After the Union in 1707 and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as was the notion of Scottishness itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume, considered themselves Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed Union. Many well-off Scots took to learning English through the activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan, who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution. Charging a guinea at a time (about £ in today's money) they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh. Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the "Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland". Nevertheless, Scots remained the vernacular of many rural lowland communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the Highlands, Gaelic language and culture persisted, and the region as a whole was seen as an "other" by lowlanders.