How Others See Us: Writing About Scotland

With such a diasporic heritage, it is no wonder that Scots have written volumes about foreign parts. But what have others had to say about Scotland? English writer, journalist and spy Daniel Defoe was sent to Edinburgh in 1706 to help prepare the the Scots for the 1707 Act of Union. His account of his travels across Scotland and the UK was published as A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain in 1726 (see also Defoe in Scotland: A Spy Among Us). He was not particularly flattering about Scotland, but he admits the possibility of improvement:

(Contrast this with an earlier passage: "From this bridge we enter upon a most desolate, and, in winter, a most frightful moor for travellers... was but a poor reception for Scotland to give her neighbours".)

Perhaps the most famous account of travelling in Scotland is Dr Samuel Johnson's A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland. Johnson was persuaded, at the age of 63, to travel to the Scottish Hebrides by his friend James Boswell. Boswell, 30 years Johnson's junior, also wrote his account of their travels, and together they are collectively known as the Journey to the Hebrides.

Johnson was willing to travel, and to see a different way of life, but, like Defoe, he carried his own prejudices.

A Journey... was first published in 1773 to great acclaim. It was a time of change in the Highlands and Islands, following the Jacobite rebellion and the subsequent suppression of Highland ways, the Gaelic language, and the beginnings of the Romanticisation of 'Scotland'.

Like Defoe, Johnson saw 'potential' in the Scots, but also, on the island of Raasay:

Johnson's companion, James Boswell, was an Edinburgh man well travelled throughout Europe and was an acquaintance of Voltaire and Rousseau, and had made a pilgrimage to Rome. Before A Journey..., he was recognised for his Account of Corsica in 1768; afterwards, he became most famous for his biography of Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson.

The early romantic image of the Scots Highlanders suggested in A Journey... blossomed in the Victorian era, with Queen Victoria leading the way. Inspired in part by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott, she made three tours of Scotland before, in 1848, purchasing and rebuilding Balmoral Castle in Royal Deeside. Queen Victoria wrote of her travels in her diary, Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in The Highlands from 1848 to 1861. She came to Scotland for the landscape and the solitude, but she also appreciated the people she met en route:

For a wider discussion on Queen Victoria in Scotland, see On The Trail of Queen Victoria in the Highlands by Andy Wightman.

In the early twentieth century, England's HV Morton was one of the most prolific and popular journalists and travel writers. His In Search of Scotland and its sequel In Search of Scotland Again was very popular in the 1920s and 30s. His entertaining anecdotes include 'the most grotesque signpost in the British Isles':

The Chinese writer, calligrapher, artist and poet Chiang Yee spent many years travelling in Europe and America, and wrote under the name 'The Silent Traveller'. The Silent Traveller in Edinburgh is a lyrical book of art, poetry and peace written during the Second World War. He was 'dazzled' by Edinburgh, despite the wartime shortages, and Silent Traveller in Edinburgh is perhaps the best loved of his many travel books.