A selection of pottery from the Alastair Leslie collection related to the Royal visit of George IV to Edinburgh two centuries ago will be on display in the pottery galleries at the Museum of Edinburgh this month.
In August, the City Art Centre is loaning a large work of the Landing of the King at Leith for display in the New Town gallery at the Museum of Edinburgh, to give visitors a fuller picture of the visit during the month of the bicentenary.
Then on Monday 22 August at 2pm, there will be a special lecture taking place in the City Art Centre when historian Eric Melvin will discuss the excitement in Edinburgh 200 years ago. With no monarch having visited the city since the fugitive Charles II in 1650 and no recent precedents to follow, the city turned to the only man with the authority to take charge of the Royal Visit – Sir Walter Scott. After all it was Scott who had suggested the idea of a visit to George IV in the first place. With very short notice, could Scott and the city pull it off? Booking here.
Later that day there will be an online event on the City Art Centre Facebook page where the team will look at the painting in detail and also visitors can learn how to weave some fun tartan.
Eric Melvin graduated with First Class Honours in History and Political Thought from Edinburgh University in 1967. He qualified as a secondary teacher of History and Modern Studies at the then Moray House College of Education gaining a Dip. Ed. in the process and the Staff Prize. Eric later gained an M.Ed. from the University of Edinburgh. He retired from teaching in 2005, working latterly for the City of Edinburgh Council as Headteacher at Currie Community High School. Eric has had several books published by John Murray for younger readers on aspects of Scottish History as well as ‘Discovering Scotland’ for Ladybird. Most recently Eric has had three books published on Amazon – ‘A Walk Down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile’, ‘A Walk Through Edinburgh’s New Town’ and ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’ written for younger readers and illustrated by Aileen Paterson. ‘The Edinburgh of John Kay’ was published in 2017 and Eric has just finished a book about Duncan Napier, (The Fresh Air of the Summer Morning) the founder of the famous Edinburgh Herbalist business in 1860.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
