I have now copied my mother’s letters as they were written, omitting only the purely family matter which is of no interest to the public.  Edward Lear’s drawing of Luxor was printed in ’Three Generations of Englishwomen,’ edited by Mrs. Ross, but the other illustrations are now reproduced for the first time.

The names of villages alluded to in the ‘Letters’ have been spelt as in the Atlas published by the Egyptian Exploration Fund.

JANET ROSS.

LETTERS FROM EGYPT

November 11, 1862:  Mrs. Austin

To Mrs. Austin.  GRAND CAIRO, Tuesday, November 11, 1862.

Dearest Mutter,

I write to you out of the real Arabian Nights.  Well may the Prophet (whose name be exalted) smile when he looks on Cairo.  It is a golden existence, all sunshine and poetry, and, I must add, kindness and civility.  I came up last Thursday by railway with the American Consul-General, a charming person, and had to stay at this horrid Shepheard’s Hotel.  But I do little but sleep here.  Hekekian Bey, a learned old Armenian, takes care of me every day, and the Amerian Vice-Consul is my sacrifice.  I went on Sunday to his child’s christening, and heard Sakna, the ‘Restorer of Hearts.’  She is wonderfully like Rachel, and her singing is hinreisend from expression and passion.  Mr. Wilkinson (the Consul) is a Levantine, and his wife Armenian, so they had a grand fantasia; people feasted all over the house and in the street.  Arab music schmetterte, women yelled the zaghareet, black servants served sweetmeats, pipes, and coffee, and behaved as if they belonged to the company, and I was strongly under the impression that I was at Nurreddin’s wedding with the Vizier’s daughter.  Yesterday I went to Heliopolis with Hekekian Bey and his wife, and visited an Armenian country lady close by.

My servant Omar turns out a jewel.  He has deterre an excellent boat for the Nile voyage, and I am to be mistress of a captain, a mate, eight men and a cabin boy for 25 pounds a month.  I went to Boulak, the port of Cairo, and saw various boats, and admired the way in which the English travellers pay for their insolence and caprices.  Similar boats cost people with dragomans 50 to 65 pounds.  But, then, ’I shall lick the fellows,’ etc., is what I hear all round.  The dragoman, I conclude, pockets the difference.  The owner of the boat, Sid Achmet el-Berberi, asked 30 pounds, whereupon I touched my breast, mouth and eyes, and stated through Omar that I was not, like other Ingeleez, made of money, but would give 20 pounds.  He then showed another boat at 20 pounds, very much worse, and I departed (with fresh civilities) and looked at others, and saw two more for 20 pounds; but neither was clean, and neither had a little boat for landing.  Meanwhile Sid Achmet came after me and explained that, if I