Sand and Canvas: Narrative of adventures in Egypt with a sojourn among the artists in Rome

In Short

Samuel Bevan’s mid-nineteenth-century travel memoir recounts an unexpected transition from London to transit work in Egypt, followed by a casual, prolonged stay among artists in Rome. Drawn from a daily diary kept without literary ambition, the narrative skips standard tourist rhapsodies over ancient monuments. Instead, it captures the raw logistics of overland transit, awkward domestic mishaps, street encounters, and the eccentricities of foreign art colonies. It endures as an unvarnished, engaging portrait of nineteenth-century Mediterranean life, observed by a pragmatic traveller interested in modern customs, practical jokes, and everyday absurdities.

The Story

The narrative begins with an unexpected advertisement in The Times, which plucks the author out of London’s gloomy weather and thrusts him into a new line of business. After embarking from England and surviving the Channel crossing, he travels through France via Châlons-sur-Saône, Lyons, the Rhône, Arles, and Marseilles. Boarding the steamer Minos, he makes brief stops at Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, Naples, and Malta before reaching Egypt to take up his duties.

In Egypt, the author manages overland Indian mail deliveries, overseeing the transfer of square tin boxes from steamers to canal barges under dark, chaotic conditions at Alexandria and Suez. Between duties, he settles into domestic life with his colleague Furner, attempting lessons in Arabic, riding donkeys around Alexandria, and experimenting with rudimentary baking using an Italian wash-hand basin as a pie dish. His work takes him through desert stations, where he observes the harsh climate, encounters stranded iron carriages embedded in sand, and manages transit details for diverse passengers bound for India. He also explores classic sites, making the arduous climb up the Great Pyramid of Cheops and squeezing through its dark, dusty interior chambers.

Upon concluding his transit employment, he leaves Alexandria aboard the Minos, weathering a violent gale near Syra before returning to Italy. After visiting Pompeii, Vesuvius, and Naples, he reaches Rome, where he enters the vibrant world of expatriate artists. Guided by new acquaintances, he samples café life, navigates rental lodgings, and observes the antics of his peers, from an artist fortifying his studio to paint a decaying model horse to a young Highlander terrorizing the neighbourhood with a pea-shooter.

His travels continue through Italian towns including Assisi, Perugia, Venice, Ancona, and Fuligno. He stays in local boarding-houses, attends Friend meetings in Rome, and takes long trips in vetturas through the Apennines and Alps. A sudden recall to Turin leads to a final business circuit across Naples, Leghorn, Marseilles, and Paris. After three years abroad, he returns to England, leaving behind a vivid record of casual adventures.

How It Unfolds

The journey begins An unexpected advertisement in a London newspaper prompts the author to alter his life path, embarking on a transit business that takes him through France to the Mediterranean.

Landing the Indian mail Arriving in Egypt, the author assumes his official duties, managing the nighttime transfer of heavy tin mail boxes between steamers and canal barges amidst chaotic crowds of sailors and local porters.

Desert transit and culinary trial While navigating sandstorms and desolate stations between Alexandria and Suez, the author attempts to bake an apple pie using a wash-hand basin and a wine bottle, producing a crust so hard it requires breaking the dish to reach the fruit.

Exploring the Great Pyramid The author ascends the exterior of Cheops with the help of local guides before creeping through dusty, suffocating internal passages to view the central chamber's empty sarcophagus.

Storms and artist studios After surviving a severe gale aboard the Rhamses, the author settles in Rome, where he plunges into café culture and witnesses the eccentricities of fellow expats, including a painter who barricades his studio to defend a decaying model horse.

Venetian rambles and final return From quiet Quaker meetings in Rome to persistent hawkers in Venice's Piazza di San Marco, the author wanders through northern Italy before a business recall sends him home to England via Paris.

The People

• Samuel Bevan: The practical narrator who shifts from London resident to Egyptian transit agent and roving observer of Italian life. He approaches strange environments, difficult journeys, and domestic failures with lighthearted resilience.
• Furner: The author's colleague in Alexandria. He is an energetic companion who excels at riding donkeys at full gallop or backwards, sharing both domestic housing and desert rambles.
• Savill: An English artist living in Rome who wears sombre clothes and speaks fluent Italian. He introduces the author to the city's artistic haunts and residential quarters.
• Bellamy: An acquaintance residing on the Via Felice in Rome. He greets visitors half-dressed in a bizarre costume of light blue pantaloons, jack-boots, and a tarnished lace jacket.
• D----: A young Highlander staying in Rome's Condotti who devotes his time to practical jokes, using a custom pea-shooter to harass local shopkeepers, priests, and passersby from his window.

In Its Own Voice

"The pushing and scrambling for donkeys, on such occasions, is sometimes highly amusing, and it is long ere the cavalcade is in motion."

Describing the chaotic arrival of mail-steamer passengers at the point of departure for canal boats.

"One of our tables served as a dough-board, and an empty wine-bottle for a rolling-pin, and having cut and cored my apples, I covered the whole over with what I thought an excellent paste..."

Recounting the improvised preparations for a homemade apple pie in Alexandria.

"These persecutions continued without intermission for a fortnight, and the Cock Lane ghost could scarcely have produced a more feverish excitement in its immediate locality, than did the twopenny pea-shooter of the waggish D----..."

Detailing the disruption caused by a fellow countryman's antics in Rome.

What It's Really About

At its core, the narrative explores the gap between formal travel literature and the actual, messy reality of living abroad. Rather than focusing on grand histories or classical ruins, the book examines the practical mechanics of mid-nineteenth-century transit, commercial logistics, and foreign residency. It highlights how young expatriates adapt to unfamiliar environments by establishing informal networks, improvising domestic routines, and creating their own entertainment. Underneath the humor lies a study of human adaptability—how travellers maintain their sense of identity while navigating local customs, unreliable transport, bureaucratic customs officers, and the shifting social dynamics of international artist colonies.

Why Read It Today

Readers who enjoy candid historical memoirs, mid-nineteenth-century travelogues, and glimpses into everyday Victorian life abroad will appreciate this book. It offers a fresh alternative to standard grand-tour narratives by focusing on minor misadventures, pragmatic observations, and the quirky social circles of Rome and Alexandria. The writing is direct, grounded, and free of florid romanticism.

Potential readers should be aware of period attitudes, brief encounters with outdated local terminology, and a narrative structure that follows diary entries rather than a tightly plotted dramatic arc. Despite these historical markers, the author's self-deprecating humor and sharp eye for human absurdity make the account surprisingly accessible. What stays with the reader is the image of everyday life behind historical landscapes: breaking a ceramic basin to eat baked apples, dodging pea-shooters in Rome, and watching mail boxes shift by lantern light in the desert night.