COLONEL TALBOT S RESIDENCE. 183 



CHAPTER XXL 



Colonel Talbofs residence Camp-meeting Barn Mrs Aldgeo 

 Moravian Indian village Cheap fruit Runaway slaves 

 Excursion to JSear Creek Mr Goose Soil Agricultural 

 Notices River Thames Unhealthy appearance of inhabitants 

 Chatham Plains John Macdonald Colborne Furnace 

 Neighbourhood of Amherstburgh French inn. 



IN travelling- from London to St Thomas, we were told of 

 a Methodist camp-meeting in the neighbourhood ; and as I 

 had long been anxious to see one, we agreed to attend on the 

 Sunday, when the meeting would be fullest. Early in the 

 morning, people, in waggons and on horseback, were streaming 

 in crowds through St Thomas towards the meeting, and as I 

 was afraid of losing patience before evening, when the richest 

 scene is said to take place, we embraced an offer of going to 

 Colonel Talbot s in the forenoon, distant about twelve miles 

 west from St Thomas. The colonel s residence may be 

 described as a cluster of mean wooden buildings, consisting of 

 dwelling-houses, stables, barns, pigsty es, and cattle-shades, 

 constructed and placed seemingly without regard either to con 

 venience or effect, commanding a view of Lake Erie, from 

 which it is distant about 200 yards, and at the mouth of Ottar 

 creek, a small brook, with clay banks of considerable height. 

 The clay banks behind the colonel s house have a barren 

 and naked appearance, while the lake in front is too near. 

 The situation, nevertheless, has capabilities to make a fine 

 place, when taste shall build a habitation. The garden, which 

 was badly kept, contained some fine apple and pear trees, 

 which we viewed from the outside of the fence. There were 

 a few weeping willows, the first I saw in Canada, and which 

 raised the colonel considerably in my estimation, as they are 

 not, I believe, indigenous to the country. 



