BUFFON (Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de). Natural History, General and Particular, by the Count de Buffon, Illustrated with above Six Hundred Copper Plates... A new edition, carefully corrected and considerably enlarged, by many additional articles, notes, and plates, and some account of the life of M. De Buffon by William Wood.1812

London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, New edition, 20 vols., (complete), 8vo (209 x 128 mm), engraved frontispiece portrait, 2 folding maps and 678 engraved plates, occasional single spot, light browning or offsetting, but generally very clean, contemporary mottled calf gilt, flat spines tooled with green and black gilt morocco lettering labels, a few joints neatly refurbished, an attractive set with a distinguished provenance. Provenance: John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon (1751-1838), circular bookplate and ink name "Eldon" on front free endpapers of each volume. Eldon served twice as Lord Chancellor, in this role being responsible for refusing the poet Shelley custody of his children. Shelley immortalised his nemesis in his poem "The Masque of Anarchy", with the lines "Next came Fraud, and he had on/Like Eldon, an ermined gown".