4to. Volume I: 240 pp., 10 steel engravings and numerous on wood from original drawings by Harry Fenn & F. D. Woodward, original hard back binding, all edges gilt, covers rubbed and detached, worn spine, pages 97-98 loose, small damp stain on lower margin of pages 99-165, not affecting text or plates, copy inside in good condition / Volume II & III: contemporary worn half calf, spine missing, 240 pp., 12 steel engravings and numerous on wood, occasional scattered foxing / 240 pp., 11 steel engravings and numerous on wood, soiled endpapers, otherwise copy inside in very good condition, all edges gilt, index, D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1881.

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.