ARTHUR, the celebrated hero of the Britons, is said to have been the son of Uthor Pendragon, king of Britain, and to have been born in 501. His life is a continued series of wonders. It is said that he killed 470 Saxons with his own hand in one day; and, after having subdued many mighty nations, and instituted the order of the Knights of the Round Table, died a. d. 542, of wounds which he received in battle. The most particular detail of his story and his exploits is that given by Geoffroy of Monmouth; but there the probable is so blended with the marvellous and extravagant, that not only the truth of the whole, but even the reality of Arthur’s existence, has been called in question. In this controversy Mr Whittaker has taken much pains, in his History of Manchester, to vindicate the existence, and discriminate between the real and the fabulous transactions, of the British worthy. But a severe critic might be apt to say that it requires much faith in the author’s judgment, not to suspect that he sometimes allows too much scope to fancy and conjecture. According to Mr Whittaker, Arthur’s principal exploits were against the northern Saxons, whilst he was only prince of the Silures, and Ambrosius was the dictator or pendragon of the Britons. “In a series probably of five campaigns, and in a succession certainly of eleven victories, this great commander had repelled the Saxons from the north of Flavia, dislodged them from all Maxima, and dispossessed them of all Valentia. And these were successes so unchequered with misfortunes, so great in themselves, and so beneficial to the public, that the name of Arthur claims the first rank in the list of military, and the better one of patriot, heroes.” The twelfth battle of Arthur was fought in the south of England, after he was elected to the pendragonship, against Cerdic the Saxon. “This,” says Mr Whittaker, “was a most extraordinary victory, and completes the circle of Arthur’s military glories.” In [7:3:632]the author’s account of this prince’s conduct in peace, he asserts, that “Arthur saw that an appointment was wanted, which should at once be a more regular and more honourable signature of merit—by the certainty of the honour and the greatness of the dignity, call out all the worth of all the worthy in the nation, and collect it round the throne of the pendragon. Accordingly he established a military order. It was the first that had ever been instituted in the island; and it has since been imitated by all the nations on the continent. By means of this association, Arthur raised among the provincials a general glow of ingenuous heroism, the first spirit of chivalry that ever appeared in Europe; that manly and honourable gallantry of soul, which has made him and his worthies the subject of romantic histories over all the west of it. By this, and this alone, could he have been what history represents him, the Revered Father of the British Heroes in general, even to the conclusion of the sixth century, and nearly the middle of the seventh. The order naturally survived its founder; and the members of it were denominated the Warriors of Arthur, though the persons were born half a century after his death.”

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 also defeated the Saxons in its neighbourhood. It rises by a steep ascent, till it terminates in a rocky point about 810 feet high from the base. The traveller may here sit and survey at his ease the centre of the kingdom, besides having a complete view of Edinburgh, on which he looks down as if seated among the clouds. The whole forms a landscape sublime, various, and beautiful, in a very high degree.