galloped across the stony plain,
and reached the camp about seven p.m. Here we found a silk merchant from
Nikosia waiting to see us, with a collection of the soft silks of the
country, celebrated since the days of Boccaccio. They look rather like
poplin, but are really made entirely of silk, three-quarters of a yard
in width, and costing about three shillings a yard, the piece being
actually reckoned in piastres for price and pies for measurement. The
prettiest, I think, are those which are undyed and retain the natural
colour of the cocoon, from creamy-white to the darkest gold. Some prefer
a sort of slaty grey, of which a great quantity is made, but I think it
is very ugly."

In this easy, gossiping manner Lady Brassey ambles on, not telling one
anything that is particularly new, but recording what really met her eye
in the most unpretending fashion. As a writer she scarcely calls for
criticism: she writes with fluency and accuracy, but never warms up into
eloquence, and her reflections are not less commonplace than her style.
As a traveller she deserves the distinction and popularity she has
attained. It would seem that in her various cruises she has accomplished
some 12,000 miles--in itself no inconsiderable feat for an English lady;
but the feat becomes all the more noteworthy when we find that, instead
of being, as we would naturally suppose, "at home on the sea," and
wholly untouched by the suffering it inflicts on so many, she has always
been a victim. Entering the harbour of Valetta on her homeward voyage,
she writes:--"I think that at last the battle of eighteen years is
accomplished, and that the bad weather we have so continually
experienced since we left Constantinople, comprising five gales in
eleven days, has ended by making me a good sailor. For the last two days
I have really known what it is to feel absolutely well at sea, even when
it is very rough, and have been able to eat my meals in comfort, and
even to read and write, without feeling that my head belonged to
somebody else."[37]

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Lady Brassey: "A Voyage in the _Sunbeam_," pp. 46, 47.

[29] Lady Brassey: "A Voyage in the _Sunbeam_," p. 90.

[30] Lady Brassey: "A Voyage in the _Sunbeam_," pp. 110, 122.

[31] Lady Brassey: "A Voyage in the _Sunbeam_," pp. 129, 130.

[32] Lady Brassey: "A Voyage in the _Sunbeam_," pp. 227, 228.

[33] Lady Brassey: "Voyage of the _Sunbeam_," pp. 256-262.

[34] Lady Brassey: "A Voyage in the