See the conquering hero comes...

The roots of Ordnance Survey go back to 1747, when Lieutenant-Colonel David Watson proposed the compilation of a map of the Scottish Highlands to facilitate the subjugation of the clans following the Jacobite rising of 1745. King George II commissioned a military survey of the Highlands, and Watson was placed in charge under the command of the Duke of Cumberland.

"Butcher Cumberland" was reviled for generations in Scotland for the brutal way in which he went about his work. When G F Handel dedicated his Oratorio - Judas Maccabaeus - to the same General Cumberland, and wrote the chorus "See the conquering hero comes" , the Scots were scandalised. Which explains why the hymn "Thine be the glory" set to that tune was never sung in Scotland until perhaps forty years ago.

Rumblings courtesy of the new shelf in Peebles that can accommodate OS maps.