Chapter II
The Child Who Found Her “Home”
(approximately 1908–1919: the British Museum, first lessons, school, war, relocations)
1) “I want to go home” — and tears that cannot be explained by childish whims
After that fall (which we have already discussed), she began experiencing what the sources describe in much the same way:
recurring dreams and the persistent phrase
“I want to go home”. Her parents assured her, “You are home,” but it did not help—the child cried as though she meant
another home.
According to the descriptions, these dreams featured
a huge building with columns and
a garden/trees/flowers — an important detail: this was not simply about “Egypt,” but about a
place that felt like a specific architectural setting and a specific landscape.
AND THIS IS IMPORTANT — as another TIME!
2) British Museum: the moment of recognition
The family brought her to the museum’s Egyptian galleries—and this is where the story becomes truly “rock-solid,” because this episode is repeated by independent sources:
- the girl broke away and ran through the galleries;
- she kissed the feet of the statues;
- she said things like “This is my home”;
- her reaction was especially strong to an image/photograph of a temple.
In one recurring version of the story, she points to an image of the temple and says, “
There is my home,” and then—very childlike and very strangely—adds, “
Where are the trees? Where are the gardens?” (as though she were comparing what she
expected with what she saw in the photograph).
And in her perception, this “home” was connected with the Temple of Seti I.
3) A name emerges: Seti I — even before systematic study
This is very important: at this stage, she was not an educated teenage Egyptologist. She was a child who
was obsessively drawn to a single nexus—Abydos/the temple/Seti.
4) School and church: “the inconvenient child”
The sources note that she began having conflicts with the religious environment and ordinary school life: her stories about “other gods,” comparisons, stubbornness, and strange statements were all perceived as insolence, fantasies, or illness. Biographical accounts explicitly mention problems at school and the fact that her behavior was considered troubling.
5) Meeting someone who did not laugh
In time, at the museum she met E. A. Wallis Budge—and here the sources usually phrase it carefully: he
encouraged her interest and
supported her studies, including those connected with hieroglyphs.
It is important to note: this does not necessarily mean that “he personally gave her secret lessons every Saturday”—but it does mean that an adult authority
did not dismiss her as “crazy”, but instead directed her curiosity toward study.
6) The First World War and relocation: when external darkness intensifies the internal darkness
The biographical sources then introduce another major layer:
the First World War, anxiety in London, and an episode in which she
narrowly escaped death during a raid/bombing, after which she was sent away from London.
A little later in this thread, I will write Dorothy’s prayer to Isis.
I think you will find it not only interesting, but also useful.
Especially once you clearly understand who this Dorothy really was......
It is stated that she moved in with relatives in Sussex, where she continued along her “Egyptian path” through libraries.
7) Eastbourne: a library instead of a museum
The sources mention that she systematically read about Ancient Egypt in a public library (Eastbourne in particular is often named). This may sound boring—but it is important for understanding that her interest was not a passing burst. It
survived and grew stronger outside the museum, amid ordinary provincial life, through reading and taking notes.
8) Nighttime phenomena, sleepwalking, sanatoriums: where “strangeness” ends and “diagnosis” begins
And here we come to the most difficult, yet necessary, layer: beginning at approximately adolescence, the sources record
nightmares, sleepwalking and episodes because of which she was
placed in sanatoriums (several times).
This needs to be stated plainly: not everything in her story is a “bright mystical fairy tale.” In reality, it was difficult both for her and for her family.
Some retellings include a “nighttime visit from Seti I” as part of her experience (part of the biographical narrative), but here I will maintain a strict framework:
we can confidently say that she told this story, but
we cannot assert it as an objective fact. The sources describe it specifically as her experience/belief, accompanied by problems with sleep and her mental state.
By the threshold of adolescence, a threefold knot had formed in her life:
- Abydos/the temple/Seti as the feeling of “home” (not a metaphor, but an inner address).
- Actual learning and reading (the museum, the library, and the support of serious people).
- The price: conflict with convention, loneliness, nighttime disturbances, and the family’s medical decisions.