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The Waverley Gazette
1822 : Sir Walter Scott – a King in a kilt – and the rise of Tartan
Two hundred years ago, this week, the Citizens of Edinburgh and Leith were waiting impatiently for their King.
12 August 1822 was a Monday - King George IV’s 60th birthday, and coaches carrying the Regalia of Scotland and dignitaries from the Castle to Holyrood Palace were escorted in procession led by the Midlothian Yeomanry and companies of Highlanders who assembled on The Mound before proceeding to the Castle. Watched by packed crowds, the procession formally received the Regalia then returned by way of The Mound to Princes Street and on by Calton Hill to Holyrood House.
As the crowds watched the procession in Edinburgh, King George was on his way to Scotland aboard The Royal George.
The embarkation of his most Gracious Majesty George the Fourth at Greenwich, August 10th, 1822 for Scotland. Lord Mayor’s Barge &cc Royal George, Royal Sovereign. The James Watts Steam Boat. Royal Museums Greenwich.
The King's ship The Royal George arrived in the Firth of Forth at noon on Wednesday 14 August, but his landing was postponed due to torrential rain.
It was not until Thursday 15 August, that the King, in naval uniform, arrived in sunshine at the quayside at The Shore, Leith.
The detail below is from a painting by Alexander Carse showing King George IV landing on the Shore at Leith in 1822. The main building is the Custom House on the opposite bank of the Water of Leith.
On the morning of the 15th it ceased to rain ; and our revered Monarch, as he ascended the deck, beheld the Scottish capital, with its towers and palaces, basking in the rays of an autumnal sun, and the surrounding country spread out before him in all its loveliness. The frith was covered with innumerable boats and vessels, in their gaudiest apparel ; and from many of them arose the strains of the bagpipe, which floated over the waters, and were heard in the distance, wild, yet pensive, like the voice of Scotland's Genius, welcoming her Sovereign to her hospitable shores. What were the emotions of the King when he beheld this glorious scene — when he contemplated the abodes of his illustrious ancestors — when he looked around, and saw the distant Grampians,— Dunfermline, where all that was perishable of the great Bruce slumbers in dust,—and scenes innumerable, consecrated in the hearts of the patriot and the scholar !
In the city of Edinburgh all was joy and breathless expectation. Its inhabitants were about to witness a scene the most grand and impressive, the most grateful to their feelings of any recorded in their annals — a scene surpassing every triumph of ancient or modern times —a scene which imperial Rome herself could never have exhibited. They felt, that they were about to receive within their walls the greatest potentate upon earth — their own Sovereign —a prince as beloved as he is powerful —who came among them to make a tender of his love, in return for their tried fidelity and courage; and that this reception was to be conducted under circumstances of such splendour as would exalt the character of their country, and for ever stifle in its own falsehood the reproach of parsimony and calculating selfishness which ignorance had delighted to cast upon it.
We speak not in the spirit of exaggeration; for, after revolving every circumstance in our minds, the immense multitudes collected, the magnificence of the preparations, the joy that was everywhere visible, the picturesque beauty of the ground, and, above all, the occasion, so deeply interesting to a people, national above all others in their feelings,—we venture to assert, that there never was exhibited a scene combining greater solemnity and grandeur.
A Historical Account of His Majesty's Visit to Scotland, Mudie, 1822
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