Sir Gardner Wilkinson and His Circle, by Jason Thompson, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1992

In the early 19th century there were no "archaeologists" as we usethe term today, although antiquarians studied the relics of the past, mainly of theclassical world but occcasionally also Egypt and other distant, exotic lands, anddilettantes, men of wealth and taste, collected antiquities. GardnerWilkinson, the subject of this excellent biography, considered himself neither, butrather a gentleman traveler and writer. He became interested in Egypt only by accidentLeaving Oxford in 1819 before completing a degree he began a Grand Tour, thelong-standing tradition of travel on the Continent by which an English gentleman"completed" his education. Wilkinson's tour included Paris, Strasbourg, Geneva, Turin,and Rome, where he met Sir William Gell, a scholar with whom he struck up an instantfriendship