Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, young British scientists resumed the tradition of the Grand Tour of Europe, some with a renewed scientific focus. John Herschel and Charles Babbage spent some time in Paris in 1819, getting to know prominent researchers like Jean-Baptiste Biot and Siméon D. Poisson. Herschel returned to the continent in 1821, 22, 24, 26, 27, and more later. He had two goals in these travels: to meet and work with other scientists and to explore researches possible only

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... n the mountains, especially crystallography, geology, the shape of the Earth, and the extent and effects of the atmosphere. This article uses the 1821 Grand Tour as the entry point to an overview of John Herschel's developing cosmic view of the Earth and its relations to the surrounding universe.