[COYNE] THE TALBOT PAPERS : 35 
a general system of drainage. It is little to be wondered at that good 
roads in these townships were unknown until they were thrown open 
after his decease, that clearings were few and scanty, and that the town- 
ships began their real growth after the Colonel had passed away. 
XIV.—GRIEVANCES OF THE RESERVED TOWNSHIPS. 
In other townships east and west, there was no one more strenu- 
ous than he in denouncing the retention of reserves which  inter- 
fered with the rapid formation of compact settlements. He was 
the champion of the resident owner against the non-resident, of the 
settler against the Executive Council. But in Dunwich and Aldbor- 
ough the position was reversed. In these townships he himself was 
to all intents and purposes the non-resident owner; the reserves belonged 
to himself; he was the person directly and exclusively responsible for 
the hindrances to settlement; and naturally and with reason the pio- 
neers, mostly Argyleshire Highlanders, resented his injustice towards 
them. 
Many of them had come out in consequence of proclamations pro- 
mising each settler two hundred, or, at a later period, one hundred acres 
of land. Their language was Gaelic. Few understood a word of Eng- 
lish. When a settler found himself restricted to fifty acres and learned 
that Colonel Talbot himself, who had done nothing, was to receive the 
remaining 150 acres of his lot, it is easy to understand the indignation 
that was aroused. And so it happens; that while in other townships 
of the Talbot Settlement his memory is treated with respect and 
with a measure of gratitude, in Aldborough and Dunwich his name is 
regarded with abhorrence. The exceptions are largely to be found near 
Tyrconnel, where Talbot’s first immigrants settled in 1809 and 1810. 
They had seen the better side of his character, and experienced many 
acts of kindness, for which their descendants to this day hold him in 
grateful remembrance. But when the celebration of the Talbot Centen- 
nial was held in 1903, there were bitter complaints from the Highland 
townships, and from descendants of the first Highland settlers in other 
parts of the county of Elgin, until it was made clear that the celebra- 
tion was to commemorate the establishment of the settlement itself 
and to honour the pioneers in general, and not to honour the memory 
of the founder. 
XV.—ORIGINAL TERMS VARIED IN TALBOT’S FAVOUR. 
The limitation of 20,000 acres as the extent of the allowance 
Colonel Talbot was to receive for his services was scouted by him. He 
claimed absolute control of the two townships, and to be entitled inde- 
