went on to suggest that rather than setting aside land for government officials which would never be occupied, the land be divided into lots for settlers who could then be tasked with statute labour to maintain the path. Danforth agreed, but the province insisted otherwise and only four settlers took up residence along the road between Toronto and Port Hope; like many other paths of the day, it became a quagmire. Danforth's road did not always follow the same path as today's Kingston Road. Beginning near Victoria Park Avenue and Queen Street East, the road can be traced along Clonmore Drive, Danforth Road, Painted Post Drive, Military Trail and Colonel Danforth Trail. Other sections of the former roadway exist near Port Hope and Cobourg, as well as within Grafton. Otherwise the two roads more or less overlap until they reach the Trent River; beyond this point Danforth's road is continued (1802) on a more southern route to reach the Bay of Quinte at Stone Mills (now Glenora). As the route straying through Scarborough avoided many of the settlers who had taken up residence near the lake, Danforth's road was bypassed by 1814 by William Cornell and Levi Annis. The Cornell Road (as it was known for a short time) shortened the journey from Victoria Park to West Hill, but remained mostly impassible like Danforth's route to the north. Finally succumbing to increasing pressures, the government raised funds to straighten the road and extend it through Belleville to Kingston. The work was completed by 1817 and the road renamed The Kingston Road. Downriver from Kingston, roads built along the St. Lawrence for War of 1812 military use became a popular means to avoid rapids on the river by travelling overland. Stagecoach and mail road The creation of a post road extended year-round communication which had already existed on the Chemin du Roy from Quebec City-Montreal westward, with the first stagecoaches reaching York (Toronto) in January 1817. This link proved economically vital to enterprises such as the Bank of Montreal, established 1817 with branches in Quebec, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto. The original coaches left Montreal every Monday and Thursday, arriving in Kingston two days later; the full Montreal-York run took a week. As with earlier routes (such as the Danforth Road), coaching inns prospered in every wayside village as the stagecoaches made frequent stops for water, food or fresh horses. The original