Daniel Defoe is
best known as the author of Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719. However between
1724 and 1726 he published the three volume work, A tour
thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or
journies. This is a superb and detailed account of what Great Britain
was like on the eve of the industrial and agricultural revolutions, written in
a matter-of-fact style that comes over as surprisingly modern.
The three volumes are written in the form of 13 "letters", each
describing a tour undertaken by Defoe. Volume 3, which was
first published in 1726, contains Letters 8-13, covering northern England and
Scotland. The full texts of Letters 11-13 are reprinted here, which together
cover Scotland: alongside Defoe's introduction to the
Scottish section. They can be accessed using the drop-down menu above.
Like other eBooks whose texts are reproduced on Undiscovered
Scotland, A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain,
divided into circuits or journies. is long out of copyright. What sets
the Undiscovered Scotland version apart is the cross linking between the text
of the book and geographical and biographical features elsewhere on the site,
allowing the reader to explore beyond the text itself, finding out more about
the places and people mentioned.
