A tale of grandeur and beauty-by SHALUKA MANCHANAYAKE AND GAYAN NARANDENIYA Source:Sundayobserver When driving about four kilometres from the foggy city of Haputale, one will not miss the old-fashioned monastery run by the priests of St. Benedict’s. Nestled amidst lush green hills, this Adisham Bungalow, is visited by a large number of local and foreign tourists. According to history, it was built by Sir Thomas Lister Villiers, who was born in 1869 in Adisham. His father, Henry Montagu Villiers, a pastor of the Church of England, was of aristocratic descent, and mother, Lady Victoria Russell, was the daughter of John Russell, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Educated at a public school in England, he came to Ceylon, then a British colony, with the intention of working as a cultivator. In Ceylon, he was able to begin his career as a trained cultivator on the Elbedda Estate in ...

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