Another Nile Journal, and Notes from Egypt and Elsewhere.

the only known copy

The only recorded copy of this rare journal of a trip down the Nile during the boom of late Victorian tourism.

After the abdication of Isma'il Pasha, and the supremacy of Britain in Egypt assured, families flocked to the banks of the Nile. This was made expeditiously easier by the granting of sole rights of Nile excursions to Thomas Cook & Co. This journal, however, is by a family who took their own privately hired dahabeah down the Nile, and the distinction is not lost on them or their local guides. The warmth that the group has for each other, between the authors as well as the exclusively initialled companions, lends a touching humanity to a voyage that for all the sights and smells seems rather wet, windy, and morose.

The group witness the packing of the Cleopatra's Needle for New York in Alexandria, the Pyramid of Cheops, the Sphinx, Heliopolis, before going down to Luxor and Aswan, seeing many sites in situ now removed by the monuments initiatives of Egypt and Nubia. What is perhaps more interesting is the extensive descriptions of local villages and customs during the winter months, with many mentions of local sheikhs and regional politics.

Rare with no copies recorded in any institutions and never appeared at auction (not in BL).

First & only edition; 8vo (22 x 14 cm); 11 albumen prints of sketches mounted onto plates with manuscript captions and borders, additional interleaved blanks, bookplate to pastedown, touch of spotting; publisher's original blind stamped cloth, gilt lettering to upper board, touch of rubbing, a very good copy; 90 pp.