ry that I have recently written under the title of “Smith and the Pharaohs。”
Now I must dwell no more on Egypt with all its history and problems; which; whenever I can find time; it is my greatest recreation to study。 Truly its old inhabitants were a mysterious and fascinating folk and; across the gulf of ages — largely; it must be admitted; through these very excavations — they have e very near to us again。 I confess I know more of her kings; her queens; and her social conditions than I do of those of early England。
From Egypt we went to Naples and from Naples to the south of Spain; which I now visited for the first time in preparation for a tale which I wrote afterwards and named “Fair Margaret。”
At Granada we saw that wondrous building; the Alhambra; and in the cathedral the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic。 I descended into a vault and was shown the coffins of these great people; also those of Philip le Bel and his wife Joanna。 Readers of Prescott will remember that the man Joanna insisted upon opening the coffin of her husband after he had been some while dead。 I procured a candle and examined it; and there I could see the line where the lead had been cut through and soldered together again。
Of all the buildings that I saw upon this journey I think the mosque at Cordova; with its marvellous shrine and its forest of pillars of many…coloured marbles; struck me as the most impressive。 The great cathedral at Seville; however; with its vast cold spaces runs it hard in majesty。
On my return to England I wrote “The Way of the Spirit;” an Anglo…Egyptian book which is dedicated to Kipling; and one that interested him very much。 Indeed he and I hunted out the title together in the Bible; as that of “Renunciation;” by which it was