There were the usual groundings on sand-banks, but nothing else of interest occurred, and the party returned to their old dahabeah on 8th March, having thoroughly enjoyed their expedition to the Second Cataract. After lunch the King and Queen, with Mrs. Grey and Sir Samuel Baker, paid a visit to Lady Duff Gordon in the dahabeah, which she had made entirely her home on account of her health.
The return voyage down the Nile began on the following day, and immediately the big steamer stuck fast on the old sand-bank which gave so much trouble on the way up, although the Viceroy had had six hundred people working away in the interval to deepen the channel. No amount of exertion could get the steamer off, and consequently the little steamer was used, and Prince Louis of Battenberg, Sir Samuel Baker, and Lord Carrington had to sleep on deck.
On 10th March, the anniversary of the King and Queen’s wedding day, some members of the Duke of Sutherland’s party, which had broken up, met the Royal party at Thebes, namely, Colonel Stanton, Sir Henry Pelly, Major Alison, and Abd El Kader Bey. Colonel Stanton entertained the party, and Mourad Pasha proposed the health of the Royal pair. After dinner the party went to the house of Mustapha Aga, the English Consul, where they saw some famous Egyptian dancing-girls, including the Taglioni of the country, and some remarkable mummy cases, which had been excavated on purpose for the King. The following day they visited the spot where the digging was going on. Mrs. Grey describes it as like a coal pit, at the bottom of which was a magnificent stone sarcophagus, said to be that of the beautiful Queen Nicotris, which the King intended to take to England, together with a selection of mummies.
This was the last day’s picnic on the Nile, and the party were due at Minieh in two days, going thence by rail to Cairo. On the 15th, however, the Queen, Mrs. Grey, and some of the gentlemen of the party paid a visit to the little town of Minieh, where an old woman was engaged to tell fortunes. This she did with the aid of a heap of shells and bits of coloured glass; and she told the Queen that she had many friends and much money, with the usual “patter” traditional among fortune-tellers. Thence the party went on to the house of the Governor of the town, where a kind of lemonade was offered to the visitors, and the Queen was presented with a beautiful white parrot and two live flamingoes. The menagerie already consisted of the Nubian monkey, a snapping turtle, and two goats. As for the little Nubian boy, who was added to the party at Wady Halfa, he turned out much too sharp and difficult to manage, so, instead of bringing him to England, the King decided to start him in life with a donkey, as one of the numerous donkey boys so common in Egypt.
On 16th March the party went by train from Minieh to Ghizeh, where they were met by the Viceroy’s eldest son and a number of officials. After some conversation the King and Queen took their leave, and the Royal party, entering some carriages, drove to the Pyramids. At the foot of the big Pyramid they found a small pavilion which had been built on purpose for the Royal visit. The King and Queen, in spite of the slippery, difficult, and suffocating ascent, visited the King’s and Queen’s chambers, and the King actually went up to the top of the Pyramid. Dinner was served in the pavilion by order of the Viceroy, consisting of nineteen dishes, eight entrées, ice, and other luxuries—quite a small dinner for Egypt.
On the night drive to Cairo which followed, there was very nearly a bad accident, the carriage being driven up against a high white flag-post, which it fortunately only just touched.
During the voyage down the Nile the King received letters to say that as the differences between Turkey and Greece had been happily settled, their Majesties were free to pay their proposed visit to Constantinople and Athens.
The King and Queen spent a week in Cairo, and saw all the sights of that wonderful city, which were then, it must be remembered, much more novel than they are nowadays when Egypt has become a regular winter resort. Mrs. Grey gives an amusing description of a shopping expedition on which she attended Queen Alexandra in the Turkish bazaar. Abd El Kader Bey, their old friend of the Nile expedition, did the bargaining in the Oriental method. The Queen wished to buy a burnous, but the price was too high, and so Abd El Kader Bey sent for a shopman from another shop where they had seen a similar burnous, and employed him to help in bargaining with the other shopman. This extraordinary device was most successful, and the Queen ultimately obtained her burnous for £9.
On the 19th Mrs. Grey attended the Queen in the ordeal of being photographed on a dromedary, and then the party, having been joined by the King, went to see the museum of Egyptian antiquities, where the distinguished French Egyptologist, M. Mariette, explained everything. In the evening of the same day there was a great dinner at the Viceroy’s palace on the other side of the river, where the scene was one of truly Oriental magnificence and luxury, finishing up with a display of fireworks so arranged that their reflection was seen in a large ornamental piece of water.
The Royal party had intended to leave Cairo on the 21st March, but the King was persuaded by the Viceroy to remain over the Feast of Bairam, which corresponds with the Christian Easter. Consequently, instead of starting immediately, the Queen, to her great delight, was able to pay a visit to the wife of Mourad Pasha, who had attended so ably to the comfort of the Royal travellers during their voyage on the Nile. Queen Alexandra was delighted with this lady, who was most kind and good-natured, and spoke French very well, her father, indeed, having been half a Frenchman.