We met Holman Hunt at Jerusalem; he was looking a little worn, like a veritable denizen of the Holy City. I hope that you have quite recovered health. Swinburne, the papers say, has been sick; his "Songs before Sunrise" show even more genius than "Poems and Ballads." What has become of Mrs. Sartoris? I saw her son's appointment in the papers. Poor Vichy must be quite ruined--veritably it was a Cockney hole. Syria is a poor Chili; the Libanus is a mole-hill compared with the Andes--do you remember? I am planning a realistic book which has no Holy Land on the brain, and the public will curse her like our army in Flanders. Pilgrims see everything through a peculiar medium, and tourists shake hands (like madmen) when they sight the Plain of Esdraelon or Sharon, as the case may be. _N.B._--Both plains are like the poorer parts of our midland counties. My wife joins in kind remembrances.--Ever yours sincerely, RICHARD F. BURTON. [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF SIR RICHARD BURTON, K.C.M.G. 1876] TRIESTE, _July 13, 1876_. MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--One word to say that the tiles are packed, and will be sent by the first London steamer--opportunities are rare here. Some are perfect, many are broken; but they will make a bit of mosaic after a little trimming, and illustrate the difference between Syriac and Sindi. They are taken from the tomb (Moslem) of Sakhar, on the Indus. I can give you analysis of glaze if you want it; but I fancy you don't care for analyses. The yellow colour is by far the rarest and least durable apparently. The blues are the favourites and the best. Here we are living in a typhoon of lies. I am losing patience, and shall probably bolt to Belgrade in search of truth. Austria is behaving in her usual currish manner, allowing her policy to be managed by a minority of light-headed, Paddy-whack Magyars and pudding-headed, beer-brained Austro-Germans. How all Europe funks the Slavs, and how well the latter are beginning to know it. Very grand of _la grande Bretagne_ to propose occupying Egypt without any army to speak of. Sorry that you don't understand the force of the expression, the "world generally," but will try some time or other to make it clear. United best regards and wishes. Why don't you take a holiday to Turkey?--Ever yours, R.F. BURTON. _P.S._--I hear that W. Wright has subsided into an Irish conventicle, and that Green doesn't like prospect of returning to Dan!