xxv THE SAMBUR 415 



soil at Newera Ellia is rich in iron ; this is fatal to the cinchona, 

 but favourable to the tea. 



The Government had wisely declined to sell Crown lands in the 

 neighbourhood of Newera Ellia beyond the altitude of 5000 feet 

 above the sea ; I therefore was delighted to see many places that 

 were absolutely unchanged, and when, from rising ground at our 

 old estate, Mahagastotte', I looked upon the rounded masses of 

 forest and hill-tops extending for 18 miles to the Horton Plains, 

 my past life appeared like a vanished dream, and I could imagine 

 that I had only parted from the scene a few weeks ago. 



Throughout all this country we used to hunt, and although 

 pathless, I knew every portion intimately. The return to my old 

 home was saddening ; most of the old companions were dead, others 

 had grown old, and were hastening to decay. I looked at the wild 

 ground, and walked for about 14 miles one morning to revisit the 

 old scenes. I felt tired upon my return, and depressed in spirit, 

 as I looked back upon the days when I seldom walked, but always 

 ran, and never knew the meaning of the word "fatigue." I sus- 

 pected that I also must be growing old. 



It is astonishing to regard the havoc that can be created by the 

 axe. I remember the time when we looked over an expanse of 

 interminable and pathless forest from the hill-tops above Newera 

 Ellia. No person would have believed that it would entirely dis- 

 appear, and give place to tea. A railway station at Nana-Oya is 

 only 4 miles from the hotel, which brings the sanatorium within 

 eight hours' journey of sweltering Colombo. 



I re-read my own book, Eight Years in Ceylon, written in 1854, 

 to refresh my memory of things and people connected with the 

 country. It struck me that I had been rather unsparing in my 

 criticisms upon certain governors of the island, but the sins of 

 omission and commission upon their part were nothing to the act 

 of the man (whoever he may have been) who had deprived the 

 troops of their sanatorium, dismantled the barracks at Newera 

 Ellia, and, although a railway now brings the place within only a 

 few hours of Kandy and Colombo, had neutralised every advantage 

 by withdrawing the entire military detachment. 



Here was a magnificent anomaly ; " that a sanatorium had been 

 established which every European who can afford the time and 

 expense, visits for a certain period of the year. Common-sense 

 would suggest that British troops should always be quartered in 

 the most healthy position, and Newera Ellia was in former days 

 accepted as the hill station for invalids. The only drawback in 

 those days consisted in the distance and delay occasioned by bad 



