Thursday, 8 August 2013

Lord Daer: an obituary

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Basil William Douglas-Hamilton, Lord Daer (1764-1794) was far from a typical Scottish aristocrat. Whilst in France in 1789 he was deeply im...
Friday, 26 July 2013

Three Edinburgh Bucks

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John Kay (1742-1826) was a Scottish caricaturist and engraver of striking originality whose quirky observations offer insights into the cult...
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Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Thomas Muir: First President of the Scottish Republic

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The title of this post is mischevious, as of course Scotland did not become a republic at any time. However, in the late eighteenth centur...
Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Old Calton Cemetery; memorials to philosophers and political martyrs

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Calton was a village lying on the western slopes of Calton Hill in what is now central Edinburgh. Before 1718 its villagers buried their dea...
Wednesday, 6 March 2013

The Execution of Robert Watt, 1794

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Robert Watt was a political radical who was found guilty of high treason by the Edinburgh authorities in 1794 after a revolutionary plot to ...
Friday, 4 January 2013

Harry the Ninth, King of Scotland

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Following the political settlement of the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland lost its political identity whilst retaining only three social inst...
Saturday, 17 November 2012

Edinburgh's Theatre Royal in the Georgian period

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Eighteenth century Edinburgh was late in welcoming the theatre, considering its worldwide reputation even then as a centre for learning and ...