Lot Essay
Raj de Silva (author of Early Prints of Ceylon) dates the present picture to between 1835 and 1852. The President's House, the large white colonial building in the centre of the picture, was rebuilt by Governor Horton around 1835. St. Paul's church which is absent from the view was not completed until 1852. It was situated between the President's House and the Maligawa Temple (Temple of the Tooth), the building on the lake, with the typical kandyan roof.