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The late Thomas Aveling. 
husband was a clergyman, the Rev. J. d'Urban, of Hoo-Saint- 
Werburgh. This gentleman brought up my deceased friend 
" with a Bible in one hand and a birch-rod in the other," which 
he once described to me as an undesirable method of training 
children. Whether it was owing to this training or other causes, 
I cannot say, but it appears certain that until he had nearly 
arrived at man's estate he was a dull and heavy, but withal a 
thoughtful bo}-. 
JMr. Aveling's first occupation was farming, under the late 
Mr. Edward Lake, of Hoo, whose niece, the daughter of 
]Mr. Robert Lake, of Milton-Chapel, near Canterbury, he sub- 
sequently married. Soon after his marriage he took a farm at 
Ruckinge, in Romney Marsh ; but there can be little doubt 
that during his career as a farmer he was more exercised in 
his mind about the improvement of farming machinery than 
the growing of crops or the feeding of cattle ; in fact, he was 
a born engineer. 
]\Ir. Alfred Crosskill has written to me as follows: "He 
possessed in an eminent degree the intuitive perception of 
a natural mechanic, and it was a treat when going round the 
Showyard along with him to encounter a new machine or steam- 
ploughing engine. He would point out in terse and caustic 
language the ingenuity displayed by the maker in arranging 
many of the wearing parts so that they might get out of order 
as quickly as possible, or in putting others where they were 
most liable to breakage ; on the other hand, he never failed to 
recognise anything that was new, useful, or likely to be of 
permanent value. 
Another of his prominent characteristics was readiness in 
reply. A country gentleman of the old school having observed 
with reference to the Prize Wolverhampton Traction Engine, 
' What would become of my carriage-horses if they met it on 
the road ? ' received for answer, ' Your horses ought not to be 
allowed on the road until they have been properly broken in, so 
as to go quietly past my engine.' In fact, wherever the interests 
of steam-engine and horse came in conflict, he was always in 
favour of what he considered the superior machine." 
Llis attention appears to have been diverted from his actual 
business chiefly from his appreciation of the serious loss of 
time and money which resulted from the slow pace of ordinary 
agricultural labour, intensified by the ancient and defective con- 
struction of the implements of husbandry which were then 
employed. To use his own words, " the great conservative 
characteristic of the English farmer — passive resistance to 
change," made the introduction of improvements a difficult 
matter 30 years ago. To a man of his temperament "passive 
