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was as new as the house, and as yet little labour had been spent upon it; but already it was enclosed by hedges of trellised creepers, and tall luxuriant shrubs made it green and private. Its beds were rich with a mixture of flowers and kitchen vegetables. Violets, hyacinths, and anemones made borders along the paths, and the soil enclosed by them, though it was yet in the depth of winter, showed beans and potatoes sprouting into exuberant life, huge cauliflowers, spikes of matured asparagus, and rows upon rows of peas, whose pods had been full at Christmas.
By-and-by we came to the secret of all this fertility to a well half hidden by foliage, with a date-palm standing over it, whose deep waters were raised by a rude Persian wheel. This primitive contrivance in every detail of its structure is probably the same to-day as it was three thousand years ago. The principal wheel is horizontal, turned by an ox or mule, which communicates its motion by another to an endless chain of pitchers red clay pitchers, fastened by bands of straw to ropes, apparently twisted out of lithe brown twigs ; and each of these child-like vessels as it comes to a particular place spills its tribute into a broad wooden shoot. Had the house been out of the question, the garden and well together would have formed a scene in which Ulysses might have found Laertes. Indeed, I felt that the spot was full of the possibilities of classical idylls. There was something idyllic too at least I was pleased to think there was in the golden butter and the cream which were presently offered to us at tea, and which our host and hostess produced from their own farm. At tea, too, I met one of the principal English officials an accomplished classical scholar and a student of mediaeval history, especially of such history as touched the romance of Cyprus in whom at once I discerned a kindred spirit. For him, as for myself, I found that the place was haunted, that mediaeval hawking parties went with him as he rode over the plains; that classical forests were green for him on the bare valleys and mountains, and that in their recesses Adonis still went hunting. He told me more in twenty minutes of the things I cared to know than I had learnt hitherto from all other sources of information. I asked him if any castles existed still in the country, and if there were any recognisable fragments of the Latin abbeys I had dreamed about. To both of these questions he answered, yes. He gave me the names of six or seven castles instantly, three of which were perched on the tops of mountains, where their halls and towers now had few visitors but the clouds. My imagination, it seemed, could have asked for nothing better, whilst as for abbeys, in one instance at least, there were more than fragments remaining ; there was a building almost perfect.
My new friend, whom I will speak of as Mr. Matthews, walked home with us, and added to the interest he had excited in me by telling me that he lived in a house which originally was the Latin archbishop's palace. I mentioned the coats of arms to him which I had been noticing that morning. This was a subject with which he was quite familiar; and he promised to lend me a book which contained the genealogies of most of the Western families settled here during the middle ages. I parted from him with a promise that I would call on him, in his palace, in a day or two ; and a sense, derived from many of the things he told me, that my historical dreamings' had not been dreamt in vain. The practical reader will possibly call to mind my boast that I came to Cyprus with a reasonable and practical purpose, and will think that, if this were so, I was not very business-like in setting about it. I had, however, already made inquiries as to how the locality of my supposed marble was to be reached; and in case I could wait for a day or two, Mr. Adam had promised to accompany me. The expedition had accordingly been fixed for the following morning. Our mode of conveyance was to be mules; and when we came in that evening Scotty was waiting for us, with a lean, tanned muleteer, in order to settle about our saddles and the hour of starting.

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