Notes For The Nile

First published in 2006. This delightful book written in 1892 by a founder of the National Trust is regarded as a classic of high Victorian travel writing. After three journeys to the East, Rawnsley decided that existing guide-books were not sufficiently explicit and set out to write this witty and informative account that reflects a highly likeable character to whom it is impossible not to warm. Beginning with observations such as ‘everything can be got in Cairo except good English tea’ and ‘never expect your guide to know anything about Egyptian history or the monuments up the Nile’, Rawnsley sets off to show us the best of Egypt during a golden age of exploration and touring, he visits the two egyptologists to whom he dedicates this book, joining Flinders Petrie at the Medum pyramid to observe the excavations, and talking to Emile Brugsch about the royal mummies which had been brought from their tombs to the Cairo Museum just a few years previously. In the ruins of Thebes and Luxor he is struck by what he calls ‘the silence of the dead’ which he contrasts with the obvious love of the ancient Egyptians for music, as shown in their art and in the many hymns preserved in papyri. Although the music itself has been lost, it seemed a pity to Rawnsley that the hymns, dirges, poems and wise sayings should remain unknown to the general reader because of their unmusical form. He presents a number of them here, translated and rendered into metre, a unique contribution that greatly enhances the enjoyment of Egypt at first hand or at a distance. The work concludes with what Rawnsley considers to be its most important part – the timeless wisdom embodied in the sayings of Ptah-hotep taken from the Prisse papyrus.