I came across a copy of ‘Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo (volumes 1 and 2) written in 1842’ — by G.T. Vigne at maggsbros. Prices at over £1k, and, for now, just beyond my reach. George Thomas Vigne (1801–1863) was in many ways the archetype of the early Victorian gentleman traveller: part explorer, part amateur geographer, part imperial enthusiast. In the 1830s, he made his way across Kashmir, Ladakh, Baltistan, and along the mountain-courses of the Indus, charting landscapes and peoples largely unknown — or rather, unrecorded — by European writers. His book opens, tellingly, with “Observations on Afghanistan,” at a time when British anxieties about Russian expansion were turning the region into an imperial chessboard. Vigne wrote not merely to entertain Victorian drawing rooms with tales of the “exotic East,” but also to provide information useful for Britain’s expanding strategic interests. Although never officially part of the East India Company, his travels fed directly into ...