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Chapter 11. The Crimean War and After

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Moses Montefiore
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228Chapter 11The Crimean War and AfterSome two years earlier—at ten minutes to eight on the morning of June 21, 1852—Montefiore had arrived punctually at a London railway station to greet His Highness Mohammed Said Pasha, crown prince of Egypt. Ten years youn ger than his nephew Abbas, who had succeeded Mehmed Ali in 1848, the colossally fat and indolent Said had made a place for himself in Egyptian politics as a magnet for the opposition.1Montefiore had cultivated Said during his visit to Alexandria in 1840, when the prince was just a plump, unprepossessing teenager. He now found himself playing host to a leading member of the Egyptian royal family and his vast personal entourage: Said’s political adviser, the Brit-ish railway engineer Mr. Galloway, two physicians, a secretary, four Mamelukes, and a quantity of servants. The next two weeks passed in a daze of activity.2 When he was not busy with the Turkish ambassador, exchanging courtesies with the queen and Prince Albert, or indulging his penchant for military reviews, the thirty- year- old prince lounged about chatting with his hosts, drinking coffee, and smoking his beloved water pipe. Montefiore must have been quite worn out by all this frivolity: running down the Thames to Gra-vesend in a luxurious screw steamer, touring the Royal Observatory, and accompanying his guest to watch the troops at Hyde Park, Woolwich, and Wormwood Scrubs. Judith, meanwhile, played the gracious soci-ety hostess. Said repeatedly assured the Montefiores that their “dinners were better than any he had eaten” and “that he was more comfortable with us than he had been anywhere else since his arrival in En gland.” Montefiore found him “very kind, good tempered and affable” but also “somewhat of a spoiled child.”3 Visiting oriental dignitaries were a perennial excitement in Victorian London, and an endless stream of ambassadors and politicians left cards in Park Lane. The pasha must have added considerably to Montefiore’s

228Chapter 11The Crimean War and AfterSome two years earlier—at ten minutes to eight on the morning of June 21, 1852—Montefiore had arrived punctually at a London railway station to greet His Highness Mohammed Said Pasha, crown prince of Egypt. Ten years youn ger than his nephew Abbas, who had succeeded Mehmed Ali in 1848, the colossally fat and indolent Said had made a place for himself in Egyptian politics as a magnet for the opposition.1Montefiore had cultivated Said during his visit to Alexandria in 1840, when the prince was just a plump, unprepossessing teenager. He now found himself playing host to a leading member of the Egyptian royal family and his vast personal entourage: Said’s political adviser, the Brit-ish railway engineer Mr. Galloway, two physicians, a secretary, four Mamelukes, and a quantity of servants. The next two weeks passed in a daze of activity.2 When he was not busy with the Turkish ambassador, exchanging courtesies with the queen and Prince Albert, or indulging his penchant for military reviews, the thirty- year- old prince lounged about chatting with his hosts, drinking coffee, and smoking his beloved water pipe. Montefiore must have been quite worn out by all this frivolity: running down the Thames to Gra-vesend in a luxurious screw steamer, touring the Royal Observatory, and accompanying his guest to watch the troops at Hyde Park, Woolwich, and Wormwood Scrubs. Judith, meanwhile, played the gracious soci-ety hostess. Said repeatedly assured the Montefiores that their “dinners were better than any he had eaten” and “that he was more comfortable with us than he had been anywhere else since his arrival in En gland.” Montefiore found him “very kind, good tempered and affable” but also “somewhat of a spoiled child.”3 Visiting oriental dignitaries were a perennial excitement in Victorian London, and an endless stream of ambassadors and politicians left cards in Park Lane. The pasha must have added considerably to Montefiore’s
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