jewett of Dunstie-on-Tyne. It is believed this crew could have won at Philadelphia but were jockeyed by the opposing crew whom they immediately afterward challenged, but the challenge was not accepted. The Halifax crew were awarded special honors. The Lynch brothers of Purcell’s Cove also did considerable training on the Northwest Arm, and one of the races which they pulled against Durnan and Rice, the Toronto cracks, was rowed upon the Arm. While the great increase of boating on the Northwest Arm has spoiled the Arm to some extent as a place for training oarsmen, it is still far enough away from the city to get clear water in the morning. There have been regular regattas on the Arm each season in recent years, which have attracted thousands of spectators both ashore and afloat. These regattas have been conducted under the auspices of the Arm clubs or the United Banks, and included the Maritime championships on several occasions. A new course in the lower Arm basin from South St. to a point off Maplewood and return has been used in late years as affording a view of the races to the greatest number of people. The rapid building up of the shores of the inner basin of the Arm will probably mean the resumption of the old Arm course for some regattas. This is the wider part of the Northwest Arm, and is probably a better situation for boating in many respects, though not in other points than the southern and newer course.

BOATING AT THE NORTHWEST ARM.

Regattas in the Lower Arm and at Melville Cove. The larger photograph shows the finish of a shell race. On the left of the same picture is the beautiful Thornvale estate.

The success of The Waegwoltic as an all-the-year-round club, with club privileges for ladies, being contrary to the predictions of the critics, has directed new attention to the Northwest Arm. Already members of one or two of the old conservative downtown clubs and athletic organizations are credited with a desire to obtain a footing for their institutions at one or the other of the Arm clubs, especially for summer; eventually the Arm will also be a centre of popular winter entertainment. The Northwest Arm Rowing Club plans a large balcony-addition next year to accommodate increasing patronage. A small new boat club is moored at the head of the Arm, and another at the southern part of Melville Cove.

n a paper read before the Historical Society some years ago, written by the late Peter Lynch, who made a study of local traditions, there is recounted the story of an elopement of an English girl with a young Indian which took place in the early days of the settlement. The matter is also referred to in an appendix to Murdoch’s History of Nova Scotia, and the story seems to be founded upon fact. Mr. Lynch describes with vivid detail the pursuit across the peninsula of Halifax to the Northwest Arm at a point which must have been somewhere near Coburg Road or Jubilee Road, and the escape of the elopers in a canoe. The following is a summary of the paper read before the Historical Society:

Amongst the earliest settlers in Halifax from England was a merchant of good family, and rumor stated that an unsuccessful speculation at home had caused him to go abroad to live quietly. With him was a sister, an aged spinster, and an only child, a beautiful girl of seventeen. He engaged in business, and with his domestics and employees, all dwelt under the one roof, partly for protection against possible Indian attacks and also because accommodation at that time was limited.

Notwithstanding the prevailing distrust of the Indians, the warriors and their women in picturesque costume were quite often seen on the streets of the town. A tall, graceful Indian lad who had been an invalid for a long time, and unable to follow the chase, was brought to the settlement to seek the aid of one of the resident doctors, the medicine man of his own tribe having failed to restore the boy’s health.

The fine, manly appearance of the youth excited the sympathy of the kind-hearted merchant, who took him to his home, where he had him regularly treated by a physician, and finally when the lad regained health and strength the merchant made him a proposition to take employment with him, which the Indian youth accepted, and he was at once admitted a member of the family. The youth was instructed how to write, and was given the duties of a clerk and was clad in the garments of the white man. The character of the savage steadily gave way in the midst of his changed surroundings, and he discharged his duties with diligence and interest. The apparent transformation was aided by his being an orphan and intercourse with his race having been broken off.

After a time, however, with the concurrence of the merchant, the Indian youth would stroll away into the woods with his gun for a few hours’ shooting. These excursions became more and more protracted, finally occupying entire days, and it was manifest that the nomadic habits born in his blood and dormant for a time were fast asserting themselves. The light work which had been assigned the youth was regularly neglected and the lad’s benefactor commenced to despair of ever moulding his protege into civilized ways.

Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone except the merchant’s daughter, the young Indian gave up his hunting habits and recommenced the discharge of his duties with alacrity and pleasure. It was gradually whispered among the neighbors of the settlement that the Indian had been seen conversing with members of his race in the forest, and also held meetings with the merchant’s daughter. This proved to be correct, and when the father charged his daughter with the fact, she declared that she loved the Indian boy and intended to marry him. The Indian was banished from the settlement and the matter was forgotten for a time, until some months later. In the autumn, one night the household was aroused by a report of the servants that the girl had eloped with the Indian. An armed party was quickly formed to follow them, and no difficulty was found in finding the course they had gone. It led up over Citadel Hill, and before the pursuers had gone half the distance they caught sight of the fugitives on top of the hill, the Indian carrying the girl. A large brook then ran through the Common. This was spanned by a rude pole bridge, which the Indian managed to cast adrift after he had crossed it, in order to delay the pursuit. The Indian, being familiar with the ground, made all possible haste over Camp Hill, but was repeatedly obliged to assist his companion. He descended the slope towards the Northwest Arm, and at last his quick eye caught sight of the stars glinting upon the black waters of the Arm. As he approached the shore he gave a short cry, a signal to confederates of his tribe who were supposed to be in waiting. At first the cry was not heard, and the friends of the girl were audible rapidly approaching. A second signal was given and the Indian’s comrades, who were in a canoe just off the shore, heard it and paddled to the bank. The pursuers had also heard and guessed what the signal meant, and lost no time in reaching the spot from which the sound proceeded. The Indian had just placed his burden in the canoe and stepped in himself when the foremost of the settlers sprang upon the shore and seized the bow of the canoe. There was not a moment to be lost, and the Indian raised a paddle and brought it down upon the arm of the man, compelling him to release his hold, and the canoe bounded out into the waters of the Arm. Guns were raised by those on shore to discharge at the occupants of the craft, but the father of the girl would not let them shoot. As the canoe neared the further side of the Arm, a torch flashed for a moment as a signal, and the craft glided into Melville Cove and vanished in the darkness. Next morning a large party of the townspeople accompanied the broken-hearted father back to the shores of the Arm, but no trace of the fugitives could be discovered, and from that time forward inquiries as to the whereabouts of the girl were futile. About a year after this time in a camp on the banks of the Shubenacadie, a woman lay dying in the flickering light of a camp fire, and there was the low cry of a newly-born infant. The mother of the child, who was the daughter of the English merchant, had led a wretched existence of one year, and her soul was now released from its mortal tenement. Again a few weeks after, a tall, gaunt Indian under the shade of night made his way into the town, approached the house of the merchant and carefully deposited the infant wrapped in a blanket, in the porch, rapped loudly at the door and fled into the darkness. He was never heard of afterward. The child became the comfort of her grandfather, and when she grew to womanhood, traces of the Indian blood could be discerned in her complexion, eyes and bearing. She married an English naval officer, and removed to England to reside, and one of her sons afterward lived on this station, holding the same rank in the navy that his father had held at the time of his mother’s marriage.

or the artist and lover of Nature, there are two distinct sets of views at the Northwest Arm—morning and evening—with numberless variations of these two general divisions. The Arm is about three miles long, and one-quarter to three-quarters of a mile wide, but is so narrow at some places one could almost expect to see the shadows of the hills join in the centre. Receding coves and advancing headlands relieve the monotony of a regular shore line. The Arm lies approximately north and south, and therefore intersects the path of the planets from east to west. It is a place of ever-changing lights and shades. At sunrise the orb of day touches with light the recesses of the western shore, and throws a gigantic shadow of the proximate hills upon the dark green slopes of higher eminences in the rear. This is reversed at evening. Then the places which were bright in the morning are obscured in the gathering dusk, and the eastern shore of the Arm comes into view in the blazing search-light of a setting sun. The western rays penetrate the natural avenues of the woods with lines of fire; overhead the sky is painted in glorious hues, changing from saffron to crimson, and to salmon pink, and occasionally to the deep red glare of Vesuvius or the golden sunset of San Francisco Bay. Sunsets on the Northwest Arm are talked about far and near.

