This weekend saw the opening of our new exhibition, “We Saw the Enemy: the Battle of Prestonpans in the Words of those Who Fought it”, showing in the museum’s Jubilee Room throughout the summer.
“We Saw the Enemy” tells the story of the Battle of Prestonpans through quotations from eye-witness accounts, whilst introducing some of the key questions historians have to ask of such evidence when reconstructing the events of the past.
The exhibition features a display of printed editions of relevant memoirs, and features Ronnie Elliot’s large canvas of “The Prince and the Poet”. The painting imagines Charles Edward Stuart and his Gaelic tutor, the minister and poet Alexander MacDonald (Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, 1698–1770), on the battlefield after the end of the battle. Previously housed at The Prestoungrange Gothenburg public house, the painting has now moved to our museum. Following the current exhibition, we hope to move it to a new position on our main gallery wall.
Another highlight of the exhibition is a painting, oil on leather, by Derbyshire artist David Morley. The image – an evocative and impressionistic imagining of Highland soldiers in the early morning light – was inspired by scenes David witnessed at one our re-enactment events. But are the soldiers assembling in anticipation before the battle, or in the relief of its aftermath? This painting, looking wonderful in its new frame, is now on display for the first time.
The exhibition, as part of our Beyond the Battle project, also considers the potential reliability (or otherwise!) of contemporary plans of the battle. We invite visitors to sit for a moment in our “commanders’ tent” to peruse copies of some of the plans drawn up shortly after the battle, and try their hand at drawing a map of a familiar place from memory. How easy will you find it to create an accurate and recognisable illustration, that would be useful to an historian in hundreds of years?!
“We Saw the Enemy” is on display at the Battle of Prestonpans Museum until 14th September 2025.
