The Strange Journey of Howard Vyse – Part V: Finally … Pyramids

Link to Part I

Link to Part II

Link to Part III

Link to Part IV

A Dilatory and Inefficient Forger

Creighton argues (and we agree with him) that, as the February 1835 Quarterly Review article in question was published some months before the Colonel left England, he would have had plenty of time to obtain or read a copy, ⁱ whether by subscription or a visit to a bookshop.

The question of whether he could have brought a copy of the periodical with him to Poland and the Levant from Stoke Place, though, immediately raises several questions. First amongst them is the still-unanswered one of why he would have been making notes about a periodical already in his possession; or, if he had brought the periodical with him, why he waited for nearly two years to make notes about Champollion and Rosellini (both reviewed in the article), ⁱⁱ and then noted that fact in his journal.

The second question is: if he did have the Stoke Place copy of the Quarterly Review with him, might this indicate, as mentioned above, that the inspiration for the forgery had first come from that article? So, after reading it in February 1835, did he start planning a forgery, or even a visit to Egypt, then?

We have seen no evidence that he was thinking of any such thing. For one thing, he might have had many other preoccupations. As mentioned, William IV was not well, so much so that the Duke of Cumberland (who might have been next in line to the throne, were it not for Princess Victoria) came from Germany to see him; Parliament had been dissolved; elections were in progress (eventually, the Whigs and Lord Melbourne were returned to power, disappointing news for a Tory like Vyse). And then, on a more personal front, there was the continuing problem of the proposed marriage between his son George and Lizzy Seymour …

A few months later, though, circumstances required him to travel to Poland: after which he made the collective eyebrows of his friends and family shoot up to the ceiling by his sudden decision to make a tour of Egypt and Syria: an “impetuous and unruly” action.

But might this have been an indication that Vyse was already secretly planning a forgery in the Great Pyramid, and was therefore trying to hide it from his family for as long as he could?

In which case, as asked previously, why – if the February 1835 Quarterly Review article was originally responsible for sparking the idea – did he take so long to organise it? And wait until the last moment before purchasing books by Rosellini and Champollion … ?

And why, then, would he have waited another eighteen months to note their purchase prices in his journal?

And, even if he had purchased, or brought with him, works by Rosellini and Champollion, but for some reason had omitted to bring The Quarterly Review, how exactly could he have obtained a copy of the periodical from which to make notes whilst still in the harbour at Valletta: a circumstance about which Creighton is unaccountably silent?

But another Scotsman, a brave mariner who was eventually to lose his life during Sir John Franklin’s expedition to find the Northwest Passage, might have the answer.

The Haunt of the Holy Ghost Boys

Lt. John Irving (1815-c.1848) was a serious and religious young man who had joined the Navy when he was thirteen. By 1833, he was one of the crew of the Edinburgh, which was largely based in the Mediterranean. He and one or two brother officers were dubbed “The Holy Ghost Boys” by their irreverent crew mates, because they spent their spare time studying such works as Euclid and the Bible.

Of course, it was not always easy to come by reading material on the ship, as Irving, writing just over a fortnight after Vyse’s departure, explained to a friend in Scotland:

I have been three years in this ship, I have long ago read all on board, the stock never having been great …

Still, Irving commented that the officers of the Edinburgh were fortunate:

In our mess we get all the magazines, Blackwood’s, etc., the reviews, and three or four dozen of newspapers every month … ⁱⁱⁱ

It is therefore not impossible that, albeit at the last moment, Vyse found in the mess library a copy of The Quarterly Review from the year before. ^iv On the final day before leaving to return to Alexandria and Giza, therefore, and in between sorting out various last-minute financial transactions, he might have taken the opportunity of refreshing his memory, and making notes from the long and detailed review, which includes much discussion of the work of Champollion and Rosellini. But his imminent departure meant that he had only limited time at his disposal to read and make notes from the article, as he was due on board the Tartarus the next day.

And, in his journal, he conscientiously recorded the fact that he had made these research notes. As mentioned, on any reading of his diary, this seems odd: why would he have needed to note that he’d made notes?

