Travel Diaries of Rev. Thomas Bowles (1822 – 1899)

In 1853 Bowles (aged c. 31) set off on an extended journey to Australia, New Zealand, India, Egypt, and the Near East. He had been employed as tutor, mentor and companion to the young (c. 20) Lord Schomberg Kerr (1833-1900), the second son of the 7^th Marquess of Lothian. Initially they travelled together with a matching pair – the Rev. Henry Stobart (aged c. 29) and his charge, Lord Henry Scott (1832-1905), second son of the 5^th Duke of Buccleuch. The two parties split up and followed different routes home. Stobart and Lord Henry arrived in Egypt in 1855 and subsequently travelled in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Bowles evidently split even from his charge and reached Egypt in 1854. At that point he undertook the arduous Desert Route across Sinai to Aqaba, Petra and Hebron before going on to Jerusalem, Damascus and Lebanon.

Stobart wrote extensively to his mother and copies of his letters are in the Australian National Library in Canberra. The whereabout of the originals – and any additional items, is unknown. Bowles kept an extensive diary. One volume of the original – covering the journey from Vanuata to Cairo is also Australian National Library in Canberra. It has pages numbered 292-753 implying an earlier volume. Recently, a further volume was offered for sale by a New York antiquarian bookseller. It covers the period from arrival in Cairo to reaching Rouen on 25 May 1854. Its pages are numbered in the original as 754-1057 – i.e. taking up exactly where the ANL diary ends.

The diary has now been acquired for the Special Collections of the University of Western Australia. It is hoped to digitize it soon and carry out a transcription.

It would be nice to locate the missing first volume (pp. 1-291).

– David L. Kennedy

Further Enlightenment on the Composition of the Finn Group ‘Over the Jordan’

“Over the Jordan and return by the West. We were a dozen Englishmen, including three clergymen, undertaking the above journey, … (Finn 1867: 1)

I have now been able to identify – with almost total certainty, ten of the twelve people in Finn’s group. Most of the evidence comes from the letters of Henry Stobart, travelling as mentor and companion with the young Lord Henry Scott.

Finn, James (1806-1872)
Scott, Lord Henry (1832-1905)
Stobart, Rev. Henry (1824 – 1895)

At various times Stobart mentions nine others – usually only by surname, as members of the party, usually pairing the names which suggests they shared a two-man tent and were travelling together:-

Drummond, Edgar Atheling (1825-1893)
Gott, Rev. John (1830-1906)
Fox
Calvert
Rust, George John (1832 – 1922)
Macan, Rev. Henry Sneyd Robert (1831 – 1862)
Thring, Rev. Godfrey (1823-1903)
Cayley, George John (1826-1878)
Sturgis, Russell (1831-1899)

The three clergymen mentioned by Finn are:-

Gott, Rev. John (1830-1906)
Macan, Reverend Henry Sneyd Rob
Thring, Rev. Godfrey (1823 – 1903)

Fox and Calvert still defy identification. They are usually paired including sharing ‘servants’. Stobart mentions them several times but none offers any clue to identity.

– David L. Kennedy

Frederic Hetley (France, 14 April 1821 – London, 13 March 1902) again

Further research has revealed useful details of Hetley’s life which may assist in placing him in the Middle East. We now know that his father was a glass merchant in London and that his two older brothers continued that business. Perhaps because of his father’s involvement in this business with a French glassmaker called Claudet who set up in business in London, Frederic was born in France in 1821 (evidently acquiring the French spelling of his name without the final k). Frederic was apprenticed to an Apothecary to train as a doctor – from 2 January 1838 to February 1844, first to an Apothecary in Battersea called Dugald McKellar then (from 14 October 1840) to a William Fisher. The change of Master presumably causing his five-year Apprenticeship to be extended across six years. We may suppose that he only began his tour in the East after his formal qualification.

“Travellers of 1857 to Petra.”

