H.W. Cave: A brief essay on his life, works and company

By Avishka Mario Senewiratne

Ever since the British took over the coastal region of Ceylon and subsequently the realms of Kandy, many English travellers such as Percival, Cordiner, Davy, Marshall, Tennent, Baker, and Skinner visited our country. The list of travellers who wrote of our own ‘picturesque Ceylon’ is much longer. Long before that, the well known Robert Knox was a glorious captive of Râjasinghe II. His book on Ceylon, in any continent is a classic.

Undoubtedly, this former colony of the monarch of England, had touched the hearts of many who had visited and a more significant number of those who have not. Yet no one did what H.W. Cave would do for Ceylon. He painted a bird’s eye and traveller’s eye of this ancient country so as not just to attract the foreign reader but also to honour the sons and daughters of the soil.

His photographs coupled with his lucid style of writing have captivated readers of yesterday, today and will, by all means; tomorrow! Not many may know of this lover of Ceylon or his workings in the commercial sphere. However, the name “Cave & Co.” have stood the test of time. Thus, here I am attempting to record his epitaph and not forget to illuminate those who keep us writers moving forward: the readers.

H.W. Cave: A Biographical Note

Henry William Cave was born on February 23, 1854, to William Cave and Louisa Wilson of Northamptonshire, England. Nothing much is known of his early days apart from the fact that he attended Magdalen College School and subsequently Queen’s College, Oxford. However, prior to the completion of his degree, Cave dropped out of Oxford at age 18.

With nothing else to do, he accepted the role of being the private secretary of Bishop Reginald Copleston, the newly appointed Anglican Bishop of Colombo. Thus, Copleston and Cave travelled to a country they both knew little of in 1872. Coming to Ceylon, changed the life and the attitude of Cave for the better. He, who was a shy, introverted young man in England, experienced much prosperity in Ceylon.

The Anglican Diocese of Colombo, though large in area, had a somewhat low population. Copleston realised that his young secretary had little work to do and encouraged him to edit the Ceylon Diocesan Gazette, the oldest Anglican paper in the country. It was here where Cave first got exposed to typography and printing.

By 1876 Cave was well settled in Ceylon. That year, with the blessing and encouragement of his Bishop, he started a simple bookstore which sold Bibles and religious books. Located in Upper Chatham Street, Colombo Fort, this was the birth of H.W. Cave and Company.

Interestingly, many young Europeans who came to Ceylon during British rule either went on to be planters, administrators of the government or those who had the means, to start their own businesses. Henry Cave on the other hand wanted to do something with books. This involved travel and research, taking photographs, writing books and then selling them.

Cave had considerable acumen about what he was doing. By 1884 he made enough money to expand his shop stocking not only books but also stationery,, musical instruments and sporting goods such as billiard tables. He also sold rickshaws and bicycles and was a printer and publisher. After moving to a two-storey building in Queen Street, Fort, he had enough business to employ over 350 people.

This building which had a well-proportioned classical façade and a 400-foot road frontage was popularly called ‘Amen’s Corner’. While on furlough in the UK, he met Laura Emma Long and married her in 1880 in Richmond, Surrey. One of Cave’s daughters was named ‘Kalani’. However, the marriage was short-lived with the untimely death of Laura in 1886. Cave, who was widowed at 32 was left heartbroken.

He left his business under the care of his brothers and nephew and returned to England. remaining the senior partner. He re-entered Oxford to complete the degree he dropped pursuing some 14 years previously, Cave ultimately completed his first degree and also took a Master’s in Arts. He made a number of visits to Ceylon until his death in 1913.

H.W. Cave: His works

Despite leaving Ceylon in 1886, Cave had by then acquired immense knowledge of the island, its people and cities. He had a series of notes on various places he visited and though an amateur photographer, a collection of landscape photographs of various areas in Ceylon. With time he became a highly sought-after photographer reputed for the quality and precision of his work.

