By the Wife of an Officer in the 16th Foot.
First edition. Lithograph frontispiece & 7 lithograph plates. 8vo. Publisher's pictorial cloth, gilt, spine gilt,lightly sunned, some very minor spotting. xii, 354, [4ads]pp. London, R. Hastings, 1841.
A very good copy of this scarce work by the talented artist and writer, Harriette Ashmore.
Illustrated by seven delicate lithographs, after her own drawings, this is an account of her time in India from September, 1833, to January, 1838. Her husband was almost certainly Lieut. William Ashmore. Commencing at Madras, she travelled to Calcutta and provides a detailed description of the city with important information on Calcutta society both for expats as well as locals.
Of note, and per the title, is her description of the 16th Foot regiment's March from Chinsurah to Cawnpore. Sections include: "the numerical strength of the column," she documents the abundant supplies and provisions, discusses the necessity of speaking native languages, and more intriguingly includes notes on "elephants on a suspension bridge" and "a new way to pay old debts."
Her time in India was contemporaneous with another English artist, Emily Eden.
Rare in the trade with just a single copy recorded at auction.
Not in Wayward Women.
