Miss Georgina Moncreiffe as Mary, Queen of Scots

A tableau vivant showing showing Miss Georgina Moncreiffe dressed as Mary, Queen of Scots, at Wemyss Castle. The other sitters in the photograph are Lady Anne Duff, the Honourable Miss White, and Lady Ida Duff (or possibly Lady Agnes Duff) and Miss Harriett Moncreiffe, all dressed as the Queen's ladies-in-waiting.

Although the back of the mount bears a backplate identifying the photographer as S. Ayling of 493, Oxford Street [London], the photograph was actually taken by Victor Albert Prout. The occasion was the Braemar Gathering held in the grounds of Mar Lodge in August 1863 during the first official visit to Scotland by the Princess and Princess of Wales. At the celebrations which followed the games, the Prince and Princess were entertained by a series of tableaux vivants and scenes from amateur theatricals staged by other guests. Full details of the event, other photographs in the series, and the Mar Lodge album subsequently produced are given in Staged Photography in the Victorian Album, an excellent essay by Marta Weiss in Acting The Part: Photography as Theatre (2006).