ABSTRACT
The bilingual inscription which provided Champollion with the key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs was discovered at Rosetta in 1799 by a French military officer, during the relatively brief period of Bonaparte's occupation of Egypt. The ancient history and antiquities of Egypt were not uppermost in the mind of the English government; indeed, they had no place there at all. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles William Wilson, KCMG, CB, FRS, RE was by 1882 a distinguished figure in the field of biblical archaeology. On the evening of the very day Sir Garnet Wolseley's army entered Cairo, Sir Charles Wilson made it his business to ride to Bulaq where he was relieved to find that no damage had occurred to the museum. Hence towards the end of 1882, the Colonel of one Highland regiment, in order to keep his men occupied and out of mischief, marched them out from Cairo, where they were quartered, to Giza to visit the pyramids.
