Global Encounters and the Archives: Britain’s Empire in the Age of Horace Walpole

Sawney Discover'd, or, The Scotch Intruders 1760, 1761

Though Scots after 1760 achieved an unprecedented degree of integration into the British Empire –as colonial administrators, military leaders, even politicians –their rising influence met with skepticism and resentment from many Britons. This print by George Townshend captures those sentiments. Scottish men and women stand before a screen yearning for commissions across Britain and its empire. Surrounding them are references to their cultural differences from the English –evidenced in their wearing of Highland plaids –and allusions to their contrary interests to those of the British Empire. The screen, for example, reads "Scotch Interest against English Merit." One seeks a noble title so that she "may be Gratefull to the French" –a clear reference to perceptions of Scottish treachery in the French-supported 1745 Highland rebellion. Instructions below invite the viewer to hold the print to the light in order to "see further of the subject," revealing yet more portrayals of Scots using English positions to further their own ambitions. Together these characters frame Scots as treacherous outsiders seeking places in order to pursue ends antithetical to the British Crown –a view underscored by use of the word "Sawney," a vulgar eighteenth-century epithet for Scot. Catalog Record

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library

George Townshend