0100,0100,0100Bill, You raise two points...does Verne accord a priviledged treatment to Scotland and the Scots, and secondly does his first visit to Scotland influence his fiction ?. I am far from being a literary critic nor have I read all of Verne's work but I think that the answer to both questions is yes. 1. His reverence for Scotland seems to be almost uncritical and contrasts sharply with his distaste for the English. Specifically he admires the bourgeois of Edinburgh,aristocratic "lairds" and the stereotypical Highlander. Glasgow impressesd him less and it is strange that he doesn't mention that by the time of his 1859 visit over 25% of the population was Irish making Glasgow a very atypical Scottish city. Nevertheless, Glasgow features much more in his novels than Edinburgh and I have theories why this should be so.His only criticisms of Scotland concern the food and the weather...sentiments I share! 2.When we consider the impact of his first Scottish visit on his later fiction then the logical place to look is in his first novel afterwards...Cinq semaines en ballon. Here we find a hero in Dick Kennedy, a strong, brave Scot who hunts in the Highlands. Moreover, like Verne, he travels on the overnight train to London.In les Enfants du Capitaine Grant, Lady Helena Glenarvan seems to be a reflection of Amelia, who he met in Edinburgh, as does Helena Campbell in le Rayon Vert. However, I think that more important than characterisation of Scots was the fact that to Verne, his first visit to Scotland was an adventure - his first extended sea voyage, his first foreign travel and the excitement of visiting an "exotic" destination idealised by the Romantic Movement. I feel sure that this was a seminal experience and gave him a template for the Voyages. Finally, I feel that the significance of Scotland is that he has given such a precise indication of his own travels and those of his fictional characters that it is possible to follow exactly in his steps today. Whereas few of us could visit the Orinoco, and even less go to the moon, neither of which Verne achieved, in Scotland, by combining fieldwork and archival analysis we can literally stand in his shoes and share his experience. Regards, Ian.