When Sir Walter Scott was tasked with planning the first visit to Scotland by a reigning monarch in almost two centuries, he went all out
Words by DAVID MCVEY
Picardy Place sits at the head of Leith Walk, the great thoroughfare linking Edinburgh’s port with the city centre. Two hundred years ago, on 15 August 1822, there was a temporary archway here, symbolising entry to the City of Edinburgh.
A party of important-looking gentlemen waited to hand over the keys of the city. A lavish procession of marching soldiers, pipers, trumpeters, squadrons of cavalry and a military band approached from Leith Harbour. They accompanied King George IV, who was making the first official visit to Scotland by a reigning monarch since Charles II in 1650.
Until 1820 George IV had been Prince Regent, deputising for his ailing father, George III. The ruling order in Britain had been shaken by a series of working-class protests, especially in Scotland. What the authorities needed was an event that would provide good publicity for an unpopular monarch, unite all classes, and promote the 1707 Union. Sending George to Scotland would achieve all this and keep him away from the Congress of Verona, something his politicians were particularly keen to do.
George IV loved the writings of Sir Walter Scott. As Prince Regent, in 1815 he had invited Sir Walter to dinner at Carlton House, at the height of the success of Waverley.
Scott recommended to George that a ‘commission’ be set up to rediscover the Honours of Scotland, the nation’s crown jewels. An embarrassing reminder of an independence meekly given up; the Honours had been locked away in Edinburgh Castle in 1707. George agreed. In 1818 Scott and his fellow commissioners found the Honours exactly where they were expected to be. Scott became Sir Walter in the same year, when he was awarded a baronetcy, on the Prince Regent’s recommendation. In 1821, Scott attended George’s lavish coronation and reportedly marvelled at the sumptuous pageantry.
George’s Scottish visit was confirmed with little more than two weeks to spare, and Scott was given the job of stage-managing it; now he could create his own pageants.
Assisting him was David Stewart of Garth, who had been one of the co-founders two years earlier of The Celtic Society, one of a few rival bodies promoting Highland dress and culture. In 1873, Queen Victoria gave it the title of the ‘Royal’ Celtic Society, and it still exists today. Scott was its first Vice President.
Scott and Stewart devised an extensive programme of events but,
