After an early meal (hardly to be called dinner) we went to the station, just as all the people were going for a drive to Shoubrah in the smartest carriages and the prettiest toilets.

Our journey to Alexandria in the evening was cool and pleasant.  A huge break met us, and we drove to Abbat’s Hotel—­considerably improved since our last visit in 1869.

Monday, April 30th.—­Got up at 5 a.m.  After a deliciously soft but very muddy bath, I went for a donkey ride before breakfast with Mabelle.  Tom arrived from the yacht in time for twelve o’clock breakfast, and announced the voyage from Port Said to have been rough and unpleasant.

We called on the Consul, the Vice-Consul, and our old friend, Consul Burton of Trieste, Haj Abdullah.  He has just returned from a journey through the ancient land of Midian, undertaken at the special request of the Viceroy.  He describes the expedition as having been most successful; the climate is almost perfect from September to May; the land is well watered by little streams flowing through fertile valleys, and full of fragrant flowers and luscious fruits.  The corn reaches above the camel-men’s heads, which means a height of fourteen or fifteen feet.  But the mineral wealth of the country is its most extraordinary feature.  He found traces of gold in the sand of the river-beds, in spots pointed out to him by his fellow-pilgrims on the way to Mecca twenty years ago, to say nothing of tin, iron, &c.  Perhaps the most interesting part of his discovery was the remains of eight ruined cities with traces in the dry river-beds of stone-crushing and gold-seeking apparatus, which must have been used centuries ago.  He is writing a book on the subject, which you may perhaps see before you read this.

The Consul kindly sent a janissary with us to show us the Sultan’s palace.  It is large and bare of furniture; and the general style of decoration is like that of the palaces at Cherniga and Dolma Batscher.  Thence we went to see Pompey’s Pillar and Cleopatra’s Needle, the dahabeas ready to go up the Nile, &c.; and returned to the hotel in time for dinner and a chat afterwards in the cool courtyard.

Tuesday, May 1st.—­I wrote from 3 a.m. to 6.30 a.m., in order to send letters off by the French mail, and at seven Mabelle and I sallied forth on donkeys to visit the market.  There was not much to see, however, everything being so crowded and jammed up, meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit, all close together.  The crowd was amusing, as all the European householders had negroes or Arabs following them, laden with their purchases.  We found some lovely flowers in a street near the market, and then we went on to the big gold and silver bazaar, and to the Turkish and Syrian bazaars, where we saw all the specialities of Constantinople, and Broussa, Damascus, and Jerusalem laid out before us.  After breakfast, the antics of two enormous apes, who came round on a donkey, accompanied by a showman and a boy,