Arthut?s Seat] ? THE WILD MACRAAS.? 307
The Edinburgh Evening Courant of the 29th
of October, 1728, contains the following reference
to the Craigs, or the chasm, there named the
Catnick :-? A person who frequents the (King?s)
Park, having noticed a man come from a cleft
towards the north-west of Salisbury Rocks, had the
curiosity to climb the precipice, if possibly he
might discover something that could invite him
there, He found a shallow pit, which delivered
him into a little snug room or vault hung with
dressed leather, lighted from the roof, the window
covered with a bladder. It is thought to have been
the cave of a hermit of ancient times, though now
the hiding-place of a gang of thieves.?
The long, deep, and tremendous rift in the wes
t e n slope of Arthur?s Seat (locally known as the
Gutiit Haddie) was caused by a mighty waterspout,
on the 13th of September, 1744. ?Dividing its
force ?-says the ? Old Statistical -4ccount ?-?? it
discharged one part upon the western side, and
tore up a channel or chasm, which still remains a
monument of its violence ; the other division took
its direction towards the village of Duddingston,
carried away the gable .of the most westerly cottage,
and flooded the loch over the adjacent meadows.?
On the steep sloping shoulder of Arthur?s Seat,
south-westward, under the Rock of Dunsappie, the
Highland army encamped in September before
the battle of Prestonpans, and from thence it was
-after the Prince had held a council of his chief5
and nobles-the march began at daybreak on the
morning of the 20th through the old hedgerow:
and woods of Duddingston, with pipes playing
and colours flying, after Charles, in front of thc
he, had significantly drawn his claymore and flung
away the scabbard.
From a letter which appears in the Advertiser foi
the 15th of January, 1765, the entrance to tne Park
from St. Anne?s Yard to the Duke?s Walk having
become impassable, was privately repaired at tht
expense of a couple of classical wits, whose name:
were unknown, but who placed upon the entrance
the following inscription :-
Ite nunc faciles per gaudia uestra,
3 Cpuepecun sua re@&durn cur.
CaLIan. MD.C.CLXl?
rJ*i faciant ut haec smpiusjunf.
QUIRITES
Mungo Campbell (formerly officer of Excise ai
Saltcoats), who shot Archibald, tenth Earl oj
Eglinton, committed suicide in the Tolbooth ic
1770, on the day after he had been sentenced
to death, when the judge also directed that hi2
body should be given to the professor of anatomy,
His counsel having interposed on the plea that dip
section was not a legal penalty for self-murder, it
was privately interred at the foot of Salisbury Craigs.
But the Edinburgh mob, who were exasperated by
the manner in which he had shot the earl in a
poaching affray, took the .body out of the grave,
tossed it about till they were tired, and eventually
flung it over the cliffs. After this, to prevent
further indecency and outrage, Campbell?s friends
caused the body to be conveyed in a boat from
Leith and sank it in the Firth of Forth. (Caldwell
Papers ; S o t s Mug., Vol. XXXII.)
Southward of the coue of Arthur?s Seat are the
Raven?s Craig and the Nether Hill, or Lion?s
Haunch ; between the latter and the cone can still
be traced the trench and breastwork formed by the
Seaforth Highlanders when they revolted in 1778-
an event which created a profound sensation in
Scotland.
In the July of that year they had marched into
the Castle, replacing the Royal Edinburgh Volunteers,
or 80th Regiment of the Line, a corps
which was raised by General Sir William Erskme in
1777, and was disbanded in 1783-5.
Kenneth Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth, had
recently raised his noble regiment, which was then
numbered as the 78th (but is now known as the
Duke of Albany?s Own Highlanders), among his
clansmen in the district of Kintail and Applecross,
Kilcoy, and Redcastle ; of these Soawere from his
own estate; the rest were all from the others
named, and the corps mustered 1,130 bayonets at
its first parade in Elgin in the May of 1778 ; but
from a great number of another sept who were
in its ranks, the subsequent mutiny was known at
first as the afair of the WiZd Mwaas.
The latter was an ancient but subordinate tribe
of the west, who had followed the ? Caber Feigh,?
or banner of Seaforth, since the days when Black
Murdoch of Kintail carried it in the wars of
Robert I., and now many of its best men were
enrolled in Earl Kenneth?s new Fencible regiment,
perfect subordination in the ranks of which was
maintained in the Castle until the 5th of August,
when an order was issued for marching at an hour?s
notice. A landing of a French force being expected
near Greenock, zoo of them, with seven
9-pounders, marched there with the greatest enthusiasm
to meet the foe, who never appeared; but
by the time these two companies returned, transports
to convey the whole for foreign service had come
to anchor in Leith Roads.
Where the scene of that service lay the men
knew not. It was kept a mystery from them and
their officers. The former would not believe a
rumour spread that it was to be tine Isle of Guern
