The Macartney Embassy to Peking
18th Nov 2022 - Rare and Early Books
Early books on China: Towards the end of 1792, Lord Macartney and a large retinue of staff, servants, militia, musicians,
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.
18th Nov 2022 - Rare and Early Books
Early books on China: Towards the end of 1792, Lord Macartney and a large retinue of staff, servants, militia, musicians,
31st May 2023 - Blog
Diaries and journals are often attractive for their attention to the mundane. This seems to humanize the writer. But then