"The design of this book is to help the traveller in Ceylon to a fuller enjoyment of the varied attractions of the island, and to arouse in the general reader a desire to visit a country which has only now begun to receive the attention it deserves. If, as I am glad to be assured, mv previous works on Ceylon have contributed in some measure to this end, I trust the more popular form of the present work will still further promote the object which I have in view. The illustrations are mainly from photographs taken by the author specially for this work; they may be depended upon, therefore, as representing the aspect of the country to-day.It would be superfluous to-day to describe geographically the position of Ceylon on the map of the world. Thanks to the greater facilities of travel in recent years, our acquaintance with the most distant outposts of the empire is now more intimate than could have been conceived two decades ago, and Ceylon, which at a period not very remote was little more than a vague image of poetry or romance, has become an important reality to the merchant, the traveller and the student of ancient civilisation and religion." [...]This book is a reprint of the wonderful work original published in 1908 with several pictures and illustrations.