Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), the British Arabist and explorer (not the actor) wrote The house of Richard Francis Burton in Trieste, Italy, where he died on 20 October, 1890. Photograph: Willem Vogelsang, July 2014.numerous books about life in Egypt and the Middle East during the latter half of the 19th century. Among his various exploits, for example, he disguised himself as an Arab sheikh and went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. In the memoires of this trip he describes in detail the garments worn by the people he met and the types of dress worn by, for example, the local Arabs, the Egyptians, the Indians, and the Turks, in Medina and Mecca. This information is invaluable for people working on the history of Western Arabian Peninsular dress and dress forms in India and the Middle East in the second half of the nineteenth century.

At the end of his career, he and his wife Isabella lived in Trieste, northern Italy, where Burton was the British consul. The house where they lived and in fact, where Burton died, is still there. It was here, in the garden at the back of the house, that soon after Burton's death his wife burnt all his papers and documents. The house is now called the Villa Gosleth, after one of its early nineteenth century occupants, and is situated along the Via Franca. On the web various houses are illustrated, so it can be a little confusing when searching different areas of the city (as we did!) for the building. But the search was worthwhile.

Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, 8 July 2014