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.