The first edition of Murray’s Handbook to Syria was published in 1858. The short section on Petra warned that the previous year (1857), western visitors had been treated very aggressively by the inhabitants there including being fired on. The implication of the plural – ‘visitors’, is that there was more than one. That is relevant as the very helpful (unpublished) list of visitors to Petra in the 19th century so generously circulated by Norman Lewis, was that there was a sole visitor that year – Rudolph Roth. However, Roth’s own short report of his journey from Palestine south to Petra then Aqaba, refers to his having heard of parties on their way from Cairo eastwards at the same time. A closer investigation has in fact revealed an extremely busy year for visits – at least six parties, totalling between 57 and 62 westerners and including at least three women.

A paper on the subject, delivered at a conference in Petra in 2017, has now been published:-

Kennedy, D. L. “Travellers of 1857 to Petra”, in Z. M. Al-Salameen & M. B. Tarawneh (eds), Refereed Proceedings of the First Conference on the Archaeology and Tourism of the Maan Governorate, 3rd- 4th October, 2017 Petra- Jordan, 2018, Ma’an (Supplement to Al-Hussein Bin Talal University’s Journal of Research, AHUJ) (Deanship of Scientific Research and Graduate Studies, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University): 187-207

Ginsburg and Tristram in Moab, 1872

A short Blog on this theme was published on this site on 15 June 2015 –  “Tristram and ….’s Expedition to Moab in 1872”

That was followed in 2017 with a  paper at the ASTENE conference in Norwich.

This latter – developed and expanded, has now been published.

Kennedy, D. L. (2019) “The British Association for the Advancement of Science Expedition to Moab in 1872. Ginsburg and Tristram: an old academic quarrel?”, in N. Cooke (ed.)  Journeys Erased by Time. The Rediscovered Footprints of Travellers in Egypt and the Near East, Oxford (Archaeopress): 267-286

 

Frederic Hetley at Petra in 18**??

The list published by Brünnow and von Domaszewski (1904: 192-4) of the names of western visitors to Petra cut into the walls of the Khazne runs to several score. Most include a date and sometimes a place of origin. Their list ends with 15 names for which there is neither date nor placename. It seems likely that once it became common to provide a date then most subsequent visitors would include one. Consequently, it is probable that names without a date are earlier rather than later.

One of the undated names was read as ‘P. Hetley’ (1904: 194). Although almost all trace of these names has now been erased in the Khazne, a recent photograph shows that Hetley’s survives and clearly reads: ‘F. HETLEY’

Fig. 1: Graffito of F. HETLEY on the wall of the Khazne at Petra (photo R. Bewley, 2014).

The name is uncommon and this is presumably the ‘F. Hetley’ recorded by Budge (1907: 478) on a wall inside the temple at Semna on the Nile in northern Sudan, also without a date. The name is linked there with another – ‘F. HETLEY & J. PAGET’ and both were evidently cut by the same hand as may also be true of ‘A. BURLINGHAM’ above them.

Fig. 2: Temple at Semna, Northern Sudan: Graffiti of western visitors. Now in National Museum, Khartoum (Photo: Neal Spencer)

He appears again as HETLEY (Ramesseum), F. HETLEY (Soleb) and E HETLEY (sic) (Abu Simbel, Great Temple) (Roger O. De Keersmaecker, pers comm. 10 November 2019). In none is there a date.

Fig. 3: Ramesseum, Luxor. Hetley and others. (Photo: Sketchfab/ Monument Men. 3D scan generated from on-site photogrammetry data by Lee Robert McStein. https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/travellers-graffiti-ramesseum-luxor-75cb08a09d294fa897a947c87de2eee6)

Fig. 4: Temple of Soleb, Northern Sudan: Graffiti of western visitors. (Photo: Roger O. De Keersmaecker)

‘F. Hetley’ (1821-1904) seems to have been Frederic Hetley M.D., elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843. He appears frequently in medical publications. Two references in the pages of non-medical journals seem to clinch his identity with the traveller in Egypt. The Literary Gazette and Journal of Science and Art (No. 1926 (Nov. 19, 1853): 1124) recorded under ‘Proceedings of Societies’:
Syro- Egyptian. —Nov. 8th.—Dr. Camps in the chair. Thomas Hayes, Esq. , Charles Parish, Esq. , and Frederick (sic) Hetley, Esq., travellers in the East, and Mrs. Alex. Kerr, translator of ‘ Ranke’s History of Servia,’ were elected members.

