Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by The Countess of Carnarvon Page A
Authors: The Countess of Carnarvon
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friendship with Sir William Garstin, who was director of the Ministry of Public Works. One of the departments within his ministry was that of Antiquities. It was run by a charming and gallant French Egyptologist called Professor Gaston Maspero.
Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt had renewed interest and knowledge in all things ancient and curious, because his army had been accompanied by one hundred academics to record, sketch and investigate the lost culture. Thereafter, scholars, adventurers and bona fide Egyptologists had all set off to explore and return with histories of the architecture and works of art for public and private collections.
The fortunate discovery of the Rosetta Stone by the French, and its subsequent acquisition by the British, led to the decipherment of hieroglyphs. The tablet was engraved with a decree repeated in three different languages – demotic script, Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs – which allowed Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion to unlock the key to the ancient language.
Only at end of the nineteenth century was there any sort of requirement for a methodical approach towards excavation. Egyptian Exploration Societies, universities and private individuals could all apply for permission to excavate. Scholars were just beginning to appreciate how important it was to record the context of any discovery, and the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie set the standard for painstaking recording and study of artefacts.
The competition for concessions was intense, and private individuals such as Lord Carnarvon accepted that, to begin with, the sites they were granted would be the less excitingones. Presumably Carnarvon was not sure about his own level of commitment either, given that the sums involved in mounting a serious excavation were absolutely vast. As Carnarvon wrote in the preface to his 1911 book
Five Years’ Explorations at Thebes
, there could be anything up to 275 men and boys labouring on any team, and during one season he was running five teams. There were also overseers, mules and boats to be hired and digging and storage equipment to be bought. Lord Carnarvon had sold his two Somerset estates, Pixton and Tetton in 1901 to his mother-in-law, Elsie, who was to give one each to his brothers, Aubrey and Mervyn. Carnarvon was at this point well able to finance his excavation work, whilst Almina’s fortune continued to fund the running of Highclere.
Back in 1906, when the Earl began his excavations, the first site he was assigned was an unprepossessing rubbish mound near Luxor. He was there for six weeks, enveloped in clouds of dust. Lord Carnarvon wrote to his sister Winifred, telling her that ‘every day I go to my digging and command a small army of 100 men and boys.’ A large screened cage had been constructed to provide a scrap of shade from the sun and protection from the flies. Carnarvon was poised, optimistically, to catalogue finds and draft maps of the site.
Almina loyally attended every day. Photos of Lord Carnarvon show him wearing a three-piece tweed suit, a wide-brimmed hat with a white band, and stout English shoes. Almina, on the other hand, was dressed for a garden party on a fine English summer’s day, in a floaty tea dress and patent leather heels, complete with jewellery winking in the blinding sunshine.
It was gruelling and rather dull. Nothing much seemed to be happening. The couple would share a sandwich at lunchtime and struggle to keep each other’s spirits high in the face of very little success. Almina always supported her husband in Egypt, and in the most concrete ways – with her money and with her presence – but she was interested in, rather than passionately intrigued by, his work.
After the travails of the dusty days, the Carnarvons retired to the Winter Palace Hotel, in time to watch the sun set over the rocky escarpments and temples on the west bank of the Nile. The hotel was by far the best place in town to stay: an
Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt had renewed interest and knowledge in all things ancient and curious, because his army had been accompanied by one hundred academics to record, sketch and investigate the lost culture. Thereafter, scholars, adventurers and bona fide Egyptologists had all set off to explore and return with histories of the architecture and works of art for public and private collections.
The fortunate discovery of the Rosetta Stone by the French, and its subsequent acquisition by the British, led to the decipherment of hieroglyphs. The tablet was engraved with a decree repeated in three different languages – demotic script, Ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs – which allowed Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion to unlock the key to the ancient language.
Only at end of the nineteenth century was there any sort of requirement for a methodical approach towards excavation. Egyptian Exploration Societies, universities and private individuals could all apply for permission to excavate. Scholars were just beginning to appreciate how important it was to record the context of any discovery, and the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie set the standard for painstaking recording and study of artefacts.
The competition for concessions was intense, and private individuals such as Lord Carnarvon accepted that, to begin with, the sites they were granted would be the less excitingones. Presumably Carnarvon was not sure about his own level of commitment either, given that the sums involved in mounting a serious excavation were absolutely vast. As Carnarvon wrote in the preface to his 1911 book
Five Years’ Explorations at Thebes
, there could be anything up to 275 men and boys labouring on any team, and during one season he was running five teams. There were also overseers, mules and boats to be hired and digging and storage equipment to be bought. Lord Carnarvon had sold his two Somerset estates, Pixton and Tetton in 1901 to his mother-in-law, Elsie, who was to give one each to his brothers, Aubrey and Mervyn. Carnarvon was at this point well able to finance his excavation work, whilst Almina’s fortune continued to fund the running of Highclere.
Back in 1906, when the Earl began his excavations, the first site he was assigned was an unprepossessing rubbish mound near Luxor. He was there for six weeks, enveloped in clouds of dust. Lord Carnarvon wrote to his sister Winifred, telling her that ‘every day I go to my digging and command a small army of 100 men and boys.’ A large screened cage had been constructed to provide a scrap of shade from the sun and protection from the flies. Carnarvon was poised, optimistically, to catalogue finds and draft maps of the site.
Almina loyally attended every day. Photos of Lord Carnarvon show him wearing a three-piece tweed suit, a wide-brimmed hat with a white band, and stout English shoes. Almina, on the other hand, was dressed for a garden party on a fine English summer’s day, in a floaty tea dress and patent leather heels, complete with jewellery winking in the blinding sunshine.
It was gruelling and rather dull. Nothing much seemed to be happening. The couple would share a sandwich at lunchtime and struggle to keep each other’s spirits high in the face of very little success. Almina always supported her husband in Egypt, and in the most concrete ways – with her money and with her presence – but she was interested in, rather than passionately intrigued by, his work.
After the travails of the dusty days, the Carnarvons retired to the Winter Palace Hotel, in time to watch the sun set over the rocky escarpments and temples on the west bank of the Nile. The hotel was by far the best place in town to stay: an
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