Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights the very powerful motives for travel in northern and central Europe alongside analysis of how and why itineraries through these regions evolved during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It outlines the centrality of London, Edinburgh and Leith as destinations for European and British elite travellers. The book analyses the early-seventeenth century birth of a Gallocentric culture of instructive travel. It adopts an innovative approach to the subject of travel by placing it in the context of familial strategy. The book provides a unique insight into travel behaviour of young Bohemian noblemen. It discusses the rise in journeys for pleasure, which were undertaken by a much wider range of travellers, and draws attention to the increasingly sophisticated infrastructure that evolved to support the popularity of such leisured travel. The book undertakes a valuable exploration of the under-conceptualised field of children’s travel.