The cities and cemeteries of Etruria.

Despite having left school at the age of 15, George Dennis (1814-1898) became a polyglot, speaking French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, modern Greek, and Turkish as well as some Arabic. He set out to become an explorer and having investigated Portugal and Spain in his early 20s went on to Italy, visiting Etruria in the 1840s on several occasions in the company of the artist Samuel Ainsley. The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria was the result of his travels, first published by the British Museum in 1848, including sketches by both Dennis and Ainsley. Amongst the friends that he made as a result of the publication of his book was the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard.