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7 January 1912 — Cairo | |
Sunday. 7th [January 1912]. Lord & Lady Bute arrived this afternoon to stay with Lord Kitchener on their way home from India where they have been to see the Durbar. They gave glowing accounts of the scene & said that the arrangements had been perfect & the Queen had looked handsome, happy & well dressed. The Butes are only here for a night & they went out directly after dinner to see the Pyramids by moonlight as Lady B. had never been in this country before. Capt. FitzGerald took Eda & me to church in the morning. Lord Kitchener went to a service at the Scotch church to please the Minister who said it would encourage his sparse congregation. After lunch Lord K. took us to the Zoological Gardens. E & I drove with him in the open carriage, Sir George followed with Capt. FitzGerald. Lord K. explained to us all the beasts here which were shot in the Nile—& rattled his stick on the bars of the crocodile to stir him up & make him show his teeth. The chimpanzee was brought out by his keeper & made to show his devotion to him. When another man pretended to beat his keeper the ape flew at him in great fury. The young elephant was excited & even performed a kind of dance. When Mr Flower the curator joined the party he led us into a grotto which has just been restored & led us up by intricate winding paths to the top of it. It is built of mud & cement & is ugly & queer but had once been the delight of Ismail Pasha when the garden was made by him. Lord K. enquired much about some white birds which had once been very plentiful in Egypt & have nearly been exterminated by the trade for aigrettes. He is anxious to get them extablished & protected especially as to their extermination is attributed the increase in the cotton worm with wh the cotton plant is infested. There seems to be no subject too small & trivial for his attention. Today Lord Edward Cecil came to lunch. When the Butes had gone out after dinner we sat talking quietly with Lord K., Sir George Arthur & Capt. FitzGerald & looking over an illustrated book on Cashmir which Lord K. explained & described in glowing terms. | |
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