230 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Oct. 1, 1898. 
Swan of Morankanda, a leading Colombo merchant 
and sometime member of the Legislative Council, 
andof Doveton Greentree, Lieutenant in the Ceylon 
Rifles. Her father, who was a pensioned member 
of the Hon. East India Company's Civil Service, 
bought Katngastota House, and it only passed 
out of the family about 18C6. Captain Jolly 
successively bought the lands which became tiie 
estates of Faricland, opened by Archibald Millie* ; 
Vicarton, The Borders and The Glen, opened by the 
well-known and worthy Mr. Abercrombie Swan (so 
long known as "B. W." — "BackWoodsinan" of the 
Observer); Atherton opened by that most admirable 
of managers Mr. W. B. Lamont— still we are hap])y 
to think to the fore ; and Tlie Burn opened by 
Jack Sutherland, afterwards of the Public Works 
Department and of Pu?-sellawa where he owned 
Karagastalawa. When he first arrived in Ceylon 
Captain Jolly was asked by Lady Oliphant if he, 
like all those who were going into cofl'ee, expected 
to make a rapid fortuiie ? He saiil, " No ", but that 
he hoped by industry and perseverance to achieve 
a modsst independence in i)erliaps twenty years. 
As coffee estates Farieland (above JCandy) and the 
three Matale estates — Vicarton, Tiie Borders and 
The Glen — paid very fairly well; but by Atherton in 
Ambagamuwa and The Burn in Yakdessa, through 
the almost never-ceasing rain preventing the ripen- 
ing of crops and encouraging the growth of weeds, 
some £20,000 were lost. In 1853 Captain Jolly 
joined the firm of Messrs. George Wall & Co- 
which, after some years' existence in Kandy, in 
that year set up what grew to be an inffueutial 
mercantile house in Colombo ; and in this lirm he 
remained a partner — latterly only a sleeping one 
— till he died in 1865. From that date, as a 
coincidence, the prosperity of the firm, we have 
heard, began to decline. But the fact was that 
a time of depression generally set in during 
1866, beginning from "Black J^riday " when 
Messrs. Overend, Gurney & Co. collapsed in London. 
Captain Jolly's partnership in the estates with. 
friends at home, who were unknown in Ceylon, 
was broken up about 1860 and so, selling out of 
the other properties, he was left sole owner of 
Farieland only. On that model and delightfully 
situated plantation he had in 1847 built a bun- 
galow at a cost of some £2,000 and there, as 
soon as the work was finished, he took up his 
residence finally, quitting Katugastota. We believe 
Captain Jolly was, if not ihe first, among the 
very earliest to keep coffee estates free from 
weeds by constant weeding ; and Mr. Louis Byrde, 
* Mr, A. Millie was a brother of the better-known 
Mr. P. D. Millie who still survives. The former 
left Farieland in 1848 to take charge of Patam- 
pahai estate in Hunasgiriya, but returned home a 
year later to his niitive Kirkaldy. 
a good judge, on visiting Farieland in 1855, decla 
that although the soil was by no means rich 
indeed over a great part comparatively poor, 
yet the estate and vigorous coffee were a per- 
fect triumph of good management. 
Of Capt. Jolly's life as a public man there 
is not much to be said, though he worked faith- 
fully and well both in the Planters' Association 
and as Meujber of the Legislative Council. He 
was, as we have said, the first Ciiainnan of the 
-■Association— 1854-55— and gave general satisfaction 
by his upright, straightforward guidance in the 
public (luestions of the day dealt with. The two 
great rivals in the Association at its commencement 
were K. B. Tyller and Geo. Wall : the latter did 
most work, and indeed drew up the " consti- 
tution " d'c, but Tytler \\\t\i his bouhvtnic and 
wide liberal vieus was far more popular anion" 
his brother planters. It shows how much esteemed 
and liked was Capt. Jolly^ when both leaders and 
rivals readily agreed to sink al! differences and to 
serve under him as firstChairmai:. The first Secretary 
was the redoubtable "Sandy Brown" who was inde- 
fatigable and in love with his work, so that he be- 
came almost as indispensable to the Association as 
Mr. Alexander Philip lias proved since lie took 
Mr. Brown's place in 1876. (Of course the work 
has increased ten-fold since the early days.) 
On Capt. Jolly's retirement after two years' 
service, Mr. Tytler took iiis place, but for a few 
months only, as he was leaving for home, and then 
Mr. Wall succeeded. Meantime, Capt. Jolly was 
not idle; and so long as health permitted, Jie 
ever continued loyal and assiduous in attendance 
at Committee and General Meetings of the 
Association. No European Colonist, too, was 
more respected and trusted by the natives— 
whether we take tiie Kandyan aristocracy with 
whom he came in contact,* the minor headmen 
* The EEBELLroN in 1818.— Mr. S. Jolly Eoppliea 
the following interesting note :— •' I well remember 
I was ' ouf one day as a special Constable— the 
day when Sir Emerson Tennent made a speech 
to the people from ttie steps of the Pavilion (and 
' Goompane could make no reply ' !) Another day 
I saw the anointed King (Denis the bandvman)— 
a fair man with blue eyes-brought in a prisoner 
from Matale. George Elphinstone Dalrymple (Logie'i 
uncle) and I, who were at the time living at Katn- 
gastota, went to the ferry to await bis arrival in charea 
of our friend "Twig" Wilkinson, Lieut, of the 15th 
Regt., and a small escort of men. I heard the 
volley when he was shot, after trial by court-martial 
One evening my uncle, Capt. Jolly, and I rode down 
to Kandy. We met Lord Torrington also on horse- 
back m front of the O B.C. house. He stopped and 
talked to us. Parsons iha Fiscal passed on horseback 
Lord Torrington called him to stop and said to him •— 
" Pe sui-e you hang that Buddhist priest in his uniform 
tomorrow morning. ' I think the doing of that and 
recording it in a despatch had much to do with Lord 
Torringtnn'i recall. Whereas if he had said and writ- 
ten nothing at all, the man would have been hanged 
m hit yellow robe all the same, He had nothing 
else to wear !" ° 
