Conceived as an attempt at providing the British public in a cheap and convenient form all that they would care to know about India, the author has striven hard to gather all possibly available detail about the country`s rather large number of cities, towns, villages, island settlements, mountains, hills, rivers, etc. The author spare no effort in describing the various monuments, places of worship and other architectural pieces, and also enlightens us on their status of maintenance. To make the compilation complete, the author has presented the historical background of ancient and modern places in the country with the objectivity of a chronicler. It renders a full account of the battles fought and the invasions resisted in certain areas as also the multiple vicissitudes that they may have encountered in the course of the history of their existence.<-p>