CONTENTS of VOL. I. FIRST Tour in Scotland, by Thomas Pennant, Efq. of Downing, in Flintfbire. Performed Second Tour in Scotland, and a Voyage to the He- 1772, 97 PREFACE. IT was long a reflection on the national IT tafle and judgment, that our people of fashion knew something, from ocular demonftration, of the general appearance of evety country in Europe, except their own. "PROXIMORUM INCURIOSI, LONGINQUA SECTAMUR*," might with justice be applied to the great majority of Britons, who, from fortune or talents, were qualified to travel to advantage, only half a century ago. Yet, in whatever light we regard the British Islands; whether as the cradle of liberty, the mother of arts and fciences, the nurfe of manufa&ures, the mistress of the *Plin. Epist. fea; or whether we contemplate their genial foil, their mild climate, their various natural and artificial curiofities, we fhall find no equal extent of territory, on the face of the globe, of more importance, or containing more attractions, even in the estimation of those who cannot be biased by native partiality. Roufed, at laft, from the lethargy of indifference about what was within their reach, and infpired with more patriotic notions than formerly, of the pleasure and utility of home travels, we have, of late years, seen some of our most enlightened countrymen, as eager to explore the remoteft parts of Britain, as they formerly were to cross the Channel, and to pass the Alps. Nor was mere amusement their only object in such perambulations and researches. While gratifying their own curiofity, or enlarging their own ideas, they appear to have been zealous to benefit and inform their country, by a close investigation of whatever could conduce to its intereft or its credit, its happiness or its peace. The natives of the three kingdoms have linked more clofely in the focial tie, by the inter course |