Summary
Summary of Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria
Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 5 h 5 min4 h fast, 6 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 72,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1912by Edgar Fawcett
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Adventure brings a boy toward danger
Edgar Fawcett remembers San Francisco as a boy drawn toward excitement. Sent to buy a newspaper, he hears a pistol shot and joins the crowd after the shooting of editor James King of William. He later disobeys his mother to watch an execution and receives a whipping. His sister Amy brings him food and comfort.
Public violence and fires put him close to the city's upheavals. Then a ship his father partly owns is wrecked without insurance. The loss ruins the family and sends them toward a new home in Victoria.
Key idea 2
A fort shapes the new home
Victoria first appears to Fawcett behind the high palisade of the Hudson's Bay Company fort.
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Key idea 3
A reckless act leaves lasting damage
School gives Fawcett a lifelong friend in James Douglas, the governor's son.
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Key idea 4
Street corners keep people's stories alive
The first Victoria directory becomes a guide to the people Fawcett remembers.
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Key idea 5
Public records reveal unequal treatment
The Victoria Gazette records a growing settlement asking for water, fire engines, a jail and a hospital.
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Key idea 6
Neighbors come running when fire strikes
Volunteer firemen pay dues, build their own engine houses and compete to reach a blaze first.
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Key idea 7
Shared performances bring the town together
Plays, church music and public gatherings give Victoria places to meet beyond work and emergencies.
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Key idea 8
Remembering becomes a duty of care
At Quadra Street Cemetery, Fawcett turns his attention to damaged monuments.
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Key idea 9
Many voices preserve a town's texture
Fawcett's recollections bring together fort bells, orchards and schoolrooms with vigilantes, fires and a family's financial ruin.
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who it’s for
You will love this book if you enjoy local history, pioneer memoirs, gold rush tales, old street maps, naval life, or the warm voice of a man who remembers his town.
What this book is
What would you do if a pistol shot rang out near your errand, and ten thousand people surged toward the jail shouting for justice? Edgar Fawcett, a schoolboy in San Francisco, ran straight toward it. He was always ready for an adventure, and that habit shapes everything in this book.
Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria gathers the articles, letters and sketches of a British boy born in Sydney who grew up in San Francisco and then on Vancouver Island. He collected them in 1911 at his home, Dingley Dell. You get a living map of a frontier town at the moment it changes.
In this summary
- 1A boy watches San Francisco take justice into its own handsFree
- 2Arriving in Victoria, a fort town of logs and boulders
- 3Schoolboy adventures and a burial island turned to ashes
- 4The directory and the street walks bring a town back
- 5A first newspaper, closed streets and the Black pioneers
- 6Firemen, sailors and a navy that held the young town together
- 7Theatre, churches, music and a first Y.M.C.A.
- 8A graveyard, a few tributes and a restless curious mind
Key point 1 of 8
A boy watches San Francisco take justice into its own hands
Fawcett begins in San Francisco, where his family lands in 1850 after leaving Australia. In Honolulu a planter's wife falls for two-year-old Edgar and asks his mother to give him up. His mother says no, and he jokes that he might have become king of the Hawaiian Islands.
He remembers the city as muddy, courteous and wild. Sent to buy a newspaper for his father, he hears a pistol shot near Washington and Montgomery Streets. The editor James King of William lies wounded, shot by the politician James Casey. Fawcett is swept along in a crowd of ten thousand. The Vigilance Committee soon takes over the city. His mother forbids him to watch the execution. He skips school, climbs an awning post opposite the gallows, and pays with the worst whipping of his life. That night his little sister Amy sneaks in with part of her own supper and her tears.
He also sees most of the redwood city burn twice, and he runs to every blaze. Then a ship his father part-owns is wrecked, and with no insurance the family is ruined. They sail for Victoria. History is something a child can stand inside, and loss can be the doorway to a new home.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Fawcett’s family leave San Francisco for Victoria?
Right. “Then a ship his father part-owns is wrecked, and with no insurance the family is ruined.”Not quite. “Then a ship his father part-owns is wrecked, and with no insurance the family is ruined.”
What lasting harm follows the boys’ outing to Deadman’s Island?
Right. “Later the boys find the island swept bare, and it has stayed that way since.”Not quite. “Later the boys find the island swept bare, and it has stayed that way since.”
How do many Black settlers respond to exclusion from the fire company?
Right. “Many were refused places in the fire company, so they formed a volunteer militia.”Not quite. “Many were refused places in the fire company, so they formed a volunteer militia.”
Go deeper: the whole of Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria
About 5 h 20 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 72,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 5 h 5 min
Questions about Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria
What is Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria about?
It is a collection of Edgar Fawcett's memories and articles about growing up in San Francisco and Victoria, British Columbia, in the 1850s and 1860s, covering streets, shops, schools, churches, fires, the navy and the pioneers he knew.
Who was Edgar Fawcett?
Fawcett was a pioneer of Victoria who arrived in 1859 as a boy, worked as an upholsterer and then in the customs service, and wrote newspaper reminiscences. He was secretary of the first meeting of the Pioneer Society in 1871.
Is Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria a true story?
Yes, it is a factual memoir. Fawcett wrote from memory and from old newspapers, directories and letters from friends, and he says when he is unsure of a date or detail. He published the book in 1912.
What was the View Street dispute in the book?
Fawcett argued that View Street once ran through from Cook Street to Wharf Street and was closed with fences in 1858. He cites the Victoria Gazette, advertisements and an editorial to answer a friend who disagreed.
Is it easy to read Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria?
It is approachable because the chapters are short and independent. Fawcett writes in a friendly, conversational voice, with humor, anecdotes and quick sketches of people, so you can open almost any chapter and enjoy it.
Cite this edition
Fawcett, Edgar. Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-reminiscences-of-old-victoria.
Fawcett, E. (2026). Some reminiscences of old Victoria. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-reminiscences-of-old-victoria (Original work published 1912)
Fawcett, Edgar. Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-reminiscences-of-old-victoria.
@book{fawcett2026some,
author = {Fawcett, Edgar},
title = {Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-reminiscences-of-old-victoria},
note = {First published 1912}
}
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