Well-fed cattle of the choicest breeds, and English sheep, are grazing in the paddocks.

Well-made roads and gravel walks run through the estate.

But a few years past, and this was all wilderness.
Dense forest reigned where now not even the stump of a tree is standing; the wind howled over hill and valley, the dank moss hung from the scathed branches, the deep morass filled the hollows; but all is changed by the hand of civilisation and industry.

The dense forests and rough plains, which still form the boundaries of the cultivated land, only add to the beauty.

The monkeys and parrots are even now chattering among the branches, and occasionally the elephant in his nightly wanderings trespasses upon the fields, unconscious of the oasis within his territory of savage nature.
The still, starlight night is awakened by the harsh bark of the elk; the lofty mountains, grey with the silvery moonlight, echo back the sound; and the wakeful hounds answer the well-known cry by a prolonged and savage yell.
This is 'Newera Ellia,' the sanatorium of Ceylon, the most perfect climate of the world.