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WILLIAMSON: JOHN WILLIAMSON. 
well be supposed, ordinary education had done but little for him ; I 
believe that he received no instruction save what he obtained at a 
Sunday School, in which, as was happily the wont m those days, 
reading- and writing were taught. After working two years in these 
gardens, he was regularly apprenticed for seven years more, but his 
uncle died before the expiration of that period. Young as he then 
was, the management of the concern fell upon his shoulders, and he 
retained it until he was eighteen or nineteen years of age, when, 
wishing to extend his knowledge of the higher branches of practical 
gardening in some different school, he left Scarbrough to become 
under gardener at Wykeham Abbey, the seat of the Langley's, a few 
miles from the town ; here he remained three years, at the end of 
which time he was appointed head gardener to the Earl of Mulgrave, 
whose Castle was at Lyth, near Whitby. I have often heard my 
father tell how he left AVykeham Abbey by a back door, having but 
five shillings in his pocket, a parting gift from old Mrs. Langley. 
He married soon after going to Lyth, which became his home for the 
next seven years. His young bride was the eldest of thirteen 
children of Alexander Crawford, a jeweller and watchmaker of 
Scarbrough, a thorough-going Scotchman of the old school, a believer 
in second sight and other myths so widely accepted by the Scottish 
peasantry. Mr. Crawford's history was not devoid of dramatic 
touches. A native of the Lowlands north of the Lammermuirs, his 
first trade was that of a slater ; whilst working as such he one day 
fell through a roof, but his feet having caught some projection he 
hung head downwards until help came. After this he went to 
Edinburgh and exchanged his craft for that of a watchmaker and 
jeweller. Circumstances soon transpired making it desirable for 
him to quit Scotland. Long after the events of '45, the officers in 
command of Government troops stationed in Scotland were apt to 
indulge in a cavalier treatment of the native population. On some 
such occasion Crawford and one of his patriotic fellow-countrymen 
resented this treatment in a very practical manner ; but cool reflection 
soon convinced the youths that military discipline would probably 
bring swift punishment upon them for their rebellious patriotism, and 
they thought it safest to cross the Tweed and hide themselves in 
