TRAVELS IN EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND

First edition: xi, [1] directions to the binders, 544 pages, frontispiece from a drawing by Lady Bell, 7 uncoloured aquatint plates all engraved by I.Clark, rebound in half maroon leather with matching cloth boardstitled gilt with gilt decoration on the spine, marbled end papers, uncut edges, a good copy.

William Rae Wilson(1772–1849), author of 'Travels', was a member of a Haddington family named Rae, and was born in Paisley on 7 June 1772. He learned law under his uncle, John Wilson, town clerk of Glasgow, and for a time practised as a solicitor before the supreme courts of Scotland. His uncle, who died in 1806, left him his fortune, and he then, by letters patent, added Wilson to his name, and resolved to gratify a taste for travel, specially stimulated at the moment by his wife's premature death. He travelled in Egypt and Palestine, and through most of Europe, preparing as he went minute and interesting records of his experience.

His 'Travels in Egypt and the Holy Land,' 1823 was very popular, and ran through several editions As he was in some respects a pioneer, his publications had an immediate popularity, and they retain a certain historical interest. He became a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in 1844 received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow.

In recognition of this academical distinction he bequeathed to the university 300l. to provide an annual prize for an essay on Christ and the benefits of Christianity. An upright man, a writer and a distributor of tracts, he was not of a specially tolerant spirit. Rae Wilson died in London, in South Crescent, Bedford Square, on 2 June 1849, and was buried in Glasgow necropolis, where his grave is marked by a conspicuous monument of oriental design. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900