Enlightenment Travel and British Identities: Thomas Pennant's Tours of Scotland and Wales

by Mary-Ann Constantine (Editor), Nigel Leask (Editor)

Overview

‘Weaving together science, history, antiquarianism and art, this stimulating collection of essays amply demonstrates Thomas Pennant’s centrality to a broad range of British Enlightenment debates and discourses, especially those relating to Britain’s so-called “Celtic Fringe”. At the same time, it underscores the epistemological importance of travel and travel writing in the late eighteenth century.’
—Carl Thompson, Senior Lecturer in English, St Mary’s University, UK

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781783086535
Publisher:	Anthem Press
Publication date:	04/15/2017
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Mary-Ann Constantine is Reader at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. The author of The Truth against the World: Iolo Morganwg and Romantic Forgery (2007), Constantine has written widely on the Romantic period in Wales and Brittany.

Nigel Leask is Regius Chair in English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow as well as a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is the author of Robert Burns and Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland (2010), which won the Saltire Prize for best research monograph in 2010.

Table of Contents

List of Figures; List of Contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Introduction: Thomas Pennant, Curious Traveller, Mary- Ann Constantine and Nigel Leask; Chapter 1. ‘A Round Jump from Ornithology to Antiquity’: The Development of Thomas Pennant’s Tours, R. Paul Evans; Part I. History, Antiquities, Literature; Chapter 2. Thomas Pennant: Some Working Practices of an Archaeological Travel Writer in Late Eighteenth- Century Britain, C. Stephen Briggs; Chapter 3. Heart of Darkness: Thomas Pennant and Roman Britain, Mary- Ann Constantine; Chapter 4. Constructing Identities in the Eighteenth Century: Thomas Pennant and the Early Medieval Sculpture of Scotland and England, Jane Hawkes; Chapter 5. Shaping a Heroic Life: Thomas Pennant on Owen Glyndwr, Dafydd Johnston; Chapter 6. ‘The First Antiquary of His Country’: Robert Riddell’s Extra- Illustrated and Annotated Volumes of Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Scotland, Ailsa Hutton and Nigel Leask; Chapter 7. ‘A Galaxy of the Blended Lights’: The Reception of Thomas Pennant, Elizabeth Edwards; Part II. Natural History and the Arts; Chapter 8. ‘As If Created by Fusion of Matter after Some Intense Heat’: Pioneering Geological Observations in Thomas Pennant’s Tours of Scotland, Tom Furniss; Chapter 9. Geological Landscape as Antiquarian Ruin: Banks, Pennant and the Isle of Staffa, Allison Ksiazkiewicz; Chapter 10. Pennant, Hunter, Stubbs and the Pursuit of Nature, Helen McCormack; Chapter 11. Pennant’s Legacy: The Popularization of Natural History in Nineteenth- Century Wales through Botanical Touring and Observation; Caroline R. Kerkham; Short Bibliography of Thomas Pennant’s Tours in Scotland and Wales; Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

‘Enlightenment Travel and British Identities shows why Thomas Pennant was more than a “curious traveller”, revealing his literary, scientific and antiquarian concerns. Enriching our understanding of Pennant’s Scottish and Welsh tours and how travel made truth, these engaging essays illuminate the making of historical identities in an age of intellectual reform.’
—Charles W. J. Withers, Ogilvie Chair of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK

‘This important and thought-provoking volume persuasively argues the case for a multidisciplinary approach to Pennant. Together the essays offer a fresh and subtly nuanced reading of the writings of this influential traveller and his significant contribution to home tour narratives of regional and national identity in the late eighteenth century.’
—Zoe Kinsley, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Department of English, Liverpool Hope University, UK

‘Weaving together science, history, antiquarianism and art, this stimulating collection of essays amply demonstrates Thomas Pennant’s centrality to a broad range of British Enlightenment debates and discourses, especially those relating to Britain’s so-called “Celtic Fringe”. At the same time, it underscores the epistemological importance of travel and travel writing in the late eighteenth century.’
—Carl Thompson, Senior Lecturer in English, St Mary’s University, UK

‘No one did more to map the British cultural imaginary of Scotland and Wales than Thomas Pennant, and this landmark collection details the magnitude of his wide-ranging achievement. Enlightenment Travel will be indispensable for anyone interested in Pennant or the rise of domestic tourism as shaping forces of cultural historiography, scientific enquiry and national identity.’
—Benjamin Colbert, Reader in English Literature, Faculty of Arts, University of Wolverhampton, UK

Editorial Reviews

Journal of Historical Geography

The essays in this collection reflect and bring to life the variety of topics to be found in Pennant's 'Tours', and his treatment of them. Appropriately, given that visual depiction as well as written description was very important to Pennant, this volume is well illustrated in relevant chapters, with reproductions from the 'Tours' and other contemporary images.
—Edward Cole, 'Journal of Historical Geography' 60 (2018) 100–113.

With contributions from scholars working in the fields of literature, history, archeology, art history, and history of science, the collection makes a strong case for Pennant’s importance to late eighteenth- century Britain in a variety of areas.
—Katherine Hedane Grenier, The Citadel, Eighteenth-Century Scotland (the annual newsletter of ECSSS)

From the Publisher