In 1875, Henry Jenkinson jested that visitors to Carlisle might be disappointed. The City, it seems, was far too modern. ‘Instead of dirty alleys,’ writes Jenkinson, ‘there are now clean wide streets, with modern buildings of stone and brick, and hardly the vestige of an edifice interesting to the historian and the antiquary.’ Taking my orientation from this quotation, in this talk I focus on the development of Carlisle during the 1700s and 1800s. I draw on the collections of Tullie House and the observations of historical visitors in order to consider how the ‘Great Border City’ changed during these two centuries.