However, there might be an explanation for this.

It is important to keep in mind that, even if Vyse had copies of Rosellini and Champollion with him – and even Creighton confesses that Vyse makes no mention of actually having a book by Rosellini with him – ^v these works were in Italian and French. Vyse could speak some French, and perhaps some Italian after his sojourns in Rome and Naples: but it is questionable whether he could have easily coped with the specialised vocabulary and material within these scholarly works. The great advantage of The Quarterly Review was that, although long, detailed and verbose, it was all in English, so would provide a reasonable amount of basic information.

So what this journal entry is telling us is that somewhere – not in his journal, but in another file notebook – Vyse was keeping completely separate notes of a far more specific nature, probably on different subjects encountered during his travels, e.g., details of the horses seen in Syria, Cairo and elsewhere; and a detailed summary of the material to be found in The Quarterly Review. Such material, too extensive for his daily journal, was better confided to a different record, a brief note of the content being recorded in his daily diary.

The journal entry also tells us something else. The combination of his presence on the Edinburgh on one day, and the need for some concentrated work on The Quarterly Review given his imminent departure on the next day, also indicates that,if he had not brought a copy of The Quarterly Review with him when he left England in August the previous year, then he cannot have known in the spring and summer of 1835 that, just over a year later, he would have become so interested in the subject of cartouche names and hieroglyphs.

But how did Vyse know, whether in February 1835, August 1835 or October 1836, that he would need this information in 1837?

He tells his readers that, when he returned to Egypt in October 1836, it was only:

with the intention of going to Thebes and Wady Haifa, and, if an opportunity offered, of visiting also Mount Sinai, and then of returning to England by Italy and the Rhine; for, at that time, I had not the remotest idea of engaging in any operations at the Pyramids (Ops. I:13).

Probably, therefore, the reason why he made notes in October 1836 was that he thought that the information in The Quarterly Review, that he had only skimmed in the spring of 1835, might be of some help when looking at inscriptions on archaeological remains in Thebes, as described in Wilkinson’s book.

Scott Creighton, however, thinks that Vyse’s diary entry about The Quarterly Review and Champollion and Rosellini masks a darker secret: and he produces arguments to back up his proposal.

The Walne Conspiracy

Revisiting Creighton’s reading of Vyse’s diary entry: why “our first books” (although the last word would actually read “Books,” and not “books”)?  We have explained why we believe this to be a misreading of what Vyse wrote. Creighton, however, considers that this phrase is an indication of a more sinister motivation on Vyse’s part, and that it:

… suggest[s] that others were involved […] thus potentially indicating a wider conspiracy. If that was the case, then who else might have been involved? ^vi

He goes on to propose that Dr. Walne, the British Vice-Consul in Cairo, “and other unidentified persons,” might have been part of such a conspiracy.

In support of this, Creighton quotes from The Literary Gazette for December 1836: ^vii

“Egyptian Society—The Augsburg Gazette states, that a scientific society under this name has been formed at Cairo, by a British physician, Mr Alfred Walne, long resident in Egypt, and a zealous student of hieroglyphic and Coptic literature. The Society has hired a house for the reception of travellers, and are collecting a library of books likely to be useful to such as explore the Egyptian provinces in Africa and Asia. One Turk has subscribed, but the members are chiefly English, with some French and German.” [Emphasis: Creighton]

Is it mere coincidence that the Augsburg Gazette article was published just two months after Vyse had procured his books by Champollion and Rosellini (at considerable cost), which he did with some other unidentified persons? From this article, we learn that Walne was something of a “zealous student of hieroglyphic and Coptic literature” and that, as stated previously, he also had connections to Rosellini, the foremost authority of the day. ^viii

Creighton argues that Walne was a constant visitor to Giza during, and before, Vyse’s time there, searching for hieroglyphs on the core stones of the Great Pyramid and rubble scattered around the base. In Creighton’s opinion, Vyse was concerned that Walne might have become very knowledgeable, and possibly come to suspect Vyse’s own supposed illicit activities. Alternatively, Walne might even have supplied Vyse with inscriptions to insert inside the relieving chambers; and Creighton proceeds to describe Walne’s alleged involvement in the supposed conspiracy. ^ix

