have been partial to the reproduction of a white horse, for, although (probably by reason of its thicker hide) a white horse has not that luminous quality which makes a white cow one of the most paintable objects in Nature, in sunlight it can take on reflections from its surroundings which lend it an infinite variety.

The reverse of the medal is that nothing can give such a sense of forlorn squalor as an aged white horse in shabby harness splashed with mud.

The simplicity which now attends the appearance in public of royal and eminent personages seldom gives occasion for the display of white horses in gorgeous trappings; nor do we have in this country the beautiful teams of white oxen to be seen in Italy and France. Yet we may still meet in a country lane with the perfectly homely sight of a white horse drawing a green caravan, or a blue farm-cart with red wheels, which, although devoid of the romance of chivalry or the glamour of a triumphal procession, may, especially on a sunny day, afford a real thrill of pleasure to those who appreciate such things.

VIOLET BIDDULPH.

A VISIT TO ROSETTA

AMONG the many hundreds of tourists, American and European, who found their way to Egypt last winter, attracted by the glamour of recent discoveries, how many gave a thought to the Delta town in which the key was found that has enabled Egyptologists to study the mysterious language of hieroglyphics and to become acquainted with the history of Tut-Ankh-Amen, of his father-in-law, the great heretic Akhnaton, and of other rulers of this ancient country?

When in 1798 the French invaded Egypt under Napoleon, General Bonaparte, the town of Rachîd or Rosetta, as it is called by the Europeans, was occupied by French troops immediately after Alexandria had been taken, and the old fort, which had been rebuilt by Sultan Qâit-bây at the end of the fifteenth century, was transformed into French defence works and called Fort St. Julien. It was there that a French engineer, Captain Boussard, discovered the trilingual inscription which made it possible for Champollion, three years later, to master the graphic system of the ancient Egyptians. According to Professor Wallis Budge, this inscription, repeated three times-(1) in Greek, (2) in the decadent Egyptian writing called demotic, and (3) in ancient hieroglyphics, engraved on a slab of black basalt-recorded a decree promulgated under Ptolemy V., Epiphanes, by the priests of Memphis, ordering that certain honours should be paid to the King's statues in the temples of Egypt. It was by noting that the groups of signs surrounded by an oval frame, or cartouche, stood for names of kings, and must in this case be read' Ptolemy,' that the French scholar succeeded in discovering the hidden alphabet that he was seeking, thus opening the door to the great Egyptologists who came after him. The 'Rosetta stone,' as it is called, is now in the British Museum, where it was transferred after the Treaty of Alexandria.

No facilities are offered to travellers who might wish to visit the little town whose name has thus been immortalised, in spite of its interesting historical associations, delightful summer climate, and extraordinary picturesqueness. The railway journey is tedious and inconvenient, and there is no hotel that one would dare to recommend to the modern tourist.

My own long-standing desire to visit Rosetta only came to be fulfilled through the goodness of a British judge of the Native Courts, who, having an opportunity of going there on duty, and being entitled to utilise the 'rest-house' provided for inspectors, kindly invited me to accompany him and his wife and to spend two days in exploring the town; those two days will keep a very pleasant place in my memory.

Though Rosetta is only a dozen miles from Alexandria as the crow flies, the slow crawling of the train makes the journey seem endless. The permanent way being somewhat out of repair, it is thought necessary to allow for the fact, and some of the trains start before the tabulated time. My host fortunately happened to be aware of this detail, though it was not announced or posted up anywhere, and our expedition was marred by no such disaster as would have been the missing of a train. Ours actually started from Alexandria about 2.30 p.m., and we spent in it the rest of the afternoon, stopping about twenty minutes at each small station. However, we had each other's company to enjoy, and people who have lived in Egypt a long time, having had much practice in patience, have learnt to put up philosophically with the most inexplicable delays. The landscape that we traversed was full of the peculiar charm of that part of the country, a great expanse of sky over sunlit fields spreading to the horizon, rare light clouds occasionally casting fleeting shadows across the plain. A few miles after Aboukir the line follows the edge of the lake of Edkou. This lake, perhaps the smallest of the coast lakes of Egypt, since its area is only 104 square kilometres, seems to be full of fish, and was covered with graceful fishing boats. There were also a number of birds, aquatic and others, long flights of them hurrying along quite close to the surface like the wellknown 'lost souls' on the Bosphorus. The town of Edkou, standing on an elevation on the west side of the lake, and attracting attention by one or two minarets and small domes, would probably on closer acquaintance be found to be merely a more or less dirty fishing village, but certainly a very picturesque one, a number of windmills providing a distinctive feature in the landscape.

