ARTHUR SEAT— HISTORY AND NOMENCLATURE 345 



Wildfire's lilt gave notice that there were hawks of the law 

 abroad. Scott's "magic wand created the Eadical Eoad 

 itself; it was built by the hands of the unemployed in the 

 distressful time that followed the Great War, in response 

 to the lament of the author of ' Waverley ' concerning the 

 impassable state" into which the pathway around the semi- 

 circular wall of cliffs had fallen. 



The crest of Arthur Seat has been the scene of many 

 " alarums and excursions," the goal of curious pilgrimages 

 and penances, since the time when, we are told, "pagan 

 rites were celebrated at sunrise on the bare scalp of the 

 Hill." Of these the annual May Day gathering, not yet 

 entirely abandoned, may possibly be a survival. Eaces, by 

 fisher-wives and others, have been run to the top of the 

 mountain. We read that, in 1661, there was a foot-race 

 by "twelve browster-wives" from the Figgate Whins to the 

 summit. It is not stated whether the line of approach was 

 by the favourite path by St. Anthony's Well and the "Lang 

 Raw" above the outcrop of the "Dasses," or by the easier 

 ascent from the side of Dunsappie. The final scramble of 

 these aspiring dames was certainly not by the funnel of the 

 " Guttit Haddie," which was torn out of the side of the 

 Hill by a "mighty waterspout" that broke upon the crest 

 of Arthur Seat on 13th September 1764. On May Day 1826, 

 James Burnet, the last Captain of the City Guard, a veteran 

 of seventeen stone weight, climbed to the top by way of St. 

 Anthony's Well in a quarter of an houi', the exploit being 

 timed by William Smellie, the naturalist. This was the 

 year in which the long dispute with the Earl of Haddington 

 regarding the exercise of his rights as Hereditary Keeper of 

 the King's Park came to a height. He had taken to 

 quarrying away the Salisbury Crags for road metal, and 

 the operation was stopped, it is understood, on a hint given 

 to him by George IV., an act which should be put to the 

 credit of that much abused monarch. Seventeen years later. 

 Lord Haddington's rights were purchased by the Government 

 for £20,000, and the Park placed under the charge of the 

 Department of Woods and Forests. 



Mary, Queen of Scots, must often have scaled Arthur Seat, 

 and spent some of her sad, as well as pleasant, hours on 



