’Impro vemen ts ’ 
     
     everywhere. 
     
    
   
   
    
     ’Burning and 
     
     Chopping ’. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Wednesday the 29'". we left Bedeque c 1/4 before 7 for Charlotte Town. Mr. 
     
     P. drove me entirely through the width of our Estate say the Kings Road to the 
     
     Beautiful Settlement called Tryon. 3 l was indeed much pleased with the Appearance 
     
     of this Place. The rapid improvements made and still making is truly great; for Mr. 
     
     P. [stated?] that only 11 years ago that this large settlement also the great 
     
     improvements on the road for upwards of 12 miles, was at that period a compleat 
     
     Wilderness of heavy Woods 
     
    
   
   
    
     Journal of 1840 
     
    
   
   
    
     Mann ’3 7840 visit began with his arrival in Charlottetown on 21 August and ended with his 
     
     departure by steamer for Pictou on 24 September. He set out for Bedeque along the 
     
     Princeto wn Road on 24 August staying again with Joseph Pope until 78 September. 
     
    
   
   
    
     August 24. We started from Charlottetown at 10 am. and took dinner at the 
     
     halfway house say at 2 o’clock The roads were most excellent. In short, the 
     
     number of log houses going up on the road side, with burning and chopping down 
     
     trees, and that for miles, and in places beholding fine clearances and in many places 
     
     good farms of from 20 to 30 acres with the prospect of good crops. The appearances 
     
     to me after 6 years absence gave an entire new aspect to the country around. 
     
    
   
   
    
     August 30 after dinner Mr. and Mrs. Pope and myself went to take tea with the 
     
     venerable old couple Mr. and Mrs. Anderson. After some wine and water we 
     
     returned home. It was getting dark having 6 miles to go and part of the way through 
     
     heavy woods. 2 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     1. Unknown location but it is most likely in what is now the Kinkora area, since the ’new road' inspected on 
     
     the same day is that running through Kinkora towards Lot 67 — the present Highway 225. 
     
    
   
   
    
     2. Alexander Anderson (Senior) lived near Sea Cow Head (now Fernwood) at a farm site identifiable in Lake 
     
     (1863) and Meacham (1880). Part of the road between the Anderson property and Bedeque is still wooded 
     
     with hardwood forest that has never been cleared for agriculture. 
     
    
   
   
    
     3. The ‘Kings Road' must be the straight road running from Bedeque to Tryon (part of it is now the Trans— 
     
     Canada Highway from Albany to Tryon). The ’eleven years’ recalled by Joseph Pope presumably goes back 
     
     to Pope’s first arrival on the island from England — which confirms 1818 as the likely date of the arrival of 
     
     the Pope family at Bedeque. 
     
    
   
   
    
     122