THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Feb. I, 1898 . 
back on his youthful career refers to the great 
scientific establishment at Southampton as the 
school of his life, having there had many unusual 
opportunities, of which he did not fail to take 
advantage, of making himself acquainted with many 
branches of practical science. When at the Map 
Office he had the honour, during the absence of 
the Executive Officer, of conducting the late Lord 
Palmerston round that large establishment and of 
explaining the work in the various departments — 
a circumstance which his lordship did not forget 
when an opportunity occurred of doing a good turn 
for “ his young friend ” as he called him. In 1848 
the great Kailway mania occurred, but although Mr. 
Grilinton had tempting ofiers to leave the estab- 
lishment for good, he was wise enough not to 
relinquish his fixed post, as many did and repented 
afterwards. Altogether he served seven years on the 
Ordnance Survey of England. When a change was 
made in the Directorship he lost his patrons Colo- 
nel HaU and Capt. Gosset. This caused him to 
think of a new line of life, and having been 
strongly recommended for a Commission he was 
gazetted Ensign in the 65th regiment of foot then 
serving in New Zealand. He, however, did not 
join his regiment there, but continued for some 
time further on the Ordnance Survey discharging 
the same important duties. During the period he 
was stationed at Southampton he took a keen 
interest in the Polytechnic Institute, and as a 
member of Committee had an active part in its 
management. On handing over his responsible 
charge in the Ordnance Survey Department he 
joined the depot of his regiment in Jersey in 
1854 and became Adjutant. Like most soldiers he 
desired to see active service, and preferring the 
rigours of campaigning to a military life in New 
Zealand he, when the Crimean War broke out, was 
successful, through the influence he had, in obtain- 
ing a transfer to the 4th King’s Own. He joined 
that regiment as Lieutenant in the Crimea in 1855, 
and was at once placed in General Orders on 
the recommendation of General Sir Harry Jones 
(who commanded the Royal Engineers at the Siege) 
as Assistant Engineer, serving as such through the 
memorable seige of Sevastopol. It was there he met 
Capt. Wolsley, afterwards Sir Garnet and now Lord 
Wolsley, Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief 
of the British Army, then in the 90th regiment 
and looked upon as a first-rate officer, as also the 
lamented Charles Gordon (e.e.) who was killed at 
Khartoum. Lieut. Grinlinton was also engaged in 
making a military survey of the Allied positions, 
and on the fall of Sevastopol on 8th September, 
1855, he was mentioned in despatches, recommended 
for promotion, and received the Crimean medal with 
clasp, the Turkish medal and the order of Medjidie. 
After the peace (in 1856 and ’7) he served with his 
regiment at Aldershot, in Dublin, and in Mauritius ; 
and in 1857 he had the choice of two posts, but he 
preferred joining his former commanding officer, the 
present General Gosset, who was then Surveyor- 
General in Ceylon and who obtained for him a 
nomination to the Survey Department in this 
Colony on a commencing salary of £550 a year 
and allowances in September 1857. He carried 
with him the goodwill of aU the officers of his 
corps and was presented by (then) Capt. Gosset on 
his own and their behalf with a very handsomely 
worded letter and a weighty purse which was 
most acceptable to a young feUow starting in a 
new life as a Subaltern in the line on half the 
pay he had at the Ordnance Map Office. 
Sir John’s career during his residence in 
Ceylon extending over a period of 40 years 
is pretty well-known to old colonists ; but in 
this sketch it is only right that we shoula 
enumerate a number of the prominent matters 
with which he has been personally identified. He 
laid out the Rifle Range at Mount Lavinia and 
was afterwards sent to Negombo and placed in 
charge of the Surveys in the “ Alootcoor ” and other 
Korales with a considerable force of Ceylonese who 
were instructed by him in the duties of field 
Surveyors. Thus was begun the first efiort at a 
Cadastral Survey in Ceylon and it is interesting 
to think that the work started by Sir John, may 
in all probablity be completed by his worthy son Mr. 
P. H. Grinlinton who now occupies the important 
position of Surveyor-General of the island. When 
the Colombo and Kandy railway works were begun he 
was placed in charge of the necessary surveys at 
Marandahn and along the line within the Municipa- 
lity of aU properties to be taken up for railway 
purposes. About this time the Batticaloa irrigation 
works had been attracting a good deal of attention 
and early in 1859 Mr. Grinlinton was despatched to 
that district with a large stafi of European and 
Ceylonese surveyors to survey and make plans of 
all the lands fit for irrigation and subsequently 
all paddy lands for tithe commutation and it was 
when he was engaged in this responsible work 
that he had a difference of opinion with the then 
Assistant Government Agent, the late Mr. Wood- 
ford Birch (murdered at Perak) on a subject 
which seriously affected the natives who had pur- 
chased land which the works designed up to that 
time had been unable to irrigate. This difierence 
however, was happily made up, as we have heard Mr. 
Grinlinton say, before Mr. Birch left on promotion 
for the Straits Settlements. While resident in the 
Batticaloa District he was obliged to lead a rough 
nomadic life shifting his talipot camp every few 
days and travelling through iminhabited jungles 
known only to Veddahs and some native hrmters 
and which very few Europeans ever visited. This 
was all in the course of his work in superin- 
tending the trigonometrical survey of the province ; 
but a good deal of sport came in his way and he had 
what may be described as the “ cream of shooting.” 
It was during his wandering in these lonely localities 
that he made the acquaintance of many of the 
Veddahs (some of whom acted as his guides) through 
the assistance of a Vedarala (native doctor) who 
stated that his mother was a Veddah. He found 
them at first to be extremely shy and they frequently 
ran away ; but afterwards they became more inti- 
mate and he speaks of them as being on the whole 
a docile simple-minded people. After nearly four 
years spent in the Eastern Province Mr. Grin- 
linton was transferred to the Southern Province, 
where he interested himself in a design for an 
improvement of the GaUe Harbour and was granted 
a free passage home and back by the P. & 0. Co , 
in order that he might further the designs. In 
1865 he was brought to the Colombo Office and 
was Executive officer until the close of 1871 in 
which year he went home on leave of absence 
to study the narrow-gauge light railways system for 
the purpose of seeing whether they could be intro- 
duced to Ceylon, and had it not been for a difference 
with the Governor (Sir William Gregory) it is 
very likely that much good would have resulted 
from the work he did then in England and 
Scotland, a former commanding officer— Colonel 
YoUand — who was then Inspector of Railways (and 
who had known Mr. Grinlinton well on the Ordnance 
Survey) having furnished him with introductions 
to the engineers of every light line known 
to the Inspector General. In 1866 he was appointed 
