An autograph signed letter by 'Queen of the Nile' Alice Lieder c1840s

LIEDER, Alicia (née Lister). Autograph letter signed to an unnamed correspondent.

4 pp., 8vo (folded), 43 Buckenham Street [London], n.d. but c.1840s. Old folds; small tear to lower margin of final leaf; remnants of blue mounting paper.
 
A personal letter from Alicia Lieder, wife of the missionary and orientalist Rev. John Lieder, written shortly after their return from Egypt, where they had spent many years in service to the Church Missionary Society. From 1825 to 1848 the Lieders resided in Cairo, where Alicia became a well-known figure—referred to locally as the “Queen of the Nile”.
 
She thanks her correspondent for their friendship, apologising for missing a visit to Tottenham due to “unexpected land engagements”, and expresses pleasure that they enjoyed the “few Egyptian curiosities” she had sent by post. Likely part of the substantial collection of antiquities and ethnographic items later dispersed through the British Museum and other institutions. 
 
A rare letter from a pioneering and controversial figure in nineteenth-century Egyptology and missionary history, whose Cairo home was a meeting-point for scholars, travellers, and diplomats.