The diary describes Laing's journey through Bombay, Madras (from whence he visited Ceylon) and Calcutta. It ends at Mirzapore, 17 March 1874, on his return journey from a visit to Delhi. The text is on the right-hand pages. The left-hand side is either blank or has pictures, menus, programmes and other material stuck in, with miscellaneous additional information recorded in writing. There are 48 inserted albumen prints, as well as illustrations in colour of the Taj Mahal and of Indian decoration. The entries for 13-18 October 1873 are said to be 'described in previous Diary'.

The albumen prints are stuck into left hand pages; they are in generally good condition, though there is some staining at edges due to unskilled sticking in the volume. No photographer is indicated; they were presumably professional prints purchased by Laing, though Plate 16, showing him with two friends, was specially taken. In some cases the buildings shown indicate that the photographs were recent ones (e.g. Plates 19, 21); Plate 14 was certainly taken before 1868. The following listing is based on the captions and other material in Laing's diary, with some later information. The captions have been used as titles and may include language which is offensive, inaccurate or inappropriate. Titles created by the cataloguer are enclosed in square brackets. They have been retained to reflect the context of the collection's creation. The numbers in brackets are the pages of the diary on which the print appears.