The following spring I went East, visiting my friends and relatives in the township of Reach and Durham County. While visiting Port Hope I met the late Colonel Williams, who subsequently became a sincere friend of mine, and in 1882 I was appointed drill instructor at Trinity College school. Having no gymnasium, my work was confined to military drill. There was a well-equipped cadet corps officered by the teachers. A very sad accident occurred during the summer holidays. Mr. Selby Allen, son of Chancellor Allen, Toronto, a student at the school, was drowned near Brockville. Mr. Allen was a splendid athlete and a fine cricketer.
In 1887 I was appointed gymnastic and drill instructor to the Collegiate Institute, Peterboro'. I held this office for eleven years.
Nothing gives me greater pleasure in writing this book than to relate the pleasant and profitable eleven years I spent in the physical education of the students of the Collegiate Institute and Central Public School, and also the convent. I say _profitably_ because the majority of those who obtained the several courses of instruction are to-day pursuing their professions and vocations able to meet the physical endurance of their calling, and all I have met since my retirement nine years ago I found to be specimens of the highest type of physical maturity and invariably athletes. There are at present three doctors practising in this city (Toronto), three teachers in the public schools, and one in Trinity University, and all are of the same type.
I am pleased to say that the physique of the ladies also whom I have met is all that could be desired. Neither have they forgotten the graceful bearing they were taught. I also had large private classes, both ladies and gentlemen, who were thoroughly trained by the system I introduced.
When my appointment was made in the fall, 1887, there was no gymnasium, and the Board of Education the following summer built a very fine one. It was equipped the same as the Oxford University gymnasium, and the system was that used by Professor McLaren. The High School Inspectors, Messrs. Seath and Hodgson, agreed with me that it was the best. Their reports were always satisfactory, and often special mention was made of the progress and development of the pupils.