126d Leigh, Charles. (1662-1701?) The Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak, in Derbyshire: with an Account of the British, Phœnician, Armenian, Gr. and Rom. Antiquities in those parts. By Charles Leigh, Doctor of Physick.

Oxford: Printed for the Author; and to be had at Mr. George West’s, and Mr. Henry Clement’s, Booksellers there; Mr. Edward Evet’s, at the Green-Dragon, in St. Paul’s Church-yard; and Mr. John Nicholson, at the King’s-Arms, in Little-Britain, London, 1700

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Folio, 8.6 x 13.6 in. First edition. π2, A2, a2, [a]1, b-c2, π5, ***2, B-Z2, Aa-Tt2, π6, A-Z2, Aa-Bb2, A-S2, [t]-[v]2, T-V2, π2, X-Z2, Aa-Oo2, Aaa-Ddd2. The illustrations in this book are magnificent. They consist of twenty-two full-paged engravings of fossils, caves, and other geological sites; a double-paged map with contemporary coloring; two pages of the arms of the subscribers; and a portrait of the author after Faithorne. This copy is bound in contemporary sprinkled panelled calf that has been rebacked. The spine has gilt lettering and floral decoration. The leaf edges are speckled and the pages themselves are in excellent condition and very clean.

Leigh, remembered primarily as a naturalist and a Fellow of the Royal Society, was a physician by profession. He published several works, “the most important of which is a Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak of Derbyshire.” (Thomas) The text of this volume is most intriguing; it is, all in one, a catalogue of antiquities, an archaeological survey, and a freak show. One of the author’s many goals is to demonstrate and prove, by producing artifacts and animals from far flung corners of the world, that a huge flood covered the whole earth and dislodged hippos from the home lands, planting them in the mud of Lancashire. The plates include ‘The devil’s arse,’ a woman with horns, Greek carved tablets, fossils, birds, skulls, and crustaceans.

Wing L-975