Chap. V.] IL\NDY. 203 



The antiquity of these caranduas is doubtful, but 

 their fasliiou and form appear to be identical with 

 those described in the Rajaratnacari as having been 

 made for the rehc by successive sovereigns between 12G7 

 and 1464 A. D.^ 



Nothing can be more pictm-esque than the situation 

 and aspect of Kaiidy, on the l^aiiks of a miniature lake, 

 overhung on all sides hy lulls, which command charm- 

 ing views of the city, with its temples, and monuments 

 below. In the lake, a tiny island is covered by a pic- 

 turesque building, now a powder magazine, but in former 

 tunes a harem of the king. A road, which bears the 

 name of " Lady Horton's Walk,'' winds round one 

 of those hills ; and on the eastern side, which is 

 steep and almost precipitous, it looks dow^i into the 

 valley of Doombera, through which the Mahawelli- 

 ganga rolls over a channel of rocks, presenting a scene 

 which nothing in the tropics can exceed in majestic 

 beauty. 



In a park at the foot of this acclivity is the pavilion 

 of the governor, one of the most agreeable edifices in 

 India, not less for the beauty of its architecture than 

 for its judicious adaptation to the climate. The walls 

 and columns are covered with chunam, pre})ared from 

 calcined shells, wliich in whiteness and polish ri\-als 

 the purity of marble. The high ground immediately 

 behind is included in the demesne, and so successfully 

 have the elegancies of landscape gardening been com- 

 bined with the wildness of nature, that dining my last 

 residence at Kandy a leopard from the forest above 

 came down nightly, to drink at the fountain in the 

 parterre. 



My own official residence, from its vicinity to the 

 same jungle, was occasionally entered by equally unex- 

 pected visitors. Serpents are numerous on the hills, and 

 as the house stood on a terrace formed out of one of its 

 steepest sides, the cobi-a de ca])ello and the green cara- 



' lidjonitiKK-dri, pp. 103, 113. 



