e and Alexander, in 1862, it may not be
inappropriate that I, one of his oldest friends, should tell what I
know of him. Dr. Davie was born in Wells, Somersetshire, on the 22nd
March, 1845, and was therefore sixty-six years of age. He, with his
brother Horace (residing in Somenos), were educated at Silcoats
College, England, and studied for the profession which afterwards
made him known from north to south of the Pacific Coast, at the
University of San Francisco. He also studied under a clever English
physician, Dr. Lane, and under Dr. Toland, both eminent men who
founded colleges in California.

After Dr. Davie had finished his medical course in California he came
to Victoria and entered into practice with his father.

[Portrait: John Chapman Davie, M.D.]

When I was about fifteen years old I was troubled a deal with my
throat and was under his father's treatment. I was obliged to give up
singing in consequence, being a choir boy in Christ Church. In my
frequent visits to the doctor's surgery I became acquainted with Dr.
Davie, Jr., who undertook the treatment of my throat until I was able
to resume my choir duties. Both Dr. Davie and his brother
Alexander were members of the choir at this time, and regular in
attendance at service and choir practice. I can see with my mind's
eye at a choir practice both brothers. Mr. Cridge, the rector, always
conducted these practices, and he asked each brother in turn to sing
his individual part over in the anthem, as they were to take solos,
he (Mr. Cridge) beating time as they sang. I might say that we had
some fine singers in the choir in those days, and more anthems were
sung than even now. His brother Horace and I were school-fellows at
the Church Collegiate School, which was situated on Church Hill, just
about where Mr. Keith Wilson's residence now stands. It was built as
a Congregational Church, and was destroyed by fire about 1870.

At the time I first became acquainted with Dr. Davie his father's
office was situated where Challoner & Mitchell's store now stands,
and was a very unpretentious affair--as most business places were in
Victoria at that time--a wooden one-story frame cottage of three
rooms. The doctor's first office was on the corner of Government and
Bastion, where Richardson's cigar store stands. At the former office
my friend studied and worked with his father until the latter's
death, when the son continued the practice in his own behalf.

From Mr. Alexa