First published in 1964, this book focuses on the tour of Britain. Rather than looking at foreign tourists coming to Britain or British tourists travelling abroad, the primary focus of the book is to examine the British people who explored their native land in the three centuries from 1540 to 1840.
During this three hundred year period, it was a popular pastime for gentlemen to travel for weeks or even months around Britain, discovering their own country. The book describes both the pleasures and the hardships that these tourists endured. The book provides an account of the changing English landscape, the ever changing economy and the change in the concerns of these tourists throughout the period.
About the author:
Esther Moir read History at Cambridge before going to Leicester as the first research student in the newly established Department of English Local History, where she worked with W.G. Hoskins and H.P.R. Finberg.
Moir then returned to Newnham College as a Research Fellow, which allowed her access to valuable material in the University Library and the opportunity to travel further afield in search of unpublished material.
The book, however, had nothing to do with her PhD thesis or academic teaching. Instead it was the fruits of an enthusiasm that was well in advance of its time. Landscape study then scarcely existed; Moir was, in other words, a pioneer in a field that now claims great interest.
Find out more about the book, The Discovery of Britain, including a full contents listing, by visiting:
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415821841/
