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.
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