Description
In the second one half of the nineteenth century, accounts of the journey down the Nile became more and more common. This narrative by William John Loftie (1839-1911), who wrote prolifically on commute, art, architecture and history, was once published in 1879. (His A Century of Bibles may be reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.) Loftie spent in total about 15 months in the Nile valley over several seasons, and justifies his book by the rate of archaeological discoveries: ‘books published even three years ago are already at the back of the times’. He gives details of his journeys to and from Egypt, and of visits to the famous sites, but, unusually, he is taking notice of the present political and economic state of Egypt, and is trenchant in a few of his criticisms. He also goes off the beaten tourist track, hiring donkeys to make excursions away from the river, slightly than travelling only by boat.