Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope

by Meryon, Charles Lewis

• ISBN13: 9781108042284
• ISBN10: 1108042287
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-16
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

The adventurous and unconventional Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) set off to travel to the East in the early nineteenth century. She had been hostess to her uncle, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and after his death she received a government pension and decided to leave England. Her personal physician Charles Meryon (1783-1877) wrote this three-volume memoir of their travels, first published in 1846. She had a reputation as an eccentric, but thought of herself as the 'Queen of the desert' and indeed achieved considerable influence in the places she travelled to. Eventually she settled in the Lebanon, where she lived out the remainder of her life. She dressed in men's clothes to allow her to go to places not considered safe for a lady, and her adventures included shipwreck, plague and treasure-hunting. She also gives descriptions of the Bedouin and other tribes of the Middle East.

Table of Contents

Preface

Departure from England

Zante

Athens

Procession of the Sultan to the mosque

The author goes to Brusa

Departure from Constantinople

The author sets out for Smyrna

Reception at Alexandria

The author returns to Alexandria, in company with Mr Wynne and Mr McNamara

Loss of journals

Departure from Jerusalem

Increased illness of Yusef

Preparations for leaving Acre

Departure from Acre

Governor's visit

Dayr el Kamar

Additional note

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.