Fanny Parkes

[citation needed] Parks wrote two volumes on her time travelling through India on horseback and befriending people around her, while learning Persian, Hindustani and Urdu.

Clashing with the lack of respect for Indian culture commonly found in Europe, she described natural beauty in Delhi and Benares, and fascinating dress and cuisine.

[citation needed] The memoirs were published as Wanderings of a Pilgrim in Search of the Picturesque during four and twenty years in the East with Revelations of Life in the Zenana (Pelham Richardson, 1850).

Iris Portal referred to Parks as a "kindred spirit" because of her curious writing style and the fact that her book expresses an open-minded approach to Indian customs.

[citation needed] In 1851 she invested money, organised and wrote the catalogue of the "Grand moving diorama of Hindostan, from Fort William, Bengal, to Gangoutri in the Himalaya", which was displayed at the "Asiatic Gallery, Baker Street Bazar, Portman Square.