The Great and Mighty Kingdom
11th Jul 2025 - Rare and Early Books
The first comprehensive book on China widely available to European readers was that compiled by the Spanish Jesuit priest Juan
September 24, 2024
Charles Toogood Downing was a young surgeon who visited China in the late 1830s, just before the first opium war broke out. He spent six months in the Canton region and when back in England wrote a three-volume (three- or triple-decker) work on his experience, plus writing on general information for the English reader. His book was reviewed in Canton by John Robert Morrison, son of the more famous protestant missionary Robert Morrison, and its scathing language and eagerness to find fault has all the trademarks of the resident expert nettled at someone with no China experience swanning in and becoming the instant expert. An account of the book and the review can be found here.
11th Jul 2025 - Rare and Early Books
The first comprehensive book on China widely available to European readers was that compiled by the Spanish Jesuit priest Juan
28th Dec 2024 - Rare and Early Books
We think of the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands as a conservation success, full of seals, peat bogs and birds, the culling