A handsome set of this classic of both natural history and English literature—still one of the most readable of the world's great books. The work is richly illustrated by several of the great illustrators of the Edwardian era, including the famous bird-artist John Gerrard Keulemans.

A handsome set of this classic of both natural history and English literature—still one of the most readable of the world's great books. The work is richly illustrated by several of the great illustrators of the Edwardian era, including the famous bird-artist John Gerrard Keulemans.

First published in 1789, the main book takes the form of a series of letters to the natural historian Thomas Pennant and the antiquary Daines Barrington, giving a remarkable account of the special habits of the animals he observed. The work "holds a unique position in English literature as the solitary classic of natural history… an invaluable record of the life work of a simple and refined man who succeeded in picturing himself as well as what he saw. The reader is carried along by his interest in the results of far-sighted observation; but, more than this, the reader imbibes the spirit of the writer which pervades the whole book and endears it to like-minded naturalists as a valued companion" (CHEL).

This two-volume work also includes another of White's most cherished projects, the Naturalist's Kalendar, first published in 1795, two years after the author's death. He described the work as "somewhat of a Natural History of my native parish, an Annus Historio-Naturalis, comprising a journal for one whole year, and illustrated with large notes and observations." Today it is a remarkable testament to the slow accretion of climate changes with White's recorded dates for many seasonal events varying romt today;s by often a matter of weeks or months.

This is the large-paper edition, limited to 160 copies, of which this is number 14. The work is signed by the editor and artists: Bowdler Sharpe, J.G. Keulemans, Herbert Railton, and Edmund J. Sullivan.