About the Book: Birds of Passage: Travels in South India, 17981801
Lady Henrietta Clive, a feisty, independent-minded traveller, married to Lord
Edward Clive, son of Clive of India and Governor of Madras from 1798 to 1803,
lived in Madras and travelled through southern India with her daughters and
retinue in the aftermath of the war against Tipu Sultan. In this volume, Nancy
Shields skilfully interweaves extracts from Henriettas journals with passages
from the diary of Charly, Henriettas precocious twelve-year-old daughter, who
went on to tutor the future Queen Victoria.
Important as a historical and social document, and also as an early female
travel text, Birds of Passage