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CHAP. VIII. CEYLON. 225 Besides the intrinsic interest of Sinhalese architecture, if it were possible to compare this unbroken series with its ascer- tained dates with the fragmentary groups on the continent of India, its parallelisms might throw much light on many questions that are obscure and uncertain, and the whole acquire a con- sistency that is now only too evidently wanting. 1 The survey of the Ceylon monuments owed its first inception to Sir Hercules Robinson, then Governor, and in 1871 a series of photographs of the principal remains at Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa was taken by the late Mr. Lawton, under the personal direction of Mr J. G. Smither, Government Architect, and supplemented a little later by a second series, by Captain Hogg, R.E. These threw some light on the matter ; but photographs alone without plans or dimensions or descriptions are most deceptive guides, and, for the time, they added little to our scientific knowledge. In 1873, however, under directions from the Governor, Sir William H. Gregory, a survey was made by Mr. Smither of what was then known at Anuradhapura, and detailed plans and other architectural drawings of the more important ruins were eventually completed in accordance with recommendations by the late Mr. James Fergusson. 2 In 1894, however, Mr. Smither's most valuable work on Anuradhapura was published ; the plates of drawings in it are excellent, and the collotype photographs add materially to its interest and value. If we had delineations of the other remains in Ceylon excavated and surveyed since 1890, prepared and described with like skill and accuracy, they would be of the very highest value for the history of Sinhalese architecture. Meanwhile, much progress has been made, for in 1884 the Governor, Sir Arthur H. Gordon, now Lord Stanmore, intrusted Mr. S. M. Burrows of the Civil Service, under the supervision 1 Sir Emerson Tennent's book, pub- lished in 1 859, was one of the best works on the subject. He had, however, no special qualifications for the task, beyond what were to be expected from any well- educated gentleman of talent, and his description of the buildings is only meant for popular reading. The two papers by Captain Chapman, in the third volume of the 'Transac- tions' (1832), and thirteenth volume of the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society,' were for long the best account of the ruins of Anuradhapura, and beyond these a few occasional notices were nearly all the printed matter we had to depend upon. Of late several ' Guide Books ' have appeared : Burrows's ' Buried Cities VOL. I. of Ceylon' (4th ed. 1906) ; H. W. Cave's ' Ruined Cities of Ceylon' (8vo. ed. 1900); and J. Still's ' Ancient Capitals of Ceylon ' (1907). 2 Nothing was generally known in England of this survey till 1888, when a paper by Mr. John Capper on the Anuradhapura dagabas appeared in the 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' N.S., vol. xx., pp. 165-180. His son, Mr. G. Capper, had been employed in the survey under Mr. Smither, F. R. I. B. A. , whose work ' Architec- tural Remains : Anuradhapura, Ceylon, comprising the dagabas and certain other ancient ruined structures with fifty- seven plates' (Atlas fol. ) contains the results of the surveys made in 1873-77.