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' (Cambridge History of English Literature).

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.'

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.