ARTHUR SEAT— HISTORY AND NOMENCLATURE 34? 



recruited largely among the Macraes of Kintail, aud over a 

 thousand strong, broke out in mutiny when paraded on the 

 Castle Esplanade, previous to embarkation for the East 

 Indies. Their grievance was that they had been enlisted 

 as " Eencibles " for service within these islands, and they 

 suspected that their officers had ''sold them" to the East 

 India Company. Half of the regiment, overpowering their 

 officers, marched by the Canongate to I^eith Links, where 

 they intercepted the other half which, under Lord Seaforth, 

 were on their way to the place of embarkation. Increased 

 in numbers to 600 men, the mutineers retired to the summit 

 of Arthur Seat, and threw up a trench, breastwork and 

 redoubt, the trace of which can still be seen between the 

 Lion's Haunch, or Nether Hill, and the cone. There they 

 held their ground from the 22nd to the 29th September, 

 when they were induced to make submission. Few of 

 Seaforth's clansmen survived to return to the shores of Loch 

 Dinch; out of 1100 men who sailed from Portsmouth, 230, 

 including their chief and commander, perished at sea, and 

 no more than 310 were able to bear arms when the march 

 for Chingleput began in April 1782. This melancholy 

 incident closes the warlike story of Arthur Seat, unless we 

 are to reckon the great Eeviews of August 1860, August 

 1881 (the "Eainy Eeview"), and September 1905. 



