Broadside entitled 'To His Highness the Prince of Orange'

Commentary

This ironic and satirical piece begins: 'To His HIGHNESS the Prince of Orange, / The Humble ADDRESS and SUPPLICATION of the PARISHONERS and INHABITANTS of the Famous TOWN of LINTON SUBMETRAPOLITAN of TIVIOTDALE.' The first line of the verse runs: 'Vitrorious SIR, still faithful to thy Word'. No printer or date of publication have been given.

The National Library of Scotland's catalogue attributes this verse to Alexander Pennecuik (1652-1722), a prolific author of humorous and satirical broadsides in the early part of the eighteenth century. The piece is a very tongue-in-cheek plea to the king, on behalf of the people of Linton, which is a village in Teviotdale, in the Scottish Borders. They ask King William III (r. 1689-1702) to make their Duke put a clock on the church steeple, and arrange for the street to be mended and cleaned, amongst other things.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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