The recent National Trust for Scotland lecture “From Versailles to Charlotte Square” which took place on July 14th at the Georgian House in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square, had a very special guest in attendance: a Signet Library copy of Lizar’s Views of Edinburgh once owned by the French King Charles X.

King Charles had spent time in Edinburgh during his exile following the French Revolution, and when in 1824 the Great Fire of Edinburgh left so many people homeless and destitute the King remembered and donated generously to the city’s recovery. As a gesture of thanks, the Lord Provost William Trotter (who in civilian life was a great cabinet maker, Scotland’s answer to Chippendale, and who had been responsible for the manufacture of the fine Signet Library furniture) presented a specially bound copy of Lizar’s Views to the King. After the July Revolution of 1830, King Charles would find a secure home once again in Edinburgh. The book itself passed through a number of owners before being presented to the Signet Library by Alfred Shepherd in 1935.