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A proof volume of what seems to be a partial version of G.M.H. Playfair's, The Cities and Towns of China . The front cover and spine have been lost and the back cover is loose. The text covers from p.253-417, No to Zimerick, with subsequent Appendices of Synoptical Table of the Administrative Cities of China, Radical Index and Corrigenda. The text is printed on one side - the blank pages being written to supplement the text and with further annotations on the printed pages.
The front endpaper has a Royal Asiatic Society bookplate with the text "Presented to the Library by Lionel Handley Derry, Esq., 2 June 1952, in Memory of Lionel Charles Hopkins, Esq., I.S.O.".
The work is undated but Playfair's first edition of the work was published in 1879 and his second in 1910.

A translation into the Braj Bhasha dialect of Hindi of Raja Niti, a version of the Hitopadesha, a series of fables. The translation was undertaken for John Gilchrist by Lallūjī Lāl Kavi and the scribe was Siva Prasanna Diivedi. it is dated to V.S. 1858/ Sāka 1825 which equates to 1802-3. The work was made for John Gilchrist when he was principal of Fort William College, Kolkata.

Pasted inside the front cover is a handwritten explanation of the Hitopadesha taken from 'Colebrooke's Preface to the "Hitopadesa" in the original Sanscrit'. The last front paper bears an English description of the work, the signature of John Romer, dated 1804, the Royal Asiatic Society stamp, and that the work was presented to the Society by John Romer. Also within the volume is a more modern label giving identification details and where it is noted as being a very early edition of the work.

Please note that the boards and some pages are loose from the binding and the book spine is no longer present. The boards are covered in red leather.

'The personal narrative of the Taleb Sidi Ibrahim be Muhammed el-Messi, of the province of Sus; including some Statistic and Political Notices of the extreme south-west country of Morocco'. The Berber manuscript was commissioned by William Brown Hodgson (1801-1871), US State representative to North African Barbary States, who had it translated into Arabic. From the Arabic translation he made an English translation. All three are bound within the book with an introduction by Hodgson, concerning the commissioning of the manuscript, which he believed was the third manuscript to be written in Berber. The introduction is dated 1 March 1835.

'Translation of the Emperor of China's Letter to the King of England from the original Chinese'. A translation of the document sent to George III from the Emperor of China after the Amherst Embassy in 1816. The letter is dated 11 September 1816 and was given to the Society by Lord Auckland in 1827. The document complains about the behaviour of the ambassadors sent and orders no further ambassador to come. The emperor has no wish to trade.

Throughout its history the Royal Asiatic Society has made links with various universities. Perhaps most notable is that with the School of Oriental Studies (Now School of African and Oriental Studies), University of London, for which the Royal Asiatic Society had a representative on the Governing Body for many years. Material in these papers includes connections between the Royal Asiatic Society and the School for Oriental Studies, the University of Catania, Sicily, the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the University of Hong Kong, and the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford.

'Various methods of cheating practiced by Goldsmiths and their language' - a document listing ways in which a goldsmith may try to cheat a customer and the language they use to communicate between them. The document looks like an early draft for an article as it has many corrections.

A handwritten manuscript of Yādgār-i Cishtī by Noor Ahmad Chishti with an English colophon which states: 'Yādgār-i Chishti by Nur Ahmad Chishti Lahori. Autograph presented by the author in 1858 to Robert Eyles Egerton, then Deputy Commissioner of Lahore. A description of trades and castes in the Punjab.' The manuscript is written in Urdu with annotations. It has a leather binding decorated with flower patterns. However these are much faded and the general condition of the volume is poor.

A single loose leaf is found within the volume. This bears an inscription in Urdu, entitled, in English, 'Inscription on one of the guns in the Castle' and a further sentence identifying the date to 16 February 1754.