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Dear Sir,

In my last letter to you, I stated my feelings about my personal accommodation in the point of houses. I gave to Mr. Twistleton, the sitting Magistrate, for his Office, the house lately occupied by Mr. North (St. Sebastian's) and I have been able to provide for myself perfectly to my own comfort, by building a small bungalow in the country, though the medium of the Artificers kept in constant pay, without any additional expense to His Majesty's Government.
On the contrary, by having sold one or two houses belonging to the Government, there has been a Receipt to Government on the subject of about 20,000 sterling pounds.

T. Maitland

Not only had Sir Thomas Maitland built his house in the country within eight months of his arrival in the island, but he had made a profit for the Government in the process. Maitland, a man of his word, had advocated that no government was entirely successful unless it could point to a surplus. He had already proved that this was possible in Ceylon: it is recorded that the new Governor ended his first year in office with a notable saving of 300,000 sterling pounds of colonial expenditure. (Lord, 1897)

Colonial records show that the earliest letter Maitland wrote from his new country residence is dated 11th March 1806. This is the first time that Maitland used the name 'Mount Lavinia' to describe his house and the location from which he was writing. It was on this same day that the wedding took place at Mount Lavinia of Maitland's aide-de-camp and Military Secretary, General Clement Martin Edwards, with Louise Layard: a fitting way to celebrate the completion of the Governor's country residence, Mount Lavinia, by hosting such a happy and important occasion. (Lewis, 1913)

The Governor's choice of location for his residence gave the whole area prominence and was later to replace with its name, Mount Lavinia, the local name of Galkissa. In 1834 Simon Casie Chetty wrote about the village of Galkissa in the Ceylon Gazetteer, describing it as:
'a fine village situated on a road to Caltura, 7 miles south east from Colombo. Sir Thomas Maitland rendered it a place of importance by making it his country residence and erecting a bungalow called Mount Lavinia'.

In 1843, John Whitchurch Bennet noted in Ceylon and Its Capabilities that:
'Galkisse is more important than it would be otherwise from its proximity to the Governor's Country Seat, Mount Lavinia, a name which gives rise to a very pleasing and extraordinary reminiscence, for it was at this place, not at the modern Palace, but at the former capacious and delightful bungalow of one floor, when Ceylon's Governors were wont to be content with the cool and delightful native way of building'.

These sentiments would have pleased Maitland: he was a man with a great sense of duty and he believed that  he could achieve a better understanding of the people he was governing, by learning their local manners, customs, habits, religions and prejudices. In fact the instructions he had given to his Government Collectors consistently emphasised the importance of personal contact. 'The sole object of Government', he wrote, in his instructions of 25th August 1808,
'is and always ought to be...to ensure the prosperity of the island solely through... increasing the prosperity and happiness of the natives'.

Through building his house Mount Lavinia, and distancing himself from the British society confined within the old defence walls of the Fort (created by the Portuguese and Dutch during their period of rule), Maitland moved closer to the local people, at least in physical presence if not entirely in spirit and sensibility.

The Country Residence