Bishop Heber's Journal was first published in 1828, edited by his wife from material in the form of notes and letters which he wrote to her during his tour. It is from the first edition that the passages in this 1971 edition have been taken. Dr. Laird provides an introduction and explanatory notes to the text. Reginald Heber became Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, by which time Protestant missionary activity in India was well under way. His diocese included all of the East India Company's territories together with Ceylon and Australia. This edition contains selections from Heber's account of his stay in Calcutta in 1823–24 and of his subsequent journey across northern India to Bombay. The journal is marked by a sympathetic understanding of and interest in India and its peoples to a degree by no means always to be found in British writers of this time.
