Editing Austen Henry Layard (section)

===Early life===
Much of Layard's boyhood was spent in Italy, where he received part of his schooling, and acquired a taste for the fine arts and a love of travel from his father; but he was at school also in England, France and [[Restoration and Regeneration (Switzerland)|Switzerland]]. After spending nearly six years in the office of his uncle, Benjamin Austen, he was tempted to leave England for [[Sri Lanka]] (Ceylon) by the prospect of obtaining an appointment in the Civil Service, and he started in 1839 with the intention of making an overland journey across Asia.<ref name="EB1911"/>

After wandering for many months, chiefly in Persia, with [[Bakhtiari people]] and having abandoned his intention of proceeding to Ceylon, he returned in 1842 to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] capital [[Constantinople]] where he made the acquaintance of [[Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe|Sir Stratford Canning]], the British Ambassador, who employed him in various unofficial diplomatic missions in European Turkey. In 1845, encouraged and assisted by Canning, Layard left Constantinople to make those explorations among the ruins of Assyria with which his name is chiefly associated. This expedition was in fulfilment of a design which he had formed when, during his former travels in the East, his curiosity had been greatly excited by the ruins of [[Nimrud]] on the [[Tigris]], and by the great mound of [[Kuyunjik]], near [[Mosul]], already partly excavated by [[Paul-Émile Botta]].<ref name="EB1911"/>