The Raising of the Regiment

18th of March 1689, Edinburgh….perchance raise a glass.

‘The Committee…may be pleased to grant warrant to the Earl of Levin, with all expedition to levie ane regiment of foot consisting of eight hundred men, and to beat drummes to that effect. And that so soon as they are in readiness, he cause them Rendezvous in the Abbey Close…’

In what is said to have been something between two and four hours, Leven raised 780 men ‘by beat of drum’ and mustered them as ordered by the ruins of the Abbey Church at Holyrood.