Letter from Roy Bruce to Maud Bruce

I got two letters from you just
before Christmas. It seemed so strange to get
your news a few days after I left, and yet
not receive it until now, it took me quite
a little time to adjust things.

I am glad things are well with
you, they certainly are with me.

Sorry you are not handicapper
any more, but perhaps it is just as well as
you will probably be away more or less, and
it was rather a tie, although you did get your
golf for nothing.

Went to a race meeting here the
other day at Gezirah , rather a pretty course &
it was awfully nice to see some green things
again after the interminable sand of the
desert. The racing was good several amateur
events as well as professional. They run
totalisators from 51 upwards, but not quite

on the same system as ours. The horses
are lovely, all arabs, browns & greys, nothing
over 14.2, but most perfectly made & can
go all day. I have never seen such
pictures before. It was this type of horse
averaging 14.1 that carried 16 stone in the
Lancers charge at Omdurman .

After the races we got into a cab &
drove to the Pyramids, it was nearly dark
when we got there so we were not able to
see much, but in what we did see I must
confess to a slight feeling of disappointment,
certainly not in the Sphinx or Pyramids themselves
but in their surroundings. Imagine to
yourself an electric tramway within a stone's
thro w ough , then a modern hotel with all
Eastern European luxuries adjoining, and to
make matters worse hundreds of howling
Australians (they are camped close by) some of
them more or less drunk and the charm &
mystery of the whole place has gone. The
Sphinx defies any description I can give of it,
but one requires solitude to weave the
romances of the ages round it, & that is

impossible at the present time. However I
shall go again with I hope better result
There has not been any opportunity of making further excursions as yet, but some
of us are talking of taking camels & going
to Memphis next Sunday.

I wonder how you spent Xmas day;
very quietly I expect at Rolleston. We had
a rather interesting day. Major Wain ,
Hammond & myself went to the citadel
in the morning. The citadel is the big fort
built high up over the town, now occupied
by troops and a hospital, beyond that
again & dominating it & with a causeway
leading up to a drawbridge is the fort
Napoleon built, now in ruins. In the
citadel there is the palace (which is the hospital)
& the mosque of Mohamed Aly Muhammad Ali who ran the
show at one time. This gentleman was so
pleased with the design & mural decorations
of his mosque & palace that he put out
the eyes of the designer in order that he
should build no more like it. He also had
a dinner party one night to which he invited

the Marmelukes & had them all massacred,
except one who is supposed to have jumped
his horse over the battlements and escaped,
but when one sees the jump one is inclined
to believe that if he escaped, he did not go
to the dinner. The mosque is gorgeous. We
had to put slippers on over our boots before going
in. There are 1000 lights in it, the
paintings & carpets are gorgeous, there are
columns of alabaster, & the echoes are wonderful.
the We were afterwards shown a sort of cave
outside the walls where the better class
arabs bury their dead. It was full of
tombstones with weird engravings in Arabic.
The tomb of Mohamed Aly Muhammad Ali is in the mosque
behind a trellis, lights are always burning
there & no one can go in except the Sultan.

In the afternoon we went to the Zoo,
which is a very good one. They have some
magnificent specimens of lions, lionesses &
some dear little cubs, we we were fortunate in
being there just at feeding time. The gardens
are well kept & there are some wonderfully
made pebble mosaic paths, laid out in

patterns. There is a wonderful collection of
birds, eagles, vultures etc etc, also several New
Zealand & Australian birds.

I am enclosing some petals from a lotus
plant, which I surreptitiously picked in the
Zoo. They are a most gorgeous red, but naturally
fade on being picked.

We did a ride through Cairo the other
day after the proclamation of the protectorate,
and it was very interesting, we went through
all the bad smelling parts as well as the
modern. The show is already on the cinematoscope
here, perhaps you will get it in New Zealand
later.

I find that mummyfied mummified cats are obtainable
here, as soon as possible I am going to send
you one.

Of Cairo itself I have not much to say,
it is too damned fascinating & I am keeping
away as much as possible. Pinkie is well,
I have seen him started safely on his wild
oat career (of course without his knowledge,)
my knowledge of French gives me a pull there,
& if he sticks to the same one he will be

alright. Don't breathe a word of that to
anyone though.

Tonight I am going with Mayne to the
English church, don't laugh, but I want to
come in contact with some English women
again even if it is only to see them in
church. I am tired of the eternal Egyptian,
French, Italian, Russian, Maltese, Algerian etc
etc that one sees day by day.

Pinkie went to see his cousin here the
other day, but he is very vague about it & I
don't think he mentioned he had a brother-in-
law here, his thoughts are on other things
at present.

Next week we are going for a few days
hike out in the desert, it will be good
practice. I am in excellent health except
for a cold which hangs on. It is the hot
days & cold nights.

Blackmore is well too well in fact &
I don't know what to do with him. Rhodes has
been riding him in the hoop to steady him,
but he has given up since the ride
through Cairo when Rhodes came home

completely knocked up. Even Sloan recommended
me to send him to a transport wagon, as
he did not think he would ever be any good
in the troop. I have not decided yet what
to do.

The trumpet has just blown for stables
and I must away.

The High Commissioner arrived here yesterday,
I suppose he will be blowing about the next
few days. Silly old politicians. This force would
be quite alright if it was not for political
influence.

Good bye for the present old girl , I
expect you will get more frequent letters
from me for a little while anyway.
Kiss me dear & Helen too, tell her I was
so pleased to get her name written all by
herself.
Often in the dusk I long for the cool
water of Caroline Bay .
God bless you both my darlings. Let us
hope the New Year will close better for all of
us. Your loving husband Roy .