My Diary in India in the Year 1858-9. 2 Vols.

Hardcover. Full brown calf ruled in gilt; raised bands and tooled spine decorations ruled in gilt; red and black spine labels lettered in gilt; gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. 2 vols. xv + 408; xi + 420 pp. Illustrated with 12 colour lithographed plates; folding map. AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM RUSSELL BOUND IN. Three small ink initials on lower margin of both title-pages; corners & extremities rubbed; spine edge repaired on one volume and partially repaired on other; decorative spine gilt faded, but spine lettering still bright; plate margins foxed, but plates otherwise bright; slight repair to map fold; still a nice tight copy with otherwise clean & bright interior. The autographed letter, complete with envelope address and Queen Victoria purple six pence stamp, is addressed to a Mons. J. I. Thompson in Genoa. Written in high dudgeon, it complains in no unceratin terms about being snubbed by a certain Baudoin, who cast discredit on the British Army in the Moniteur de l’armee, the official military paper of the French government, and has not seen fit to answer Russell’s objections to statements “maliciously distorted & misrepresented”. The letter goes on to castigate the “extreme impropriety…of m. Baudouin’s conduct”. Russell was the war correspondent for The Times who made his name in the Crimean War. This diary finds him in India during the Indian Mutiny and the Relief of Lucknow.