Item 04: G. O. Hawkins letters to his family, 2 January 1915-November 1917 - Page 36
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 36]
6
It is this presence of an unseen veil which some ancient magic has wrapped all Egypt in wherein lies that spell of mystery which fascinates.
I am never weary of looking at these mountains.
In the morning with the sunlight on them they are lit up, with their old wrinkles clear in every detail, buff and purple and soft.
In the evening with the sun sinking behind, they are like a fixed cloud of the air, not at all of the earth, but "of the stuff that dreams are made of" so much so is this [indecipherable] if a person beheld them for the first time at such a moment her could not readily believe them to be mountains of this solid earth. And the color of them at such a time is as gorgeous as a purple cloud of sunset
Indeed with a top fringe of firey gold they would rival all that even the clouds can do.
At such a moment all detail is lost there is just a vast purple (real rich purple) flat wall-like sweep of cloud, behind which the hidden sun throws up a flare of gold. The water now of the very deepest tint of blue rich as the blue on a peacocks breast, shows a decided line against the purple. Almost in the foreground is an old coal barge as black as jet
The scene is like a rare piece of inlaid work wrought in four rich colors, gold, purple, blue and black, in bold broad masses, intense but soft. That peacock blue, I often get a glimpse of it against a coal heap Blue and black is very rich and grand