PENNANT, THOMAS (1726-1798), naturalist and antiquary, was descended from an old Welsh family, who for many generations had resided at Downing, Flintshire, where he was born 14th June 1726. He received his early education at Wrexham and Fulham, and afterwards attended Queen's and Oriel Colleges, Oxford, but did not take a degree. At twelve years of age he was inspired with a passion for natural history through obtaining a present of Wihlughby's Ornithology ; and a tour in Cornwall in 1746-47 after leaving Oxford awakened his strong interest in minerals and fossils. In 1750 his account of an earthquake which he felt at Downing was inserted in the Philosophical Transactions, where there also appeared in 1756 a paper on several coralloid bodies lie had collected at Coalbrook Dale, Shropshire. In the following year, at the instance of Linnaeus, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Upsala. In 1766 he published a folio volume entitled British Zoology. The work is meritorious rather as a laborious compilation than as an original contribution to science, but that it served a good purpose is evidenced by the number of editions (see ORNITHOLOGY, p. 9 above) through which it passed. During its progress he visited the Continent and made the acquaintance of Buffon, Voltaire, Haller, and Pallas. In 1771 was published his Synopsis of Quadrupeds, afterwards extended into a History of Quadrupeds. At the end of the same year he published A Tour in ,S'cotland in 176.9, which proving remarkably popular was followed in 1774 by an account of another journey in Scotland published in two volumes, afterwards distinguished as the second and third Tour. In these works he manifested the rare faculty of investing with interest details of antiquarian lore, while they have also proved invaluable as preserving the record of important antiquarian relics which have now perished. In 1778 he brought out a similar Tour in Dales, which was followed by a Journey to Snowdon (part i. 1781, part ii. 1783), afterwards forming the second volume of the Tour. In 1782 he published a Journey from Chester to London. He brought out Arctic Zoology in 1785-87. In 1790 appeared his Account of London., which has gone through a large number of editions, and has justly been termed "the most popular book ever written on the subject." Three years later he published the Literary Life of time late T. Pennant, written by himself. In his later years he was engaged on a work entitled Outlines of the Globe, vols. i. and ii. of which appeared in 1798, and vols. iii. and iv., edited by his son David Pennant, in 1800. He was also the author of a number of minor works, some of which were published posthumously. He died at Downing 16th December 1798. Pennant was in 1767 elected a member of the Royal Society, and he was a member of many other learned societies, both home and foreign. In 1771 Ile received the degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford.