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to Egypt. “In a shipwreck off Rhodes in 1812 Lady Hester nearly lost everything she owned; it was then that she started (of necessity, at first) to wear male Turkish attire . . . there followed several years of uninterrupted travel” (Robinson, p. 57.) In Cairo she was received with honours and pageantry by Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, before mak- ing a tour of the Holy Land and Lebanon. In March 1813 she entered Palmyra at the head of a cavalcade of Bedouin, the fourth Briton and first British woman to do so. There she was allegedly crowned Queen of the Desert, writing that “the inhabitants were arranged in the most picturesque manner . . . the space before the arch was occupied with dancing girls, most fancifully and elegantly dressed” (p. 122). In 1814 she moved into a former convent, Mar Elias, in the foothills of Sidon, Lebanon. After living there for some years she moved to Dar Jun, a more remote spot higher in the hills, where she become increasingly hermetic. While there she maintained an interest in the world outside and gave sanctuary to refugees during the civil strife in Lebanon in the 1820s and during Ibrahim Pasha’s siege of Acre in 1831–2. She died on 23 June 1839 at Dar Jun: “only some of the olives and orange trees that she planted are left, and the exact place of her burial cannot be determined” (p. 354, this passage marked in pencil in the margin). In the conclusion to this work the Duchess of Cleve- land provides her own account of her pilgrimage to her aunt’s burial
place in 1895, “I have always wished to see Djoun, and I think it has even surpassed my expectations” (p. 356). Robinson, Wayward Women , 1990; Theakstone, John, An Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Women Travellers , 2017, p. 392. £1,250 [130546] 145 STARK, Freya. Letters. Wiltshire: Compton Russell; Michael Russell, 1974–82 8 volumes, octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spines in gilt, coloured end- papers, most with maps. With the dust jackets. A little rubbing to the dust jackets at the tops of the spines, small closed tear to bottom of dust jacket of vol. 3, small mark to the fore edge of vol. 7, a little toning to the book block, some pages folded down, a very good set. complete set of first editions, inscribed by the author in each volume, except 4 and 7, for Jean Gunn, a close friend of Stark’s in her later years, and her husband William (founder of the Europe- an Centre for Disaster Medicine and author of 20 works, largely on humanitarian relief): vol. 1: “For Jeane [ sic ] and Bill on my ninetieth birthday with affectionate hopes of repetition, Freya Stark. Asolo 31/1/83”; vol. 2: “To the Gunns, my dear friends—Asolo 31/1/83. Freya Stark”; vol. 3: “[ The Growth of Danger ]—but with friendship and peace- ful hopes from Freya Stark 31.1—1983”; vol. 5: “For the Gunn family with the memory of a lovely visit, from Freya Stark. Xmas—1980”; vol. 6: “For Bill and Jean and Joy and Genny with love and gratitude from Freya. March 19. ‘81”; vol. 8: “Happy days remembered in these happy days with their young people and the mountain world about us. Freya Stark to [name crossed out] Jean. 16/12/19 [ sic ]”. Stark lived in Asolo on a number of occasions throughout her life from 1903 on- wards, and it was there she partially retired in 1970; she was present- ed with the keys to Asolo on 26 May 1984. The Letters cover 65 years of Stark’s eventful life, including her travels in the Middle East, and are a fascinating document of a woman who Lawrence Durrell called a “poet of travel” and “one of the most remarkable women of our age”. Stark was the first woman to receive the Burton medal of the Royal Asiatic Society. £2,000 [127604]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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