Arriving in Aberdeen in 1773, Samuel Johnson addresses his readers, the inhabitants of ‘our own island’:

For Johnson, the phrase ‘our own island’ does not denote equality of national belonging among a modern, educated readership. Scotland may as well be ‘a newly discovered coast’ for the majority of his readers, but it can be rescued from its state of primitive obscurity by ‘the solemnity of geographical description.’ The work of geography, then, will reveal not only Scotland's place in the Union but also its emergence, or discovery, as part of the modern, civilised world, here represented by the reassuring information that Aberdeen is legally regulated. It is through geography, in Johnson's mind, that Scotland can be understood as part of a national narrative and given form and function within British history.