Lot Essay
In her book Two Happy Years in Ceylon, Cumming describes the plans of Nuwara Eliya as follows, 'I can never forget my first view of this Elysium when after toiling up-hill... we reached the dividing summit... which in the exquisite morning light, lay clear... with the lovely river-gorge as a foreground... Great must have been the surprise of the first Europeans who,... through the dense mountain forests... accidentally discovered this cool, delightful, grassy plain... Singhalese and Hindoo legends account for its existence by saying that the monkey-god Hanuman set fire to this forest when he came to rescue the beautiful queen Sita, wife of Ravana, from the demon-King.', (C.F.G. Cumming, (op.cit.) pp.188-89.)