THROUGH THE ARCHIVES: The Earl of Dufferin delivers lecture on Ancient Egypt

An interesting and comprehensive lecture on Egypt and its Antiquities was delivered this week by the Right Honourable the Earl of Dufferin at the Working Men’s Institute in Belfast, reported the News Letter.

The earl was at pains to point out to importance of the River Nile to the development of early Egyptian civilisation.

He told how it was the earliest known civilisation in the world where science had been embraced and that they had learned how to make the land produce three or four crops in a year.

He added how old records had shown that the Egyptian farmers had driven wild goats over the soil after it had been inundated by the Nile floodwaters so that they could press the seeds that lay about into the soil to help them grow.

The earl also dwelt on the Scriptural references to Egypt and the important part which it played in the history of the Old Testament.

His Lordship’s lecture also dealt “with comprehensive force” on the structure of the Egyptian language, its literature, “which is still famous”, and the clever means availed of to translate the old inscriptions found among the ruins by explorers of the day.

At the end of the earl’s talk a vote of thanks was put forward Dr Andrews which was unanimously passed.

The proceedings then terminated.