6/20/2023 0 Comments Montrose by john buchanSimply, Montrose was doomed to criticism from both factions, no matter which was in the ascendancy. Perhaps it is hardly surprising: it is difficult for a nation to celebrate a man whom its ‘founding fathers’ executed, and even more so when he appeared to change sides in the course of his life, from Covenanter to Royalist. 5 Rather, a more intriguing state of affairs is suggested by the fact that it was as the Montrose of Walter Scott’s novel, A Legend of Montrose (1819) that this awkward hero appeared first in stone, alongside the fictional Dugald Dalgetty, on the Scott Monument on Edinburgh’s Princes Street. 4 Further, it is far more complex than the hagiography offered by George Wishart which, hung round the neck of Montrose during his execution, was Montrose’s ‘proudest ornament on the scaffold’. 3 It also goes beyond his writings related to political philosophy, be they his sole composition or the voice of Lord Napier, as it were, speaking through him. 2 The association of Montrose with literature goes beyond the few lines of poetry he penned during his lifetime. Instead of the monuments in stone, the festivals, and the commercialisation that commemorated and exploited the contributions of William Wallace, Robert Burns and others to the grand narratives of Scotland’s history, it was the written word that was the principal means by which the legacy of the first marquis of Montrose (1612–1650) was carried across the centuries.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |