Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/20

xii Doctor WILLIAM BORLASE more than meditated a parochial history, having made some collections towards it. If this design had been carried into execution, all further attempts might have been deemed superfluous.

His Antiquities and Natural History of Cornwall gave ample proof of the ability, the ingenuity, and of the diligence possessed by this excellent man, who had the deserved good fortune of being equally esteemed and admired, not by the neigh- bourhood alone, but by the most learned and scientific persons throughout Europe. The Antiquities were first published in 1754.

The second edition in 1769.

The Natural History in 1758. All in quarto.

Respecting the Natural History, it may be expedient to remind the reader, that in the last edition of Chambers's Encyclopaedia, four volumes of the largest size, with one volume of plates, printed in 1783, the very word Geology does not occur; and that some years later, chemical lectures were publicly given on the phlogistic theory of Becher and Stahl.

Mr. POLWHELE has published in seven parts, beginning with the date 1803, and ending with that of 1816, making in all two quarto volumes, of about 1200 pages, in small type, and abounding with notes and extracts in a type still smaller, an immense collection of matter relative to the anti- quities, the biography, the literature, the history military and civil, etc. of Cornwall; arranged under distinct heads, and enriched with prints of distin- guished persons, with figures of ancient castles,