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John Porteous in The Heart of Midlothian: the intersection of history and fiction

Dr. Ralph McLean

On Thursday 9th November 2017 we had a talk by Dr. Ralph McLean. He was introduced by our Chairman, Prof. Peter Garside.

Dr Ralph McLean is Curator of Manuscripts for the Long Eighteenth Century at the National Library of Scotland, where among his duties he has responsibility for the vast collection of manuscripts relating to Sir Walter Scott. Ralph formerly worked (until 2014) as a research associate at the University of Glasgow on the AHRC-funded project Editing Robert Burns for the 21st Century. He has written a number of articles on the Scottish Enlightenment, and has produced an edition of John Home’s tragedy Douglas which includes, for the first time, the pamphlet material surrounding its controversial history. Along with Dr Ronnie Young at the University of Glasgow he has recently edited a collection of essays entitled The Scottish Enlightenment and Literary Culture (2017), which examines the impact of Enlightenment thought on imaginative literature in Scotland during the Enlightenment and beyond. Among his more recent talks, at the National Library of Scotland, has been one on Alexander Howland Smith aka ‘Antique Smith’, famous (or infamous rather) for his forgeries of Scott autograph manuscripts.

Synopsis:  This talk examines the historical events surrounding the Porteous Riot which took place in Edinburgh in 1736. The grim episode, which saw the mob break into the Edinburgh Tolbooth and execute the Captain of the Edinburgh Guard, John Porteous, forms the historical backdrop to the first part of Scott’s novel, The Heart of Mid-Lothian. This talk will examine how accurately Scott captured the historic reality of the riot, and how he used it to inform his fictional narrative.

Download the [Powerpoint]

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