FITZMAURICE, William Edward. Cruise to Egypt, Palestine, and Greece, during five months' Leave of Absence, London, John Hill, 1834.

Hon. William Edward FitzMaurice (21 March 1805 – 18 June 1889) was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. He gained the rank of Major in the service of the 2nd Life Guards and the rank of Major in the service of the Denbighshire Yeomanry Cavalry. He also held the office of Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire between 1842 and 1847. According to biographical information (Townsend, 1868, p. 307), Capt. Fitzmaurice was known in scientific circles as the inventor of a new and powerful light which was exhibited with much success in London. He was the author of A Cruise to Egypt, Palestine, and Greece, and contributed many drawings to Thomas Hartwell Horne’s Landscape Illustrations of the Bible (published 1836) and to John Murray’s edition of Childe Harold.

In A Cruise to Egypt, Palestine, and Greece, the author describes his adventures in the Maghreb and the Levant. In the course of his journey, Capt. Fitzmaurice travelled by way of Cádiz, Gibraltar, Tetuán, and Valletta to Egypt. After visiting Alexandria, and Cairo he set out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He visited Jerusalem, Galilee, Haifa, Acre and subsequently set sail for Tyre, Sidon and Beirut. He then returned to England through Greece; after coasting for one day at Cyprus, he travelled by land from Nafplion (Napoli di Romania) to Corinth, and took an English steamer to Falmouth from Patras.

This travel account, consisting merely of 75 pages, was not meant to be published and therefore does not provide specific information about the places visited. The author’s intention was not to provide the reader with a detailed account of his journey: as he states at the final chapter of his book, he is "well aware how far short the descriptions fall of the magnificent and glowing scenes" he witnessed.

Works
FITZMAURICE, Hon. William Edward: A Cruise to Egypt, Palestine and Greece, during a five months leave of absence. (London: John Hill, 1834).

Bibliography
Townsend, George Henry: Men of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries, Containing Biographical Notices of Eminent Characters of Both Sexes (London: G. Routledge and sons, 1868).

Written by Nicolas Nicolaides