Author:
[Pyramids of Egypt: William Lydiard, Master’s Mate of HM Prison Ship San Ysidro, Plymouth Dock [Earl of Leicester, President of the Society of Antiquaries; Egyptology; fall of Alexandria]
Publication details:
Undated, but on Britannia paper watermarked 1805; and the San Ysidro was a prison ship at Plymouth between May 1805 and September 1814.
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.
