180 ox THE OLD AND REMARKABLE 



Sorn abounds. It is related of her ladyship that, when she heard 

 of Dr Johnson's cynical remarks on the nakedness of Scotland 

 in regard to trees, she exclaimed " Deil tak' the man, whaur 

 was his e'en, when he didna' see my Elms " ! ! ! These beech trees 

 grow at various altitudes from 350 to 430 feet above the sea- 

 level, and girth from 9 to 10 feet at 5 feet from the ground, wdth 

 lofty boles, in some cases reaching 30 feet in length. 



We must now, however, hasten to notice a few of the most 

 important single specimen beeches in various parts of the 

 country. Foremost amongst these, and facile princeps, the most 

 mao'nificent beech, and at the same time the larcrest tree in Scot- 

 land, is the Newbattle Abbey beech, Midlothian. This splendid 

 monarch grows in a deep light sandy loam, upon an open gravelly 

 subsoil. It is 95 feet in height, and at 1 foot above ground girths 

 37 feet 3 inches, — at 2 feet it is 25 feet 3 inches, and at 5 feet its 

 trunk girths 21 feet 2 inches, and it is still growing and making 

 more wood annually. Measured carefully in 1879, it girthed at 

 2^ feet above ground 27 feet 10 inches ; at 7 feet, 19 feet If inch ; 

 and at 34 feet from the ground, after giving off many immense 

 limbs, its trunk still girthed 17 feet 10 inches. The circum- 

 ference of the spread of its branches is 350 feet. At about 15 

 feet from the base the large overhanging limbs begin to spring 

 from its colossal bole, and these have long ago reached the 

 ground, into which several of them are firmly rooted and are 

 growing upwards and outwards with redoubled vigour, while 

 at tlie same time they form so many natural buttresses to the 

 support of the mighty trunk. The tree has been frequently 

 measured, and appears to have made an inch in girth on 

 an average annually for the last fifteen years. Dr Walker 

 notices this tree, as one of the four in his Catalogue to which we 

 have referred. He says : " The large beech at Newbottle Abbey, 

 standing on the lawn behind the house, on 6th July 1789 mea- 

 sured 17 feet." His measurements were taken apparently at 

 3 feet from the ground, although in this instance he does not men- 

 tion the particular point. It was then, he states, a vigorous and 

 healthy tree, with an immense head. The span of its branches 

 was 89 feet. He records also that a beech, at Taymouth, of a 

 like size, and seemingly coeval with this, was overturned by a 

 storm some years pre\iously, when it had arrived at above 16 

 feet in girth. Would that the worthy Divine had seen the New- 

 battle beech at the present day ! Probably the next beech in 

 Scotland in point of size and magnitude is at Eccles, Dumfries- 

 shire, which measures now upwards of 20 feet in girth at 5 feet 

 above ground. In 1863, its dimensions w^ere, — girth, 26 feet at 

 2 feet above the ground; 20 feet at 4 feet ; 25 feet at 7 feet; 

 and 17 feet at 16 feet from its base. The height of this tree was 

 then 65 feet, and the spread of branches was 300 feet in circum- 



