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of Edinburgh, Session 1867 - 68 . 
is commonly termed), was not occupying a place of honour in 
England or Scotland. 
This obelisk was presented to George IV. many years ago by 
Mahomed Ali Pacha, who also generously offered to move it on 
rollers to the sea, from which it is 200 or 300 yards distant, and 
embarking it on rafts and lighters, convey it to a vessel for trans- 
port to England. 
The state of public affairs at the time, perhaps, prevented the 
accomplishment of this enterprise; now the time may be more 
favourable for it. 
Sir Gardiner Wilkinson and other writers on Egypt and its 
antiquities are of opinion that Cleopatra’s needles (one of which is 
upright) were brought by one of the Ptolemies from Heliopolis, 
near Cairo, to decorate a palace at Alexandria. On the obelisks 
appear the names of Thornes III. (b.c. 1463), of Remeses the 
Great, and of Oserei II. (b.c. 1232), long before Cleopatra’s time. 
Sandys, who travelled in 1610, calls the prostrate obelisk “ Pharaoh’s 
needle,” and says “ it is half-buried in rubbish.” It is of red 
granite, and, looking down a hole, its top is seen with crowned 
hawks sculptured on it. Lord Nugent, writing in 1845, says the 
hieroglyphics on three sides are well preserved. Colonel Ayton, of 
H.M. Bombay Engineers, informed me that whilst in Egypt in 
1862, and whilst there was an idea of a memorial for Prince Albert 
first started, Mr Clark, of the telegraph department, uncovered the 
prostrate obelisk, removed the sand and rubbish from it, found the 
hieroglyphics on three sides in good preservation, and, as the 
obelisk was not then wanted, he covered it up again. 
This obelisk, with others, is well ascertained to have been 
quarried at Syene, at the extreme boundary of Upper Egypt. It 
is not easy to find out how the hieroglyphics were graven on such 
a hard surface, and what was the process of hardening the bronze 
tools used for this purpose. The Messrs Macdonald of Aberdeen, 
and other workers in granite in this country, might be able to ex- 
plain this : possibly the assistance of emery powder was brought in. 
Denon alludes to Cleopatra’s needles, and says they might 
be moved without difficulty, and form interesting trophies. To 
remove works of art from countries where they form ornaments 
and are conspicuous objects of interest is quite unworthy of a great 
