214 ON THE OLD AND REMARKABLE 



in the history of Caledonia, since the genial sun and rains first 

 called forth the nature-sown acorn to send down its tiny rootlets 

 into mother earth. " The Pease Tree " is said to be one of the 

 few remaining scattered remnants of the great Caledonian Forest, 

 which stretched across the centre of the lowlands of Scotland 

 from Ayrshire to vSt Abb's Head on the German Ocean, and in 

 which it is said the Eoman Emperor Severus kept 50,000 men 

 for seven years cutting down trees, in order to prevent the forest 

 affording shelter to the natives. The name " Pease Tree," is 

 popularly and locally believed to have been given to this tree 

 from the pease grown on the adjoining farm being annually 

 stacked around and upon it for the purpose of being winnowed ; 

 but the name more probably derived its origin from the situation 

 in which the tree grows, from paes or pis, an old P)ritish word 

 signifying a rivulet or spout. Tradition says that Oliver Crom- 

 well and a party of his followers dined in the hollow part of the 

 trunk, and also that in a former era a lady of the family of Lee 

 was in the habit of plying her spindle and distatf there. It is 

 satisfactory to record that this venerable tree appears to be 

 growing more luxuriantly than it did some years ago, from the 

 fact that an oak was planted merely to occupy its place when 

 the hand of time or the blasts of winter should have completed 

 their work. This tree is now 7 feet in girth at 3 feet from the 

 ground, and the entrance to the hollow butt of the old tree is 

 yearly growing smaller, so that in a few years a man will have 

 great difficulty in getting an entrance. The dimensions of this 

 remarkable tree are as follows : — Height 68 feet ; circumference 

 at 1 foot 2^ feet, at 3 feet 23 feet, and at 6 feet 28^ feet. It 

 appears to be Querciis sessilijlora, while the oak planted to occupy 

 its place is Quercus 2)cchcnculata. The most interesting and 

 important groups of old oaks in Lanarkshire are the trees 

 remaining in Cadzow Forest, near Hamilton Palace. The 

 forest is the property of His Grace the Duke of Hamilton, 

 and lies in a gently sloping position towards the north. The 

 two enclosures now known as the Lower and Upper Oaks, the 

 former containing 70 acres, the latter 83 acres, form together part 

 only of the old forest, because adjoining these remains on the 

 south and west are old pasture fields and plantations, surrounded 

 by a stone wall 6 feet high and about 3 miles in extent, which 

 was most probably the boundary in feudal times, when Cadzow 

 Castle was the scene of many stirring and knightly events. On 

 the east side the forest is bounded by the river Avon, and on 

 the left bank of this river are the moss-covered crumbling ruins 

 of Cadzow Castle. The soil is admirably adapted for the growth 

 and development of oaks, being a clayey loam restiuix on a sub- 

 soil of clay. In some places the trees stand quite clcse together, 

 while in others they stand singly, or seem to surround large open 



