Part 11 (2/2)
At 1230 I took gondola and was rowed toin the Giudecca, and was just in time to sit down to a truly Hydaspian luncheon, which was crowded To my indescribable relief the captain told me I should have a cabin all to myself as last tie all along the front of the city was again ; and then we turned off seawards, winding through the channel marked out by those white posts with black heads which, even in their humble way, are so har out as they do the whole artistic scheave one a study of hare sail with a red upper corner in soft sunlight against the flat blue-purple of the distantwith a line of rosy, snowy mountain tops that lay like rey-white sail, well in the foreground, with its upper part tinted a soft rey and its lower border deep terra-cotta red The sea, pale blue; the sky thinly veiled with clouds of a rosy dove-grey Nowhere does one see such delicacy of colouring as here Then the reen came just where it should for the completion of the colour study
To think that the Local Board, or whatever thosethe complete suppression of those coloured sails, to be replaced by plain white ones all round Hands off, _radually faded away in theand of distance, and ere soon well out to sea
”_Sunday_--At 9 aht, low sunshi+ne,” says the Diary
”To Missa Cantata;What ani and going of passengers, the cries and laughter of the population thronging the quays! The _Britannia_ from London was already in, and I watched the transfer of e froenuine co paid toon to the English and can't be shaken off, attacked me at first till I turned on them and shouted, '_Via, birrrrichini!_' One of them pulled the others away: 'Colish!+'
The Italians still think _Gl' Inglesi_ are all millionaires and made of _scudi_
”_November 12th_--What indescribable joy this afternoon to see the crew busy with the preparations for our arrival to-an to get ready at 3 am and peer out of the porthole on the waste of starlit waters as I felt the shi+p stopping off the distant lighthouse We lay to a long ti to enter the harbour The sun rose behind the city just as we turned into the port I looked towards the distant landing stage Half a h the sun was right in ht, but by the shi+ning gold band round his cap We were a long tiangell down, Will sprang on to it and, in spite of the warning shouts of the sailors, was the first to board the _Hydaspes_”
I was back in Egypt; to be there onceMah red of the flowering trees and creepers that I noted before hadvariations of yellow, and all the vegetation had deepened
The heat was great at first I was particularly struck by the enhanced beauty of the date pal in clusters under the graceful branches But all too soon caypt! The natives say we have brought it with us I never saw any in Cairo nor upstream
The Governor of the city had invited us to make use of a little _dahabiyeh_, the _Rose_, for a cruise on the Lower Nile, and on November 20th we started My husband had already welcomed on their arrival, in a worthy manner, the officers of the French fleet, hom he was in perfect sympathy; but my Diary records the happy necessity for our departure by the scheduled time on board the _Rose_ on that very Nove the Gerave us an unintentional send-off! They were duly honoured, of course, but the General himself ay
It was a nine days' cruise to theof the Nile from the one I have recorded in my letters to my mother, and reproduced in ”From Sketch Book and Diary” Very few tourists or even serious travellers have co forestalled by abler writers in recording one's i fluttering at our hel in crinificence from the point of the little vessel's curved felucca spar But our first days were da: ”_Noveypt under such deluges, and see in this land the deepest, ugliest mud in the world We had to moor off the residence of the Bey, to whoht, as ished to pay hi He made us stay to luncheon, and a very excellent Arab repast it was I got on ith him as he spoke excellent French, but his mother! Oh! it was heavy, as she could only talk Turkish, and et a smile out of her I must say the Mohae very late in the day, on account of this visit which cohtened up at sunset and nothing es, ces that looainst that sky full of racing clouds that seelobe that had just sunk below the palive many people the horrors I certainly think them in this weather the most uncanny bits of etting down in colour such a telling thing, a goatherd in a Bedouin's burnous, which ildly flapping in the hot wind against the red glow in the west, driving a herd of those goats I find so effective, with their long, pendant ears, and kids skipping in iht, as we left it astern, in that portentous gloa of this As to the inhabitants of those regions, to conte As darkness cohted mud hovels like their anilorious air, the sun, the clean, dry sand, but here in that mud----!
