The history of England from the invasion of Julius Caesar to the revolution in 1688

David Hume's work first appeared between 1754 and 1761. The edition in which the plates in these two volumes appeared was published by subscription in regularly issued parts between 1793 and 1806, with the 1806 date appearing on the printed title-pages supplied by the publisher. The prints were based on works commissioned by Robert Bowyer for Hume's History and exhibited in his Historic Gallery (at 82 Pall Mall). This compilation of the 197 plates from this edition lacks all the letterpress elements. The plates comprise portraits, historical and emblematic plates engraved mainly after Robert Smirke, P. J. de Loutherbourg and Thomas Stothard, together with some after Henry Tresham, John Opie, William Hamilton, Francis Wheatley, Benjamin West, et al. It includes, in Vol. I, the portrait frontispiece of David Hume after Allan Ramsay and the two engraved dedication leaves (one to King George III and one to the 'Legislature of Great Britain'). Vol. I of this set contains 87 plates and Vol. II, 110 plates.

Filed loosely in the front of Vol. 1 is a handwritten list in ink of the plates in that volume (not including the frontispiece and dedication leaves). Accompanying that list are two pencil sketches of figures.