Other investigations have revealed some basic information about Walne:

Alfred Septimus Walne (1806-1881) [was] the last born of an East Anglian family of landowners …  When he first arrived in Egypt in the mid-1830s, he began by practising as a doctor, soon becoming “famous as an oculist …”  By the summer of 1837, this “man of character and talents,” who was also interested in the study of hieroglyphs and antiquities, had been appointed the British Vice-Consul at Cairo …  But, in the previous summer, he had found time to set up an Egyptian Society in Cairo, taking the role of secretary himself … one of the advantages of membership being the use of a small reference library. ^x

But the date of establishing the society refers to information in an issue of the Bombay Courier dating from June 1836: some six months before The Literary Gazette for December 1836 cited by Creighton. ^xi

Obviously, it would have taken some weeks, if not months, for the news of the society to reach Bengal from Cairo, so this means that Walne must have set up his library quite some time before June 1836; in other words, at least four and a half months before Vyse made the entry in his journal about The Quarterly Review and Rosellini and Champollion.

Moreover, in 1836, Walne was based in Cairo, and there is no evidence that he ever visited Valletta in the October of that year, or ever corresponded with Vyse before the 1837 exploration of the pyramids.

We have also seen that Creighton refers to Walne as “a friend of Rosellini,” despite the fact that there is no evidence of any correspondence between Walne and Rosellini in this recent study of Rosellini, or in the catalogue of the University of Pisa.

It is therefore difficult to see how any dark conspiracy between Vyse and Walne (and unnamed “other people”) could have been formulated, or what grounds there were for Vyse being apprehensive about any “friendship” between Rosellini and Walne.

A Shameless Deceiver Unmasked

To sum up: despite Creighton’s contentions, it seems highly unlikely that, before his return to Alexandria in the last week of October 1836, Vyse had anything other than a general interest in ancient Egyptian antiquities and hieroglyphs (that he might have been able to apply when he visited Thebes).

We have looked at the various steps that led him to make his unexpected withdrawal from Kalisch at the end of September 1835: his visits to Italy in 1831-4 – perhaps at least partly to avoid social disturbances in England, and problems caused by the ill-judged rampages of his patron, the Duke of Cumberland – where he discussed Wilkinson with Gell; his purchase of Wilkinson’s Topography of Thebes in the subsequent February: and the visit to Kalisch, from where he made a precipitate withdrawal, again perhaps mainly in a bid to avoid further problems that might be caused by Cumberland, including any potential social upheavals at home.

He then toured Lebanon, Syria and Asia Minor before returning to Egypt – having likely taken the opportunity of refreshing his memory about the work of Champollion and Rosellini by making notes from the February 1835 Quarterly Review in the Edinburgh mess. Accompanied by these notes and the faithful Topography of Thebes, he returned to Giza, left Caviglia still excavating there, took another tour along the Nile to Upper Egypt, returned some two months later, and then took over the exploration of the pyramids,

It was only after the news of the death of William IV on 20^th June 1837 reached Vyse (on 19^th July) that he began to make final preparations to end his activities at Giza. He made his farewells on 7^th August, ^xiii and eventually returned to Stoke Place in early October. ^xiv There, probably much to his relief, he found Queen Victoria safely ensconced on the throne, while the Duke of Cumberland, now King of Hanover, was safely ensconced in Germany decorously attending to his regnal duties. From the purely domestic point of view, it was unfortunate that George and Lizzy seemed as obstinately bent on marriage as ever: ^xv though perhaps Vyse found distraction in reading through his journal, and preparing his notes (and also the work of Perring) for publication, signalling the end of a period of some five or six years spent in travel in Europe and the Near East.

