It will be recollected, that the Duke of Gordon had, at the age of sixteen, offered his personal services as captain in the 89th Highland regiment, and had intended to have accompanied it to the East Indies, when he was prevented by George II. He now made proposals to Government to raise a regiment of Fencibles on his estates in the counties of Inverness, Moray, Banff, and Aberdeen. These proposals being accepted, a regiment of 960 men was recruited with great expedition, and embodied at Aberdeen in the year 1778. This corps was so healthy and efficient, that in five years, till the reduction in 1783, only 24 men died of the 960 of which the corps was composed.