Pennant, THOMAS, traveller, was born of a good old Welsh family at Downing, near Holywell, Flintshire, 14th June 1726, and was educated at Wrexham, Fulham, and Hadley. In 1744 he went up to Queen's College, Oxford, but he left without taking a degree, having meanwhile, in 1746, ridden down into Cornwall—the first of his many tours. These included visits to Ireland (1754); the Continent (1765), where he made the acquaintance of Buffon and Voltaire; Scotland (1769 and 1772), which 'was then,' he says, 'almost as unknown as Kamchatka, but ever since has been inondée with southern visitants;' and the Isle of Man (1774), besides rambles through England and his native principality. He married twice, in 1759 and 1777; was made member of the Royal Society of Upsala, an F.R.S., and a D.C.L. of Oxford; and died at Downing, 16th December 1798.
From boyhood a naturalist, for years a correspondent of Linnæus, Pennant published British Zoology (1765-77), British Quadrupeds (1771), Arctic Zoology (1785), History of London (1790), &c.; but to-day he is chiefly remembered by his Tours in Scotland (3 vols. 1771-75) and Wales (2 vols. 1778-81), the former of which works extorted from Johnson the admission: 'He's a Whig, sir, a sad dog; but he's the best traveller I ever read; he observes more things than any one else does.'
See the amusing Literary Life of the late Thomas Pennant, Esq., by Himself (1793), and the memoir prefixed to Professor Rhys's edition of the Tours in Wales (3 vols. Carnarvon, 1883).