Broadside entitled 'A Receipt to Make a Lord-Pudding'

Commentary

This political notice begins: 'TAKE of the several simples of natural parts, two grains of each; of the compound of learning, three scruples; the corpus juris, half a pound'. There are no further details attached to this publication.

This sheet, in quite a short and concise way, addresses many major political and economic issues which dominated Scottish society during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is difficult to know whether the author is pro-Scottish, anti-independence and pro-unionist, or even pro-monarchist. Jacobites, Newcastle coal, the variations in Scottish and English measures and the justice system are all touched upon in this intriguing narrative. The note the author ends on, however, would suggest that he is a member of one of the reforming movements, as all his points seem to be a criticism of the aristocracy.

This style of text, with its implicit political propaganda, would not only have made for compelling entertainment, but would also perhaps have stimulated political thought, reasoning and debate.

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