AN OLD SOLDIER. 
old soldier, so long as there was forage in or about the 
camp. He was a general favourite, a real Irishman, 
jolly under all and every adverse circumstance of 
life, and many a traveller, before ascending the Pass, 
would remember Sergeant Daly, and put a few sticks 
of good tobacco in his pocket for him, or fill his 
spirit flask at the Rambocfa resthouse, to give the 
sergeant a taste of the “real Irish stuff.” But what 
the old man enjoyed more than any thins: else was 
a few old newspapers ; it did not matter how old 
they were : they were new to him. How eagerly he 
read all the military news, and how he woiild com- 
ment on the doings of the French, his old enemies ! 
I believe he was at Waterloo. After he had cursorily 
satisfied his own curiosity, as to the n>ws of the 
day, he would go inside and read the paper aloud 
to his wife, and then the couple would fight their 
battles over again, and talk about the “days of old.” 
“Things were better managed then; the old Duke 
would not have made this error. ” It is always so. 
Peace to his memory, the old sergeant has long 
since passed a-way — is laid “ to moulder in the forest 
glade. ” 
Going down the Pass towards Pamboda, the only 
estates tin nopen were “Old Palagala, ” General (then 
(^olonel) Fraser’s, and a small clearing above the 
bridge. I do not know who was the proprietor, 
but a periodical visitor used to examine the estate, 
named Mr. Lock.* It was about 1846-7 that 
Wavendon was first opened by Captain Fisher, who, 
like most of the original planters, never 
reaped any of the fruits from all his labours. + 
The old Ramboda resthouse was on the same 
Mr. Lock was the agent of Baron Delmar, and, 
as such, purchased the Horagalla estate from Master 
Attendant Steuart, who was acting for the Stewart 
Mackenzie family. The sale was repudiated, and an 
English barrister, Mr. Thomas Young MacChristie, 
was sent out specially to conduct the litigation, which 
ended in the restoration of the estate. Large loans 
on block to Mr. Lock were understood to be the 
cause of the downfall of the Bank of Ceylon. Mr. 
MacChristie was subsequently retained by Dr. Elliott 
and his friends, and did good sei’vice in “the ver- 
andah case, ” and the parliamentary enquiry into 
Ceylon affairs, which ended in the recal of Lord 
Torrington, and the re nn oval from the Island of 
Sir J. E. Tennent and Mr. (now Sir) P. Wodehouse. 
— Ed. 
t Fisher, like PaUisser, was a great hunter in this 
land, — Ed. 
