ET. 58.] TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 575 
stone’s ministry. I shall have a deal to read up. 
But here our days pass on with scarce a thought of 
the modern and western world, except on Christmas 
and New Year’s days. I wish I could give you 
some idea of our life here, and of all we see and en- 
joy, but you must imagine it. We are well supplied 
with books, especially relative to Egypt, are busy 
from morn to night in a leisurely way, and are in- 
tensely comfortable. . . . 
We had yesterday for Dendera, where the temple, 
as to structure, is in most complete preservation, but 
the architecture is of the rather debased Ptolemaic 
period, and the sculptures on the walls, never equal, I 
imagine, to those at Abydos, have been sadly defaced 
by the early Coptic Christians. But all was very in- 
teresting, and the ladies were all with us to enjoy it. 
Evening. — We are lying eight miles below Thebes, 
which we expect to reach early to-morrow morning, 
and to receive and dispatch letters. So I must 
close this. We are writing at nine P. M., with almost 
all the cabin windows open. The day has been like 
one of July in England,— in one respect unusually 
like, for the sky has been overcast with light clouds, 
and the air sultry, ending as such a day might with 
a sudden and brief storm — of wind only, though it 
seemed about to rain; but it is now still, and the 
stars are shining out of a clear sky. 
TO CHARLES WRIGHT. 
NvsiA, BELOW Derr, January 21, 1869. 
Let me begin a line to you from this Athiopian 
region. The object is to inclose to you some fresh 
seeds of Ficus sycomorus, the true sycamore or 
fool fig,— not bad to eat. They were gathered 
