Large 4to. Volume I: x, 240 pp., / Volume II: vi, 240 pp., / Volume III: vi, 240 pp., double page map / Volume IV: vi, 236 pp., double page map, [4 adverts] / Volume V: The Supplement “Social Life in Egypt. A Description of the Country and its People” by Stanley Lane-Poole: vi, 138 pp., [4 adverts], 48 steel engravings including frontispieces and additional titles, several hundreds woodcuts, original cloth binding with gilt titles, lightly rubbed round edges, all edges gilt, indices, some offsetting, volume 4 with weak slightly damaged at the top, from Bath Public Library with usual blindstamps and label verso front covers, shelf reference on spine, occasional foxing, otherwise set in very good condition, J. S. Virtue & Co., London, (1880-1884).

Synopsis

Major-General Sir Charles Wilson (1836-1905)was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Engineers in 1855. He volunteered for the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem 1864-5. The Survey led to the formation of the Palestine Exploration Fund. A general survey which Wilson made of the area between Beirut and al-Khalil showed how little was known of the antiquities of Palestine, and the need for a proper archaeological investigation. He was elected a member of the executive committee of the Fund on his return in June 1866. Wilson became one of the Fund’s most energetic supporters for life, becoming chairman in 1901. In 1899, and again in 1903, Wilson revisited Palestine and devoted much of his time to the controversy over the sites of Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre.
Volume V: Social Life In Egypt: A Description to the Country and Its People. A Supplement to “Col. Chas. Wilson’s Picturesque Palestine”, by Stanley Lane Poole. The volume contains many large woodcuts illustrating architecture, arts and crafts, especially chapter III.
Bibliographic reference: Creswell 70 and 402.