Orientalist, was born at Hardendale, Westmoreland, and educated at Harrow, and at Exeter College, Oxford. When quite a young man he visited Egypt for the sake of his health, and remained there for twelve years, during which time he devoted himself to the study of Egyptian antiquities. A paper of his on “A Part of the Eastern Desert of Upper Egypt” was read before the Geographical Society in 1830, and was a record of a journey of exploration made with Captain Burton. The paper had been written, however, as early as 1823. In 1827–8 Wilkinson published his “Materia Hieroglyphica,” containing the Egyptian Pantheon and the succession of the Pharaohs; his “Extracts from the Hieroglyphical Subjects” in 1830; “Thebes and Ancient Egypt” in 1833; and “The Topography of Thebes, and General View of Egypt,” in 1835. His magnum opus, “The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians” (1837–41; 3rd ed. by Dr. Birch, 1878), is the standard authority on all matters relating to Egyptian art; and its value is enhanced by the beautiful illustrations with which it is enriched by its author. It is written to support no particular theory, but contents itself with picturesque description. It was followed by the very popular “Modern Egypt and Thebes” (1844), and a condensed edition entitled “Handbook for Travelers in Egypt” (1847). Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who had been knighted in 1839, then published a work on “Dalmatia and Montenegro” (1848); and, returning to Egyptology, “A Popular Account of the Ancient Egyptians” (1854), “Egypt in the Time of the Pharaohs” (1857), and “The Architecture of Ancient Egypt” (1860); he also wrote “On Colour and the Necessity of a General Diffusion of Taste” (1858). He also contributed some most valuable notes and illustrations to the Egyptian chapters of Professor Rawlinson’s translation of “Herodotus.” Most of his Egyptian collections are in the British Museum, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson also presented Harrow School with a museum of Egyptian art.

Personal

  I heard a lecture on digestion (part of a course on the physics of human nature), by Wilkinson at the Whittington Club. I was very much pleased with him: his voice clear, manner collected, like one who knew what he was about; his style rich, a good deal of originality in his metaphors and a little mysticism, tending to show that there is in the universe a digestive or assimilative process going on, which connects man with nature, and the present with the other life.

  Notwithstanding his numerous publications, filling no less than twenty-two volumes, four of which are of plates from the author’s drawings,—in one case lithographed by himself,—besides contributing to the publications of Societies, a great mass of materials remains in Sir Gardner’s hands. His note-books are full of drawings beautifully and clearly executed, as well as careful memoranda of every object he met interesting to a student of archælogy and art. His works exhibit but a selection, and it would be a boon to knowledge could he be prevailed upon to publish these note-books as they stand.

  Sir Gardner Wilkinson was one of the fortunate few of whom, despite a well-worn maxim, it could be asserted in his life-time that he was happy. He achieved success and he was rewarded with honours. He saw his principal work become a classic. And he enjoyed in equal proportion the gifts of culture, of fortune, and of taste. Not many scholars are also artists, and few artists are also distinguished for scholarship; but Sir Gardiner Wilkinson was both scholar and artist. He, moreover, added to this rare combination two tastes which are, perhaps above all others, delightful to their possessors—namely, the love of archæology and the love of travel…. Sir Gardner Wilkinson was not a witty man; but he had a playful humour, and a keen sense of the ludicrous. Even the staid pages of “Manners and Customs” sparkle occasionally with flashes of fun. His own manners were charming, and his good-nature was proverbial. His books, his notes, his sketches, were freely at the service of all who sought information at his hands; and with ladies he was a universal favourite. One who knew him writes of him to me as being “truly a courteous gentleman in all his ways and doings.” He loved society, and society repaid him with interest. When in the intervals of foreign work and travel he resided in England, he lived in the gay world of forty years ago; kept his cab; and even while writing his “Manners and Customs” and drawing his own illustrations upon the wood, he used to be about every night at all the fashionable entertainments of the season.

General

  I need scarcely mention the admirable work of Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in which he has availed himself of the paintings, sculptures, and monuments of the ancient Egyptians to restore their manners and customs, and to place their public and private life before us, as fully as if they still occupied the banks of the Nile. I shall frequently have occasion to refer to it in the course of this and the following chapters.

  His volumes, on the whole, afford more materials for grave study and meditation than for the entertainment of the passing hour, so that the lovers of very light reading will be apt to pass them by altogether. But he writes without prejudice or pretension, and throws considerable light upon what has recently become a political problem of no small moment,—the condition, tendencies, and prospects of the great Slavonic race in Europe.

  If the work is in any respect open to criticism, it must be on the ground that the writer’s learning is almost oppressive, and is not so thoroughly digested and assimilated with the personal narrative as to suit the appetite of the moderns for light reading. Our traveller is more frequently an instructive than an amusing companion; and many readers will therefore undertake no more than what we have proposed as the limits of our own endeavors; namely, to skim the cream of the book, and leave its weightier matters for subsequent study and reference.

  The “larger work,” too costly for general circulation, did more than all other English books towards erecting Egyptology into a distinct department of knowledge, and bringing into use its contributions to numerous branches of art and science. Yet more, it not only gave us archæological facts, but so combined and vitalized the results of the author’s inquiries as to reproduce to the fancy the men and manners of ancient Egypt. The work now before us is a careful condensation of the former, with some important additions, which bring down the history of discovery to the year 1853.

  The work of Sir Gardner Wilkinson upon Ancient Egypt, which speaks to the eye, is far more instructive than the efforts to address the mind through the restored language of the Egyptians.

  This work [“Ancient Egyptians”] may be said to have created a new era in the popular knowledge of Egypt, and given the impetus to such subsequent labors as those of Layard, Rawlinson, etc…. Wilkinson is a thorough scholar in whatever he undertakes, and all his works are full of valuable information, skilfully presented and suggesting reflection.

  Ever since the first appearance of this work, [“Ancient Egyptians”] in 1837, it has been recognized as having a classical value. The author was a patient and conscientious scholar and a good draughtsman; and for these reasons, notwithstanding the great advances of Oriental scholarship, the importance of his volume has not materially diminished. The modern editor, Dr. Birch, is a prominent Egyptologist, and he has greatly improved the work by correcting those portions which recent scholarship has shown to be defective. The author’s chronology has generally been regarded as having very little value; indeed, in the opinion of most scholars, it is hopelessly wrong. But the work, in spite of some defects of this nature, is of so much importance that no student of ancient Egypt can afford to neglect it. As a representation of the manners and customs of the Egyptians, it has no superior.