Jan 13 Hotel d'Angleterre [Cairo] Dearest Father. I have so many affectionate messages to give you from all the porters and the innkeepers and from Moritz that I must write this letter to you. They all enquire eagerly after you and as I go up and down in the lift you furnish the staple of my conversation with the black Berber boys. The two days here have gone all too fast. I have spent them entirely with Moritz and Littmann and Mr Crowfoot. Dr Littmann is a delightful German whom I first met at Jerusalem [(El Quds esh Sherif (Yerushalayim)] with the Rosens - then again 5 years later when he was with the Princeton expedition to Syria. He is Professor of Arabic at Strassburg [Strasbourg] and has been detailed this winter to lecture (in classical Arabic!) at the Cairo University, Mr Crowfoot is the man who first began the planning of Binbirklisse. It was his plans, published by Strzyg. which sent Sir William and me there, and I have often written to him in the last 5 years but never met him. He has a very nice wife and I dined with them on Wednesday. We four have talked ceaselessly about the origins of Moslem art - interspersed with much gossip about the people who are researching into them. On Wednesday afternoon we all went to the mosque of Ibn Tulun and spent the whole time discussing it. Yesterday I went to museums in the morning, Moritz lunched with me and we again spent the afternoon in mosques, photographing. I dined with the Richmonds. Muriel is expecting her baby daily; she looks extremely well - which is more than he does. We passed a most charming evening in their pretty little house outside Cairo. They are delightful people. I want very much to come here for a couple of months, work steadily through half a dozen of the early mosques and publish them. They have never been properly done - would not that be a nice job? With Ernest and Moritz as collaborators. I have not heard anything of politics - nor thought of anything but archaeology. It's so enchanting to plunge into it again. The weather is not pleasant. It's warm but grey and sometimes rainy. This morning there is a good deal of wind. I hope it will drop before we sail out of Port Said tonight. Well, it's only 36 hours to Beyrout [Beyrouth (Beirut)] and even on as bad a boat as the Orenogne, that is bearable. I would rather it rained and blew now than that it waited till I got into camp. From what I hear all the rows in Syria are over and I hope I shall find the desert quite quiet. The cholera is over too they say. Ever, dearest Father, your very affectionate daughter Gertrude. I do always miss you in Cairo so much. Miss Holland is not here this year and they say it is a very bad season - all the hotels empty.