most part in the autumn of 1873.

Previously, as early as 1867, the East had cast its spell upon him. In
1868, he went into Egypt, and made a voyage up the Nile with M. de
Lesseps, then at the flood of good-fortune. The Khedive himself provided
the steamer for this adventure. "It was during this voyage," we are
told, "that Sir Frederic came across a small child with the strangest
and most limited idea of full dress that probably ever occurred to
mortal--a tiny coin strung on to one of her strong coarse hairs." Of the
studies made during the journey, one is a woman's head, draped so as to
have a singularly archaic and Sphinx-like effect. Another is the fine
profile of a young peasant; and yet another, the head of an old man,
simple-minded and philosophical.

[Illustration: GARDEN AT GENERALIFE, GRANADA]

[Illustration: MIMBAR OF THE GREAT MOSQUE AT DAMASCUS
(Since destroyed by fire)]

In 1869 the _Helios and Rhodos_, already mentioned, served as the first
sign to the public of the new R.A.'s interest in things oriental. To the
1870 exhibition, his only contribution was the picture, _A Nile Woman_,
which is now owned by the Princess of Wales. It is a small
full-length figure of a girl, balancing an empty pitcher upon her head,
at the time of moonrise. Anticipating the Eastern subjects which future
years produced, we may note a picture of _Old Damascus_, showing the
Jews' quarter in that fabled city, in all its motley picturesqueness,
and the delightful _Moorish Garden,--A Dream of Granada_, which were
exhibited in 1874. A powerful picture, shown in 1875, of the _Egyptian
Slinger_,[4] is illustrated later in this volume, but no reproduction
can quite suggest the striking colouring of the original, and the
masterly treatment of its light and shade, in the presentment of this
lonely figure posed high on its platform against the clear evening sky.
The delightful _Little Fatima_, and the _Grand Mosque, Damascus_,
enlarged from the sketch previously alluded to, were also exhibited in
1875.

But perhaps the most picturesque memorial of the East due to the
artist's wanderings of these years, is an architectural, and not a
pictorial one. The fame of the Arab Hall in Lord Leighton's house has
reached even further than that of _Little Fatima_, or his painting of
the _Grand Mosque at Damascus_. Built originally to provide a setting
for some exquisite blue tiles, brought by the owner from Damascus
itself, it