Author: BORLASE, William.
Title: The Natural History of Cornwall
Date: 1758
Price: GBP £ 1,800
Book Code:

BORLASE, William.

The Natural History of Cornwall: The Air, Climate, Waters, Rivers, Lakes,Sea and Tides; of the Stones, Semimetals, Metals, Tin, and the Manner ofMining; the Constitution of the Stannaries; Iron, Copper, Silver, Lead,and Gold, Found in Cornwall; Vegetables, Rare Birds, Fishes, Shells,Reptiles, and Quadrupeds; of the Inhabitants, their Manners, Customs,etc... Printed for the author by W. Jackson, Oxford: 1758.Folio,full tan calf gilt, xix, 326, (2) pp.with 28 engraved plates, large folding map; leaf of errata and directions to the binder.

William Borlase(1695-1772), English antiquary and naturalist, was born at Pendeen in Cornwall, of an ancient family.

He was educated at Exeter, Oxford, and in 1719 was ordained. In 1722 he was presented to the rectory of Ludgvan, and in 1732 he obtained in addition the vicarage of St Just, his native parish. In the parish of Ludgvan were rich copper works, abounding with mineral and metallic fossils, of which he made a collection, and thus was led to study somewhat minutely the natural history of the county.

In 1750 he was admitted a fellow of the Royal Society; and, in 1754, he published, at Oxford, his Antiquities of Cornwall (2nd ed., London, 1769). His next publication was Observations on the Ancient and Present State of the Islands of Scilly, and their Importance to the Trade of Great Britain (Oxford, 1756). In 1758 appeared his Natural History of Cornwall.

He presented to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, a variety of fossils and antiquities, which he had described in his works, and received the thanks of the university and the degree of LL.D. Borlase was well acquainted with most of the leading literary men of the time, particularly with Alexander Pope, with whom he kept up a long correspondence, and for whose grotto at Twickenham he furnished the greater part of the fossils and minerals.