In 1829 Felix Mendelssohn was 20 years old; he had those two works of genius from his teenage years behind him: the Octet and the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and now that he had reached maturity, his parents, Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn, decided that it was time for Felix to undertake what was expected of all young men of means: a Grand Tour of Europe.
Rather than send Felix immediately to the more usual destinations for the Grand Tour – France and Italy – which he was to visit in later years, it was decided that he should begin his tour by visiting England and, from there, to journey to Scotland.
Why Scotland rather than France or Italy? Firstly, Felix’s parents, and Felix himself, were avid readers of the works of two Scottish writers: Sir Walter Scott whose Waverley novels were all the rage throughout Europe at the time, and the 3rd-century Bard, Ossian, whom the Mendelssohn family had yet to learn was a fake and actually the invention of the 18th-century Scottish writer, James Macpherson. Thus, to send Felix to the land that inspired both of these writers that they so much admired seemed a natural choice, and it was hoped that Felix would meet the great Walter Scott when he was in Scotland.