Page:Canadian notabilities 2.djvu/9

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pursuits, and had steadily accumulated wealth. From another source, however, his means received an accession which made him probably the wealthiest professional man in Upper Canada. The Hon. Peter Russell, already referred to, was never married, and by consequence he left no direct heirs. Upon his death, in the year l808, his large landed and other possessions devolved upon his maiden sister, Miss Elizabeth Russell. This lady survived until 1822. She was a distant connection of the Baldwins, and a very warm friendship had always subsisted between the two families. She resided with the Doctor's family—or, rather, the Doctor's family resided with her—during the last eight or nine years of her life. Upon her death she bequeathed all her possessions to Dr. Baldwin, who thus acquired a handsome fortune. He had in l8l3, immediately after the American invasion of York, removed to Russell Abbey on Front street, a mansion which had previously belonged to the Hon. Peter Russell, and which at this date belonged to his sister. After Miss Russell's death Dr. Baldwin began to entertain projects to which his mind had theretofore been a stranger. He designed to subject the large estate to a strict entail, and to found an opulent Canadian family. The Doctor, as we have seen, was a sincere and pronounced Liberal in his political views. He was a man of high principles, honestly desirous of promoting the welfare of his fellow-men; but he was, nevertheless, strongly influenced by the notions of social caste which were all but universal among educated persons of British stock in those days. He purchased a block of land on the summit of the acclivity which rises to the northward of Toronto, a short distance beyond the city limits. Here, on one of the most imposing sites in the neighbourhood, he built a cosy-looking white house of comfortable proportions, which he intended to be merely the nucleus of a much more stately structure. He called his new estate "Spadina," which is an Italianized form of an Indian word signifying a pleasant hill. The greater part of the land intervening between the base of Spadina Hill and Queen-street —covering a distance of nearly two miles—had formerly belonged to the Russells, and was now the property of Dr. Baldwin. He laid out through this property a broad and stately highway a hundred and twenty feet in width, which has ever since been known as Spadina-avenue. He removed to his new home, and soon came to be known as "Baldwin of Spadina" —an honorary title which he hoped to transmit to his posterity in future ages. "There was to be for ever," says Dr.