ABSTRACT
The eighteenth century was a crucial period in the development of both British and Scottish national identities after the parliamentary union of 1707. Travel accounts testify that one of Scotland’s central attractions in this period was the idea of North Britain as a dynamic place in the process of modernization. In many ways Scotland’s image was more progressive in the eighteenth century than anytime since. John Carr’s 1809 account of his trip to Scotland began with a grateful acknowledgment that Britain was ‘favored by Heaven and fortified by nature against the political storms that rage around us'. Travelers also constructed themselves as necessary agents in bringing to light the values of North Britain’s scenery. In Scotland, ordinary British citizens, without even leaving their own national state, could know the thrill of stepping into an unknown region, an experience restricted only to those able to venture far from home.
