Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book demonstrates work with sources that provides the foundation for Innes's prominence among Scotland's intellectual elites and his wider reputation across Britain. More specifically it is the treatment of primary sources and ideological uses to which they were put, examined through the lens of Innes's varied and prolific career as an antiquary, which forms focus of the study. This is not, therefore, a book about Cosmo Innes per se. It investigates what Innes actually did with his sources, asks what he was trying to achieve, and assesses how successful was he in realising those ends. It uses those answers to shed further light on the role of past in shaping Scotland's self-image between 1825 and 1875. It re-examines the contention that the historical romanticism which bred powerful nationalisms elsewhere in Europe led only to the by-ways of sentimental nostalgia in Scotland.