But the purpose of this travel was not to insert forgeries of the cartouche name of Khufu inside the Great Pyramid, but instead simply the pursuit of antiquarian and archaeological research, during which there appear to have been two people whom he notably failed to meet: renowned traveller, Lady Hester Stanhope, ⁱ and Wiltshire civil engineer Humphries Brewer …

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish he’d go away…

When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all! ^xii

Acknowledgements

Research for this article has greatly benefited from the generous assistance of:

Charlotte Frost;

David Kennedy (reading and transcription of selected pages of Howard Vyse’s private journal); and

Kelly McDonald (for her kind help with the diaries of the Rev. Richard Seymour).

iCreighton 2021: Ch. 8.

ii Several specialist works were reviewed in The Quarterly Review:“Egypt and Thebes (Reviews of Wilkinson’s “Topography”; Rosellini’s “Monumenti”; Champollion’s “Lettres d’Égypte”; Wilkinson’s “Materia Hieroglyphica”; Klaproth’s “Examen Critique”; Salvolini’s “Des Principales Expressions.” Klaproth conducted a vendetta against Champollion. Salvolini lost credibility because he plagiarised some of Rosellini’s work (The Keys of Egypt (2001): Lesley Adkins, Roy Adkins: 225; 283-292).

iii Irving, John to William Elphinstone Malcolm, H.M.S. Edinburgh, Malta, Nov. 4, 1836. 

iv There was probably also a holding of The Quarterly Review in the Garrison Library in Valletta, not far from Sir Frederick Hankey’s offices – which Vyse appears to have visited – and were perhaps some twenty-five or thirty minutes walk from the Old Harbour.

v Creighton 2021: Ch. 8. Rosellini is occasionally mentioned in Operations, although mainly in sections that appear to have been contributed by Samuel Birch.

viCreighton 2021: Ch. 8. The citation (a book series, and not a periodical) appears to be Stephens, Incidents of travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land. By an American. vol. II, p. 360.

viiThis appears to refer to The Literary Gazette, and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c. No. 1039. London, 17 12 1836: 796.

viiiCreighton 2021: Ch. 8. Appendix 2. Mounting Evidence: New Confirmation of Vyse’s Deceit: The Source Drafts. The “W” Figures.

ix Creighton 2021: Ch. 8. Appendix 2. Mounting Evidence: New Confirmation of Vyse’s Deceit: The Source Drafts. The “W” Figures.

x Stower & Coburn (2019) 1: 172. The quoted paragraph cites the Asiatic Journal (1836), pg. 240, which in turn cites the Bombay Courier of 18 Jun 1836. (Larger works were apparently not available in the Society library until 1839 [Reid, D.M., Whose Pharaohs?, 2003: 49]).

xiTo reach the Literary Gazette in time for December, the relevant edition of the Augsburg Gazette must have been published some weeks or months before December.

xiiAntigonish [I met a man who wasn’t there]. Hughes Mearns. Public Domain. See also Creighton 2024: 12, 13.

xiii Ops. II: 60, 95.

xivR. Seymour, 13^th Oct. 1837. Originally, Vyse had been proposing to return home via Italy and the Rhine; possibly he kept to this plan, and, perhaps still wishing to put off dealing with any problems connected with the British succession, made a leisurely journey.

xv Vyse made good his threat, and proceeded to largely write his eldest son out of his Will (although in the version [PROB 11/2177/202] dated August 1848, he appears to have left George £600 p.a., about £50,000 at present day values). In later years, George tried to put a good face on his relationship with his father, describing him as: “ … a true English gentleman of the old school” (Mrs. Piazzi-Smyth, The International Standard, Errata, 1883: 534; citing Col. George Howard Vyse [1812-1890]). Although Lizzy and George never had any children, they later built a comfortable Victorian house on the foundations of an older property in Windsor. In 1882, during the couple’s retirement years, Lizzy wrote (possibly with a view to making a little extra income) a travel book that enjoyed some popularity, A winter in Tangier and home through Spain. In the preface she explained, perhaps rather pointedly, that:

… the account of our daily life, weather, and expenses, may be useful to some, who seek for a mild winter climate, and, like ourselves, are not over-burdened with this world’s goods.

At her death in 1892, she left £2,500 to a nephew.

xvi Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, as related by herself in conversations with her physician, vol. 2 (of 3): 337.