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Edinburgh Evening by Ian Scott Massie
Original Watercolour
28" x 36" Mounted size - 22" x 30" Image size
Available: unframed @ £1895
To shop, please click here
28" x 36" Mounted size - 22" x 30" Image size
Available: unframed @ £1895
To shop, please click here
PRESTONPANS
“Hey! Johnnie Cope are ye waukin’ yet?
Or are yer drums a-beating yet?
If I were waulkin’ I wad wait
Tae gang tae the coals in the morning.”
Shortly before the train enters into Edinburgh it passes Prestonpans, the site of the first battle of the second Jacobite rebellion and a name that sets a tune playing in my head. On 21st September 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s inexperienced army received a surprising boost for their morale. They had the good fortune to come to blows with an army even less experienced than themselves.
John Cope was the Hanoverian commander in Scotland. Although regarded as a good soldier, he was in command of a host of raw recruits. Cope covered much of Scotland seeking the Jacobite army, eventually arriving in Inverness. Whilst there, he learned that the Jacobites were making for Edinburgh and so he attempted to get there first by shipping his troops from Aberdeen to Dunbar.
Charlie reached Edinburgh and, hearing of Cope’s landing, set off to intercept him. At Prestonpans, Cope chose the ground well, setting his troops to face a marsh over which the Jacobites would have difficulty charging. He set up his artillery behind a raised waggonway. When they attacked, in the early hours of the morning, the Jacobites simply went round the side of Cope’s prepared ground to his army’s unprotected flank. A charge of highlanders broke up the Hanoverian forces, scattering the dragoons and artillerymen who then ran away.
The battle was trumpeted as a huge success for the Jacobites and gave rise to the song “Hey! Johnny Cope are you waukin’ (waking) yet?”. The tune is still piped by some Scots regiments at reveille (the army’s wake up call) and was played by the pipers of the 51st Highland Division as they marched from their landing craft onto Juno Beach in Normandy on D-Day in 1944.
Or are yer drums a-beating yet?
If I were waulkin’ I wad wait
Tae gang tae the coals in the morning.”
Shortly before the train enters into Edinburgh it passes Prestonpans, the site of the first battle of the second Jacobite rebellion and a name that sets a tune playing in my head. On 21st September 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie’s inexperienced army received a surprising boost for their morale. They had the good fortune to come to blows with an army even less experienced than themselves.
John Cope was the Hanoverian commander in Scotland. Although regarded as a good soldier, he was in command of a host of raw recruits. Cope covered much of Scotland seeking the Jacobite army, eventually arriving in Inverness. Whilst there, he learned that the Jacobites were making for Edinburgh and so he attempted to get there first by shipping his troops from Aberdeen to Dunbar.
Charlie reached Edinburgh and, hearing of Cope’s landing, set off to intercept him. At Prestonpans, Cope chose the ground well, setting his troops to face a marsh over which the Jacobites would have difficulty charging. He set up his artillery behind a raised waggonway. When they attacked, in the early hours of the morning, the Jacobites simply went round the side of Cope’s prepared ground to his army’s unprotected flank. A charge of highlanders broke up the Hanoverian forces, scattering the dragoons and artillerymen who then ran away.
The battle was trumpeted as a huge success for the Jacobites and gave rise to the song “Hey! Johnny Cope are you waukin’ (waking) yet?”. The tune is still piped by some Scots regiments at reveille (the army’s wake up call) and was played by the pipers of the 51st Highland Division as they marched from their landing craft onto Juno Beach in Normandy on D-Day in 1944.
How it would look on your wall
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