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deep tawny orange colour, which, growing paler as it ascended, appeared, a little higher, to change into a light green; and this, again, in its turn, growing less and less intense towards the summit of the vast arch which it described, terminated in a lovely purple flush, which diffused its brilliance over the whole circle of the hemisphere. The moon, calmly rising in the east, shows its soft rays over a portion of the river; while, on the other hand, the indescribably beautiful purple, and pink, and green, and gold of the sky, were reflected from the surface of the water, which, when slightly ruffled by the motion of the boat, or the dip of the oar, shone and glittered like a metallic sea. In the back ground, towards the east, the naked rocks of the Gebel Mokattam were painted with the most gorgeous hues by the setting sun, which seemed to convert its rude pinnacles into masses of lapis lazuli, turquoises, and amethysts. But, had I the pen of Milton or the pencil of Claude, I should despair of imparting to others a just conception of that sunset, which I never, but once in Upper Egypt, saw surpassed. It was quite dark when we reached Cairo.

PALACE OF AHMED PASHA.

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CHAPTER VII.

PALACE OF AHMED PASHA GARDENS OF SHOUBRA-BATH AND KIOSK-FOUR GIRAFFES-PASHA'S STUD-NEJDI HORSES-THE DONGOLA HORSE-MODE OF PICKETING HORSES AMONG THE ARABS.

Sunday, Dec. 9.

XCV. FOR several days I had been employed in making preparations for the voyage into Nubia, which being now completed, I again found leisure to return to the curiosities of Cairo. Among these I had often heard enumerated the palace of Ahmed Pasha, the present Governor of the Hejaz; in consequence of which we this morning visited it. This palace, which has been recently erected, has the reputation of being the handsomest building in Cairo; and, from all that I have seen, it appears well worthy of its renown. It consists of two stories, in each of which there is a vast hall in the form of a Greek cross; and in the corners, which, in a square building, are created by this arrangement, the other apartments are situated. These rooms are all fitted up in an eminently striking and gorgeous style: the ceilings are covered with gilded arabesques, the walls and cornices with paintings; and the principal apartments are adorned with clustered columns, surmounted by gilded capitals, with elegant niches or recesses, and furnished with

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the most superb divans of crimson velvet, skirted with gold fringe a foot deep. In the harem, the divans, cushions, &c. are of light flowered satin, with gold borders of great depth. The sleeping apartments of the women, which, the ladies being in the old palace, we were allowed to visit,—were exceedingly light and airy, and furnished with handsome glass windows. The finishing, the locks, fastenings, &c. were of inferior workmanship. In one of the great halls we saw two beautiful fountains: the one, fashioned in the wall, descending like a series of shells, sculptured in marble, and increasing in size from the top downwards, poured its sparkling waters into two serpentine channels, cut in the marble pavement, and containing the figures of various species of fish, which communicated with the second fountain. This, however, was merely a large marble basin, sunk in the floor, with a column of water rising and falling in its

centre.

XCVI. In the afternoon we rode to Shoubra, where Mohammed Ali has a country-house, of no very striking appearance; and gardens, which are certainly among the finest I have any where seen. They cover, perhaps, thirty or forty acres of ground, and are laid out in squares, parallelograms, triangles, &c., divided from each other by long straight alleys, formed, in many cases, with a hard kind of cement; in others, paved with pebbles of different colours, disposed in mosaics, like those in the grottoes of the Isola Bella, and representing various objects of nature

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or art, as plants, flowers, sabres, &c. The different compartments of the garden are surrounded by railings surmounting a broad stone basement, upon which are ranged, in pots, innumerable exotic flowers, of the richest fragrance and most brilliant colours. The choicest, perhaps, of those were clustered round that tasteful alcove, where, as I have observed in a former chapter, the Pasha sometimes spends an hour or two in the calm summer nights. Flowering shrubs and odoriferous plants, with lemon, orange, citron, and pomegranate trees, loaded with golden fruit, deeply impregnated the whole air with perfume, and recalled by their beauty the fabled gardens of the Hesperides, which, like these, were situated in the sands of Africa. Great taste and judgment have been exhibited in the laying out of these grounds. The vistas are exquisite. Rows of cypresses, the favourites of the Egyptian Pan, on one hand; mimosas, the growth of the Arabian wilderness, on the other. Here, dark evergreens extend their heavily laden boughs, tempting the eye with the most delicate fruit.

XCVII. The baths, which cover at least an acre of ground, are of a quadrangular form, and consist of a number of kiosks united by colonnades with elegant slender pillars of white stone or marble, ranged round a large square basin, occasionally filled with water, but now empty. Here a small boat, at this time under repair, is sometimes paddled about for the amusement of the Pasha or his ladies. In the centre of the basin are the baths of the harem,

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formed of marble, and adorned with sculptured figures of crocodiles. The kiosks are small but handsome buildings, containing dressing-rooms, with divans, &c. where the Pasha and his family take coffee after bathing, and sometimes sup. The effect of the whole upon the eye at night, when the baths are filled with water, and the apartments and colonnades brilliantly lighted up with gas, must no doubt be fine; but by day, when closely examined, the whole has an air of shabbiness and decay, the stones of the pavement are loose, the entablatures in many places broken, the rooms dirty, the doors out of repair. In fact, the whole affair, it is quite evident, was got up by the Pasha rather to dazzle the Turks than to suit his own tastes, which are exceedingly plain; and he has now grown tired of the toy.

XCVIII. In the gardens, his Highness has a second menagerie, a few English deer, a kangaroo, and four giraffes, fine beautiful animals, three of which died of cold during the winter; the fourth, when its life was despaired of, was given to an English gentleman, resident at Cairo, by whom it was sent as a present to some menagerie in London. The Pasha has likewise a stud here, for the following remarks on which I am indebted to Monro, who visited the place with me. There were a great many horses in open places ranged round a yard, like bullock sheds in England. Several of them were milk-white. The grooms pretended they were all Nejdis; but this was not true, as some few were from Dóngola. There