Keeping the Jacobite dream alive, a Circle of Gentlemen
A group of enthusiasts is keeping alive the history and culture of the Jacobites and their ‘King over the Water’, writes Alison Campsie
Dressed in periwigs, kilts and jackets of the richest velvet, key members of A Circle of Gentlemen gather in the opulent surroundings of Culloden House, where their allegiance to the Jacobites is sworn by the flicker of candlelight.
A glass of claret – the signature drink of the Stuart cause – is passed over a bowl of water in a blessing to the “King across the Water”, with a bronze Medusa, which became an emblem of the movement and in this case has one eye shut, passed and rubbed by the thumb of council members.
“That’s all I can tell you,” said circle commander Matthew Donnachie. “The circle is like an old house. You can open part of it to the public but not all of it. If you do, you betray the cause. The Medusa has one eye closed.
“Betray the circle, and it will open,” he added.
A Circle of Gentlemen dates to the 18th century and formed following the Battle of Culloden as a secret society for supporters of the Stuart cause.
Members mostly met in Edinburgh, usually in taverns in the Grassmarket and off the Royal Mile, and documents relating to its early days are hard to find.
“Every single document would have been treasonable so not an awful lot was written down,” said Mr Donnachie, a clinical dental technician from Nairn.
The society, which now champions the history and culture of the Jacobites, is said to have once had a membership interlinked with the “hellfire clubs” of the same era, which allowed high society rakes to indulge in a mix of immoral acts without fear of censure.
But the business of the circle was altogether a more serious affair, Mr Donnachie added. “You wouldn’t hang from the end of a rope for being a member of the hellfire clubs, but you would if you were found to be a member of A Circle of Gentlemen,” he added.
The club faded out in the late 18th century but was set up again in the 1990s by a group of Jacobite enthusiasts
Mr Donnachie said the circle’s elite council of ten includes doctors and solicitors within its ranks, although most preferred not to be named in public.
The decision was taken around 2011 to drop its secret status, given “nobody was trying to usurp the Queen anymore,” he added.
It has around 200 members worldwide with France, Germany, Ireland and the United States represented.
Its work preserving the heritage of the era stretches from buying items at auction, such as a piece of tartan hanging from the bed slept in by Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden House the night before battle to the cleaning of Jacobite graves.
“If these things aren’t done, they are lost,” he added.
The dress of its members is central to the circle’s identity.
Mr Donnachie tends to model his style on Bonnie Prince Charlie, while other members emulate other key Jacobites such as Cameron of Lochiel, Lord George Murray and Lord Elcho.
“Accuracy is everything,” said Mr Donnachie, who can spend anything up to £1,000 on an outfit.
The circle has its own seamstress who can readily design a piece from a portrait with dirks and swords custom-made in Edinburgh.
Mr Donnachie said: “This stuff has to be custom-made. When you go out as a circle member, you are walking back in the footsteps of time.
“The clock is going back – and you are keeping that heritage alive. It’s almost like putting on an armour or like being an actor in a disguise. When you put one of these outfits on, it is like an electricity goes through you.
“My wife says to me I have more clothes than she does – but noth- ing normal to wear. You do start to become a bit of a peacock.”
With each velvet button, yard of plaid and hair of a periwig, the acclamation of the Jacobites by A Circle of Gentlemen remains as faultless as ever.