[1] He made numerous trips to Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on behalf of the British Museum to buy antiquities, and helped it build its collection of cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, and papyri.

[2] Budge became interested in languages before he was ten years old, but left school at the age of twelve in 1869, He worked as a clerk at the retail firm of W. H. Smith, from 1870 to 1878.

[4][5] Spending time in the British Museum, from 1872, Budge became interested in learning the ancient Assyrian language in 1872, and introduced him to Samuel Birch, keeper of Oriental Antiquities there.

Stainer contacted W. H. Smith, a Conservative member of Parliament, and the former Liberal Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, and asked them to help his young friend.

Edward Augustus Bond, the principal librarian of the museum, wanted Budge to find the source of the leaks and to seal it.

Bond also wanted Budge to establish ties to Iraqi antiquities dealers in order to buy available materials at the reduced local prices, in comparison to those in London.

Budge also travelled to Istanbul during these years to obtain a permit from the Ottoman Empire government to reopen the museum's excavations at these Iraqi sites.

[7] Budge therefore sought to establish ties with dealers in Egypt and Iraq, so that the museum could purchase antiquities from them, and avoid excavations.

On the other hand, in Egypt Auguste Mariette and his successor Gaston Maspero opposed illegitimate exports, and yet an illegal trade continued.

[11] Perhaps his most famous acquisitions from this time were: the Papyrus of Ani, a Book of the Dead; a copy of Aristotle's lost Constitution of Athens; and the Amarna letters.

The elderly Rassam was upset by these accusations, and when he challenged Budge, he received a partial apology that a later court considered "ungentlemanly".

In particular, he praised Carnarvon's willingness to financially support the entire venture: "England may congratulate herself that even in these days of the 'Axe' men can be found willing and magnanimous enough to spend treasure merely with the idea of increasing the sum of human knowledge.

[citation needed] Budge's works were widely read by the educated public and among those seeking comparative ethnological data, including James Frazer.

Though Budge's books remain widely available, since his day both translation and dating accuracy have improved, leading to significant revisions.

The common writing style of his era—a lack of clear distinction between opinion and incontrovertible fact—is no longer acceptable in scholarly works.

Many people in his day who were involved with the occult and spiritualism after losing their faith in Christianity were dedicated to Budge's works, particularly his translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Such writers as the poet William Butler Yeats and James Joyce studied and were influenced by this work of ancient religion.

He enjoyed the company of the well-born, many of whom he met when they brought to the British Museum the scarabs and statuettes they had purchased while on holiday in Egypt.