[Extra-Illustrated] A tour in Scotland; MDCCLXIX [1769]

Warrington: Printed by W. Eyres, 1774. Early Printing. Full Calf. Near Fine+. First Quarto Edition (third overall, with considerable additions and corrections and a new appendix), extra-Illustrated, with engraved title page and 39 full-page copper plates (many folding), only 21 of which are enumerated in the list of plates. (According to Powell, "All the plates of the preceding editions were suppressed and a new set, twenty-one in number, substituted," drawn by Moses Griffith.) 4to (228 x 172mm): xiii, [1], 388, [2]pp; without final advertisement leaf for Benjamin White present in some copies. One of two quarto editions with slightly differing paginations published by Eyres in 1774. Period calf, skillfully rebacked, spine in six compartments between gilt-ruled raised bands, title gilt direct to second compartment. End papers renewed, offsetting from plates, the odd spot or grubby mark, else tightly bound and clean and bright throughout, an excellent wide-margined copy. ESTC Citation No. T113910. Cox III, pp. 21-22. Powell, "The Tours of Thomas Pennant," The Library (Fourth Series), Vol. XIX, No. 2 (September, 1938), pp 131-39. Pennant's tour of Scotland preceded Dr. Johnson's by four years. He is often considered the leading British zoologist, after John Ray and before Charles Darwin. But he was also an inveterate traveler who, In 1769, undertook this tour, chiefly of the highlands, then little known by outsiders yet of interest for its natural history, as well for its antiquities, historical and literary associations, and scenery. A Tour in Scotland, 1769, first published in 1771, "is of interest for its descriptions and for its method: Pennant circulated ‘Queries, addressed to the Gentlemen and Clergy of North-Britain' [Scotland] with standard questions about natural history and the past and present state of the parish in order to allow locals to give ‘a fuller and more satisfactory Account of their Country, than it is the Power of a Stranger and transient Visitant to give.' In that regard, Pennant has much in common with the earlier use of circulated queries by natural philosophers such as Robert Boyle and, in Scotland, by the natural historian and geographer Sir Robert Sibbald, and Pennant importantly prefigures the parish-based assessment of Scotland published by Sir John Sinclair in the 1790s." (ODNB) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).