Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

Page 8 text:

4 THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN 1 835 or 1 867? Tradition gives two dates to the time of planting of this tree. The members of the Deacon family, who owned the property for many years before Branksome Hall secured it, have always believed that it was planted on July 1, 1867, to mark Confedera- tion. Before Colonel Deacon bought what is now the central part of our Junior School, the Waldie family lived there and before that Sheriff William Jarvis, active in the affairs of York, whose property extended considerably beyond the present limits, developed his estate called Rosedale , and gave the name to this area of Toronto. In 1928 the book Mary ' s Rosedale and Gossip of Little York by Alden G. Meredith was published and has as one of its illustrations, The Rosedale Elm, a seedling of 1830 . He states, It was to celebrate the fifth birthday of her eldest child that Mary planted an elm upon the lawn in 1835. It grew and flourished, becoming with time one of the handsomest trees of the estate . The Mary referred to was Mrs. William Jarvis. We believe that this is our Readacres Elm, but we leave it to you to decide whether the date of planting was 1835 or 1867.

Page 7 text:

YEAR BOOK, 1967 Page 3 where does Eaton ' s get so many young ideas? We have lots of help... It ' s a pleasure, working with such bright, imaginative young people, as Eaton ' s Junior Councillors and Executives 66 67. They help plan the events and choose the merchandise that makes Eaton ' s the greatest Store for Young Canada Beverley Bowen EATON ' S

Page 9 text:

YEAR BOOK, 1967 Page 5 The Principal ' s Letter DEAR GIRLS: At Thanksgiving I visited the Kawartha Lake area described by Anne Langton in her letter-diary, A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, and could not help but contrast the country as she saw it in 1837-38 and what it is like now. Although she was somewhat older than our Grade 13 girls are, I contrasted her education with theirs and the comparative luxury of our lives with primitive pioneer living. She was a gentlewoman whose training had stressed Literature, Music, Painting, and proper feminine manners. She found herself transplanted to the wilderness where she sometimes had to help her brother steer a boat or handle the ropes of a sail on Sturgeon Lake. Fearing that her brother in England might think from this that she was becoming unfeminine she stressed that her woman ' s avocations would more than balance these activities. Among the latter was bread making, an exceedingly difficult task in winter. Yet she was one of those English gentlewomen who adjusted to the difficulties of the new life and struggled to overcome all dis- advantages. Writing about it she says, The greatest danger I think, we all run from our peculiar mode of life is that of becoming s elfish and narrow-minded. We certainly do not gain many new ideas, and must consequently fall a little behind our age. My knowledge, even of the country I live in, increases very slowly. Do we all adjust to our difficulties as well, I wonder, and are we as concerned with the danger of becoming selfish? We now have little difficulty in knowing what is going on in all countries as well as in our own. We live in the greatest comfort and practically any business or profession is open to us if we have the ability and desire to pursue it. Yet many are dissatisfied, perhaps straining too hard for personal happiness. In a recent magazine article. Princess Grace of Monaco said, I ' ve had happy moments in my life, but I don ' t think happiness — being happy, is a perpetual state that anyone can be in. Life isn ' t that way. Perhaps in this Confederation year we need to pause and think of the qualities which our pioneer great-grand- mothers displayed of self-sacrifice, industry, resignation, cheer- fulness, devotion to duty, and dedicate our strength and enthusiasm to the building up of a truly great country marked by Christian virtues to hand on to our descendants. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!