Quotes:Layard, Sir Austen Henry

Zirkoff, Boris

Layard, Sir Austen Henry. British author, diplomat and archaeologist, b. in Paris, March 5, 1817; d. in London, July 5, 1894. Educated in England and on the Continent. Was in 1842 on diplomatic assignment in Constantinople; explored ruins of Assyria, 1845, studying various tribes and sects like the Yezidis, and excavating at Kuyunjik and Nimrud. Returning to England, 1848, he published Nineveh and its Remains (1848-49, 2 vols.), accomp. by Illustrations of the Monuments of Nineveh (1849). His second expedition in 1849 identified Kuyunjik as the site of ancient Nineveh; this was recorded in his Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1855). His later years, 1852-69, were spent in politics as a member of Parliament, Ambassador, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Trustee of the British Museum (1866). Layard retired to Venice to devote his time to Italian art.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 2, p. 533

Layard, Sir Austen Henry. British author and diplomatist, the excavator of Nineveh, b. in Paris, March 5, 1817; d. in London, July 5, 1894. Educated in Italy, France, England and Switzerland. Encouraged by Sir Stratford Canning, who had employed him in various unofficial diplomatic missions in Turkey, he went to Assyria and started excavations at Kuyunjik and Nimrud, 1847; a year later he returned to England. His second expedition took place in 1849, and the results of his labors are embodied in his works: *Nineveh and its Remains, etc. (1848-49, 2 vols.), and Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (1855). It was he who sent to England the specimens which now form the greater part of the Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum. After a number of years in diplomatic service and in politics, Layard retired, 1878, to Venice, and devoted his time to art and writing.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 3, p. 514