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 AH 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 Eoyal 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. 
