306 QLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Arthur?s Seat.
name of Arthur?s Seat were anciently covered with
wood. The other eminences in the neighbourhood
of Edinburgh had similar appellations. Calton, or
Culdoun, is admitted to be the hill covered with
trees.? But there is another hill named thus-
ChoiZZedm, near the Loch of Monteith.
The rough wild path round the base of the Salisbury
Craigs, long before the present road was
formed, was much frequented for purpose of reverie
by David Hume and Sir Walter Scott Thither Scott
represents Reuben Butler as resorting on the morning
after the Porteous mob :-?? If I were to choose
a spot from which the rising or setting sun could
be seen to the greatest possible advantage, it would
be that wild path winding round the foot of the
high belt of semicircular rocks, called Salisbury
Craigs, and marking the verge of the steep descent
which slopes down into the glen on the southeastern
side of the city of Edinburgh. The prospect
in its general outline commands a close-built
high-piled city, stretching itself out beneath in a
form, which to a romantic imagination may be
supposed to represent that of a dragon; now a
noble ?arm of the sea, with its rocks, isles, distant
shores, and boundary of mountains; and now a
fine and fertile champaign country varied with hill
and dale. . . . . This path used to be my favourite
evening and morning resort, when engaged with a
favourite author or a new subject of study.?
The highest portion of these rocks near the Catnick,
is 500 feet above the level of the Forth; and
here is found a vein of rock different in texture
from the rest ?This vein,? says a writer, ?has
been found to pierce the sandstone below the footpath,
and no doubt fills the vent of an outflow of
volcanic matter from beneath. A vein of the same
nature has probably fed the stream of lava, which
forced its way between the strata of sandstone, and
formed the Craigs.?
A picturesque incident, which associates the unfortunate
Mary with her turbulent subjects, occurred
zt the foot of Arthur?s Seat, in 1564. In the romantic
valley between it and Salisbury Craigs there is still
traceable a dam, by which the natural drainage had
been confined to form an artificial lake ; at the end
of which, in that year, ere her wedded sorrows
began, the beautiful young queen, in the sweet
season, when the soft breeze came laden witb the
perfume of the golden whin flowers from the adjacent
Whinny Hill, had an open-air banquet set
forth in honour of the nuptials of John, fifth Lord
Fleming, Lord High Chamberlain, and Elizabeth
the only daughter and heiress of Robert Master of
Ross.
In 1645, when the dreaded pestilence reached
?
Edinburgh, we find that in the month of April the
rown Council agreed with Dr. Joannes Paulitius
that for a salary of A80 Scots per month
he should visit the infected, a vast number of
whom had been borne forth from the city and
hutted in the King?s Park, at the foot of Arthur?s
Seat; and on the 27th of June the Kirk Session
of Holyrood ordered, that to avoid further infection,
all who died in the Park should be buried there,
and not within any churchyard, ? except they mor4
tified (being able to do so) somewhat, adpios usus,
for the relief of other poor, being in extreme
indigence.? (? Dom. Ann.,? Vol. 11.)
In November, 1667, we find Robert Whitehead,
laud of Park, pursuing at law John Straiton,
tacksman of the Royal Park, for the value of a
horse, which had been placed there to graze at 4d
per night, but which had disappeared-no uncommon
event in those days ; but it was ulged by
Straiton that he had a placard on the gate intimating
that he would not be answerable either
for horses that were stolen, or that might break their
necks by falling over the rocks. Four years afterwards
we read of a curious duel taking place in the
Park, when the Duke?s Walk, so called from its
being the favourite promenade of James Duke of
Albany, was the common scene of combats with
sword and pistol in those days, and for long after.
In the case referred to the duellists were men in
humble life.
On the 17th June, 1670, William Mackay, a
tailor, being in the Castle of Edinburgh, had a
quarrel with a soldier with whom he was drinking,
and blows were exchanged. Mackay told the
soldier that he dared not use him so if they were
without the gates of the fortress, on which they
deliberately passed out together, procured a couple
of sharp swords in the city, and proceeded to a
part of the King?s Park, when after a fair combat,
the soldier was run through the body, and slain.
Mackay was brought to trial ; he denied having
given the challenge, and accused the soldier of
being the aggressor ; but the public prosecutor
proved the reverse, so the luckless tailor-not being
a gentleman-was convicted, and condemned to
die.
A beacon would seem to have been erected on the
cone of Arthur?s Seat in 1688 to communicate with
Fifeshire and the north (in succession from Garleton
Hill, North Berwick, and St. Abb?s Head) on the
expected landing of the Prince of Orange. On
one occasion the appearance of a large fleet of
Dutch fishing vessels off the mouth of the Firth
excited the greatest alarm, being taken for-a hostile
armament. --
