[5] In 1831 Holroyd commenced practice as a physician in London, “but not finding the prospects of the medical profession as lucrative or satisfactory as he had anticipated”, he decided to give up medicine and study as a lawyer.

[3] Leaving Alexandria, he travelled up the Nile as far as the Second Cataract (near the border of modern Egypt and Sudan), arriving there in early December 1836 with his interpreter, Hajji Soliman, and Ali, "an inferior domestic".

At the rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel, for instance, alongside the Second Nile Cataract (now relocated to the western bank of Lake Nasser), Holroyd inscribed his surname and "1836", enclosed in a rectangular border, at the entrance to the great hall.

Holroyd hired camels and travelled along the west bank of the Nile, frequently stopping along the road "to examine all the antiquarian remains".

[6] In late December 1836 Holroyd and his party arrived at Dongola, an Egyptian outpost with a population of about six thousand (including 800 troops and their wives and families).

After procuring a boat Holroyd travelled further up the river, 50 miles south to Old Dongola, once an important city of Nubia but now largely abandoned to the shifting sands.

Holroyd recorded that Old Dongola had about 300 inhabitants and "the most striking object here is a mosque on rather an elevated site, from the top of which there is an extensive prospect of the arid Desert and meandering Nile".

[6] Holroyd decided to cross the Bayuda Desert rather than follow the great bend of the Nile, where the route of the river turns to the east and then north-east, before inclining back to the south at Abu Hamad.

Holroyd commented: "The water which we had brought from the Nile was putrid and nauseous, and we were glad to avail ourselves of the opportunity of procuring a fresh supply".

[6] Khartoum was the administrative centre of Beled-es-Sudan, under the Egyptian governor Khurshid Pasha, and "a place of considerable trade, being convenient as a rendezvous for the slave-caravans from Abyssinia, Sennar and Kordofan".

On 11 February Holroyd left Khartoum to travel up the Blue Nile, “Khurshid Pasha having provided me with an excellent boat for that purpose”.

After ten days travel he arrived at Sennar where he remained for nearly a fortnight, in a house in the barracks precinct provided by the local military commandant.

From Kajebi on the west bank, having procured camels and a guide, he headed in a south-west direction to cross the Habshábeh desert to El-Obeid, the capital of the Kordofan district.

Arthur Holroyd and his daughter Emily departed from London aboard the barque Mary as cabin passengers, arriving at Wellington, New Zealand, on 9 August 1843.

On 12 October 1845 Holroyd, together with a “man servant” and his daughter Emily, arrived at Sydney aboard the brig Bee from Wellington, New Zealand.

He submitted an affidavit detailing his career as a barrister in England and New Zealand, after which Holroyd was admitted to the Sydney Bar, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court commenting that he “had established his claim to admission most satisfactorily”.

[16] In March 1855 he purchased the 'Sherwood' estate from Dr. William Sherwin, consisting of 320 acres of land located about two miles from Parramatta (in the present suburb of Merrylands).

[3] By the early 1870s Holroyd had established a herd of Zebu cattle at his estate, as well as Dorking and Toulouse geese and Albert and Berkshire pigs.

[22] Merrylands railway station opened in July 1878, named at the suggestion of Holroyd after “a family possession on the Guildford Road, England”.

[24] In July 1894 accounts with plans of distribution were filed in the Office of the Registrar in Bankruptcy in Sydney, showing the payment of dividends up to two and a half pence in the pound “on all proved debts”.