'I longed to be once more roaming at large with the rifle through the noiseless wildernesses in Ceylon, June 18, 2014

This review is from: Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon (Kindle Edition)
I was motivated to read this following a recent trip to Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka: the author was one of the founders of the colonial settlement here in the mid-1800s. Very readable throughout, with touches of humour: I liked his description of a servant who 'had at some former time lost an eye by the kick of a horse, and to conceal the disfigurement he wore a black patch, which gave him very much the expression of a bull terrier with a similar mark.'

Some might now query Baker's vision for Ceylon, when he writes approvingly of 'how wonderful the alteration made by man on the face of Nature!...Here where wild forests stood, are gardens teeming with English flowers; rosy children and ruddy countrymen are about the cottage doors; equestrians of both sexes are galloping round the plain and the cry of the hounds is ringing on the mountain-side.'

Although Baker writes on natural history and the economy, it is hunting which truly engages him, and accounts of his exploits in the jungle with his hounds in pursuit of elk, elephants and leopards takes up several chapters, with such detailed information as 'a common No 16 fowling-piece with two drachms of powder, will penetrate any crocodile that was ever hatched.' I found it hard to square Baker's attachment to his hounds, and upset when any died, with his merry blasting of elephants or hunting elk till they fell down a ravine to their death...

Nonetheless a fairly interesting read of a long-gone era. ( )