Endnote 1 – Restoring the Reputation of Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope

The primary source of information about the purpose, plan and progress of the Ashkelon dig is the account written by Lady Hester’s personal physician, Charles Lewis Meryon, The Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope (London, 1846), Vol. 3, pp. 86–187.

Subsidiary details have been provided by: James Silk Buckingham, Travels Among the Arab Tribes (London, 1825); Charles Irby and James Mangles, Travels in Egypt, Nubia, Syria, and Asia Minor (London, 1823); T.R. Joliffe, Letters from Palestine (London, 1854); and Charles Meryon’s other three-volume work, The Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope (London, 1846).

The best biography of Lady Hester is Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope by Frank Hamel (London, 1913). For a brief account of Lady Hester’s expedition and for the background of Biblical exploration in the early decades of the 19th century, see the author’s Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archaeology and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land, 1799–1917 (New York, 1982), Chapter 3.