Then, the following year, The Journal of Sacred Literature (NS VI, 1854: 533) recorded:
At the Syro-Egyptian Society, April 11th—1. A communication was made by Frederick (sic) Hetley, Esq., regarding some stamped terra cottas found by him among the ruins of Palmyra, and specimens of which, as well as an enlarged drawing, were exhibited to the Society. The reliefs represented two personages, apparently male and female, seated on a sofa, like a Roman victinium, and both wearing head-dresses not unlike some modern Asiatic crowns. Others represented the busts of the same personages.

In short, Hetley had already before November 1853 established his credentials as a traveller in the East and on 11 April 1854 was reporting on art work obtained by him at Palmyra. We may suppose that Hetley’s journies through Egypt and to Petra, then – presumably, Palestine, then, via Damascus we may presume, to Palmyra and finally he would surely have added Baalbek on his way to Beirut, were in late 1852/ early 1853 or earlier.

Keersmaecker suggests that ‘J. Paget’ may be Arthur John Snow Paget who is reported to have “… spent the winter of 1861-62 in ascending the Nile to the second cataract; his love of knowledge, here as ever, making him plunge with avidity into all the mysteries of Egyptian lore.” (“Arthur Paget”, Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1863: 798-799). There were many travellers to Petra in 1862 but – as noted above, Hetley’s journey had been at least 9 years earlier nor is there any good reason to identify Arthur Paget with the ‘J. Paget’ paired with Hetley’s name at Semna.

Also at Semna one of the names not far from that of Hetley and Paget is: ‘A. Burlingham 1852’ (Fig. 2). In the Khazne at Petra Brünnow and von Domaszewski (1904: 193) record ‘A. Hanbury 1852’ This seems more likely to be an error for the well-known ‘B. Hanbury’ who descended the Nile in 1820-21 together with G. Waddington, both recorded in graffiti in Egypt (Fig. 3; Waddington and Hanbury 1822). Perhaps ‘A. Hanbury 1852’ should have been read as ‘B. Hanbury 1822’, a date consistent with his journey on the Nile the previous year.

The most likely date at this stage is that Frederic Hetley crossed Sinai and visited Petra in Spring 1853 or a year or two earlier. It would be useful and interesting to be able to place his trip and the man himself. A trip down the Nile to Nubia was increasingly common and not especially fraught. In contrast, the Long Desert Route to Petra, the tour of the Decapolis cities ‘east of Jordan’ and an expedition from Damascus to Palmyra were all physically hard and very challenging. As the brief reports above make clear, Frederic Hetley undertook at least two of those – a relative rarity.

 

[David L. Kennedy – 22/11/2019]

---

R. E. Brünnow and A. von Domaszewski, Die Provincia Arabia, auf grand Zweier in den Jaahren 1897 und 1898 Unternommenen Reisen und den Berichte Früherer Reisender, 3 vols. (Strassburg, 1904-1909)
Budge, E. A. (1907) The Egyptian Sudan, its History and Monuments, London
Keersmaecker, R. O. de (2016) “John Gardner Wilkinson”, ASTENE Bulletin 68: 15-20
Waddington, G. and Hanbury, B. (1822) Journal of a Visit to some Parts of Ethiopia, London

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Finn Expedition ‘East of Jordan’ in May 1855

Following on from the previous post about Godfrey Thring, it is now possible from a preliminary reading of some of the letters of the Rev. Henry Stobart, to reconstruct the full composition of the ‘Finn Group’, as Finn himself never names a single member. The group evidently comprised two or more parties. This how Finn began his published account:

“Over the Jordan and return by the West. We were a dozen Englishmen, including three clergymen, undertaking the above journey, … (Finn 1867: 1)

The twelve can be identified as:

• James Finn (1806-1872)
• Lord Henry Scott (1832-1905)
• Rev. Henry Stobart (1824 – 1895)
• Edgar Atheling Drummond (1825-1893)
• Gott
• Fox
• Calvert
• Rust
• Macan (?)
• Rev. Godfrey Thring (1823-1903)
• George John Cayley (1826-1878)
• Sturgis

At this stage it is not clear who was the third clergyman. Lord Henry Scott, a younger son of the Duke of Buccleuch, was one of at least three younger members of that family to travel in the region from Egypt to Syria.

