8vo. Volume I: xxx, [3], 496 pp., +164 pp., “Supplement Historical and Descriptive Memoir” illustrative of the Ordnance Survey, [8 pp adverts], frontispiece engraving, vignette on half title page, large folding plan glazed linen in front pocket, 10 woodcuts, 6 of 7 engraved plates [Lacking plate facing p. 446 in Volume I], appendix, / Volume II: ix, [3], 618 pp., [5 adverts], frontispiece engraving, vignette to half title page, 8 woodcuts, 14 engraved plates (one folding), woodcut vignettes, original cloth, rubbed, wear and restoration to extremities, inner hinges strengthened, previous owner’s inscription verso front covers, foxing throughout, heavy in places, John W. Parker, London, second edition, 1849.

Synopsis

George Williams (1814-1878), was an English cleric, academic and antiquary. He was appointed by Archbishop William Howley to accompany Bishop Michael Alexander as chaplain to Jerusalem, where he stayed from 1841 to May 1843. After a tour in the East with the Marquis of Bute and several years in residence at Cambridge, Williams was presented by his college in 1869 to the important vicarage of Ringwood in Hampshire.
No English writer has surpassed Williams in accurate knowledge of the topography of Jerusalem. In 1845, he published a volume on `The Holy City; with Illustrations from Sketches by the Rev. W. F. Witts’. This second edition with additions, earned him a medal for literary merit from the king of Prussia.
In 1846, he published in 1846 a collection of `Sermons preached at Jerusalem in 1842 and 1843,’ and supplied the introduction to William Wey’s `Itineraries to Jerusalem and Compostella,’ printed for the Roxburghe Club in 1857. His description of `The Holy Land: Travels in Palestine from Dan to Beersheba,’ announced in 1849 as `preparing for publication,’ never appeared.
Williams invited Dr. Ermete Pierotti to Cambridge, assisted him in preparing his work `Jerusalem Explored’ for the press, and revised it during printing. When Pierotti was accused of plagiarism by Fergusson and others, Williams defended him in `Dr. Pierotti and his Assailants,’ which was published in 1864.