We reached our destination at sunset. The Rosetta railway station is charming in its green setting of palm groves and shrubs; the town is surrounded with gardens and orchards full of divers kinds of fruits, which delighted Napoleon's soldiers on their arrival in July 1798. A cab was waiting for us, a victoria, like every Egyptian cab, drawn by two very ill-mated horses harnessed with string; the driver, having on a previous occasion been sentenced for some offence by a judge in the Native Courts, evidently looked upon the fact as equal to an introduction to my host and a title to the custom of any official from the Ministry of Justice

who came to Rosetta. I may add that he drove us during the whole of our stay and proved quite satisfactory.

The rest-house had been recently repainted and was clean and comfortable; my little room had three windows to it, a good bed, a table and a wash-stand; what more could be desired for two nights? My hostess had brought all other essentials: sheets, towels, etc.; we made our beds and then did full justice to an excellent dinner, produced with miraculous rapidity by her cook, who had accompanied us. After dinner my host went to call on the mâmour, or chief police officer-Rosetta not being nowadays important enough to boast of a Governor-and returned with an invitation to lunch for the next day.

The town on the following morning appeared fully as charming as it had in the twilight. It lies on the very edge of the western branch of the Nile, of which the bank is strengthened by a sea-wall containing columns, probably built in as a bond to the masonry, the ends protruding by about a foot, and used for fastening the cables of boats. The latter are less numerous than would seem likely from the position of the port, for a dangerous bar or sandbank standing across the mouth of the river and offering but a very narrow channel, makes the access very difficult. Much trade and shipping has also been diverted from Rosetta by the Mahmoudieh Canal, dug by Mohamed 'Aly in 1819, which connects Alexandria with the Nile at 'Atf, and brings sweet water to the great port. I gather, however, that there is a certain amount of trading with the interior by river transport, if not by means of shipping, and Rosetta is still one of the industrial cities of Egypt, possessing as it does many rice factories and brickkilns.

Our very cursory visit to the bazaars did not reveal much in the way of curiosities or indigenous products. All the hand-woven materials to be found apparently came from Mehalla, and there seemed no modern brass or wood-work such as is still very well done in Cairo or Damietta. But I was charmed with the architecture of the town, which has a style of its own and would deserve to be known by a special name. The streets are narrow, an Oriental feature of which Western town planners do not realise the advantages. They provide cool shade and draught in summer when the midday glare and baking heat of broad highways are intolerable. The houses are very tall, often five or six storeys, and the upper floors project one beyond the other by means of wooden corbels; sometimes the first floor rests on arches springing from antique columns. These houses are entirely built of small baked bricks, without any plaster covering, and the builders have turned this material into a medium for decoration by arranging the bricks, usually of two colours, red and black,

so as to form ornamental designs, around the doorways, above windows, beneath corbels, etc. Many corners, too, are chamfered off, and the flat surface thus obtained treated with a mosaic pattern in brick. In some cases, the design is outlined in white plaster, which adds to the decorative effect. Beams of wood have been built in to consolidate the structure, and their square ends appear amongst the brickwork, usually bearing some slight ornamental motive; slabs of carved wood also form part of the decoration of many porches. The windows at one time must have been entirely composed of musharabieh, that turned wood screening which used to be noticeable in the streets of native Cairo, and is now fast being bought up by collectors and replaced by ugly modern windows. It is also disappearing from Rosetta, alas! though not from the same causes: the climate in that seaport is not dry, like that of Cairo, and the little wooden screens, unprotected by paint, are crumbling away. A great many of them, still very attractive from the street, cannot bear to be touched without falling to pieces. On the inner side these windows are backed by very ingenious sliding shutters, such as I have never seen in Cairo, probably rendered necessary by winter weather. We visited several of these houses, and found the interior noticeably clean and extremely interesting. There also wood has been used with great effect, rooms often being panelled over the whole of one side by cupboards, with beautiful marqueterie doors and pretty little framed wooden niches, ready to hold a jug or a bowl. On the occasion of one of his visits to Rosetta the late Herz Pasha, then Architect-in-Chief to the Committee for the Conservation of Arab Monuments, caused the panelling of one room to be removed from a half-ruined house and transferred to the Arab Museum in Cairo, where it has been seen and admired by many visitors. It is very characteristic and attractive, but by no means as beautiful as several others still in situ, such, for instance, as the panelling of an earlier date in the house of El Fataïri, which is enriched with inlaid ivory.

The interior of most of the houses is planned with an intelligent regard for climatic conditions; a ventilating shaft runs through the whole of the six storeys in the shape of octagonal openings, surrounded by railings, cut into each floor, exactly one beneath the other, so that the air circulates from the very bottom of the house to the roof. The inhabitants received us very politely. On one or two occasions, having remained waiting alone on the first or second floor while my friends ascended as far as the roof, I soon found myself surrounded with women, most of them pretty and neatly attired, very friendly and pleased to talk with a European; they invited me into their rooms, and in one house showed me a very well-kept domed bathroom, like those that