The Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt Esq.

The traveller and antiquary Henry Salt (17801827) hoped to become a portrait painter but recognised his own limitations and instead entered the employment of Viscount Valentia embarking with him on an eastern tour in 1802. In 1805 Valentia sent him on a mission to improve relations with the rulers of Abyssinia. After a second expedition this time on behalf of the British government in which he made observations and collections of the local flora and fauna he was appointed consul-general to Egypt and in his spare time carried out excavations at Thebes and Abu Simbel. This two-volume work was published in 1834 by Salt''s close friend the painter J. J. Halls (17761853). Volume 2 describes Salt''s later career in Egypt as a diplomat and especially as a pioneering archaeologist as well as his negotiations over the future of his own spectacular collection of Egyptian artefacts.