Birds of Passage: Henrietta Clive's Travels in South India 1798-1801 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781906011376)

The journals of Lady Henrietta Clive are among the earliest written accounts of India by a British woman. Married to Lord Edward Clive, the Governor of Madras between 1798 and 1803, she travelled through southern India with her daughters in the aftermath of the war against Tipu Sultan. Nancy K Shields skillfully interweaves extracts from the journals with passages from the diary of Charly, Henrietta's precocious twelve-year-old daughter, who went on to tutor the future Queen Victoria, first Empress of India. She also includes extracts from Henrietta's impassioned correspondence with her beloved, Byronic brother, the Earl of Powis, beside whom Edward Clive appears to have been a very dull spouse.