My purpose in this essay is to give an account of Paganini's two visits to Scotland in 1831 and 1833, and to proceed from there to a consideration of his impact upon that country and also of the reverse impact of Scotland upon him. I introduce Mendelssohn and Turner into the picture for purposes of comparison, although the great violinist is here my central concern. As may be expected, Scottish audiences, like Viennese, French and English audiences, were rapturous in their adulation and enthusiasm, repeated copiously in the press and in memoirs of the time; but of Paganini's impressions of Scotland we have regrettably little information. This is all the more unfortunate since Scottish landscape and literature held a particular place in general esteem at that time, which makes the fact of two Scottish tours materially different—or potentially so—from his tours elsewhere in Europe.

For the facts of his first Scottish tour I am indebted to Geraldine de Courcy's copious biography in which the main events are carefully set out. I am able to add some circumstantial details from the Scottish press and from contemporary documents. For the second tour, de Courcy gives no information, and her list of concerts in the Chronology of Nicolo Paganini's Life (Wiesbaden, 1961) is incomplete.

The Scots' failed attempt to restore the Stuarts to the British throne in 1745 and the stern repression that followed had a momentous impact on Scottish culture.