Many handsome young heifers looked very like the emigrant bull in
the face, and claimed their parentage. The fields were green;
the axe no longer sounded in the forests: a good house stood in
the centre of cultivation; a road of two miles in length cut
through the estate, and the whole place looked like an adopted
"home." All the trials and disappointments of the beginning were
passed away, and the real was a picture which I had ideally
contemplated years before. The task was finished.
In the interim, public improvements had not been neglected; an
extremely pretty church had been erected and a public
reading-room established; but, with the exception of one good
house which had been built, private enterprise had lain dormant.
As usual, from January to May, Newera Ellia was overcrowded with
months of visitors, and nearly empty during the other months of
the year.
All Ceylon people dread the wet season at Newera Ellia, which
continues from June to December.
I myself prefer it to what is termed the dry season, at which
time the country is burnt up by drought. There is never more
rain at Newera Ellia than vegetation requires, and not one-fourth
the quantity fills at this elevation, compared to that of the low
country.
