2 - Scots in London

Summary

This chapter is based on the correspondence from the now obscure Scottish architect, George Steuart to his aristocratic patrons, the 3rd and 4th Dukes of Atholl. The material is organised into two parts. Part one considers the precarious social and economic landscape in which professional Scots operated in London. Steuart’s dealings with Robert and James Adam, fellow Scots in London, will be shown to be far from convivial, when Steuart, who was a painter by trade, established a rival architectural practice in the capital. The second half of the chapter shifts from the metropolitan centre to the Highlands, to consider the modes of cultural exchange between them using Steuart’s involvement in the furnishing of the so–called Ossian–s Hall at Dunkeld as a case study. This section will engage with the ‘discovery of Scotland’ during the second half of the eighteenth century and its reproduction and dissemination in a variety of cultural forms, from domestic travel literature to Wedgwood china.