of the upper hallway, and was thus not directly connected with the
larger apartment.

I am not informed as to the precise number and features of the other
rooms in the upper story, except that is they were bedrooms; nor is any
further information respecting them essential to a full comprehension
of the narrative. Why I have been so precise as to what may at first
appear trivial details will hereafter appear.




III.--THE TENANTS OF THE HOUSE.

As already mentioned, the house was probably built by Surveyor-General
Ridout;--but it does not appear that either he or any member of his
family ever resided there. The earliest occupant of whom I have been
able to find any trace was Thomas Mercer Jones--the gentleman, I
presume, who was afterwards connected with the Canada Land Company.
Whether he was the first tenant I am unable to say, but a gentleman
bearing that name dwelt there during the latter part of the year 1816,
and appears to have been a well-known citizen of Little York. In 1819
the tenant was a person named McKechnie, as to whom I have been unable
to glean any information whatever beyond the bare fact that he was a
pewholder in St. James's church. He appears to have given place to one
of the numerous members of the Powell family.

But the occupant with whom this narrative is more immediately concerned
was a certain ex-military man named Bywater, who woke up the echoes of
York society for a few brief months, between sixty and seventy years