The earliest surviving drawings of Scotland.

An unlikely Jacobite, John Slezer, was released from prison soon after the siege of Dunkeld. He was a Dutch engineer who had been appointed surveyor of His Majesty’s stores and magazines. Or more precisely, he compiled detailed accounts and made drawings of Scotland’s fortified places. But he is much more famous for his Theatrum Scotiea. Published in 1693, it is the first pictorial survey of Scotland, and its 70 engravings of towns and buildings offer a fascinating snapshot of the last quarter of the 17th century.

Scotland: A History from Earliest Times by Alistair Moffatt

Selzer obtained a royal licence for his books and the three volumes were published in London. However, they failed to sell and, to avoid ‘debtor’s prison’, he was reduced to living in sanctuary in Holyrood Abbey. From there he was permitted to visit his family . . . but only on Sundays. All of this time he retained the title ‘Captain of the Train of Artillery of Scotland’. He died in poverty in 1717.

Selzer’s drawings should be taken with certain caveats. There are some liberties; some features are repeated in different areas, and a degree of artistic ‘sentimentality’. His drawings focus mainly on ‘towns’. Many of these ‘towns’ would have populations only in the hundreds. Also, Scotland at the end of the 17thC had an estimated population of between 900,000 and 1 million. In a complete reversal of today’s demographics, 90% of the population was involved in agriculture, was dispersed across the countryside and was not ‘urbanised’ even by the standards of the day. But this is precisely why his drawings have such historical value today. What Selzer captured in the Scottish countryside of the late 17thC had remained almost unchanged since the 12th-13th centuries; the traditional runrig ploughing patterns can still be seen.

The Battle of Dunkeld (15 miles north of Perth) was a defining one in the Jacobite Rising of 1689 and was fought between Jacobite clans on the side of King James VII of Scotland and the supporters of King William of Orange (Covenanters). Those years were punctuated with bewilderingly complex (often internecine) conflicts tied up in nationalism, succession disputes, religious freedoms and family turf-wars and are not the focus of this post. But the Battle of Dunkeld is fascinating because it was essentially a street-fight in what would today be considered a very small village (more on that to follow no doubt).