Villiers received a public school
education but instead of settling down to a business or political career in
England chose adventure in the colony of Ceylon. Soon after his arrival, he
began life as a trainee planter (a creeper) on Elbedde Estate, Bogawantalawa.
In 1896 he married the daughter of a tea planter and went to Brazil. He
returned to Ceylon four years later and soon began his own tea estate, Dikoya
Group.
In 1905 Villiers joined the firm of George Steuart, a trading and estate
agency house in Colombo, and rose to be its chairman in 1928, a position he
held till retirement in 1948. He also played a role in Ceylon politics.
It was while he was chairman of George Steuart that Sir Thomas commenced
building a dream home in the country. He selected an idyllic site at
Haputale, surrounded by virgin forest and commanding views across hills and
valleys and the highest mountain ranges of Ceylon. The house was designed in
the Tudor style, on the lines of Leeds Castle in Kent, with stout granite
walls of locally quarried stone, long, narrow turret windows and chimneys. It
looked in every detail an Elizabethan country mansion, the retreat in the
tropics of a homesick Englishman, nostalgic for the scenes of his boyhood.
Villiers spared no expense to ensure that his country home was luxurious in
its appointments. The roof was covered with flat Burma teak shingles. The
doors, windows, paneling, staircase and floors were all of Burma teak. The
elaborate pillared landing on the main staircase adorned by portraits of his
relatives, the Clare dons and the Dukes of Bedford, consists of four stout
English oaks, polished, but otherwise all natural.
The garden lay-out was also British and, as in the house, the incomparable
scenery is used to best effect. The terraced lawns, flowerbeds and orchard,
like the drawing room, study, library, dining room and bedrooms, look out on
lofty mountain ranges, all between 1,800 and 2,100m above sea level, etched
sharply on the skyline to form a curious outline called the Sleeping Warrior.
Villiers imported fine period furniture, linen, carpets, porcelain, silver,
and glassware from England for his home and named it Adisham after the
Kentish village where he was born. English tea and cabbage roses bloomed on
the lawns. Albertine’s and honeysuckle climbed over the porches and windows;
strawberries, apples and Victoria plums ripened in the cool mountain air and
the tropical sunshine. Villiers even had an English chauffeur for his
Daimler.
Adisham entertained the social elite of Ceylon at the time: Its house parties
included the governor and distinguished visitors to the island. Lady Villiers,
chatelaine of Adisham, was a gracious, gentle person and a charming hostess.
She was a painter of considerable skill and her oil paintings and watercolors,
mostly of marine subjects, adorn the walls of the library and the drawing
room. The Villiers had two sons but both predeceased them: Their only
grandson, Stephen, who lives in England, recently visited Sri Lanka with a
BBC team for the preparation of a feature on Adisham. Sir Thomas retired to
Kent and died on December 21, 1959. In 1949, after Sir Thomas left George
Steuart, Adisham and its furniture, fittings and other effects were sold to
the Sedawatte Mills. In 1961 the Roman Catholic Church acquired Adisham with
its 12 acre grounds and turned it into a monastery and novitiate run by the
priests of the Congregation of St Sylvester, A missionary order that came to
Ceylon in the 1840s. Today, the spirit of Sir Thomas and Lady Villiers linger
in their living rooms kept in impeccable order by the Sylvestrines. The
logbooks and its cases of polished oak, is meticulously orderly even though
the Regency clock on the mantelpiece of the handsome fireplace, with its
gleaming fire-irons, has stopped ticking. A long line of the Dukes of Bedford
look down from the walls and one gets the feeling that any minute Sir Thomas
might come in, calling to his dogs.
The drawing room has been preserved in every detail. David Painter’s study of
Sir Thomas looks down from above the William IV furniture which is polished
even if the Lancashire broadloom on the chairs and the Ax Minster carpets has
aged gently. On the Dutch marquetry card-table is a half-finished game of
patience and the Georgian gate-legged table is set for tea with Wedgewood
jasper china. The rustle you hear is not the swish of silk dresses on the
beautifully kept grand staircase; it is just the wind sighing in the forest
trees. Outside the morning room the terrace looks out over the sunny lawns,
rioting with a hundred varieties of roses. A signboard near the gate reminds
you that if you can't find happiness along the way, you will not find it at
the end of the road. One of Adisham's most wonderful sights is its natural
bird sanctuary. Brilliantly plumaged orange mini-vets, green barbets, blue
magpies, paradise flycatchers, horn bills, golden orioles and a host of others
which live in the forested slopes of the nature reserve above Adisham swoop
down to feast on apple and plum trees.
Today's Adisham is primarily a monastery, where a small community of six
novices and a few monks follow a schedule of prayer, meditation, work and
service. Adisham has made itself famous for fine products such as strawberry
jam, orange marmalade, wild guava jelly and fresh fruit cordials.
When Adisham was purchased, the priests found half-wild strawberries, Seville
oranges and guavas from the original Villiers orchards, which they developed
and extended. The priests as well as a few villagers work in orchards,
vegetable gardens, and dairy and in the processing of produce.
The day begins early for the novices and priests when the rising bell tolls
at 05.30 hrs. in the mist covered dawn. If is always chilly and, from
November to January when the north-east monsoon howls down the Tangamalai
wind-gap, freezing. The gong sounds for muster for tea-estate laborer’s on neighboring
Glenanore Estate when the priests kneel in prayer and meditation in the
little chapel adorned with an image of St Benedict.
Breakfast is at 08.00 hrs. and is wholesome and home grown: It is served,
like all meals, in the plain and austere refectory. Two hours of silence,
contemplation and study follow. Next come two hours of manual work in the
orchards, flower and kitchen gardens, dairy, house, laundry or kitchen.
Prayer at the chapel is followed by a lunch of rice and spicy curries with
fresh vegetables from the gardens. A period of recreation follows, when a
sense of humor and a cheerful heart are encouraged. An hour's manual work, a
short break for tea, silence, prayer, studies, more prayer, dinner,
recreation, study and then, after 22.30 hrs. the great silence of the
monastery reigns. From their bedroom windows, the brothers can see the mist
swirling round the Sleeping Warrior. On clear, moonlit nights, the view is
stunning and heaven seems within touching distance.
Although it should be emphasized that Adisham is not in any way a commercial
guest-house nor a Villiers museum open to casual callers, accommodation is
available for 12 guests. It would suit people appreciative of a Christian
spiritual experience, counsel and guidance, in a place of surpassing peace,
solitude and beauty. The large rooms are comfortable and have some of the
best mountain views in Sri Lanka. The food (three main meals and afternoon
tea) is simple but excellent and the atmosphere edifying and serene.
Guests should not expect hotel amusements and are expected to be considerate
of the rules of the community.
www.lankalibrary.com
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