Unlike others who wrote of this country, who had only illustrated their work with sketches as plates, Cave thought out of the box. He illustrated his text with his own photographs publishing a series of deluxe travelogues on Ceylon. This series was called Picturesque Ceylon. Following are the books of that series:

· Cave, H.W., (1894), Picturesque Ceylon: Colombo and the Kelani Valley, Volume 1, London: Samson Low, Marston & Co. with 36 illustrations.

· Cave, H.W., (1895), Picturesque Ceylon: Kandy and Peradeniya, Volume 2, London: Samson Low, Marston & Co. with 33 illustrations.

· Cave, H.W., (1897), Picturesque Ceylon: Nuwaraeliya and Adam’s Peak, Volume 3, London: Samson Low, Marston & Co. with 30 illustrations.

In his preface to his first book, Cave states that this is not a ‘literary effort’ but ‘some information about the scenes depicted’. He goes on to say, “My purpose is to enable the friends of European residents in Ceylon, and others who are interested in the Island, to obtain a better idea of its charming features than is possible from a mere verbal description.” The book was an instant hit, both in Europe and Ceylon. His images of Colombo and the Kelani Valley together with his highly readable text was enjoyed by his readers.

His lucid style of writing gripped the reader’s attention tempting many to read from cover to cover at a single sitting. Cave begins his descriptions with a simple view of the palm-fringed shores of Colombo from the deck of a travelling ship. He then describes the docks and the areas surrounding the Fort and Pettah, and subsequently the inner parts of Colombo.

What captivates the reader is that he complements his text by describing a certain event or area, thereby creating a word picture and then providing actual photographs shot by him to give a thorough overview. This is what made his three volumes of Picturesque Ceylon so appealing to many. Further, the fine binding of these books made them very attractive. This is how the Ceylon Independent reviewed the first book by Cave:

“It is the finest and the most handsomely got up a book on the subject of Ceylon that has yet been published; the most praiseworthy attempt to paint the lily that we have seen.”

Cave went on to write yet another book in 1897 on Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa titled Ruined Cities of Ceylon. This too became an instant hit and out of all his publications, this is the most hard-to-find book. It went into immediate reprints due to the growing demand. In 1900, Cave published his most endearing work highlighting the impetus of the booming tea industry of Ceylon. This book titled Golden Tips: Description of Ceylon and its Great Tea Industry has over 200 illustrations and runs across 467 pages.

One conspicuous feature of this book is its extremely hard yet eye-catching gold cloth binding with gold leaf edges. Though the first print ran for 3,000 copies within a year another reprint had to be done. By 1907, there were four editions of this book and numerous other reprints have followed to date. Reviewing the Golden Tips, the London Atheneum commented:

“Mr. Cave seems to hold a brief for the whole island of Ceylon, with its varied attractions… The charm of Sinhalese life and nature is depicted with glowing colours and interesting details… The simple, peaceful village life, and the more stirring existence of the townspeople, with their varied avocations, are equally well described.”

H.W. Cave certainly knew his marketing. Upon the completion of his work, he sought reviews on each of his publications and used them widely in his advertising. This attracted attention with both daily newspapers and scholarly journals praising his efforts and the high quality and readability of his illustrated works. In 1908, Cave published the Book of Ceylon. The late Dr. Christopher Uragoda considers this work as his magnum opus.

The Book of Ceylon ran over 650 pages and was lavishly illustrated like Cave’s previous works. It also has a signature colour plate of Lankathilaka temple. His admiration of the construction of a splendid railway line in the country, led to his compiling a book on the railway together with an account of the country’s varied attractions for visitor and tourists. The binding of this book is a bright red-clothed fabric with gold engravings. As the railway then was the most commonly used mode of transport for both people and goods, this publication with its detailed maps attracted many readers and was highly appreciated.

In 1910, Cave published his final book The Ceylon Government Railway which was mainly extracted from The Book of Ceylon. Though this is the least appreciated work of Cave, its first edition ran into 6,000 copies. Today all of Cave’s books are high in demand and its first editions are highly sought after by book collectors. Ismeth Raheem and Percy Colin-Thome in their book Images of British Ceylon commented on Cave as follows: “He (H.W. Cave) attempted to present a quintessential vision of Ceylon.”

