In August 1822 George IV became the first Hanoverian monarch to visit Scotland. At a levée held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, all 1,200 attendees were encouraged to wear tartan.

The king himself wore full Highland dress, incorporating a doublet and kilt of Royal Stewart tartan embroidered with thistles as well as ‘buff-coloured trowsers like flesh to imitate his Royal knees’. The full outfit was recorded in this portrait, with the artist writing admiringly of the king, ‘He looked exceedingly well in tartan’.