2-982-429 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Inauguration of the Ceylon Railway: East End of the Banquet Bungalow, 1858. Engraving from a photograph by Mr. Parting. 'The centre of attraction was, of course, the magnificent bungalow, now fully dressed in richest verdure, studded with gorgeous flowers, and waving with flags inside and out...'God bless Queen Victoria,' in illuminated letters, was conspicuous at the upper end. The scene, in truth, was a rare combination of the primitive elements of humanity and of the representatives of progress and of power - of rule, firm, but gentle and beneficent...[The Governor] his Excellency Sir Henry Ward cut the first turf, which he deposited in a wheelbarrow of polished satinwood and ebony...The opening ceremony thus auspiciously completed, the guests adjourned to the bungalow, and, about half-past six, sat down to a banquet which, for elegance and abundance, was the theme of universal praise. The scene, when six hundred persons of all classes, Europeans and Orientals, were seated in the vast building, with the radiated flags of many nations at one end and the grand curtain of the sky visible through the other, the interior being bright with lamps and beaming eyes and cheerful faces, was interesting and animated in the extreme'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.