When I arrived in Almonte in June of 1976 – after having been hired “on the spot” by Messrs. Galligan & Sheffield, Barrs. &c. over dinner one evening at the Mississippi Golf Club in the Village of Appleton – two of the first people whom I met in Almonte (perhaps a spin-off from my attendance at St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Clyde Street beside the former Land Registry Office) were Maj. Jamie and Mrs. Irene Leys who lived in a small house on Country Street. They had invited me to dine with them one summer evening.  At the time I was somewhat alarmed and overwhelmed by the gusto of Maj. and Mrs. Leys for R. Tait McKenzie and Dr. James Naismith – names which of course were to become fundamental to my life in Almonte. Though I further confess that, at the time, I succeeded only to lodge the preliminary references to Tait McKenzie and Naismith to a corner of my mind – which was, as I trust you’ll forgive me, then already overtaken with what I felt to be the more pressing details related to the practice of law, including for example the necessary and very fruitful communion with Raymond A. Jamieson QC in whose office chair at 74 Mill Street I ended being seated for the first two years of my practice in the Town of Almonte.

This morning – almost 50 years afterwards and for reasons I have yet to determine – I whimsically proposed to my partner that, after collecting the necessary prescription drugs ordered from the pharmacy, we together visit the Mill of Kintail on the 8th Concession Line of Ramsay Township.

The Mill of Kintail Museum displays the historical collections of Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, sculptor, surgeon, and pioneer in preventive and rehabilitative medicine; poet Ethel McKenzie, his life partner; and Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball and McKenzie’s life long friend.

The museum is located in the former Woodside grist mill on the Indian River constructed in 1830 by John Baird. McKenzie purchased the mill in 1931 and converted it into a summer home and studio, naming it the Mill of Kintail. In 1952, the property was purchased by Major James Leys, an admirer of Dr. McKenzie who displayed McKenzie’s works and artifacts in a memorial museum he created on the property.

I don’t reckon I ever fully gave Maj. Leys the respect he deserves for his contribution to society in what is now the Town of Mississippi Mills (encompassing the former Town of Almonte, Township of Pakenham and the Township of Ramsay).

Major James F. Leys, Deceased

Order of Canada
Member of the Order of Canada

Awarded on: December 18, 1974
Invested on: April 16, 1975

Founder of the Tait McKenzie Memorial Museum near Almonte, Ontario. In recognition of his zeal in preserving a part of our cultural heritage.

The last time we had been at the Mill of Kintail (say 10 years ago) was to celebrate the lives of Gil and Libby Goddard, an energetic couple whose family have similarly benefitted our community. The visit today was however summary.  For me, getting along with a stick, up and down lengthy stairways, is no leisure undertaking. The enterprise exhausted me.  We did nonetheless have the capacity to remain seated in the car for as long as it took to motor along the Appleton Side Road to Campeau Road in Stittsville to the car wash. It was thence – by curious coincidence – that we conceived the desire to lunch at the golf club.

And if that serendipity were not enough, we subsequently drove home again along the Appleton Side Road to the new Esso gas station at 5525 Appleton Side Road where I anticipate adopting a fresh car wash venue after arrival of my all-electric automobile (yet to be ordered for the 2026 model).

Preserving me from the vulgarity of this common purpose is the discovery of the following poem presumably written by Maj. Jamie Leys.

The Record Keeper

I became a record keeper
I took notes and detailed facts
Created files by date and topic
Then added them to the stacks
And now you all come to see
This frozen place and time
These historic works of art
In this house that once was mine
The first time I pulled the ivy back
And peered in the window to see
I stared at all the ghosts of the McKenzies
Just as you are staring at me.

… So what have I, this tiny drop
To leave behind but these:
Detailed lists and recordings
Of the Missus and Major Leys
The comings and the goings
While the Mill was our possession
The fruits and the labours
Of one old man’s obsession.