MUDIE, Robert. The Picture of India, Geographical, Historical & Descriptive. London: Whittaker, Treacher, & Co. 1830.
Two volumes, 8vo. Original cloth with roan lettering-pieces; pp. xvi, 415; vi, 422, two steel-engraved title-pages with vignettes (that of volume II in pagination), steel-engraved folding map, steel-engraved frontispiece, wood-engraved vignettes; bindings a little darkened an marked; occasional spotting internally, offsetting from steel-engravings; a good copy with important provenance.
First edition. With the expansion of the territory controled by the Eat India Company Muidie saw the necessity of producing a book full of fact-checked information on all aspects of India, from topography to natural wealth, history, philosophy, society and trade. Robert Mudie was a prolofic editor of periodicals and writter of numerous books on a varietyh of subjects.
Provenance: Both volumes with stamp Earl of Ellenborough's Heirlooms. Book No. 1635 on front paste-downs. Edward Law, first Earl of Ellenborough (1790-1871), to whom this work is dedicated in print was from 1828 to 1830 a leading figure on the India Board, and pushed for reforms of the East India Company, returning in Peel's brief administration of 1834–5. 'Ellenborough envisaged a more efficient and economical, and a stronger, British administration in India, divested of its residual character as a trading corporation' (ODNB). Ellenorough is prominently remembered as Governor General of India from 1842 to 1844, during the Afghan War (which he deplored), and wars in Sind and Gwalior. He had to deal with mutinies against the British, and later, during the Mutiny of 1857, he oversaw the transition from East India Company rule to British rule in India.
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