sing variety the usual motives of oriental design, viz., vines,
cypresses, pinks and vases, doorways (? the entrances of mosques), with
hanging lamps, and conventional floral designs. Above the entrance runs
the chief treasure, the grand series of tiles bearing the great
inscription. It is about sixteen feet long. According to Mr. Harding
Smith it may be translated thus:

"In the name of the merciful and long-suffering God. The Merciful hath
taught the Koran. He hath created man and taught him speech. He hath set
the sun and moon in a certain course. Both the trees and the grass are
in subjection to him."

It cannot be said that there is anything very new in that. There rarely
is in such inscriptions. There are three others, but so far as they have
been deciphered they appear to be incomplete, and in two cases, at any
rate, to much the same effect as the big one. Just pious reminders. The
real interest of them lies in the decorative effect of the imposing
procession of letters across the wall, and the splendour of their
colours. For beauty and condition this great inscription is said to be
without a rival in any collection in Europe.

Let into the woodwork panelling in the west bay there are two small
lustred Persian tiles of the thirteenth century. They have been
mutilated as to the faces of the figures by true believers. The rest
belong to the sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries, a time when
artistic production was stimulated by the commercial wealth brought by
the trade of Venice and Genoa with the East through Anatolia, Damascus
and Cairo.

Round three sides above the tiles runs a decorative mosaic frieze, by
Walter Crane, of an arabesque design on a gold ground. It is a beautiful
and fanciful piece of work in itself, and it serves moreover to blend
the prevailing colour of the tiles with the gilding of the upper
regions. But it does not continue round the fourth side, because over
the entrance, above the great inscription, an oriel window of
musharabiyeh work looks down into the hall from the first floor of the
house.

The pierced windows, or at least eight of them, were brought from Cairo,
and when bought had the original glass in them; but in the east the
glass is stuck in with white of egg, and as they were, as usual,
ill-packed, the glass all came out and was ground to fragments in the
jolting of the journey. Only enough could be saved to fill the window in
the upper part of the west recess opposite