Rambles in Egypt and Candia, with Details of the Military Power and Resources of Those Countries, and Observations on the Government, Policy, and Commercial System of Mohammed Ali

2 volumes, xx+348 pages with frontispiece and one plate; vii+358 pages with frontispiece with three illustrations with one folding. Octavo (8 1/4" x 5 1/2") bound in half leather with marbled boards and gilt lettering to spine. Inscribed by the author on title page of volume two. First edition.

Scott traveled through Egypt and Crete beginning in the winter of 1833. Crete had been placed under Egyptian rule, and in his narrative Scott concentrates on the beneficial changes brought about by Mehmet Ali in an attempt to give a more balanced picture than those that had gone before him. "Scott's work is a valuable source of information on the changes which Mehmet Ali introduced [to Crete]" (Blackmer 1514). Abbey Travel 269. Bookseller Inventory

The surviving details of Scott's life (179?-1872) are sketchy. He was apparently a career military engineer who served throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, and documented some of his other travels in Excursions in the Mountains of Ronda and Granada (1838). Scott prepared two maps of Beirut sometime after 1840, and was likely present with the British fleet that bombarded and occupied Beirut in 1840. In his later years (1864-1869), he acted as Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey and ultimately rose to the rank of Major-General in the Prince of Wales' Royal Canadian Regiment of Foot.

Condition:

Light foxing to end papers, lacking illustration in volume one: View of Alexandria opposite page 18. Tear to back end paper of volume one. Else a better than very good copy of a very scarce item.