Tour in Scotland

Thomas PENNANT

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Tour in Scotland
Tour in Scotland

“HE’S THE BEST TRAVELER I EVER READ” (SAMUEL JOHNSON): PENNANT’S SECOND SCOTTISH TOUR, ILLUSTRATED WITH 44 ENGRAVED PLATES

(SCOTLAND) (PENNANT, Thomas). A Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides; MDCCLXXII. Chester: Printed by John Monk, 1774. Octavo, modern three-quarter polished brown calf gilt, raised bands, green morocco spine label.

First edition of the first part of Pennant’s second Scottish tour, illustrated with engraved vignette title page and 44 full-page copper-engraved plates (30 folding), handsomely bound.

Of Pennant—whose first tour of Scotland preceded his own by four years—Samuel Johnson said, “He’s the best traveler I ever read; he observes more things than anyone else does.” “Motivated by favourable critical reaction to his 1769 Tour, by the fact that his first Scottish work made no mention of the Hebrides and, as he tells us, ‘in order to render more complete, my preceding tour: and to allay that species of restlessness that infects many minds, on leaving any attempt unfinished’, Pennant undertook a second tour of Scotland in 1772… [It] was more meticulously organized than the 1769 tour, which had been a largely impromptu event, though both involved the use of pre-circulated queries and advance notices in the Scottish press of Pennant’s intentions. In 1772 he was accompanied by travelling companions, each with particular skills… It is best understood as a complement to his earlier Scottish work and the culmination of a longer enterprise designed to describe and understand Scotland” (DNB). Plate IV bound following page 68 rather than page 60 as called for. Sometimes found with the second part, which was not published until two years later in London. Cox II:24. Lowndes, 1823. Allibone, 1553.

Scattered light foxing. Small marginal closed tear to leaf [2N4]. A very nearly fine copy, handsomely bound.

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