I thought it worth pointing out that the information presented on Holyrood Palace in the eighteenth century was very misleading. The current Holyrood website does not help where it suggests that the Palace was inhabited by impoverished gentry on a 'grace and favour' basis. The Time Team embellished this with the notion that it was a 'squat' and that it was occupied by an endless stream of debtors. In fact Holyrood until the middle of the eighteenth century was occupied by some of the great families of the Kingdom - The Dukes of Hamilton (Hereditary Keepers), the Earl of Breadalbane, and the Earl of Crawford who decorated a suite of rooms for the Prince of Hesse in 1746. The Duke of Hamilton had the great Scottish architect, William Adam build him an extension to his rooms in the 1740's and this was decorated in the best rococo style by the upholsterer, John Shaw. Lord Glenorchy, eldest son of Breadalbane had James Runciman decorate his suite of rooms between 1742 and 1745, at which time the windows were modified. I would also take issue with the idea that Bonnie Prince Charlie ever stayed in the Palace. All of the evidence suggests that he slept elsewhere, often in a tent with his men at Duddingston. He may have entertained in the Palace but the idea that he would have slept near his ammunition dump (a woman was arrested for attempting to enter it during the Jacobite occupancy) is just not sensible. I have published some of this in an article 'Keeping warm in the north: wallpaper in Scotland in the early 18th century' in the Wallpaper History Review, 2004/5, pp. 3-6. As is often the case in Scotland, no one has done the basic research and there is a great deal to be done!
Well, speaking as an expatriot Londoner, we English are hampered when it comes to Scottish histoy in that it isn't taught south of the border. Indeed IMHO, compared to the Scots, very little English history is taught south of the border.
History was my forte at school but compared to my partner, a Scottish chemist, I'm ignorant of a lot of important things.
It really is discracefull but not quite as discracefull as Mr Robinson's behaviour over the weekend. The whole "Wee spider" comment, ignorantly joking about Henry VIII's "Rough Wooing", a tantrum on the scale of a warcrime, and the remark about beheading the Stuarts were well out of order.
The Windsors, nee Saxe-Coburgs, nee Hanovers are decedants of the Stuarts, which is why the inherited the crown. I think we can safely surmise that Tony Robinson has buried any chance of an Honor very deep indeed.
Out of interest, I've always thought that Holyrood was pronounced as the way it's spelt, (as in holy, like church). HOLLY on the other hand is the prickly bush! Have I been pronouncing it incorrectly all this time, as during the dig, it was called HOLLYrood?
The Windsors, nee Saxe-Coburgs, nee Hanovers are decedants of the Stuarts, which is why the inherited the crown. I think we can safely surmise that Tony Robinson has buried any chance of an Honor very deep indeed.
The Windsors, nee Saxe-Coburgs, nee Hanovers are decedants of the Stuarts, which is why the inherited the crown. I think we can safely surmise that Tony Robinson has buried any chance of an Honor very deep indeed.
Niles
DECEDANTS are they, not descendants?
Sorry I over used my allocation of the letter "N" in that post.
About 100 years before William Adam designed new rooms at Holyrood an ancestor of mine, one Robert Milne was responsible for refurbishing the building. A statue of him stands in the quad of Herriot Watt College, another building for which he was responsible.
