Carried to its extreme, this vision of national identity culminated in the whimsy known as 'Balmorality', the portrayal of Scotland as a country characterised by clan-based loyalties, Highland rituals and a Jacobite mythology blended together in a national narrative that gave pride of place to chiefs and a tartan-clad monarch who resided for part of the year on the royal domain at Balmoral.
McCombie's oratory reached extravagant heights of Balmorality: rejoicing that Queen Victoria was a monarch who dressed her son in Highland style and remembered that her ancestors were Kings of Scotland, he hailed her as 'half a Scotchwoman'.