A Narrative of the British Embassy to China in the Years 1792, 1793, and 1794: Containing the Various Circumstances of the Embassy, with Accounts of Customs and Manners of the Chinese and a Description of the Country, Towns, Cities &c. &c

News of Lord Macartney's embassy, the first British diplomatic mission to China, caused much excitement in Britain. Publishers were naturally keen to rush accounts into print as soon as possible and the present narrative, by Macartney's valet, was the first book describing the embassy to appear. It went through several editions, indicative of widespread popular interest, even if scholars and other writers consider that it lacks the gravitas of the authorised account published by Staunton in 1797, three years after the embassy's return.