Honest George

An account of the life of George Brown who gave his name to Edinburgh's George Square. He was an important, though little-known, player in the practical application of contemporary theories of social improvement to Scottish life in the eighteenth century. His genial, hospitable character and his career offer further insights into a period of remarkable transformation which has much relevance to our struggles for social cohesion and identity today. His efforts to establish a Riding School in Edinburgh like the ones in Paris and Vienna are particularly interesting. His first wife was a Scott of Harden, his second a Dundas of Dundas so that he was, literally, familiar with all the political and legal dramas of the day. His work as a Commissioner of the Scottish Excise meant that he was instrumental in the growing importance of banking and economics but, also, that he signed Robert Burns into the service and had to deal with the raid on the Excise by the infamous Deacon Brodie. Through his work he became friends with his counterparts in the Customs Service especially Henry MacKenzie, "the man of feeling" and Adam Smith, that physically small man who was a giant of economic theory. With Adam Smith and Lord Rockville he figures in a delightful triple portrait by John Kay. Raeburn's more reflective portrait reveals other aspects of his character. Hospitable to most of the "men of genius" who characterised this period, he himself, shunned the spotlight. It is good that he is brought out of the shadows and into the limelight a little again.