He Had, However,
Secured A Clergy Reserve Of Two Hundred Acres Adjoining; And He
Afterwards Purchased A Fine Lot, Which
Likewise formed part of the
same block, one hundred acres, for 150 pounds.[1] This was an
enormously high price
For wild land; but the prospect of opening
the Trent and Otonabee for the navigation of steamboats and other
small craft, was at that period a favourite speculation, and its
practicability, and the great advantages to be derived from it,
were so widely believed as to raise the value of the wild lands
along these remote waters to an enormous price; and settlers in
the vicinity were eager to secure lots, at any sacrifice, along
their shores.
[1] After a lapse of fifteen years, we have been glad to sell these
lots of land, after considerable clearings had been made upon them,
for less than they originally cost us.
Our government grant was upon the lake shore, and Moodie had chosen
for the site of his log house a bank that sloped gradually from the
edge of the water, until it attained to the dignity of a hill. Along
the top of this ridge, the forest road ran, and midway down the
hill, our humble home, already nearly completed, stood, surrounded
by the eternal forest. A few trees had been cleared in its immediate
vicinity, just sufficient to allow the workmen to proceed, and to
prevent the fall of any tree injuring the building, or the danger
of its taking fire during the process of burning the fallow.
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