History Of The Mackenzies [168]
due them. Their disaffection was greatly increased by the activity of emissaries from Edinburgh, like those just mentioned as having gone down front London to Portsmouth. The regiment refused to embark, and marching out of Leith, with pipes playing and two plaids fixed on poles instead of colours, took a position on Arthur's Seat, of which they kept possession for several days, during which time the inhabitants of Edinburgh amply supplied them with provisions and ammunition. After much negotiation, a proper understanding respecting the cause of their complaint was brought about, and they marched down the hill in the same manner in which they had gone up, with pipes playing; and "with the Earls of Seaforth and Dunmore, and General Skene, at their head, they entered Leith, and went on board the transports with the greatest readiness, and cheerfulness." In this case, as in that of the Athole Highlanders, none of he men were brought to trial, or even put into confinement for these acts of open resistance.--Stewart's Sketches--Appendix p. lxvviv.] The regiment was embodied at Elgin in May, 1778, and inspected there by General Skene, when it was so effective that not a single man was rejected. Seaforth, appointed Colonel on the 29th of December, 1777, was now promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel-Commandant, and the regiment was called the 78th (afterwards the 72nd), or Ross-shire Regiment of Highlanders.
The grievances complained of at Leith being removed, the regiment embarked at that port, accompanied by their Colonel, and the intention of sending them to India having been abandoned, one half of the corps was sent to Guernsey and the other half to Jersey. Towards the end of April, 1781, the two divisions assembled at Portsmouth, whence they embarked for India on the 12th of June following, being then 973 strong, rank and file. Though in excellent health, the men suffered so much from scurvy, in consequence of the change of food, that before their arrival at Madras, on the 2d of April, 1782, no fewer than 247 of them died. and out of those who landed alive only 369 were fit for service. Their Chief and Colonel died in August, 1781, before they arrived at St Helena, to the great grief and dismay of his faithful followers, who looked up to him as their principal source of encouragement and support. His loss was naturally associated in their minds with recollections of home, with melancholy remembrances of their absent kindred, and with forebodings of their own future destiny and so strong was this feeling impressed upon them that it materially contributed to that prostration of mind which made them all the more readily become the victims of disease. They well knew that it was on their account alone that he had determined to forego the comforts of a splendid fortune and high rank to encounter the privations and inconveniences of a long voyage and the dangers and other fatigues of military service in a tropical climate. [Stewart's Sketches, and Fullarton's History of the Highland Clans and Highland Regiments.]
His Lordship married on the 7th of October, 1765, Lady Caroline Stanhope, eldest daughter of William, second Earl of Harrington, and by her--who died in London from consumption, from which she suffered for nearly two years, on the 9th of February, 1767, at the early age of twenty, [Scots' Magazine for 1767, p. 533.] and was buried at Kensington--he had issue, an only daughter, Lady Caroline, who was born in London on the 7th of July, 1766. She formed an irregular union with Lewis Malcolm Drummond, Count Melfort, a nobleman of the Kingdom of France, originally of Scottish extraction, and died in 1547. She is buried under a flat stone inscribed with her name in the St Pancras (Old) Burial Ground, London.
Thus the line of George, second Earl of Seaforth, who died in 1633, became extinct; and the reader must therefore now accompany us back to Kenneth Mor, the third Earl, to pick up the chain of legitimate succession. It has been already shown that the lineal descent
The grievances complained of at Leith being removed, the regiment embarked at that port, accompanied by their Colonel, and the intention of sending them to India having been abandoned, one half of the corps was sent to Guernsey and the other half to Jersey. Towards the end of April, 1781, the two divisions assembled at Portsmouth, whence they embarked for India on the 12th of June following, being then 973 strong, rank and file. Though in excellent health, the men suffered so much from scurvy, in consequence of the change of food, that before their arrival at Madras, on the 2d of April, 1782, no fewer than 247 of them died. and out of those who landed alive only 369 were fit for service. Their Chief and Colonel died in August, 1781, before they arrived at St Helena, to the great grief and dismay of his faithful followers, who looked up to him as their principal source of encouragement and support. His loss was naturally associated in their minds with recollections of home, with melancholy remembrances of their absent kindred, and with forebodings of their own future destiny and so strong was this feeling impressed upon them that it materially contributed to that prostration of mind which made them all the more readily become the victims of disease. They well knew that it was on their account alone that he had determined to forego the comforts of a splendid fortune and high rank to encounter the privations and inconveniences of a long voyage and the dangers and other fatigues of military service in a tropical climate. [Stewart's Sketches, and Fullarton's History of the Highland Clans and Highland Regiments.]
His Lordship married on the 7th of October, 1765, Lady Caroline Stanhope, eldest daughter of William, second Earl of Harrington, and by her--who died in London from consumption, from which she suffered for nearly two years, on the 9th of February, 1767, at the early age of twenty, [Scots' Magazine for 1767, p. 533.] and was buried at Kensington--he had issue, an only daughter, Lady Caroline, who was born in London on the 7th of July, 1766. She formed an irregular union with Lewis Malcolm Drummond, Count Melfort, a nobleman of the Kingdom of France, originally of Scottish extraction, and died in 1547. She is buried under a flat stone inscribed with her name in the St Pancras (Old) Burial Ground, London.
Thus the line of George, second Earl of Seaforth, who died in 1633, became extinct; and the reader must therefore now accompany us back to Kenneth Mor, the third Earl, to pick up the chain of legitimate succession. It has been already shown that the lineal descent