Forbes' Oriental Memoirs is best known for its fine natural history plates after drawings by Sir William Hooker. Forbes went to India as a writer to the East India Company. In 1775 as a private secretary to Colonel Keating, he accompanied the expedition sent to assist Regoba, who was regarded by the Bombay authorities as the rightful Peshwar of the Mahrattas. Forbes later became Collector and Resident at Dubhuy. Under the Treaty of 1782 this district and other conquests were ceded to the Mahrattas, and in 1784 Forbes left India. He had sketches and notes on the fauna, flora, manners, religions and archaeology of India which formed the basis for this book.

Sir Henry Evan Murchison James (1846-1923) was a British civil servant in the Indian Civil Service from 1865 to 1900. He was the Commissioner in Sind from 1891 to 1900.

Second edition; 2 text vols 8vo (23 x 15 cm) and plate vol. 4to (32.5 x 26 cm); engraved frontispieces to text volumes and 83 engraved or lithographed plates in 4to, 22 hand-coloured, armorial bookplates to pastedowns, some frayed margins professionally repaired with the occasional tear, some very light foxing; nineteenth-century half morocco, gilt ruled cloth boards, spines lettered in gilt in six compartments, top edges gilt, extremities rubbed, a very good set; xix, 550, [2]; viii, 552

Abbey (Travel), 436; Anker 148; Fine Bird Books 75; Nissen (ZBI), 1409; Sitwell 96; Wood 345.