Nuera Ellia to Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya, a city in Sri Lanka, previously called as Nuera Ellia in the 1800 is depicted through this picture which was a second edition of the original painting; done by Jonathan Needham after the original of Charles D.C. O’Brien. This picture of Nuwara Eliya is dated back to 1864, 1 January. Exemplified by Sir J.E. Tennent, ‘A series of fifteen Views of Ceylon’, consists of sketches made on the spot by Capt C. O’Brien, late Assistant Surveyor General of Ceylon; the picture is a print of the 12th of those described views.

The description tagged in the image reads that the view was taken from the road round the plain, that part of it leading to Badulla.

The pass which leads into it from Rangbodde and Kandy is faced. On the extreme left are the small, neat cottages occupied by visitors from Colombo, during the fine months from January to May. Next is a large and commodious house, built by Sir Edward Barnes on the first establishment of the Sanitorium. Over the bazaar, in the centre, is the Club House, and other accomodation for visitors and public officers, further on is ‘Rosebank’, the residence of the late lamented Governor, Sir Henry Ward; passing which the road winds up to ‘Barrack Plains’, and on the extreme right the Parsonage is visible in the print. Nuwara Eliya is described as a hill- station which means’ above the clouds’ that matches with the geographical setting.

It was also described as a land which later came into bloom with the tea plantation that benefitted by the becoming the most important crop in the island, after the unsuccessful coffee plantation that took place in the early 19th century.

-Madhusha Dep