Finn, J. (1867) Byeways in Palestine, London (Nisbet)*

Hilda Waldron and Jarash

As noted in an earlier posting, Hilda Waldron’s party led by Sir Henry Lunn, visited Petra in 1908. Hilda’s photograph album includes photographs taken by Sir Daniel Goddard who was another one of the group. This one is of particular interest and seemingly a sole image of this structure. The photograph shows a masonry arch on the far side of which is a woman balancing a water jar on her head, a man with Arab headscarf and what may be a man in western costume. They seem to be standing near a stream. The caption reads: “An ancient aqueduct at Jerash”. No such aqueduct exists today or is ever mentioned in any of the numerous 19^th century reports, drawings, maps and photographs. It has now been identified by my colleague, Don Boyer, as a water mill – one of many still visible in the 19^th century although of much greater antiquity, on the Wadi Jarash that runs through the ancient Roman city. It was still visible in the distance in other old photographs but seems to have been destroyed several decades ago. This photograph is a precious record of the structure.

Once again I am grateful to Hilda’s grand-daughter Elspeth Pratt for showing me Hilda’s diary and allowing me to publish this note.

William Parsons Lunt

In 1865 the Italian traveller Giovanni Visconti reported (1872: 313) that while at Aqaba he saw:

Close to our tents, planted over a tumulus of scrap metal and sand, a stone of about 20 cm, broken and placed sideways marks the grave of a stranger. W. PLUNT USA 1857 It is the grave of an American who died of dysentery at Aqabah. They said that the relatives came a few years ago to look for the body to take him to America, but as far as they dug they found nothing.

William Parsons Lunt

Thanks to Andrew Oliver, we can now identify this American as William Parsons Lunt, a graduate of Harvard and a renowned Massachusetts clergyman. He died at Aqaba on the Great Desert Route from Cairo via Aqaba to Petra a month before his 52^nd birthday. He is known from other reports which allow us to identify two travelling companions in what we may call the Lunt Party. In one report we are told he “… travelled with a young Scotchman and his tutor” (Bausman 1861: 171). The same report later refers to “the faithful Scotchman nursing [Lunt] as best he could. Just before he died, he pressed the hand of his friend and begged him not to desert him, as he would die soon” (Bausman 1861: 171). The ‘Scotchman’ is almost certainly Williamson Shoolbred of Dunfermline in Fife. He had been in business before studying at Edinburgh University, was ordained as a minister shortly afterwards, spent much of his life as a Presbyterian missionary in India and in 1888 was elected Moderator of the Church of Scotland. He was 30 in 1857. The second – probably also a Scot, is simply named as ‘B. Hinshaw’ and seems to be Shoolbred’s tutor. Lunt died on 21 March 1857 and accounts of the burial state that the other westerners there were Americans, English (i.e. British) and French. In short, the Lunt Party was accompamnied by that time by one or more other parties. In addition to Lunt’s two Scottish companions, we can identify three Englishmen (Cave, Cave and Lessey), at least one American (Rev. Dowdney) and at least one Frenchman (not named). So potentially at least seven westerners in this Lunt Group. They all stayed to witness the burial but – as they were already busily engaged in preparations to move, they then set off for Petra that same day. This last is important. It is natural to assume that the Lunt Group is one of the two other groups we know from various sources to have reached Petra independently on 2 April 1857.  Neither group seems to have included any French travellers but it is likely the Lunt Group is one of these two.