Part 11 (1/2)
”Only here and there was I reroup of natives eating sugar cane, a water-seller with his tinkling brass cups and a rose behind his ear, and so on We then had a really enjoyable drive along the Mahmoudieh Canal, which was bal the placid water on the opposite bank ran Arab villages with their accooats, water jars, native men and women in scriptural robes; water wheels; square-shaped, als, so appropriate under that intense light On our bank were the reio to ruin, on account of fashi+on having betaken itself to the suburb of Ras were, however, so hidden in deep tropical gardens of great and rich beauty that they did not offend
”Beyond the Arab villages on the other bank appeared Lake Mareotis, and there was a poetical feeling about all that region It was so strange to have on one side of a narrow band of water old Egypt and the life of the East going on just as it has been for ages past, and on the other the ephe life of to-day, and this all the way along a drive of some two ypt on horseback, and old Jewry in carriages, passing and repassing up and down this cos My ad to me Their dress is one of the most perfect in shape, colour and material ever devised The air was rich with the scent of strange flowers, sonificent purpleshown irritation in e, and I hope I ”did my manners” as became my official responsibilities I liked the Greeks best of all--nay, I got very fond of these handsome, sunny people
It was a curiously cos the little feuds that are always si in this kind of mixed company, must have sometimes made mistakes I heard a Greek wo her friends in a voice fraught with inez, hier au soir chez le General Monsieur Gariopulo a donne le bras a Madame Buzzato!”_ The recipients of this infor off these two for the procession to dinner?
The British were entrenched at Raave ht One was ”Bulkley,”
the next ”Fle,” then ”Sydney O Schutz,” and finally San Stefano at railhead, and a casino with a corrugated iron roof under that scorching sun Oh, that I should see such a thing in Egypt! Cheek by joith the little villas one saeird Bedouin tents and wild Arabs and their ani on their existence as if the Briton had never coruities of Alexandria became to me positively enjoyable; and the desert air, as ever, was life-giving My little Syrian horse, ”Minnow,” carried er, over that pleasant desert sand But an occasional khayptian weather I na qualities, the experience of paying calls (in a nice toilette) under its suffocating puffs And how the flies swarm; how they settle in blackin tassels from the native children's eyes Oh, yes, there is a seas, but it isn't my way to turn it up more than is necessary Here may follow a bit of Diary:
”_May 22nd_--We had a lish colony I had long wished to visit this ancient city, brick-built and half deserted, a once opulent place, but now ed to see old Nile once more We chartered a special train and left Moharram Bey Station at 8 am I was e over Aboukir Bay The ancient town of Edkou struck me very much It was built of the s it a different aspect froes which are usually built on level ground It had thus a peculiar character Shortly before reaching Rosetta the land becomes richly cultivated There is a subtle beauty about the cultivated regions of this fascinating land of Egypt which I feel very much It is the beauty of abundance and richness as well as of vivid colour
”At Rosetta dense crowds of natives awaited us and soh the town I heard so they could pick the blue tiles off the minarets, but for my part I prefer them under their lovely sky and sunshi+ne, rather than orna A little _musharabieh_ lattice is still left here in the s and has not yet been taken to grace the British drawing-rooms of Ramleh We strolled about the bazaars and into the old rahts Everywhere in Rosetta you see beautiful little Corinthian s, and supporting the ceilings and pulpits of the mosques They are daubed over with red plaster Very often a rich Corinthian capital is used as a base to a pillar by being turned upside down, so that the shaft, croith its own capital, possesses two--one at each end--an arrangement evidently satisfactory to the barbarian Arabs who succeeded the classic builders of the old city Al as corner stone But the brown brickwork is very dismal, and but for the vivid colours of the people's dresses theThis is Baira the dismal Ramadan Fast are in theiron everywhere Such acolour as was the market place of Rosetta to-day these eyes, that have seen so much, never looked upon before
”At last, e had clih h all the bazaars (the fish bazaar was trying), ent down to the landing stage and took boat for the trysting place, about a mile up the broad, wind-lashed Nile Will and the Bishop of Clifton, sole ree to the Holy Land, and half our party had gone on before us; and, after a quick sail along the pal place chosen for our picnic We found a tent pitched and the servants busy laying the cloth under a dense sycamore, close to an old reat pleasure as we caht of them I was impatient to make a sketch I lost no tirove with yptian drawbacks, however, were there--flies, and puffs of sand blown into one's eyes and powdering one's paints On the Mahmoudieh Canal I a can be pleasanter than e with the hood up, and not a soul to bother oing against the wind, we had to be towed froility of our crew dodging in and out of the boatsthe tow-rope fro of these vessels A tall Circassian _effendi_ of police cantered on his little Arab along the bank to see that all ith us The other half of our party chose to sail and progress by laborious tacking fro after we did We all met at the house of the Syrian postmaster, where he and his pretty little wife received us with native politeness, and gave us coffee and sweets Our return journey was ot to Alexandria at 8 p hours
