It is on the basis of such understandings of polar exploration that the concept of discovery was internalised as a kind of self-discovery with little to do with the actualities of the worlds travelled through. Rather, exploration was imagined by many as something more than the sum of its parts – even as ecstatic experience. This partly came out of the Romantic interest in armchair travelling^☁ – the practice of exploring by wandering around a room, going through material collections, or ruminating over memories.††