”_November 23rd_--No more rain At Atfeh we left the canal at last, by a lock, and I gave a sigh of relief and contentment, for ere on the broad bosom of Old Nile After a delay at this mud town to buy provisions we pushed out into the current and with eight i) we ood run to Rosetta, on whose ht of a paleoars and of the chant of the oarsmen in the minor key, with barbaric 'intervals' unknown to our music, continued to echo in
”_Nove a sketch of Rosetta to finish on our return froreat river whereit erey Mediterranean I hty river for upward of a thousand ood bit further, both below and above stream, than the authoress of 'A Thousand Miles up the Nile' knew it, whoed to emulate and, if possible, surpass! An old-fashi+oned book, now, I suppose, but all thesail, for the wind had been fair to-day, we turned and were towed back to Fort St Julian, where we ht
”_November 25th_--After a nice little sketch of the Fort St Julian, celebrated in Napoleonic annals, we started off, and reached Rosetta in good tie water-colour of the place I was rather bothered where I sat at the water's edge by the s fro with stolen fish, to souse the its pouch, in ti brats
”_Novelided pleasantly to Metubis, one of thecities, as seen fros when viewed at close quarters But the minarets of those phantom cities remain erect in all their beauty, and this city in particular was transfigured by the nificent sunset I have ever seen, even here”
The wild town of Syndioor was our ht, and at sunrise ere off homewards Syndioor and the opposite city of Deyrout were veiled in a soft mist, out of which rose their tall ht The effect on the nificent centres of commerce and luxury, is quite extraordinary They are now, all of them, derelicts And so in ti under the oleanders of our starting place The crew kissed hands, the _reis_ made his obeisance, and we returned to the hard stones and rattle of the Boulevard de Raone
balls, picnics, gymkhanas and dinners were varied by intervals of water-colour sketching in the desert One picnic, out at Mex, to the west of Alexandria, was distinguished by a great camel ride we all had on the soft-paced, lishwo easily on their tall steeds I ed to secure several sketches that day of the men and ca for our turn in the desert Our ponies took us back home The sort of day I liked As I record, the co been able to put some useful work in, as usual I had a Camel Corps picture _in petto_ at this tie to luncheon He arrived yesterday on board the _Surprise_ from Malta, and Will, of course, received hi, and he cae party to enial luncheon it was, not to say rollicking The day was exquisite, and out of the open s the sea sparkled, blue and calm HRH seemed to me rather feeble, but in the best of huypt for the first ti sun and with such a high colour to begin with! One felt as though one was talking to George III to hear the 'What, what, what? Who, ho? Why, hy?' Col Lane, one of his suite, said he had never seen hiratified at his praise of our cook--very loud praise, literally, as he is not only rather deaf hih they also were a 'little hard of hearing' 'Very good cook, ood cook, Butler'
(across the table to Will) 'Very good cook, eh, Sykes?' (very loud to Christopher Sykes, further off) 'You are a _gours than I do, eh?' C S: 'I ought to have learnt so about it at Gloucester House, sir!' HRH (to ood health!' Aside to me: 'What's the Consul's name?' I: 'Sir Charles Cookson' 'Sir Charles, your health!' When I hand the salt to HRH he stops my hand: 'I wouldn't quarrel with her for the world, Butler' And so the feast goes on, our august guest plying me with questions about the relationshi+p and antecedents of every one at the table; about the manners and customs of the populace of Alexandria; the state of commerce; the climate I answer to the best of my ability with the most unsatisfactory infor a ian type! 'Your oaty_,' were his valedictory words”
Mutton _is_ goaty in Egypt unless well selected I advise travellers to confine theood poultry, and to leave ood old Magro, theout there, I dread to think His na a lean habit of body, was a ood, honest Maltese, his devotion to ”Sair Willia I was only as the moon is to the sun, and to serve the sun he would, I am convinced, have risked his life I calory Onealoft what at first looked like a red republican flag, but it proved to be a sirloin or other portion of bovine anatoood beef being so rare) ”Look,in the street!” He laid it out for my admiration This is the way he used to ask me for the daily orders: ”What willhis ribs); ”a loin?” (indications of lu that lier on his perspiring forehead) ”Oh, for goodness' sake, Magro, not brains!” When the day's as done he would retire to e called the ”Ah!-poor- aloud those words so dear to his nationality, he would take up his cigar Governave him 250 a year for all this expenditure of zeal
While on the subject of Oriental housekeeping, IOur predecessors of a former time had what to me would have been an experience difficult to recover froe Christ he hadit in himself, all ablaze It was only a few steps froreat dish well up before him, he unfortunately set fire to his beard, and the effect of his dusky face approaching in the subdued light of the door, illuminated in that way by blue flames, must have been satanic
”_March 14th_--Lord Charles Beresford, who has relieved the other shi+p with the _Undaunted_, invited us all to luncheon on board, but Will and I could not stay to luncheon as we had guests; nevertheless, we had a very interestingat the Marina we found Lady Charles, Lady Eder-like eyes in that sunburnt face slightly frightened o with us to the _Undaunted_ in the shi+p's barge and a steam launch Lord Charles received us with his usual sailor-like welcome, and we had a tremendous inspection of the shi+p, one of our latest experiments in naval machinery--a belted cruiser She will probably cruise to the bottom if ever the real test coa into a e their direction like that in war, detestable inventions!
”_April 1st_, 1891--I ayptian enjoyyptian rain! Excellent accounts fro back is rendered unnecessary How thankful I am, on the eve of our departure for Palestine, for the 'all well' fro that unique journey, and my letters to my mother, are published in my book, ”Letters from the Holy Land” I illustrated it with the water colours I hted to find the little book had an utterly unexpected success It was nice to find h this land from end to end is to have experienced a pleasure such as no other part of the earth can give us Had I had no h