ABSTRACT
Before considering individual authors it is essential to consider the religious background of the early British travellers in India. The earliest, Terry, Lord and Herbert, were Christian priests. Those who followed, if not themselves devout Christians, were nevertheless influenced by that religion. There was an additional factor in the case of some of the early British travellers, because they were Protestants. After the Christian Reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Protestants had been brought up with certain fundamental convictions. In the second half of the eighteenth century there was an intellectual interest in Hinduism, both in Britain and Europe. Voltaire and a number of French authors attempted to use Hinduism to refute Christianity. All remarks about Lord must be prefaced by the comment that some, at least, of his sources were not very good. The first traveller to be so influenced was John Henry Grose in 1750.
