mstower Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The
accusation, we remember, concerns the
> “opening date”. Well, the journal has the chamber
> open on May 6: open enough for Vyse and Raven to
> look into it at least. Upshot: the date in
>
Operations is correct.
Correct as far as we know. A question of criteria arises: what counted as opening? Vyse may not have been entirely consistent on this question.
In his
Operations “entry” for March 28, we see this:
Quote
. . . I inserted a candle at the end of a rod, through a small hole, that had been made in the chamber above Davison's (subsequently called Wellington's), and* had the mortification of finding that it was a chamber of construction, like that below it. . . .
While March 30 has this:
Quote
The hole into Wellington's Chamber being practicable, I examined it with Mr. Hill. . . .
In the Appendix, the date of opening of this chamber is given as March 30. Vyse (it seems) did not consider this chamber “open” until the hole was “practicable” and the chamber was entered (and only then did he consider it “discovered”). Inconsistency in the criteria applied could by itself lead to a confusion of dates.
We note that Vyse’s journal entry for May 6 is not clear on whether the relevant “hole” was “practicable” or not at this date:
Quote
S. 6. Sent off the people, ?chapel, breakfast, went to the works, copied the Hieroglyphics in the Temple of the 2d. Pyramid a young Frenchman came who said that he was Son of the Consul I gave him some Candles ?for the Pyramids & soon after ?when I joined Mr Perring, & Mr. Mash at the S. W. angle of the Great Pyramid, I met his Father, to whom I gave ?an ?invitation to ?my Tents; after some time I sent to them; & found ?the ?Pr—, & ?his ?Son, & the old Dragoman, they ? ? ?, a ?watch, & ? their ? ?, (they had ?loyal ?, ? ? ?.) Mr Raven returned from the Great Pyramid, and ?soon ?after ?we ?ascended ?f[o]r ?a ?look ?int[o] ?the room above Nelson’s, ?we ?then paid the people off, & Mr Raven, Mr Perring, Mr Mash, & Myself ?came to Cairo, I took a Bath & dined with Mr Brettel, & ?noted Armenian Effendi who had been educated in England, & who spoke good English.
The wording is consistent with his having merely looked into the chamber (from outside it), as he looked into Wellington’s on March 28: in which case the
Operations version would, after all, be wrong, through difference of criteria applied.
M.
Edited 2023--4-20: changed “Inconsistency on” to “Inconsistency in”.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/2023 04:22AM by mstower.
