The preparation of the work gave rise to no little difficulty,
for Belzoni declined all help beyond that of the individual who was
employed to copy out or translate his manuscript and correct the press.
"As I make my discoveries alone," he said, "I have been anxious to write
my book by myself, though in so doing the reader will consider me, with
great propriety, guilty of temerity; but the public will, perhaps, gain
in the fidelity of my narration what it loses in elegance." Lord Byron,
to whom Mr. Murray sent a copy of his work, said: "Belzoni _is_ a grand
traveller, and his English is very prettily broken."
Belzoni was a very interesting character, and a man of great natural
refinement. After the publication of his work, he became one of the
fashionable lions of London, but was very sensitive about his early
career, and very sedulous to sink the posture-master in the traveller.
He was often present at Mr. Murray's receptions; and on one particular
occasion he was invited to join the family circle in Albemarle Street on
the last evening of 1822, to see the Old Year out and the New Year in.
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