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Lieutenant Colonel George Augustus Fitzclarence, Journal of a Route across India, through Egypt to England: In the Latter End of The Year 1817 and the Beginning of 1818 by Lieutenant Colonel Fitzclarence, London: John Murray, 1819, 1st edition

xxiv; 502; [1] pages lacking half-title, 13 plates (mostly aquatint, 9 hand-coloured), 4 engraved battle-plans with partial hand-colouring and 2 maps (one large folding map of the Seat of War in India with route hand-coloured), errata leaf at end; rebound full leather with blind-tooled decorative pattern at the front and back boards along with gilt leather title ticket pasted on the front board and spine with 5 raised bands, new endpapers
28 x 22.5 x 4 cm

LIST OF PLATES
1. (Frontis) Pettah the Citadel, & Pettah of Dowlutabad, a Fortress belonging to the Nizam, near Aurungabad / 2. Map of the Seat of War in India (large folding) / 3. Gorkah Soldier / 4. Hattrass, the Fort of Diub Ram / 5. Rocket Corps and Dromedary Corps Bengal Army 1817 / 6. Irregular Cavalry, Bengal Army 1817 Rhohilla Horse & Skinners Horse / 7. Sketch of the Engagement at Jubbulpoor...(plan) / 8. Plan of the City of Nagpoor...(plan) / 9. Sketch of the Battle of Meinpoor....(plan) / 10. Seapoys of the Bombay, Bengal and Madras Armies / 11. Sketch of the Engagements near Poonah....(plan) / 12. A Khanga on the River Nile / 13. Interior of the Chamber cut in the Rock at the base of the Great Pyramid of Egypt, discovered by Captain Caviglia in 1807 / 14. A Sketch of some of the Gold Ornaments worn by the Woman of Timbuctoo

George Fitzclarence, a founding member of the Royal Asiatic Society, was elected president of the Society in 1841. Fitzclarence was the eldest illegitimate son of King William IV. He served in France and Spain during the Napoleonic wars. He later served as "aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Hastings, governor-general and commander-in-chief, in which capacity he made the campaigns of 1816-17 against the Mahrattas. When peace was arranged with the Maharajah Scindiah the event was considered of sufficient importance to send the despatches in duplicate, and Fitzclarence was entrusted with the duplicates sent by overland route. He started from the western frontier of Bundelkund, the furthest point reached by the grand army, 7 Dec. 1817, and travelling through districts infested by the Pindarrees, witnessed the defeat of the latter by General Doveton at Jubbulpore, reached Bombay, and quitted it in the cruiser Mercury for Kosseir 7 Feb. 1818, crossed the desert, explored the pyramids with Salt and Belzoni, descended the Nile, and reached London, via Alexandria and Malta, 16 June 1818. He subsequently published an account of his travels, which exhibited much observation and containing some curious plates of Indian military costumes of the day from sketches by the author." - DNB.

PROVENANCE
From the Collection of Robert and Maria Travis (bookplate)
Lot 72E, Bloomsbury Auctions, Travel Books From the Collection of Robert and Maria Travis, 2007
Acquired from the above
Important Private Collection, New Delhi

Reference: J R Abbey Travel in Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860, p. 519

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