[Pyramids of Egypt.] Substantial Conclusion of Autograph Letter Signed from ‘William Lydiard - / Master’s Mate of HM Prison Ship San Ysidro’ to the Earl of Leicester, suggesting, after the fall of Alexandria, that ‘these mysterious piles’ be opened.

Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign, 1798-1801, inspired a period of ‘Egyptomania’ culminating in Champollion’s decipherment of the Rossetta Stone. The contribution of the author of this letter to this outpouring of scholarly activity is an offer to the President of the Society of Antiquaries of London to blow up one of the pyramids, in order to extract their contents. See the recipient’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 8vo. Bifolium of laid Britannia paper, watermarked 1805. Fifty-five lines, well laid out and written in a neat and stylish hand. In fair condition, somewhat grubby and warn, folded into a packet. Addressed to ‘The Right Honorable the Earl of Leicester. / F.R.S. / President of the Society of Antiquaries / London.’ Signed: ‘Wm. Lydiard - / Master’s Mate of HM Prison Ship San Ysidro / Plymo’ Dock’. The text begins: ‘[...] excess of servility and drudgery to which they were driven, even to the making of Brick and other debasing services; some writers have from thence inferred, that the Pyramids being of stone, is a proof that they were not founded by them, no work of that kind being recorded: but is it not recorded that they built Treasure Cities?’ He proceeds to discuss whether, as ‘Some authors affirm’, the pyramids are ‘the Tombs of Kings’. He states that he was ‘a few days since’ ‘furnished with the official account of the capture of Alexandria’ (The French garrison at Alexandria had surrendered to the British on 2 September 1801.) and that ‘it immediately struck me with a desire of troubling you on this subject, with the view of observing to you, that if it is the intention of government to follow up their success in that quarter; whether this may not afford a good opportunity for opening one or two of these mysterious piles?’ Warming to his theme, he continues: ‘it surely can be done - gunpowder has a speedy effect in operations of this nature - the trouble might not be small, but I certainly would not hesitate to undertake the performance of it, neither can I imagine I would take any very considerable time or expense to execute it.’ After this surprising offer, he goes some way to redeeming himself by stating: ‘There may be some valuable remains of antiquity deposited in those closed, which may materially tend to the illustration of the ancient history, manners or customs of the Egyptians’. He ends with reference to ‘sacred Scripture’ and the ‘plundering of the Temple by Shishak’.