378 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Dec. 1, 1698. 
the planting community of old Uva. Ihs 
hospitality knew no bounds, and few, if any, 
of the many strangers who visited BaduUa 
in those days, offered him the offence of not 
partaking of it. Not that he was singular in 
this respect ; but few others held the prominent 
position he did. so conspicuous from the 
town, and but few otliers enjoyed the same 
wide reputation all over the country. His house 
was ills castle, but its gates were ever open and 
invitino-; and over its portals might Have been 
inscribed: "Abandon dulness ye who enter 
here " Not his the ambition to be lord of many 
lands, the owner of many estates, though, had he 
so chosen, few could have followed bun in his 
lead He was content to be tlie master of what 
then was, and still is, the largest and most 
prominently placed estate in the district ; and 
if he did not open other estates right and lett, 
as he might well have done, he added a arge 
new clearing every year to " Spring Valley, and 
so maintained his position as the manager of the 
largest estate in all Uva. , c mx 
It is true that others had gone before 1 liomas 
Wood in pioneering the opening of the Namunu- 
kula lands for cultivalion, pro'ninen^ amongst 
whom we may name Sir ^\llll.■i.m Reid, John 
Oliver, A. Bertlin, the Shands Tench, Gr.iham 
Miller and E. C. Byers. Sir William Keid had 
opened the lirst clearings on Spring Valley, ad- 
ioining the far-ieacliing boundaries of whicli 
estate or not far away were Cannaverella 
Gouravilla, Kottagodde and Wewelhena, about 
aU that was opened in that immediate neigh- 
bourhood. Work had not been going on very long 
before the arrival of Mr. Wood-he was only 
two years after Mr. Byers-and if we consider 
the number of estates that soon after sprang 
into existence and the unceasing war waged by 
Mr Wood with his famous writing " battery upon 
the Government and oflicials as regards outlets, 
before the days of District Planters' Ass^ociations, 
we cannot deny him a place amongst Uva s pio- 
neers. He took over charge of the 
Srp.iNG Valley 
(Beddegamme) estate in the year 1847, and from 
that time he never left the country, (and only 
once left the district) till his death in 1880._ Thus 
for over 33 years he lived continuously in Lva. 
While men of wider activities had played their 
narts and left, he remained and no other name 
is or can be, more intimately associated with 
Badulla than that of Thomas Wood. _ His eccentri- 
cities indeed were many, and it is the object 
of this paper to slightly lift the veil as far as pru- 
dence and good taste permit in order to point 
the moral of bis life. 
Thomas Wood, Esq., ot the Beddegamnie, or 
Sorin" Valley Estate, Badulla, the subject of this 
memoir (known to his early contemporaries more 
familiarly as "Tom Wood," and to the younger 
generation of planters m tlie " fifties and widely 
throughout the country as "old Wood ) was 
for nmny years the most conspicuous figure in 
the planting community of " Uva," in those "days 
of old" which so few are left among us now 
to represent. If we except his contemporary 
neighbour and friend, E. G. Byers ( who sli 1 
lingers hale, hearty and strong m the district), 
the clianges of time and circumstance have re- 
moved from Uva almost all to whom Mr. Wood 
was personally km-wn, thoutdi there are, doubtless, 
many remaining in Colombo and other p aces- 
veterans of the community, who still remember the 
ho.spitality extended to them by Mr. Wood when 
\isiling tlie rcHiote district of Badulla in thobe 
now remote times. And as a boyisli jocularity 
and a flow of soul and humour always accoiupauied 
this lavish hosidtality, these remiui-sceuces will 
doubtless all be of the most ple;usurable nature, 
for Mr. Wood loved his joke and his pun, and the 
merry twinkle ot his e^e-s and tlie ripple of liu 
laughter were infectious ; and, as he generally 
took care on sueii occasious to send for beveral 
of his neighbours, a social evening followed that was 
not readily forgotten. He was a "Ceylon Planter " 
of the best and truest type in the best days of 
planting, when 
" Coffee was King • 
and money was plentiful, easily earned and 
freely spent, and all alike were prosperous aud 
content. In these days of low exchange, ad- 
versely allecting one part of the couiiuuuiiy, 
of dear rice limiting the coolies' earnings, of 
over-production and low value of the new staple, 
ali'ecting all alike — it is hardly po.ssible to realize 
the prosperity of those old times, and the good 
liumour and high spirits which generally pre- 
vailel whenever planieis met at home or abioad. 
A night with Wood or with Byers was indeed 
a time of enjoyment long to be reniembered, 
But, alas ! teinpora nmtantar ct nos mutumur 
hi illis — which remark of couise refers only to 
those who remember the times I am now speaking 
of. A different spirit is now abroad, in whicli 
the new generation doubtless find their pleasure, 
not unmixed, perhaps, with sentiiuentH of pity 
and contempt for those old times when tenuis 
was unknown, and even cricket was seldom 
played, and "ladies'" were few and far apart. 
But planters of the old school look coldly upon 
these things, aud think lightly ot them, lii those 
old days men de]>ended more upon themselves 
and upon one another for enjoyment, which 
sharpened their wits and gave them wider 
knowledge and perhaps a little more sense. 
Well, of those old times Wood wa.s eminently 
a true type, and his memory is a standing 
monument, fie was a gentleman, ami the son 
of a gentleman, his father having been the sixth 
in succession of as many generations of Physi- 
cians in Edinburgh. His brother, the late eminent 
Doctor Andrew Wood, was the seventh, and his 
eldest son, who unhappily did not survive him, 
was, and would now have been, the eighth doctor 
of his family in succession. After what has 
already been said it will surprise many to 
learn that Thomas Wood was of a reserved, shy, 
and even taciturn nature, these qualities becoming 
apparent each under the varying circumstances 
that arose to influence him, especially when away 
from his own bouse and place, and towards his 
own family. "Why does Tom never write to 
me?'' pathetically asked his old mother of the 
writer, to which question the only possible answer 
was an assurance that " it was simply his nature 
to be reserved " (though a fixed habit of procias- 
tination in such matters had also much to do 
with it), and that " he was too brimful of good- 
ness of heart and human kindness and sympathy 
to entertain any but the most loving sentiments 
towards his mother, which indeed I had often 
heard him express." Erom the day he left his 
father's house he became practically a severed 
branch. He first went out to 
Jamaica 
where he was employed as a cofl"ee planter 
for, I think, nearly ten years. I forget the 
name of the firm, but when they had extended 
