There are three main arguments which may be set forward to induce Egyptologists to come as often as possible to Egypt, and to urge their students to do so, instead of educating the mind to the habit of working at home.

Firstly, the study of archaeology in the open helps to train the young men in the path of health in which they should go.  Work in the Egyptian desert, for example, is one of the most healthy and inspiring pursuits that could be imagined; and study in the shrines overlooking the Nile, where, as at Gebel Silsileh, one has to dive into the cool river and swim to the sun-scorched scene of one’s work, is surely more invigorating than study in the atmosphere of the British Museum.  A gallop up to the Tombs of the Kings puts a man in a readier mood for a morning’s work than does a drive in an omnibus along Tottenham Court Road; and he will feel a keenness as he pulls out his note-book that he can never have experienced in his western city.  There is, moreover, a certain amount of what is called “roughing it” to be endured by the archaeologist in Egypt; and thus the body becomes toughened and prepared for any necessary spurt of work.  To rough it in the open is the best medicine for tired heads, as it is the finest tonic for brains in a normal condition.

In parenthesis an explanation must be given of what is meant here by that much misunderstood condition of life which is generally known as “roughing it.”  A man who is accustomed to the services of two valets will believe that he is roughing it when he is left to put the diamond studs in his evening shirts with his own fingers; and a man who has tramped the roads all his life will hardly consider that he is roughing it when he is outlawed upon the unsheltered moors in late autumn.  The degree of hardship to which I refer lies between these two extremes.  The science of Egyptology does not demand from its devotees a performance of many extreme acts of discomfort; but, during the progress of active work, it does not afford many opportunities for luxurious self-indulgence, or for any slackness in the taking of exercise.

As a protest against the dilettante antiquarian (who is often as objectionable a character as the unwashed scholar) there are certain archaeologists who wear the modern equivalent of a hair shirt, who walk abroad with pebbles in their shoes, and who speak of the sitting upon an easy-chair as a moral set-back.  The strained and posed life which such savants lead is not to be regarded as a rough one; for there is constant luxury in the thought of their own toughness, and infinite comfort in the sense of superiority which they permit themselves to feel.  It is not roughing it to feed from a bare board when a tablecloth adds insignificantly to the impedimenta of the camp:  it is pretending to rough it.  It is not roughing it to eat tinned food out of the tin when a plate costs a penny or two:  it is either hypocrisy or slovenliness.