CARLE, NOW THE KING’S COME!
Picardy Place sits at the head of Leith Walk, the great thoroughfare linking Edinburgh’s port with the city centre. Two hundred years ago, on 15 August 1822, there was a temporary archway here, symbolising entry to the City of Edinburgh.
A party of important-looking gentlemen waited to hand over the keys of the city. A lavish procession of marching soldiers, pipers, trumpeters, squadrons of cavalry and a military band approached from Leith Harbour. They accompanied King George IV, who was making the first official visit to Scotland by a reigning monarch since Charles II in 1650.
Until 1820 George IV had been Prince Regent, deputising for his ailing father, George III. The ruling order in Britain had been shaken by a series of
