of, amongst other things, Abyssinian manners and customs, habits, personal appearance, dress, births and marriages, deaths and funerals, religion, superstitions. Return and later life (1846–1894) Parkyns returned to Europe in 1846. Between 1850 and 1852 he was appointed an attaché to the embassy at Constantinople. He came back to England in 1852 and settled down in Nottinghamshire, where he purchased an estate, Woodborough Hall. In 1854 he married Emma Louisa, the daughter of barrister Sir Richard Bethell QC, who became Lord Chancellor and was elevated to the peerage as Lord Westbury; they had eight daughters. Parkyns served in the Sherwood Foresters militia, and subsequently became lieutenant-colonel of the Nottinghamshire Rifle Volunteers. In 1858 he started to work as official assignee in the Court of Bankruptcy at Exeter and later in London. He presented Woodborough Church with "handsome oak stalls, carved by himself". Parkyns' wife Emma died in 1877. In 1884 Parkyns retired to Woodborough, where he farmed and established a garden. Parkyns was actively involved in the Royal Geographical Society. He was considered to be "an excellent linguist", as owing to his travels he spoke "most of the lesser known dialects of the Nile basin and of Western Asia." Mansfield Parkyns died on 12 January 1894, and was buried in Woodborough church with his wife. Publications by Mansfield Parkyns Parkyns, M. (1853). Life in Abyssinia: Being Notes collected during three years’ Residence and Travels in that country 1st edition. London: John Murray. Parkyns, M. (1868). Life in Abyssinia: Being Notes collected during three years’ Residence and Travels in that country 2nd edition. London: John Murray. References 1823 births 1894 deaths English travel writers English explorers People from Ruddington People from Woodborough, Nottinghamshire