The accompanying text in the volume begins as follows:
"This Print refers to the close of the war in 1782, when the fear of invasion from the menacing attitude of the French nation created so much unnecessary alarm. At this period the above-mentioned noblemen zealously came forward to rouse the spirit of their countrymen. They are represented as they appeared in the " garb of old Gaul," beating up for a volunteer body called the Caledonian Band. Several meetings had been held, and a vast number of citizens names enrolled; the Marquis had also been elected colonel, and the Earl lieu-tenant-colonel, besides the appointment of a number of inferior officers; but before the commissions arrived from his Majesty the preliminaries of peace had been signed. The Caledonian Band, like its prototype, the Edinburgh Defensive Band, was thereafter converted into a body of freemasons-of which the Earl of Buchan was made master, and afterwards the Hon. Archibald Fraser of Lovat, whose father was beheaded in 1746."
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