FIRST EDITION of a RARE TWO VOLUME record of Sir Austen Henry Layard`s first adventurous journey to the East and residence among different tribes of Persia in the years 1840-1842. This book mentioned by the late 19th-century English novelist George Gissing in his diary as `one of the most interesting books`. The author - Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB PC (1817-1894), was an eminent English traveler, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal. Contains two beautiful b&w illustrations, two frontispieces and three fold-out maps. [BOTH VOLUMES]: 205x140mm. 490+511 pages [+20]. Olive green cloth Hardcover. Gilt lettering and red and green patterns on front cover and spine. Text block edges age-stained. Cover yellowing and dirty/stained. Cover corners and spine edges bumped and worn. Binding slightly visible on inner cover (but still intact). Small sticker on front whitepage. Illustrations and some pages slightly age-stained. Pages yellowing. [SUMMARY]: This extremely rare first edition of a two-volume illustrated memoir of travels and residence in Persia by an illustrious Late Victorian England personality is in good condition.