Equator. Port Said Jan 29. Dearest Mother. I have had 2 enchanting days at Cairo - enchanting and most useful for my future movements, thanks mainly to the advice and wisdom of the good Moritz. I got in late on Tuesday night and was welcomed with enthusiasm at the Angleterre. Next morning I went out early to the oldest and most interesting of the mosques, where I took a number of photographs for which I have been wishing for a long time, and then to the Khedivial Library to see Moritz - he's the head of it, a learned mis-sticked little German who has quarrelled with almost everyone, but is still a great friend of mine. So we fell into talk over a map of Mesopotamia - he has been there - and before we were a quarter through the history of the Hittites it was lunch time and I had to go, after arranging that he should dine with me on Thursday. In the afternoon I spent many hours in the Arab town and was again convinced that Cairo is unique in the world. It's the only place in all the civilization of Islam that was continuously a capital and is one still. There are years of study on the walls of its mosques - the Copt and the Arab working on Sassanian and Hellenistic foundations linking up East and West and creating the great art of Islam. There is a moment, too, when one is newly arrived in the East, when one is conscious of the world shrinking at one end and growing at the other till all the perspective of life is changed - after a few days it becomes a common place and one notices it no more. Existence suddenly seems to be a very simple matter and one wonders why we plan a scheme, weary ourselves with hurrying - after nothing, set about reforming ourselves and above all other people, plunge into paths so full of difficulty that there is no human possibility of escaping with a whole skin, when all we need do is to live and make sure of a succeeding generation. Some day I hope the East will be strong again and develop its own civilization, not imitate ours, and then perhaps it will teach us a few of the things we once learnt from it and have now forgotten, to our great loss. I had sent a note to Ernest Richmond in the morning and he had asked me to come out to dinner with them that night: they now live in a charming house he built about 3 miles out of Cairo on the way to the Pyramids more or less. So at 7 he appeared in a pony cart and drove me to their house through a clear soft night. We had a most pleasant evening. I saw the house, which is delightful, and the baby, asleep and more delightful even than the house, and talked a great deal about governing Orientals and thoroughly agreed on every point. Meantime, ie till we begin, I gather that Sir E. Gorst is being very successful. He does the exact contrary to what the Lord did, but the Lord's work was finished and he had got rather into a blind alley and possibly Gorst is finding the way out - if there is one. He has also been much helped by the disintegration of the Nationalist party from which Heaven mercifully removed the leader, whom the Devil has not yet replaced. For my part I hope the Turkish Constitution will work so well that ultimately we can hand Egypt back to the Sultan, with a few safeguards, for that we shall never solve the problem I feel sure. But we can't go till there is someone to take our place. Next day I went to Sakhara [Saqqara] - it's an hour by train and an hour by donkey - to see the great Coptic monastery Mr QuiBell has dug up. Unfortunately he had gone into Cairo for the day so I could not have it all explained by him as I should have liked, but I eat my lunch in his house and was taken round by his head man and made out the dispositon of the place pretty well. It's the monastery of St Jeremias, well known from literary sources, and was almost certainly founded not later than 480, so it is an early and a very fine example of Coptic work of the best period. Between the great church and the refectory there is an open court with a marble pulpit against the N. wall and the name of a preacher inscribed on it - I suppose the first preacher who spoke there after the monastery was founded. They must have stood in rows there under the sun to hear him, the poor monks, and probably he didn't try to condense the doctrine he dealt out to them. But it wasn't much better when twice a day they went into the refectory to eat for the order was terribly strict and the meals of the highest[?] description. Moreover they all had to stand, each in his appointed place looking to the East, and on the stone floor are worn the marks of their naked feet and an inscription to say which brother stood in that place. They had oysters and wine! The oyster shells and bits of the wine bottles are there. I got back to Cairo at 6 and dressed hastily and in half an hour Oppenheim came to see me, Moritz having told him I was there. And while we pored over the map of Mesopotamia, in came Moritz and they both gave me advice, and some very good advice, as to my journey and when it was most profitable to go and what needed to be done. Moritz stayed to dinner and we talked all the evening till the good Mr QuiBell came in to see me and discuss the monastery. I was delighted to have the opportunity of discussing it with him. Next time I come to Egypt I shall go and stay with them a few days at Sakkara and watch their diggings. They are both, he and his wife, nice people. Today I had to leave at 11 and got back onto the boat about 4. We leave at 8 and reach Jaffa [Tel Aviv-Yafo (Joppa)] tomorrow morning and Beyrout [Beyrouth (Beirut)] on Sunday.
I gather from not having received any telegram from you that there is no news of the play. I wonder when you will know.

For Father's information, whenever it may reach him, I saw his little nurse at the Angleterre and she sent him many messages. She has not had a good season this year, poor little thing; all the inns and doctors and nurses are complaining that there are no tourists, I don't know why. But when I saw her she was just going off to a case at the Savoy which I hope will prove serious and give her a long engagement! Moritz sent Father his respects. Ever your affectionate daughter Gertrude