6 replies to this topic

[Caramia]

DW Higgins was editor of "The Colonist" Victoria's Anti-Colonial Newspaper from 1866 when Higgins, founder of the Victoria Daily Chronicle, purchased the paper from Amor De Cosmos. After 50 years in newspaper, and 9 years as speaker of the house of Parliment, Higgins wrote two books "The Mystic Spring (1904)" and "The Passing of A Race (1905)." A great gossip, romantic and believer in the supernatural, Higgins' books are full of great stories about Victoria in the last half of the 1800s. His books are in Canadian Public Domain so I started scanning them and sticking them on Flickr for now, maybe down the road I can add them to [url=http://www.canadiana.org/eco.php:ece63]Early Canadiana Online[/url:ece63].

I have always wondered after reading Chapter 3 of "The Passing of A Race" where the strip of land that the Pesthouse was on was actually located. I'm hoping that someone here will be able to make a suggestion... "South of Beacon Hill Park" a "Strip of Land along Dallas Road" hrmm...

There are some neat things in this story, such as how when the doctor in New Westminster couldn't figure out what was wrong, the doctor from Victoria was called - a reminder of when Victoria was the big city. Also how the body once found was brought to Bastion Square to be laid out.

Here is the story for anyone who might like to read it, I'll apologise in advance for any scrolling problems that the large images might produce.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/gp/31394528@N00/ov9w88:ece63]Here's a link to the Flickr set[/url:ece63]

[Caramia]

(I have no idea why he suddenly started going on about the Hastings family in this chapter, seems a bit stream of conciousness)

[Mike]

What an interesting read. I'm sure someone's thought of this, but I'm going to see what the old land status maps look like the next time I'm at the provincial archives. Thanks for scanning.

[Caramia]

Thanks Mike,
Every time I am down at Dallas road now I keep looking around wondering where the pesthouse was.

[Mike]

Holland Point it seems. I found this well-referenced [url=http://www.islandnet.com/beaconhillpark/contents/appendix_C2.htm:7ca78]article[/url:7ca78]. Interesting.

[G-Man]

Interesting thanks !

[Caramia]

Wow fantastic! Thank you!