Looking for '45 sketches

[McMurdo]

By Richard Cooper

The print (which does not explicitly name its subject, referring to him dismissively as ‘the Son of the Pretender’) advertises the massive reward of £30,000 offered by the British government in early August 1745 for the capture of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who had landed in Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides in late July. Its satirical thrust derives largely from the prince’s balletic pose and elaborate Highland costume or ‘Disguise’. This is the first image to depict the prince clad in tartan.

[Woodsheal]

Re: the Penicuik sketches, I've always found this one interesting of British troops on the march. The grenadier looks pretty normal, but the regular line infantrymen are fairly scruffy, with their coat-skirts unhooked and the cocks of their tricorn hats let down. Not the typical image we have of precise, toy-soldier-like Redcoats!



Note that infantrymen of the period all carried "hangers", or short curved swords. Great for cutting brush, but not used for much else at the time - the bayonet being the primary hand-to-hand weapon....