September 25, 1808.

In his memoirs,The Story of My Life (1877) Meadows Taylor writes of his adventures as a world traveler, (he was part of the British contingent which occupied India at that century.) His trip on the Nile River, while not fresh, is still fascinating:

'...We remained at Thebes, I think, a fortnight, visiting all the places of interest, and especially the ruins of Karnak, where I made many elaborate sketches, now, alas! lost.

'We crossed the river to the Memnonian Palace, part of which we had swept out for our abode. We were close to the great sitting statuses, and could watch them at all
times of the day, and in all the changing lights. In the morning and evening nothing can exceed their grim, uncouth grandeur. How they were brought from the quar-
ries, how erected, who can say? One can but look and wonder!

'Of course, too, we visited the tombs of the kings. I need not enlarge upon them, or on the interesting fresco-paintings which illustrate not only the costume and customs of ancient Egypt completely, but also its wars and processions, the employment of the Jews during their captivity in making bricks, helping to drag large building stones, and the like—the Jewish features being always discernible. The passages were hot and stifling, full of bats, and the smell of the castor-oil lamps almost unendurable; but we persevered, and saw all there was to see, enjoying our return into the cool fresh air afterwards.

'"Should we like to have one of the tombs on the hillside above us opened?" asked Abdoollah;" the Arabs were willing, if we wished, to open one for a certain amount of ...[money]. I agreed at once, and next evening they returned with many curious objects: a chair, perfect except for its rush bottom, which had decayed; a necklace of beads the colour of turquoise; several scarabs, and small blue enamel figures; and best of all, two most elegant terra-cotta boats, one of which had good, well-modelled figures at stem and stern, and an altar in the centre of the boat, at which a priest was offering. There were also some mummies of ibis, one of a small crocodile, and another which seemed to be a cat. They had likewise picked up a woman's mummied hand and part of an arm; the hand was plump and beautiful in shape. The boats, and two of the scarabs, when examined at the British Museum, were found valuable, as they proved the establishment of different
kings, filling up gaps in one of the dynasties; and I received, I think, £47 for them. ....

The ODNB article for this Victorian gentleman:

Philip Meadows Taylor .... army officer and official in the Hyderabad service and novelist, was born in Liverpool ....His father,.... Philip Meadows Taylor, was a merchant in Liverpool, ...; his mother was Jane Honoria Alicia, daughter of Bertram Mitford of Mitford Castle, Northumberland. At the age of fifteen, Taylor was sent out to India to enter the house of Mr Baxter, a Bombay merchant, with the promise of being made a partner when he should come of age. On arriving, however, he found that the condition of Baxter's affairs had been much misrepresented, and took up the offer of a commission in the service of the nizam of Hyderabad which was procured for him in November 1824 by Mr Newnham, chief secretary to the Bombay government, a relative of his mother's. After a short period of military service he obtained civil employment and taught himself surveying, engineering, Indian and English law, botany, and geology. Before long, however, he was obliged to return to the army, and was promoted adjutant in the nizam's service in 1830. At about this time he appears to have married. His autobiography inaccurately gave 1840 as the date of his marriage, but is otherwise reticent of details.

Independently of Colonel William Henry Sleeman, Taylor became interested in the detection and suppression of thuggee, and turned his inquiries to account in his first novel, The Confessions of a Thug, which was published in 1839 on his return to England on furlough and proved a great success. After his return to India he acted as a correspondent for The;lkjhgfiuytrewq (1840–43). .... He ...[later was] also able to supply General Whitlock's Madras division with the means of transport which enabled it to capture the Karwi treasure, subsequently the object of much litigation, and out of which Taylor himself never received a rupee. In the same year (1858) he was appointed commissioner of his old district of Shorapur, which his former pupil the raja had forfeited by rising against the British government.

In 1860 Taylor's health failed, and he returned to England, where he wrote five more Indian novels....He was made a companion in the Order of the Star of India in 1869. In 1875 his sight failed, and on the advice of physicians he decided to spend the winter in India, where, however, he was further debilitated by an attack of jungle fever. He died at Menton, France, on his way home, on 13 May 1876.

Meadows Taylor's modest background and work in the service of an Indian prince guaranteed that he would not leave a large mark on the annals of British Indian history. However, as a man of letters, he occupied a unique position among Anglo-Indian writers. His Confessions of a Thug is a classic adventure novel, which inspired the young of several imperial generations and was much imitated by other colonial fiction writers for over a century.

Meadow Taylor was the end of an era presumably endless.