A family affair

: the Scott family's European travels in the early nineteenth century

Abstract

In September 1817 Harriet Scott and Hugh Scott of Harden, from Kelso, Berwickshire, travelled with their family to the European continent searching for warmer climes and cultural refinement for their seven children. They stayed abroad for a year, returning to Scotland in September 1818. The focus of this study lies on four aspects: family travel as a neglected research category, the significance of age and generation in travel, a re-evaluation of British travel in post-Napoleonic Europe, and the inclusion of manuscript source material. Family travel changes the perspective on both travel itself and British society in the early nineteenth century. It redefines the question who travelled and moves this activity into the midst of post-Napoleonic European society. Family provides a particularly intense form of familiarity, and travel for education within a family setting puts a new spin on the Grand Tour idea of travel as education away from familial boundaries and sensitivities. The family aspect provides a naturally occurring setting for travellers of different ages in direct comparison and reflects on a society in which families had access to travel and considered it a valuable pastime for all ages. The shift in generation within the Scott family coincides with a shift in century – from eighteenth-century Harriet and Hugh Scott to their nineteenth-century children. The study argues that the timeframe between 1815 and 1830 was not a mere continuation of the eighteenth or a component of the nineteenth century. Instead, it formed its own entity, a period of characteristics not to be found in the same way before or after, which was reflected in the Scott family’s approach to travel. The use of previously neglected manuscript material opens up new points of view on the personal experience of travel, apart from a grand narrative that often accompanies published travelogues.

Date of Award	30 Jul 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Bernhard Struck (Supervisor)