228 THE VOYAGE TO INDIA 



As to the city of Cairo itself, 



the charms of these Eastern houses are all in the abstract 

 and idea ; to live in they are truly odious. [Seeking a 

 Turkish bath], we wound through many nasty lanes and 

 streets of shops, which are called Bazaars, but which I should 

 rather y-clep Vennels, if you remember those Glasgow 

 holes. After all, a Cairo Bazaar is very like a Greenock 

 street, without the windows. 



The visit to Mehemet Ali in the cortege of Lord Dalhousie 

 smacked of the * Arabian Nights.' He writes to his sister 

 Elizabeth : 



The road was long, through narrow streets and very 

 crowded ones ; we were preceded by two attendants, running, 

 with long whips, which they laid about them right and left, 

 to clear the way, utterly regardless of man or beast, who 

 scurry out of the way or cower under their Bernouse cloaks 

 to fend off the blows. I saw an unfortunate Egyptian, whose 

 cart stuck across the street, get a terrible whipping, to 

 which he offered not the least resistance. We were rather 

 late, and arrived just after the Governor [Lord Dalhousie], as 

 the guns were pealing forth a Koyal Salute. Passing under 

 the gates, through a most splendid new and half finished 

 alabaster Mosque (see Panorama of Cairo) [i.e. that shown 

 in Leicester Square], we arrived at the Quadrangle, where 

 the Governor was getting out of a splendid six-horse coach, 

 like the Lord Mayor's, with Egyptian Lancers as outriders : 

 the band played a sort of ' God save the Queen ' to him, and 

 I know not what to the second carriage, with Fane and 

 Courtenay ; ^ but I got the Bohemian Polka for my share 

 of reception outside. The gateway was crowded with tame- 

 looking, fiercely armed Egyptian officers, with gorgeous 

 sashes, diamond-hilted scymitars, and the like. Behind 

 were plainly dressed attendants on a dais, each with a 

 gold badge at his breast (the Turkish crescent and star), 

 who passed us on through gorgeously furnished apart- 



* Members of Lord Dalhousie's suite. Francis Fane, who succeeded to the 

 Earldom of Westmorland in 1851, was his A.D.C., and F, F. Courtenay, his 

 private secretary since 1843 at the Board of Trade, was retained in that 

 capacity. 



