Goodbye to Assyria

While Layard's commitment to the excavations appeared to be evaporating, Rawlinson was in full swing in London trying to raise money for a continuation. He had a meeting with the Trustees, in which he stated his disapproval at their failure to get funds, but he went further than that. Together with a small group of likeminded people he helped create a special ‘Nineveh Fund’, and they succeeded in getting Prince Albert to provide the first £100 for it. Layard's publisher John Murray accepted the post as official secretary for the Fund, and Rawlinson expressed his conviction that a sum could be raised which ‘will at any rate enable you to tap most of the ruins in Babylonia’. ¹⁹⁴ Murray also wrote encouraging letters about this matter, expressing the hope that Layard's disease would not prevent him from carrying out his difficult task ‘until all is done that remains to be done in unravelling this great mystery — reconstitution of a lost nation. Such a golden opportunity may never again occur’. ¹⁹⁵