Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 234
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[Page 234]
Did not wake early enough this morning to go for a gallop across the dessert. Sorry. Because the atmospheric conditions look, from my room, to be of the very best. However when my eyelids opened the hour was almost 7 a.m., too late to dress, wander abroad, & be ready for breakfast at 8 a.m.
Spring is manifesting its functions on all sides here. The garden at Mena House, immediately around it, blooms with newly issued leaves and flowers, constant watering is so appreciated by all the growing plants that they show forth full appreciation of the warmth for heaven and the rain from man through a hose and spray. Bougainvillia (scarlet, red, & and dark blue. Larkspurs. Snapdragon. Poppies. Small sunflowers. Phlox. Stocks. Orange & lemon blooms. Mimosa (Sydney golden wattle). Japanese magnolia. Geraniums. Daisies. Date palm bloom. Roses. Shivery grass. (The delight of you childrens childhood at Wallsend.) With these & other varieties many gardens are resplendent.
This letter drags out its length, weary had almost got between the two preceeding words. If it be so, please lay it aside, pleasure has it been to me to write it because it is holding converse with you & home.
27-3-15. 8-30 a.m. When galloping across the desert this morning and looking up at the apex of Kephren, (The great pyramid. The 2d in magnitude) having still upon it the remains of the Alabaster coating which, originally, 'tis said, formed a covering without each of the stony masses from top to bottom. "Smooth as Alabaster" has become a proverb, so it must have been that the pyramid when in its finished state must have been like unto glass on every visible portion. Why? One legend, and many have been woven round them, adown the thousands of years, of patterns innumerable, records that the originator desired such tomb for his mortal remains, that from his burial to the ending of the world none should set foot above, thus sought he to avoid desecration of his burial place by equal or less worthy residents on this earth. A pretty conceit truly and as likely to be correct as other.