Gordon and his young Assistant^soon became close 
friends, and indeed it is to Mr. Agar's reminis- 
cences — some of which we shall quote verbatim — 
that we are indebted for much of the material 
which we have worked up in this compilation. 
Of course our old Directories aad other early 
publications have also been laid under contri- 
bution ; but they could afford at best but a bare 
skeleton sketch, while the flesh and blood to clothe 
it, could only come from the brother planter 
who held from 1853 an unbroken friendship 
with John Lewis Gordon till the day of the 
latter's death in 19U2. In the early "Fifties," 
the Pussellawa and Ramboda districts were not fully 
opened, but presented a magnificent show of vigor- 
ous coffee fields framed by the everlasting forest. 
A more delightful climate, or more romantic 
scenery, did not, at the time, exist in Ceylon ; while 
the facilities for sport — that is hunting elk with 
dogs, the popular form of sport at the time— were 
unequalled with the far-extending forests of the 
Pedro and False Pedro, and Great Western ranges, 
and the interminable Wilderness forest of the Peak, 
available on the other side. Pussellawa and Eam- 
boda were very favourite residential districts. General 
Fraser (' ' Cheetah ' ' Fraser as the Kandyans termed 
him because of his severity in 1818), who did so 
much as Deputy Quartermaster-General with his 
Assistant, then Lieut. Skinner, to map and road the 
island, resided in patriarchal fashion with his family 
at Rangboda. (One daughter afterwards married 
Capt. David Stewart of the Geylon Rifles, and a second 
the Rev. W. F. Kelly, Chaplain). General Fraser, 
by the way, took John Falconer as his Superinten- 
dent when the latter left Wavendon. John Lewi^ 
Gordon was quickly recognised as a choice spirit by 
his neighbours, among whom were John Lyon Fraser 
on his own property of Tavalamtenne, Geo. Sheriff 
so long identified with Helbodde, Jack Tyndall on 
Glenloch, the Worms on Rothschild, and the 
Sabonadieres on Delta, A. Y. Adams in Maturata, 
Walter Ross Duff in Kotmalie, and such famous 
hunters or jolly companions as the Pallisers, Mac 
Lellans, Corbet, Wm. Rose, Hood and Hunter, 
Donald Steward, Dr. Shipton, G. and B. Francis, 
and many more, whose names were as " familiar as 
household words" in those bright young days of the 
Colony, when there was no more enjoyable or 
gentlemanly occupation on the face of the earth 
than that of a Ceylon coffee planter in such grand 
districts for climate and crops, and sport, as lay 
between Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. Mr. Gordon 
thoroughly enjoyed himself while doing good work 
as planter, in gathering, curing, and despatching 
many crops and opening new land, well backed by 
his Assistant, Mr. W. Agar, from 1853 till 1856. 
Mr. Gordon more than most men might illutrate 
by his equable, though persevering frame of 
mind as a coffee planter, such lines as these : — 
And I mast work thro' months of toil, 
And years of cnltivation, 
Upon my proper patch of soil, 
To grow my own plantation : 
I'll take the showers as they fall, 
I will not vex my bosom ; 
Enough it at the end of all 
My Coffee Garden blossom. 
In 1856 a great event occurred ; for the " Periya 
Durai " got married and Wavendon household had to 
be rearranged. Mr. Agar, giving up his residence with 
Mr. Gordon, went to reside for a few months 
with Mr. Lyon Fraser, and then on 1st January, 
18.57, he took charge of Hanagalla Estate, now a 
part of the Pooprassie (Lipton's) Group. But 
to the marriage. Mr. Gordon's friendship for 
Mr. Wm. Grant of Ambagamuwa (a great Highlander) 
has already been mentioned. Mr. Grant was 
married to Miss Grant of Kingussie — no relative 
of his own. This lady's sister had come out to 
reside with her, and Mr. Gordon, as an occasional 
visitor had seen, admired and become more than 
a friend. On one occasion when Mr. Grant and 
the ladies were returning from Colombo, Mr. Gordon 
had arranged to meet them at Gampola ; and before 
riding off, he said laughingly to his Assistant, "Who 
knows but I may return a married man;" and 
sure enough, two days after came an express 
messenger for certain clothes, and with orders to 
prepare the bungalow, as the master was going 
to be married. The marriage took place at 
Gampola in September, 1856 ; and never were 
couple more attached or more truly made for 
each other than Mr. John Lewis Gordon and Miss 
Grant. They had probably the seven happiest years 
of their lives on Wavendon from 1856 to 1863. 
During this period, the hospitality of Wavendon 
bungalow became a proverb in all the districts 
around ; and especially were invalids taken there to 
be tenderly nursed. (Our own first meeting with old 
Geo. Sheriff was when he was on his way to see a 
young friend who was ill and being cared for on 
Wavendon.) There were, of course, other visitors 
from among the neighbours and sportsmen already 
named ; and once a year, at least, Mr. Geo. 
Steuart, the head of the Colombo Firm, riding his 
well-known mule, and at another time his partner, 
Mr. George Mackenzie, would be sure to take a 
few days' rest at Wavendon in making a round of 
the planting districts. Mr. Gordon himself had to 
act as "V.A." from time to time ; and we have an 
amusing story from an old resident still with us. 
Mr, J. N, Grant, who was in the early "Sixties," 
Superintendent of New Ooodoowella, Mr. W, D. 
Gibbon being Manager of Old OodooweUa. There 
was a " short cut" from the other side of the hill 
through Mr. Grant's coffee which much annoyed 
the V. A., Mr. Sangster Martin, and he gave the 
Saperintendent strict orders that no one was to 
be allowed to pass through that way. A few days 
after. Grant spied one of the tallest and handsomest 
