ix DAMASCUS 229 



chandise), Turkish baths, mosques innumerable, with 

 their parti-coloured walls, and considered it perhaps the 

 most truly oriental town we have ever seen, and very 

 free from smells. 



Saturday, 2Oth. Breakfasted at eight, a rest most 

 welcome. Visited the great mosque with Colonel and 

 Mrs. Fox, and saw a fine view from the minaret. The 

 mosque is large, and I suppose fine. It was originally 

 a Christian church. Went about the bazaars trying 

 hard to spend 10 for Alice, but could not see a thing 

 worth carrying home, except a few bits of armour here 

 and there, for which exorbitant prices are asked. Saw 

 Ananias's house, where St. Paul went to probably, and 

 also the supposed place he was let down from the wall 

 to escape the Jews. A nasty wind and dust all day. 

 Measured a noble plane tree in the middle of Damascus 

 38 feet circumference, 3 feet from the ground. 



Easter Sunday, 2ist April. Rested thoroughly, 

 which I felt I wanted, and wrote a long letter to Alice. 

 In the afternoon bought what I think is a fine suit of 

 armour, helmet, arm gauntlet, coat of mail, and shield. 

 The man asked .33 yesterday, but I got it in the end 

 for ^i i : i2s. Bitterly cold, have very warm waistcoat 

 (Lilla's) on and Pyrenean coat. Some little rainfall 

 to-day. 



Monday, 22nd. Left Damascus at 8.15, and went 

 round by the little chapel on the hill above the Barada, 

 from which the view was most striking. No wonder 

 Mohammed is supposed to have stood at this spot when 

 a muleteer, and turned away as he could only enter one 

 Paradise, and did not wish that to be Damascus. The 

 way the wooded vegetation fans out as the river distri- 

 butes itself like a fan is most striking, and it stops with 

 a sharp line suddenly on all sides. The ride on to 

 Suk was through some most striking sceneiy of its 



