St John's College W.119-120

William Hills, two diaries recording travels in Egypt, Italy, Greece and Spain. English, nineteenth century.

[William Hills (d.1851)]: autograph manuscript diaries, recording the author’s travels in Egypt, Italy, Greece and Spain between 1825 and 1827. Hills visited Egypt in 1825 in the period between obtaining his BA and MA at St John’s College, Cambridge. The first diary begins in Alexandria, on 24th December, 1825. From Alexandria, Hills travelled down the Nile with the architect, William Railton (1800-1877). The diaries include accounts of the author’s visit to the Pyramids of Giza and the temple complex at Luxor, in addition to recorded meetings with Henry Salt (1780-1827), British consul general at Cairo and collector of Egyptian antiquities.

Manuscript extra information

200x134mm (vol.I); 186x124mm (vol.II). Folio approx. [113] pages (vol. I); [52] pages, with additional blanks at the end (vol.II). Text in both volumes on rectos, with irregular supplementary notes on facing versos. Acquired from Samuel Gedge, 2015.

Single hand throughout. Paper. Original leather-backed marbled boards.