ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the linguistic form and the circumstances of production, in addition to the content, and links these to modes of perception. It also focuses on the distinct practices of perception as performed by a range of writers who documented what they saw by writing it down. The book presents a method — language as perceptual evidence — by taking advantage of the tensions between language and perception, as a result of which each reveals more about the other than about itself. British architecture, both in terms of style as well as its social standing, was changed profoundly through influences from the Continent and particularly Italy with its classical heritage. Travellers have long relied on guidebooks to direct both their physical movement through, and intellectual engagement with, foreign lands.