”_May 24th_--The Queen's birthday Trooping of the colour at 5 pm on the Moharrem Bey Ground Most successful Will, ure as he raised his plu cheers for the Queen which brought the pretty cereht of Koarlanded round the standard In the evening a dull and solemn dinner to the heads of departments and their wives A difficult function We had the band of the Suffolks playing outside the hich ide open on the sea I went out sketching in the , very early I should have been at my post all day on such an occasion, I confess Will said I was like Nero, fiddling while Ro
”_May 29th_--The Mediterranean Fleet is here Great interchange of cards, firing of salutes, etc, etc All very ceremonious, but productive of picturesqueness and colour and effect, so I like it very much The Khedive Tewfik, too, has arrived, with the Khediviah, for the hot season from Cairo Will, of course, had to be present at the station thisfor the reception of our puppet, and it was not nice to see the Union Jack down in the dust as the guard of honour of the Suffolks gave the salute Our dinner to-night was to the admiral and officers of the newly-arrived British squadron
”_June 2nd_--To the Khediviah's first reception at the harelishwoeable pair, as seniority appeared to be claimed erroneously at the last moment by the junior This reception has become a most dull affair now that Oriental ways are done aith Dancing girls no longer auests, nor hand the audience, and there is nothing left but absolute emptiness
The Vice-Reine sits, in European dress, on a divan at the end of a vast hall, and the visitors sit in a semi-circle before her on hard European chairs reflected in a polished _parquet_, speaking to each other in whispers and furtively sipping coffee She addresses a few remarks to those nearest her, and the pauses are articulated by the click of the ever-irl slavesway in the funniest frocks, supposed to be European, but some of them absolutely frulossy frock coats, rise and bow as one passes along the passages to or froh the jealously-walled garden into the outer world
”I find it difficult to converse in a hare so bad at small talk
I upset the Vice-Reine's equani her (which was quite true) that I had heard she was taking lessons in painting '_Moi, e!_' It was as bad as when I told her, in Cairo, howabout the bazaars '_Vous allez dans les bazaars,of illnesses, which subject I have always found touches the proper note in a harehts in these audiences, as they are areat events of her days She is a beautiful woman, a Circassian, and of lovely whiteness
”Finished the delicate sketch of the loveliest bit of the canal, where the pink minaret and the black cypress are I wish I could do just one more reach of that lovely ay before I leave! There is a particular group of oleanders nodding with heavy pink blossoround of tae, and rose-coloured robes come down to fetch water in their ath of the picture with tall waving canebrakes, above whose tender green tops appears the delicate distance of the lagoons of Mareotis; there is--but ah! each bend of that canal reveals fresh beauties, and often as Will has driven er as ever to miss no point in the lovely sequence
”_June 14th_--Allcalls has relaxed greatly This evening we drove again far beyond Ramleh on the old route followed by Napoleon to reach Aboukir, and I finished the sketch there”
And so on, till my departure a few days later I had wisely left er nu better suited to the official life I had to attend to
CHAPTER XVII
MORE OF THE EAST
My return voyage was eries boat to Marseilles
This gave me the Straits of Messina as well as those of Bonifacio On passing Ajaccio I don't think a single French passenger gave a thought to Napoleon I was intent on taking in every detail of that place, as far as I could see it through a reat snow-cappedhome to the children, and passed the rest of the suypt, in the following October, _via_ Venice again Every soldier's wife knohat it is to be torn in two between the husband far away abroad and the children one reat, no doubt of it
Then there is this perplexity: whether it would be well to take one of the children with one and risk the dangers of the journey and the cli E of my departure fro into my room, and, behold, as I went to the , the do the salute, as we say in the Ar, too Joy! our start at least will be calm Till midday I had Venice to myself, and I could stroll about the Piazza and little streets, and recollect myself in peaceful meditation in St Mark's What delicate loveliness is that of Venice! Those russet reds and creamy whites and tender yellows, and here and there bits of deep indigo blue to give emphasis to the colour scheilded statues on doht! These things ratitude for so beautiful a thing