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Henry Davison Love, The Indian Record Series: Vestiges of Old Madras 1640-1800 - Traced from the East India Company’s Records preserved at Fort St. George and the India Office, and from other sources, London: John Murray for The Government of India, 1913, 4 Volumes including Index volume.

Volume I: xvi + 593 pages including folded frontispiece of “View of Fort St. George in the Time of Governor Thomas Pitt, 1698-1709’ + 13 black and white plates and 1 “Thomas Map of Portuguese possessions in Goa” inserted into a pocket at the back, 23.3 x 16.5 x 6 cm
Volume II: viii + 624 pages including frontispiece of “Portrait of Thomas Pitt” + 17 black and white plates and 3 maps of Madras of which 2 of the maps titled “Map of Madras in 1733, showing village Boundaries” and “Map of Madras in 1755” are inserted into a pocket at the back, 23.3 x 16.5 x 6 cm
Volume III: viii + 580 pages including frontispiece of “Mujammad ‘Ali, Nawab Walajah’ + 12 black and white plates and 1 map of Madras, 23.3 x 16.5 x 5 cm
Index: Title page + 197 pages, 23.3 x 16.5 x 2.3 cm
Each of the volumes in original decorative cloth gilt, with top edges gilt, contained in two modern morocco-lined cloth slipcases.

Documentation of the history of the Madras city from the founding of Fort St. George in 1640 till 1800.

Love was commissioned by the Government of Madras in the early 1900s to supplement “known facts by the collation of the topographical references which are scattered over the ancient records.” He discovered a distinct lack of maps of old Madras in the Madras Records Office and in London. Instead, he discovered "a plethora of valuable and heretofore unpublished data, demonstrating the origin of Madras institutions and the social life of the city's people" in the Fort St. George archives. He was able to persuade the Governments of Madras and India to publish a 1640-1800 history of Madras in one or more volumes of the India Records Series using samples of this material. When the work was finished, it was published in three volumes of around 600 pages each in 1913, with a fourth volume including an astoundingly extensive index.

Love acknowledges the assistance of a few Indians, in addition to his sources and the scores of British who assisted him: Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya for "conversion of native dates"; Dewan Bahadur V. Krishnamachari for "particulars regarding Madras temples"; Rao Sahib V. A. Parthasarathi Mudaliar for tracing temple documents; K. Rangachari for “help in regard to the etymology and spelling of Indian proper names, for numerous local inquiries, and for verifying sundry references in the Fort St. George records”; and S. Subrahmanya Aiyar for “drawing maps and plans.”

Love, an officer in the Royal Engineers, is also famous in engineering circles in Madras for his 27-year tenure as Principal of the College of Engineering (later moved to Guindy). In 1879, he was assigned to the College, where he occasionally served as Acting Principal. Following that, he served as Principal in 1880-1887, 1889-1891, 1892-1894, 1895-1898, 1899-1904, and from 1905 until his retirement. In 1907, he returned to England. During his 27-year tenure at the College, he made important contributions to it by regularly modifying its curriculum and building facilities. In retirement, he concentrated on Vestiges research. Madras now benefits from both.

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