Pennants Works: Tour in Wales; Genera of Birds; Arctic Zoology; Chester to London; Tour in Scotland; Indian Zoology; History of London; Whiteford and Holywell; Downing to Alston-Moor; London to the Isle of Wight.

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The Greatest Welsh Travel Writer of the Eighteenth Century. A Fine Set of Ten Works by Pennant. 14 quarto volumes, with numerous plates (three hand coloured) and five large folding maps. A very attractive set uniformly bound, with some variations in height and width, in contemporary diced Russia with gilt ruled borders, spine compartments richly gilt, gilt spine lettering, marbled endpapers. Seven volumes have been expertly rebacked retaining the original spines,. Scattered foxing and offsetting. Old annotations to the lower margin of Yy2 in Chester to London, tear to lower margin of Ii4 of first volume of Tour in Wales. From the library of Baron Tweedmouth & A & E Seale. Comprising of the following titles: A Tour in Wales. London: Henry Hughs, 1778. Two volumes. First edition with sixty-nine full-page engravings (twelve folding) Genera of Birds. London: B. White, 1781. Second and best edition with sixteen plates. Arctic Zoology. London: Henry Hughs, 1784-87. Three volumes in two. First edition with twenty-four plates and two folding maps. The Journey from Chester to London. London: B. White, 1782. First edition with twenty-two plates. A Tour in Scotland. London: B. White, 1790. Three volumes. Fifth edition with 130 plates and a folding map. Indian Zoology. London: Henry Hughs, 1790. Second edition with seventeen plates. Bound with: The Literary Life of Thomas Pennant. London: B. & J. White, 1793. First edition with two plates (one hand-coloured). History of London. London: Robert Faulder, 1791. Second edition with frontispiece portrait, folding view and thirteen plates. The History of the Parishes of Whiteford and Holywell. London: B. & J. White, 1796. First edition with twenty-three plates. A Tour from Downey to Alston-Moor. London: Oriental Press, 1801. First edition with thirty-six plates. A Journey from London to the Isle of Wight. London: Oriental Press, 1801. Two volumes in one. First edition (large paper issue) with forty-seven plates and two folding colour maps. Plate for Chillingworth substituted with one for Harvey. Overall, an exceptionally attractive set. A fine, representative set of Pennant's works, which includes the highlights of his diverse interests. Thomas Pennant (1726-1798) made good use of his pen as a natural historian, topographer, antiquary, and scientist. Pennant oversaw every aspect of the publication of his work, even personally selecting illustrators. His powers of observation as a naturalist were used to equal effect as a traveller and he is regarded as the greatest Welsh travel writer of the eighteenth century. Johnson proclaimed him "the best traveller I ever read; he observes more things than anyone else does" (DNB). Besides his Tours, he published widely on natural history subjects from all over the world, gathering information from a number of primary sources which, as a highly respected member of the London scientific community, he was well paced to do. The sheer scope of his endeavour is truly remarkable. The Genera of Birds, a systematic listing of ninety-five species according to the Linnean system of classification, is a model of its kind. Called the 'leading zoologist and antiquary of his time' (Whittell), he met Joseph banks in 1766; they formed a friendship that took them on many excursions. It was Banks who gave Pennant the Australian birds which were in his collection when John Latham described them. In 1790, Latham named Psittacus pennanti in Pennant's honour.