Scientific and medical texts represented a small percentage of all titles published in eighteenth-century Britain. Yet, this literature contributed greatly to both the progress of the Enlightenment and the establishment of natural knowledge in British culture. The commercial histories of scientific and medical books share some common characteristics, but their cultural roles tended to be quite different. More often than not, medical books were written by medical practitioners and read by students preparing for medical careers. In contrast, writers of scientific books often earned their livings in occupations that typically had no direct relationship to the subject of their work, while their readers generally did no. anticipate using the knowledge gained from their study to earn money. At the high end of the market for scientific and medical works were those books published in large format with multiple illustrations.

This chapter indicates who was composing or compiling travel writing, how much of it was produced, who was reading it, and how travel writers, publishers and readers shaped British culture between 1695 and 1830. In this period of significant transition, ideas about exactly what constituted travel writing offered creative possibilities for writers of both fact and fiction. The engagement of so many talented writers with the genre helped make travel writing acceptable to a wide range of readers. A number of influential commentators stressed the innocence of the travel account relative to other genres, especially the novel, and agreed that armchair travel could provide the benefits of travel, without the expense, discomforts or possible corruptions of leaving home. Travel writing, by repeatedly confirming readers' own practices or by allowing them to pride themselves on freedom from prejudice whenever they conceded to another country or culture any admirable qualities, endorsed Englishness as the norm.