Welsh Journals

delicate and referred Budge to Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff, who was then the Egyptian Minister of Works. Moncrieff made it clear that he regarded both Budge and Grebaut as unmitigated nuisances but, being eventually convinced that Grebaut had greatly exceeded his authority, intervened on Budge's side and secured the release of the mummy. Thus the mummy of the priest Tem-Hor and a number of other small objects, notably some funerary figures from Aswan and a bronze mirror from Thebes arrived in Swansea in 1888. Miss Mary Grenfell performed the opening ceremony. Nearly a century later these relics of ancient Egypt are still in the Swansea Museum, now well and professionally catalogued, a curious memento of a brief connection between an ancient civilisation and a distant Welsh port. REFERENCES The foregoing is based on the Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement 1922-30, pp. 362-4; The Complete Peerage, vol. XIII, pp. 17-18; Burke's Peerage (102nd Ed. 1959) pp. 995-97; F. Grenfell, Memoirs of Field Marshal Lord Grenfell (London, 1926); the files of the Cambrian newspaper in the Royal Institution of South Wales; Annual Report of R.I.S.W. for 1887-8; History of R.l.S.W. 1835-1935 (Swansea, 1935); Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt (London, 1908); P. Magnus, Kitchener (London, 1958); E. A. Wallis Budge, By Nile and Tigris (London, 1920); E. A. Wallis Budge, 'Account of Excavations of Major-General Sir F. Grenfell at Aswan during the years 1885 and 1886', Proceedings of Society of Biblical Archaeology, November 1887, pp. 4-40. 1 would like to record my thanks to Dr. K. Bosse-Griffiths, Miss Betty Nelmes and Mr. Bernard Morris for their assistance on various matters. 1 F. Grenfell, Memoirs, p. 12. The election was probably that of July 1852; the Cambrian has an account of the triumphal procession but does not mention the largesse-wisely perhaps as Vivian had denounced electoral corruption during his campaign. The rail- way reached Swansea in 1850. 2 Lord Cromer paid tribute in Modern Egypt, vol. II, pp. 30, 60-63. 3 An interesting comparison with Grenfell's views can be found in General Sir William Butler's Autobiography (London, 1911), pp. 218ff. 4 Mary Grenfell was herself a remarkable woman. Pascoe St. Leger Grenfell's piety led to the whole East side of Swansea being 'parcelled out' among his four daughters for purposes of visiting and philanthropy. Mary Grenfell nursed for some months in a London hospital and hoped to emulate Florence Nightingale in the Franco-Prussian War. She was disappointed in this hope but used her new knowledge among the poor of Swansea. When she died in London in March 1894 crowds spontaneously gathered to meet the train that brought her body home. She had taken a particular interest in the Railway Mission and founded the Golden Griffin Coffee Tavern next to the Midland Station-the griffin emblem being taken from the family crest. The object was presumably to keep the men out of the public houses. At her funeral there were official representatives of the 'Telegraph Messengers', 'Swansea Town Postmen' and the 'Police Bible Class', and of innumerable other organisations in which she had interested herself. It must have been one of the largest funerals ever seen in Swansea. The Cambrian put the total number present, at St. Thomas' Church or in the streets outside, at 10,000. The fact that the Grenfell family had continued to live in East Swansea, instead of moving to the fashionable West, was apparently appreciated. F. Grenfell, Memoirs, p. 117; Cambrian, 16, 23 March, 1894. The Gower Society fights for the beauty of Gower. New members are always welcome. Subscription is 50p. per year; enquiries should be sent to the Membership Secretary, c/o The Royal Institution of South Wales, Victoria Road, Swansea.