Messrs. H.W. Cave and Company

Henry Cave first opened his bookstore as more of a side-business on the encouragement of his dear friend, Bishop Copleston in 1876. However, he realised that his expertise in this was far greater than he anticipated. The trade he was dealing with was with a niche market and he fathomed that he had no competitors. This strategy enabled him to grow rapidly within a short period of time. Soon his two brothers A.E. and S. Cave would join him along with his nephew Walter Cave.

They were the partners of what would be one of the biggest firms in Colombo for several decades. Caves had a wide array of books ranging from the genres of educational, comedy, fiction, non-fiction, travelogues, philosophy, romance, history etc. The books ranged from affordable rates to high-quality books with well-leathered covers and gilt-edged leaves. This is what Allister Macmillan commented on the bookstore:

“Civilisation has developed nothing of greater importance and influence than the multiplicity of its literature, and the stock of books and other reading matter kept at Messrs. H.W. Cave and Co. is an interesting and accurate index to public tastes and requirements in that condition” Apart from books, Caves were dealers of high-quality stationery and office equipment imported from Britain.

These goods such as filing cabinets, cash registers, adding machines, typewriters etc. were high in demand in Colombo as it was well known to achieve maximum results and efficiency over minimum labour. When it came to sporting goods such as athletics and gymnastic equipment, fishing tackle and billiard tables, Caves was second to none.

Cave and Co. had a wide range of silverware, watches, pictures, artists’ material, tobacco, as well as sundry items. The musical fraternity of this country cannot forget the exquisite kind of musical instruments imported from England. No firm in this country at that time had acquired such prominence for the fine pianos and organs. These devices were famous for being labelled ‘Suited to the climate of Ceylon’.

However, what Cave & Co. were outspokenly best at their printing works. Located in Slave Island the press used to run across 25,000 sq. ft. By 1926, the press had no fewer than 41 printing machines of various sizes. Cave’s printing was famous for its fine binding and revolutionary typesetting, which even in this digital age is hard to match. Apart from printing books for private clients and government contracts across all languages in Ceylon, the printing press was well known for printing picturesque colour postcards and photographs and millions of tea labels.

No one would have expected that a simple boy, who was the secretary of the ‘boy Bishop’ would be such a successful entrepreneur, hard to match. Set up in 1881,Cave’st was the most modern press in the subcontinent. It was well known for using the state-of-the-art photo-chemical reproduction facility. This was used for the first time in commercial purpose by Cave & Co. H.W. Cave employed the trained artist Barlow Moore to head the initial staff of 40 as the Chief Printing Manager.

While being the senior partner H.W. Cave died in 1913 and his brothers and nephew ran the firm well into 1920s. In 1926, it is known that the partners of the company were Messers. Bartlett, Brown, Dawkins and Wratten. In the 1950s this company which had by then had moved to the best area of the Gaffoor building, was acquired by the sons of F.J. Lucas Fernando Jr. After the 1960s, Cave & Co. declined and eventually closed its operations. This is history and hopefully a visionary as astute as H.W. Cave would create a similar enterprise in Sri Lanka.

“Flattery is hushed when Ceylon is the theme,

As mem’ry on mem’ries throng, her charms to tell!

Are there not witcheries that through beauty beam

Unspeakable? Yet, weaving such a spell

That limner, language, never can portray,

Though haunted by their magic power always.”

–Mrs. William Dent

References

Goonetilleke, H.A.I., (1970-77), Bibliography of Ceylon, Vols. 5,

Kularatne, Tilak, (2006), History of Printing and Publishing in Ceylon: 1736-1912, Dehiwala

Macmillan, Allister (ed), (1928), Seaports of India and Ceylon, W.H &L. Collingridge, London

Raheem, I and Colin-Thome, P, (2000), Images of British Ceylon: 19^th Century Photography of Sri Lanka, Times Edition

Richard Boyle, (2001), ‘Through a Carriage Window with Cave’, Sunday Times

Uragoda, C.G., (2011), Authors of Books on Sri Lanka, 1796-1948, Volume 1,

West, John, (2014), Views of Ceylon, The Ceylon Study Circle

Wright, Arnold (ed), (1907), Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon, London