156 ON THE OLD AND KEMAEKABLE 



House. At the top of the hole, which is only 8 feet 6 inches 

 high, its liead hranches oft' horizontally into 15 large boughs, 

 forming a fine large spreading top. The diameter of the spread 

 of its hranches is 76 feet. There is an artificial mound of earth 

 round the base of the tree, 3 feet in height, and all the measure- 

 ments recorded in our appendix have been taken above, and 

 starting from that point. It is reported to be above three 

 hundred years old ; and has always been known as the " dool," 

 tree, or tree of grief. Some of the most remarkable old syca- 

 mores and trees of other varieties enjoy the same name ; its 

 origin being in the fact that in early times they were used by 

 the powerful barons as gibbets for hanging their prisoners 

 taken in foray, or their refractory vassals. Their use seems to 

 have been more common in this way in the western -districts of 

 Scotland. There are three so-called trees still existing in Ayr- 

 shire, all of which formerly belonged to the powerful family of 

 Kennedy ; — the one at Cassillis already referred to, and the other 

 two at Blairqulian, the largest of which is 72 feet in height, 

 and 17 feet 8 inches in circumference at 10 feet from the 

 ground. The other is somewhat smaller in dimensions. The 

 date on the old escutcheon on the adjoining courtyard is 1573, 

 to which period proljably the planting of these trees may be 

 referred. It may be interesting here to narrate briefly the 

 incidents of the last occasion on which the Cassillis dool tree was 

 so used. It occurred above two hundred years ago, when Sir 

 John Faa of Dunbar and seven of his followers were hanged 

 on it, for having attempted, in the guise of a gipsy, to carry oft' 

 the then Countess of CassiUis, who was the daughter of the Earl 

 of Haddington, and to whom he had been jjetrothed prior to his 

 going abroad to travel ; but in his absence, he liaving been made 

 a prisoner and detained in Spain, and supposed to have died, 

 the lady married John, Earl of Cassillis. It is said that the lady 

 witnessed the execution of lier former lover from her bedroom 

 window. The old sycamore at Ninewells, Berwickshire, men- 

 tioned also by Walker, and in a later catalogue published in 

 1812, girthed 17 feet at a little hclow the bows. It still exists, 

 though decaying, and has always been popularly known by the 

 country people as " old hangie," from the tradition of its having 

 been used as a gibbet in olden times. 



The remarkable old sycamore standing near the ruins of the 

 old castle, and on its west side, at Lochwood, Dumfriesshire, 

 girthed, on 29th April 1773, 8 feet 9 inches at 5 feet; and 

 measured, on 5th October 1879, it was 17 feet 7 inches and 13 

 feet 4 inches at 1 foot and 5 feet respectively. " In 1773," says 

 Walker, " it was a fresh vigorous tree, about 50 feet high, and 

 not in the least ' wind-waved,' though in a very high and 

 exposed situation." It would have gratified the old Professor to 



