Described sometimes as the first travel guide to India, this is actually an encyclopaedic reference work on every imaginable subject that the new East India Company staff members - civil or military - would wish to know. Subjects, each treated expertly and in some depth, are wide-ranging, covering matters social, economic, religious, mercantile, legal, agricultural and military.

Reilley's work is a typical example of dance manuals published during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Whereas previous manuals often had many pages devoted to etiquette and deportment, Reilley devotes but two paragraphs, noting that he was leaving the rest to the "good sense and nature" of his readers. The manual provides an extensive history of dance from the Greeks and Romans to the courts of Italy and France to the dances of aboriginal American Indians. Demonstrating the century's growing interest in physical education, Reilley provides a detailed section on exercise. The manual gives descriptions of the popular ballroom dances of the era--quadrilles, waltz, schottisch, and polka.