Jacobite Dreams

Why Jacobite dreams?

The inspiration behind this website is a story told by my father Joe Patterson from 1951 when he was 15 and a keen cyclist. He and two companions were cycling in Scotland and stopped for the night at a B&B in Callander in the Trossachs. After dinner, as they were going to bed, they saw the old lady who owned the house put a lit candle in a saucer on a window sill. Asked why, she informed the three Englishmen that the candle was there to show the Prince (Bonnie Prince Charlie) the way home. What a story. Although the Jacobite dream was finally extinguished at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, more than 200 years later in austere modern post-war Britain and more than 160 years after the death of the Prince himself, Jacobite belief and romance endured in the tradition of lighting a candle to show the Pretender the way back to Scotland to renew his claim on the British throne.  The Jacobite story, of course, has all the elements necessary for myth and romance – a handsome Prince, a modest heroine, a great battle, a lost cause and the wanderings of the Prince to evade capture from his cruel oppressors. This, combined with the human tragedy of the Hanoverian attempt to destroy Highland culture which followed the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, helps to explain the persistence of Jacobite words, deeds and imagery in popular culture such as songs, artwork, ephemera, models and tonnes of shortbread biscuit tins. Meanwhile,  Jacobite battles and key personalities are reasonably well remembered by various statues and plaques in Scotland, England and abroad. For a list of those see the website of the http://1745association.org.uk/. But while I like monuments, battle sites and tumbledown stone cottages well enough, it is the ephemeral biscuit tin end of Jacobite representation which I am mostly interested in showing in gallery form on this website. As any visitor to a gift shop in Scotland will attest, this stuff continues to peddle the Jacobites year after year and serves, in its own way, to keep the story of the Great Rebellion and its aftermath alive. Whether you believe that the Jacobite cause was valid or not, the various revolts up to and including that of 1745 encapsulated forces that persist and have relevance today – old against new, tradition against scientific modernity, fringe against centre, the rights of native people and regional identity against the demands of the nation state. These big background issues, combined with the human colour of the battles and personalities and eventual erosion of the Highland way of life, are a potent package. Perhaps it is not surprising that the Jacobites continues to peek at us from the shelves of tourist gift shops. The old lady in Callander was illuminating far more than the way home of her long gone King-over-the-Water.  The images shown here, taken by me on various recent trips and arranged informally, are intended to be just the start. More images will be added as I get them – from Scotland and England – and may be organised more formally as the collection grows. Visitors are also invited to contribute their own original photographs. They can be photographs of monuments, postcards, toys, tea-towels, china figures – in fact, the more kitsch the better. Just email them to me at markpatt67@gmail.com with caption details. Tell me who you and I will add credits if you wish.

Bus to Culloden via retail park. Taken in Inverness, 2012

The Glenfinnan Monument at Loch Shiel where the Jacobite standard was raised in 1745.

Bonnie Prince Charlie toffee, pictured in Ullapool in 2013

Plaque on Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides

Remains of Flora MacDonald’s childhood cottage on South Uist, pictured in 2006

Jac-o-Bite Restaurant, Loch Shiel, photographed 2012

Plaque at Glenfinnan Monument describing the raising of the Jacobite banner and later events

Shortbread biscuit tin, Ullapool, 2013

Prince Charlie’s lounge, South Uist, pictured in 2007

Remains of Hanoverian barracks at head of Loch Arkaig, a few miles from Glenfinnan. After Culloden the Prince’s escape route took him through this area.