[coynE] THE TALBOT PAPERS 49 
of others—all the disadvantages, in short, of royalty, only on a smaller 
scale. Now, in his old age, where is to him the solace of ager He 
has honour, power, obedience, but where are the love, the troops of 
friends, which also should accompany old age? He is alone—a lonely 
man. His constitution has suffered by the dreadful toils and privation 
of his earlier life. His sympathies have had no natural outlet; his 
affections have wanted their natural food. He suffers, I think; and 
not being given to general or philosophical reasoning, causes and effects 
are felt, not known.” 
An amusing story is told, typical, it would seem, of many hard 
drinkers in the spacious days, when George III was king. Talbot 
used to say that a man who drank in the early morning was sure to 
die a drunkard. "To show the sincerity of his belief, and his resolve 
not to expose himself to this danger, he placed a mark on an out- 
building, showing where the sun would cast his shadow at 11 o’clock. 
Long before the hour, the Colonel would sit in his armchair gazing 
intently at the moving shadow. Precisely when it reached the mark, 
Jeffrey was ordered to produce the decanter, and the rest of the day 
was devoted to indulgence. To have ample time for this dissipation, 
he had an inflexible rule that no business should be transacted after 
12 o’clock. Settlers who had walked scores of miles following a blazed 
track in the woods to get their land, found on their arrival that they 
could not see the great man, because the noon hour had struck. Back 
they had to trudge to the nearest inn, two miles or more, or sleep in 
the woods, so as to be on hand to interview the distinguished Govern- 
ment Agent next morning. 
When the Colonel was absent from home his domestics could 
sample the wine, and there were times when he found an empty cellar 
on his return. Returning from England with one of his brothers, who 
found the wines in the United States detestable and longed for the 
choicer brands of the old*country, he consoled him with the promise 
of good wine at Port Talbot. Arrived at the castle, he called for some 
of Logan’s best port, to redeem his pledge, and cleanse his brother’s 
palate of the villainous stuff he had been drinking. To his horror there 
was none in the cellar. ‘“ None,” asked the Colonel, “ what has become 
of it?” The Hibernian domestic was ready with his answer, “ None, 
yer honour, it all dried up with the hot weather.” ? 
This, with some other anecdotes, are reproduced from Edward Erma- 
tinger’s “Life of Colonel Talbot,” with some additions supplied by local 
tradition, 
Sec II., 1907. 4. 
