The Muse: The Order of Release

I have always been very enamored with the 

work of Sir John Everett Millais, the first

 picture of his I remember seeing was The 

Lady of Shalott alongside the poem by Tenneyson in 

one of my high school English textbooks. 

Then one day I was doing research in the basement of the Rockafeller Library at Brown and came across a big glossy book of his paintings and really fell in love. They tend to be romantic and dramatic views of moments of crisis or intense emotions, though I've always found his portraits to be very unusual for the time. This painting The Order of Release was painted in 1852 or 1853 and depicts an event that would have happened more than a hundred years before. The man in the painting is a Jacobite traitor, jailed after the rising of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745. While the Rising, which started well but ended with the devastating defeat at Culloden. Almost all the Scottish rebels were slaughtered but those captured alive were imprisoned, some for decades, others transported. This man was clearly one of the lucky ones who gained release, which is what the paper in the soldier's hand is. The only gripe I have is that the wearing of tartan, of family plaid was considered one of the strongest symbols of Scottish identity, was outlawed by the English until the mid-1790's, so almost forty years laterand no Scot, let alone an English prisoner would have been allowed to wear his kilt. 

Luckily I have no such strictures and I can wear all the plaid I like, and I do, 

oh boy do I wear plaid.

 Sweater: Cynthia Rowley via Marshall'
Blouse: Violet and Claire via Marshall's
Trousers: vintage F. Shay of Boston thrifted via Goodwill
Shoes: Naughty Monkey via Nordstrom
Hat Brooch: vintage via Vintage Haven
Earrings: vintage via yard sale

I have wanted a pair of plaid trousers forever,
when I was in Scotland I fell in love with the
ones the male tour guides wear at Cawdor Castle,
but they didn't sell them at the shop and none
of the big tartan stores sell them for women, so
I snatched these up when I saw them at Goodwill.
An added bonus is the length, I feel like I'm always
tripping in most rousers.

This was one of my purchases at the Top Shelf Flea Market
I've never seen another brooch quite like it, and since
I didn't have a tricorn hat of mine own it had to stand in.