Portland] 
BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY 
477 
of Christ Church in Oxford. | [Quot. 3 lines] | Yol. I. [-III.] | 
Exeter., | Printed by Trewman and son, | for Cadell, Johnson, 
and Dilly, London. | m.dcc.xcvii[-m.dccc.vi]. 
Short Collation — 3 vols. folio. Birds at Vol. I. pp. 101-12. 
1816. The | History of Cornwall | Civil, Military, Beligious, Architectural, 
Agricultural, | Commercial, Biographical and Miscellaneous. | 
A new edition, corrected and enlarged. In seven volumes. | 
By the Rev. R. Polwhele of Polwhele, and Yicar of Manaccan 
and of St. Anthony. | London : | 1816. . 
Short Collation — 7 vols. 4to. A list of Cornish names of birds 
is found at p. 157 of Yol. I., and some observations at p. 126 
of Vol. IV. 
Portland (Margaret Cavendish, Duchess Dowager of), 
1715-85 
This lady, the only daughter and heiress of Edward 
Harley, second Earl of Oxford, was married in 1734 to 
William, second Duke of Portland ( 1709 - 62 ). She was a 
liberal patroness of “ Natural Knowledge and the Polite 
Arts,” and seems to have personally superintended the 
formation of the well-known museum which bore her name. 
“ Nothing,” we are told in the Preface to the undernoted 
Catalogue, “ is foisted into it from the Cabinets of others ; 
but every Subject here recorded came into her Possession, 
either by Inheritance, the Assistance of those who were 
honoured with her friendship, or by her own Purchase and 
Industry. . . .” “All the Three Kingdoms of Nature, the 
Animal, Vegetable, and Fossil, were comprehended in her 
Researches.” In the formation of her collections she 
employed the Swedish scientist, Dr. Solander ( ob . 1782 ), and 
her museum seems to have been much frequented by the 
naturalists of her time. Latham made use of the specimens 
of birds in the preparation of his great ornithological works, 
and Lewin drew many of his plates, more especially those of 
the eggs of British birds, from examples in her cabinets, 
which contained, we are informed, “ A very fine and complete 
collection of near two hundred species of British Birds’ eggs, 
all arranged and named according to the Linnsean System ” 
(Lot 1443 ). The Portland Museum was chiefly devoted to 
