George Dennis (explorer) - Solitary Explorer

Solitary Explorer

At age 22 Dennis conducted his first explorations in Portugal and Spain, writing his first work, A Summer in Andalucia, in 1839. Dennis roughed it in Etruria between 1842, at age 28, and 1847, in the company of artist Samuel Ainsley in 1842 and 1843. Etruria of the times had reverted to a semi-wilderness state, rural, depopulated, malarial and infested with bandits. There were few roads. Dennis hiked about the country living in the outdoors or in rural quarters infested with insects studying and recording the monuments he found and any traditions about them.

The result of his travels was his 1,085 page treatise Cities and cemeteries of Etruria, published in 1848 by the British Museum and including sketches by Dennis and Ainsley. Dennis captures Etruscan civilization and Tuscan landscapes in able prose with scholarly detail. It was nevertheless generally unknown and unappreciated by the British public, partly because of Dennis' lack of academic credentials. He did make some fast friends among the academics who read his work, such as Austen Henry Layard.