ARTHUR'S SEAT, a high hill in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, said to have been so denominated from a tradition that King Arthur surveyed the country from its summit, and had also defeated the Saxons in its neighbourhood. This hill rises by a steep and rugged ascent, till it terminates in a rocky point near 700 feet high from the base, being more than double the height of the cross on the top of St Paul's, London, which is 340 feet. On the south it is in many parts a perpendicular rock, composed of basaltic pillars, regularly pentagonal or hexagonal, about three feet in diameter, and from 40 to 50 feet in height. Contiguous upon the west, and partly connected with it at the base, are Salisbury Crag, of inferior height, but exhibiting an appearance equally singular and grand. They present to the city an awful front of broken rocks and precipices, forming a sort of natural amphitheatre of solid rock; and backward from the craggy verge above, the hill forms an extensive irregular slope, the surface affording pasture to numerous flocks of sheep. The crags, besides ores, spars, rock plants, and here and there, it is said, some precious stones, afford an inexhaustible supply of stone for paving the streets.
Artichoke, streets and other purposes. In quarrying, a part of the crags has been worn down into a spacious shelf, having the appearance of a lofty terrace, and stretching a considerable length. From hence is a near and distinct prospect of the city, with its environs and the adjacent country. But from the pinnacle called Arthur's Seat the view is more noble and extensive. The traveller may here sit and survey at his ease the centre of the kingdom, besides having a complete view of Edinburgh and its castle, on which he looks down as if seated among the clouds. In a word, the German ocean, the whole course of the Forth, the distant Grampians, and a large portion of the most populous and best cultivated part of Scotland, form a landscape sublime, various, and beautiful.
The denomination of this hill, derived as above, has been adduced as an argument against those who dispute the existence of the British Arthur. That derivation, however, though probable, is not without uncertainty. For Arthur's Seat is said to be derived, or rather corrupted, from Arth Seir, a "place or field of arrows," where people shot at a mark: And this not improperly; for among these cliffs is a dell or reclude valley, where the wind can scarcely reach, now called the Hunter's Bog, the bottom of it being a morass. The adjacent crags are supposed to have taken their name from the earl of Salisbury, who in the reign of Edward III. accompanied that prince in an expedition against the Scots.