Moonlight scenes on the Northwest Arm are not less lovely, and compare with the matchless nights one sees in Venice. The slow-circling shadows of rock and tree move no faster than the lunar planet. The moon and the stars and the shadows fade in company in the west. As at day there is a change of light from shore to shore, and at the highest point of the moon’s transit the scene on the Arm is especially beautiful. From sky-line to shore-line, the unreflecting hills retain their inanimate aspect. But the mirrored length of the Arm, the moon being at the zenith, is transfigured from end to end with a flood of dazzling silver radiance. Boats glide about as noiseless as Indian canoes, little lights twinkle on the shores, a note of song or lilt of musical instrument floats across the dreaming waters, and the whole effect is so tranquil and ravishingly lovely one thinks of fairy scenes from Shakespeare depicted on a metropolitan stage.

In a novel, “Cord and Creese,” written by Professor DeMille many years ago a moonlight scene on the Arm is thus described: “Opposite my house, on the western shore of the Arm there rises a barren rock called Mt. Misery, which I visited. It was night; there was not a cloud in the sky. The moon shone with marvellous lustre. Down in front of us lay the long arm of the sea that ran between us and the city. On the opposite side were woods, and beyond them rose the Citadel, on the other side of which the city lay nestling at its base like those Rhenish towns that lie at the foot of feudal castles. On the left hand all was wilderness; on the right, close by, was a small lake which seemed like a sheet of silver in the moon’s rays. Further on lay the ocean, stretching in boundless extent away to the horizon. There lay islands and sandbanks with lighthouses. Here under the moon lay a broad path of golden light, molten gold, unruffled, undisturbed in that dead calm.” This pen picture was evidently taken from the same point which was selected for the panorama at the back of this volume.

An enthusiastic contributor of the Evening Mail, on July 6, 1908, signed Rectus, said the beauty of the Northwest Arm exceeded that of the lochs of Scotland, the watering places of Wales, Devonshire or Cornwall, the charms of the Channel Islands, the Seine or the Rhone, the enchantment of the lakes of Switzerland, or of the noble Bay of Tuscany.

Returning from Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Nova Scotian patriot, Howe, who was born and educated on the Northwest Arm, exclaimed on coming into sight of his home land:

AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE NORTHWEST ARM.

View from veranda of bungalow at Purcell’s Cove, showing pilot boats at anchor in the Cove, the wooded termination of Point Pleasant Park on the opposite shore of the Arm, and the Dartmouth shore and McNab’s Island in the background of the photograph.

Among the most beautiful spots in the world the Northwest Arm is also one of the most noted historic places in Canada, in fact in the Empire, through its association with great men and great events, and time will increase the appreciation of the people of Halifax of the value of the Northwest Arm. The sloping hillsides of the Arm have been the abode of eminent characters, and Nature has been lavish in beautifying this historic spot. In the years to come Halifax will have a large population, and many travellers will come and go through the gates of the city. For the benefit of the citizens and the pleasure of visitors, the memory of the associations of the Arm should be kept alive, and the charms and the attractiveness of this hallowed spot, like the classic vale of Attica, carefully preserved for the enjoyment and contemplation of future generations. The city should obtain authority to control and regulate both shores of the Arm and likewise exercise police jurisdiction over its waters. This book is a modest attempt to show the beauty and value of the Northwest Arm and arouse interest in the preservation of one of the most delightful spots in the Dominion of Canada.

THE END

TRANSCRIBER NOTES

[The end of Sketches and Traditions of the Northwest Arm by John William Regan]