Plate 2: The Camel March

When Lawrence gave Roberts the photograph - one of his own - on which this pen and wash is based, he commented: 'There's a big subject hidden in it: I hope it's not too deep hidden for you to see it, second-hand. If only you had been out with me!'

Two months later, Lawrence received the finished work and wrote: 'I saw the camels yesterday. The colour first delighted me: it's the most beautiful thing to look at: then I saw how excellent was the design: and the landscape is just what one would have wished (but hardly imagined anything so quiet as that lawn of uncrinkled sand): the whole thing is nearly marvellous: better than anything I thought possible.'

The Camel March - one of the most remarkable illustrations in Seven Pillars - can also be considered to be a portrait: of Feisal's irregular army on its march to Wejh. For this reason, it was reproduced in monochrome when Seven Pillars was first published for general circulation, in 1935.

In the subscribers' edition it was reproduced as a double-page plate, with a tinted border in two bands which were only partly visible. In the Castle Hill Press edition, which has a taller format, we have reproduced the inner band of the border.