This essay traces the rapid agitated reception of Peterloo in Scotland, especially in the lowland west among the skilled working class. It also looks at the responses of Scottish Tory writers, in the reactionary mindsets of Walter Scott and William Motherwell and in the more nuanced treatment by John Galt. The emotion and wider political issues surrounding the release of Henry Hunt from jail are particularly focused upon via the proceedings of a convivial meeting at the Saracen Head inn in Paisley in 1822. As part of the detail of the network of Scottish public response to Peterloo, other events including especially the so-called 'Radical War' in Scotland of 1820 and its subsequent commemoration are sketched.
