WALNUT TREES IN SCOTLAND. 197 



scanty list, three trees of no notable size whatever, thus showing 

 that verv few trees of dimensions worth recording were known 

 to him from 1760 to 1790 ; and so minute and exacting an 

 inquirer into all nature's secrets was Dr Walker, that if many 

 fine trees of the walnut species had then existed in this country, 

 even at wide and distant points, his industrious and intelligent 

 investigations would have led him to them, and he would have 

 certainlv discovered and recorded them. Walker's first men- 

 tioned walnut is one growing in the garden at Lochnell in 

 Argyleshire, which, in July 1771, girthed 3 feet 3 inches at 4 

 feet from the ground, and was 25 feet in height, and was then 

 known to be exactly thirty-six years old. It is to be regretted 

 tliat repeated inquiries made as to the existence and condition 

 and size of this tree at the present day, for the purpose of this 

 paper, have been met with no response regarding it. 



Walker's second walnut grew at Alva, Stirlingshire. It was 

 planted in the garden by Sir John Erskine anno 1715, in 

 presence of his brother the Lord Justice Clerk Tinwald, after- 

 wards proprietor of the estate. In October 1760, at 2 feet from 

 the ground, it girthed 5 feet 4 inches. This tree we find, after 

 careful inquiry, is departed, but neither date nor manner of its 

 decease has been preserved or recorded. Walker next refers to 

 " a number of walnut trees at Games " (Kainies), isle of Bute, 

 " vigorous and well grown," which in September 1771 were about 

 seventy years old. " They were then," he remarks, " between 50 

 and 60 feet high, and the largest of them girthed at 4 feet from the 

 ground, 6 feet 1 inch." On inquiry and careful investigation 

 by Mr Kay, the able and intelligent wood manager on the 

 Kaimes estate, we have ascertained that none of these trees now 

 exist. When they were felled, or how they disappeared, not 

 even the oldest inhabitant can tell, so much had they probably 

 been regarded as merely ordinary hard- wooded trees at the 

 time of their disposal. It is, however, somewhat remarkable 

 than in the island of Bute, a district isolated, and replete with 

 many very remarkably large and notable trees of almost every 

 variety, no instance of a walnut of anything like timber size has 

 been obtained. Thus it is that frequently in the most likely 

 localities, as regards soil, climate, and other circumstances, the 

 enthusiastic exj^lorer is disaj)pointed, while in the most 

 unexpected quarters, often rare and remarkable specimens of 

 dilVerent descrii)tions of trees are found. And as a further 

 instance of this, we need only notice Walker's fourth, 

 and indeed only large walnut, — which "grows," says he, 

 " before the front of Kinross House, in Kinross-shire, and in 

 " September 1796, measured at 4 feet from the ground 9 feet 6 

 inches in circumference." He further adds — "The house of 

 Kinross was finished by Sir Williani Bruce in 16S4, and the 



