296 THOMAS YOUNGK 



tion on the Rosetta stone. It was a deed of sale, and 

 on the back of the manuscript was an endorsement 

 in Greek. When in Paris, Young had received from 

 Champollion a tracing of the Enchorial deed, but not 

 of the Greek endorsement. About the same time, 

 Mr. Grey, an English traveller, brought to England a 

 number of manuscripts, which he placed in the hands 

 of Dr. Young. One of them was written entirely in 

 Greek, and Young immediately perceived that it was 

 a perfect copy of the Enchorial deed of sale. He 

 wrote immediately to Champollion, informing him of 

 the fact, and begging him to send a copy of the Greek 

 endorsement. Champollion did not comply with this 

 request, but his countryman, Eaoul Eochette, courteously 

 and promptly responded to Young's application, and sent 

 him a correct copy of the whole Cassati manuscript. 



The possession of the Greek translation was of 

 course an immense help to Young in his efforts to 

 decipher the Enchorial deed, on which he was at this 

 very time engaged. * I could not,' he says, ' but con- 

 clude that a most extraordinary chance had brought 

 into my possession a document which was not very 

 likely, in the first place, ever to have existed, still less 

 to have been preserved uninjured for my information 

 through a period of near two thousand years. But 

 that this very extraordinary translation should have 

 been brought safely to Europe, to England, and to me, 

 at the very moment when it was most of all desirable 

 to me to possess it, as the illustration of an original 

 which I was then studying, but without any reasonable 

 hope of being able to fully comprehend it, this com- 

 bination would in other times have been considered as 

 affording evidence of my having become an Egyptian 

 sorcerer.' 



Grey's manuscript related, not to the sale of a house 



