Of Venice I have nothing to say, except that my first impression of the Gallery, coming as I did straight from the Parthenon, was that everything but the very _finest_ pictures was wanting in dignity and beauty, and was _artificial_. I was much surprised myself, as the Venetian school always exercises a great fascination over me. You may infer from that what an impression of beauty Athenian Art has left on me. I was incessantly reminded, in looking both at the sculpture and architecture of the Acropolis, of the admirable words which Thucydides puts into the mouth of Pericles: those are the beginning and the end of the Greek artistic nature. I shall be in London by the 10th, and right glad to get home again--meanwhile, with best love to Taily.--I remain, your affectionate son, FRED. VENICE, HOTEL DE L'EUROPE. [Illustration: SKETCH WITH DONKEY. EGYPT. 1868] Respecting the knowledge Leighton possessed of the Greek language, he wrote in a letter to a friend, "In Greek I never got beyond Homer and Anacreon. I have just retained this, that, having read a passage in a translation (I generally read Homer in _German_ or _Latin_), I am able to feel, on referring to the original, its superiority to the foreign rendering." In 1868 the great desire which Leighton for many years had felt to see Egypt was gratified. In October of that year he wrote to his father from Cairo:-- _Beginning of letter missing._]