576 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i , 1894 
Works, — the largest wheels in Scotland save one 
—were his desiyn. There is yet to be seen at 
Deanston another of Smith's machines, an ingen- 
ionii contrivance by means of which the sluice at 
the rirer Teith, from whence the water is drawn 
to provide the power to work the mills, auto- 
matically rises and falls with the state of the 
river. 
The present proprietors of the Deanston works 
are Messrs. Finlay Muir Sc Co., who are also 
represented in Ceylon in these days. 
Some years ago I accompanied John Walker to 
Doune, and the Deanston works were also 
visited. Pointing up to one of the windows in 
the factory, he said : " It was opposite that 
window where my bench was, and wiiere I 
served my apprenticeship." Across that stretch 
of years, which lay between tiie beginning of 
his active life, and the then near end of it, 
tliere had been woven in a very \aried ex- 
perience. Bnt the nature of the boy apprentice 
was not very different from the nature of tlie 
elderly man. In his early daj's, he was much 
thought of in his native village, and the old wo- 
men of the place used to look to him to have their 
clocks regularly seen to, and kept in order. 
When- he had retired from Ceylon and had more 
money to spare, his visits to Doune were fre- 
quent, always in the interests of somebody ; 
for, in his quiet way, he was ever a ready helper 
and . a sympathising friend to the needy and 
those who were ready to perish. 
During the years of John Walker's apprentice- 
ship he had his wits sharpened, and his mental 
horizon enlarged ; for his fellow-workmen were 
rather above the ordinary stamp. Picked men, 
who were intelligent and argumentative, with 
the Radical element as well as the Tory 
among them. The Corn Laws had not then been 
repealed, but the Chartists were abroad ; and 
the anti-Corn Law agitation was stirring the 
land. From time to time the Deanston work- 
men were visited by fervid speakers, whose 
addresses threw a bone of contention among 
them, over which, during meal hour- and on 
the way to and from the village of Doime. 
the rival politicians worried and debated. 
Travelling preachers too, of sects known and 
unknown, would come in the long summer 
evenings, .and in open air addresses handle the 
mysteries of faith with a freedom, which although 
common enough in these days, was not so fre- 
quent in those, and pass on leanng behind tlieni 
to[)ic8 for discussion which would last for man3- 
days, and give much food for thought. 
Some time after John Walker had completed 
his apjnentice.ship, tiiere was a ch-tnge in tlie 
policy of the Dean>'ton works. The machine 
making part of it was given up, and the majo- 
rity of the men had to go elsewhei-e for work. 
He got an opening in Manchester erecting cot- 
ton spinning machinery, but itwa^oiily t'eni|Hi 
rary empUiyiiient, and after some little time he 
returned to his home at Doune. 
His next venture, wan made utnler liis old 
manager, Mr. James Suiith, who engaged him 
to attend at the various Agricnltural Shown 
throughout Scotland an<l Knjfland, for the 
jMirpose of fitting up ami exhiliitiuji the im- 
proved agricultural implements wliich Mr. Smith 
had designed. 
Thus he saw about him a good deal, and when 
later on lie was ottered the post of engiu«er 
to Messrs. Wilson, Ritchie & (.'o., Colombo, it 
seemed but a continuation of the wandering life he 
hati before been having. It was however not 
without mature consideration (hat he accepted 
the post ; the name of Ceylon wan not so well 
known then among the people of Scotland as 
it is today, and that it was considered rather 
a hazardous ali'air was evidenced by the fact, 
that when the engagement was signed, in the 
Glasgow office of Messrs. James Finlay & Co., 
the cashier who had the transacting of the 
business made a mental calculation, named a 
very modest sum, and looking in a wistful way 
at the young engineer said, " At the end o' 
the term, ye may ha that saved, if ye imthrr 
it oot." 
This did not sound very encouraging, but the 
die was cast, and he sailed from Glasgow in 
November 1842. The voyage was a stormy and 
protracted one, and it was not till the Maj* 
of the following year that the ship sighted 
Ceylon, and dropped her anchor in the Coloml>o 
roads. 
The Ceylon engagement did not prove a success, 
and before it was out John Walker rebelled. 
He was employed in the mills of Messrs. Wil- 
son, Ritchie & Co., and the treatment which that 
firm gave their engineers was rather harsh. 
Things came to a head when some oil tanks 
had to be rivetted in the open yard, and the 
cost of erecting a temporary shed of cadjans, to 
screen the engineers from the fierce sun, was 
made the cause of offence. Mr. David Wilson 
made it hot all round regarding what he con 
sidered this luxurious way of working, and 
when -.fohn Walker, .as mouthpiece of the 
otJiers, protested again=;t the treatment, and 
insisted that without the shed they would not 
work, the small band of rebels were told that 
tliay might leave if tliej- liked, and at once, 
provided that their ])assage money wa?; returned. 
