Collecting the New, Rare and Curious

Mineral collectors made a significant contribution to the development of mineralogy as a science and the rich variety of specimens found in the South West of England enabled Cornish collectors to play a significant part in this process. This volume contains 168 letters selected from the correspondence of three eighteenth-century Cornishmen - Philip Rashleigh, the Reverend William Gregor, and John Hawkins - with other British and European researchers. It illustrates the motives of collectors and