Our house faced the road and the
opposite gardens, and it was flanked on one side by the Mosque and on the
other by the Hammam (Turkish Bath), and there were gardens at the back.
On the other side of the road were apricot trees, whose varying beauty of
bud and leaf and flower and fruit can be better imagined than described.
Among these apricot orchards I had a capital stable for twelve horses,
and a good room attached to it for any number of _saises_, or grooms; and
beyond that again was a little garden, through which the river wended its
way. So much for the exterior. Now to come indoors. As one entered,
first of all came the courtyard, boldly painted in broad stripes of red
and white and blue, after the manner of all the courtyards in Damascus.
Here too splashed the fountain, and all around were orange, lemon, and
jessamine trees. Two steps took one to the _liwan_, a raised room open
one side to the court, and spread with carpets, divans, and Eastern
stuffs. It was here, in the summer, I was wont to receive. On the
right side of the court was a dining-room, when it was too hot to live
upstairs. All the rest of the space below was left to the servants and
offices. Upstairs the rooms ran around two sides of the courtyard. A
long terrace occupied the other two sides, joining the rooms at either
end. This terrace formed a pleasant housetop in the cool evenings. We
spread it with mats and divans, and used to sit among the flowers and
shrubs, and look over Damascus and sniff the desert air beyond.
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