I keep having to change the spelling in each separate document within each separate project, as the app is defaulting to “automatic by language”. (Incidentally, the way to find and change this is also pretty Sybilline.)
Is there any way to set the spelling universally? I’ve looked in the prefs and can’t see one, and it’s driving me bats. 
This won’t be in preferences because the whole spelling system is provided by Apple. Are you setting the preferred language in the pop-up window? You can get there via [b]Edit/Spelling/Show Spelling and Grammar[/b]. If you change it there, I’m pretty sure it should be sticky across your entire Mac, not just within Scrivener.
[deleted maunderings]
Edit: I was wrong. I went to the System Preferences (cmd-alt-f3), and chose Language and Text, then the Text tab, and there was an option to set it to British English. Thanks for your help.