92 WOODS AND FOBESTS OF PEBTHSHIBE. LI>ec., 



WOODS A WD FORESTS OF PERTHSHIRE. 



!^«/3lE. Tlioma3 Hunter, tlie well-known Editor of the Perthshire 

 iWil Constitutional and Journal, has laid all tree lovers under 

 48 f ^ great obligation by the publication ol" his recent and beautifully 

 illustrated book.* The attempt to give in a review, unless it be a 

 review of inordinate length, a fair reflex of Mr. Hunter's pages we at 

 once renounced, on looking at the volume, as an impossibility ; and this 

 circumstance is in the highest degree complimentary to the author, 

 for the book is a monument of industry. We could fill this Magazine 

 with interesting extracts containing a mass of elaborate and detailed 

 information of a kind especially attractive to our readers, and yet fail to 

 give more than a small part of its contents, or even to do justice reflec- 

 tively, so to speak, i.e., representatively — to the rest. 



We must therefore be content to indicate briefly the general nature 

 of the chapters, premising that each one is crammed full of information 

 of almost every conceivable kind relating to the subject of the work. 



Comprehensive as the title is, it is amply justified by the nearly 600 

 pages of closely though excellently printed matter. 



Beginning excellently with a remark on the solemnizing influence of 

 woods, in which occurs the passage that ' The beautiful appearance 

 which woods give to the landscape of a country, and the part they i)lay 

 in the economy of Nature, render the study of them one of the most 

 pleasing and interesting themes that can engage our attention,' the 

 author goes on to discuss their effect upon the landscape, their climatic 

 influence, and their commercial importance. Then reverting to the 

 particular locality — Perthshire— intended to be dealt with, he 

 commences an account of what must strike the reader as a singularly 

 complete record of every point of interest. The past and the present 

 are compared, the extent and character of the county, its ancient con- 

 tinuous forests, the destruction of these, their remains, the destruction 

 of its woods during feudal times, the efforts at improvements, compul- 

 sory planting, the acreage at present under wood, and the pecuniary value 

 of this wood. Then follows accounts of the Perth nurseries, of Athole, of 

 Dalguise, ]\Iurtly, Dunsinane, Scone, Lynedoch, Logieahnond, Methven, 

 Moncrieff Kilgrasteon, Inveraray, Freelaud, Piossie, Condie, Duncrub, 

 Garvock, Gask, Dupplin, Abercairny, Blair — Drummond, Ardoch, Keir, 

 Kippendaire, Monteith, Strathallan, Drummond Castle, Stobhall, the 



* ' Woods, Forests anclEstates of Perthshire, with Sketches of the Principal Families 

 in the County.' By Thomas Hunter, Editor of the Perthshire Constitutional and 

 Journal. Illustrated. Perth : Henderson, Eobcrtson and Hunter ; Edinburgh : 

 William Brown ; Glasgow : Thomas Murray and Son. 1883. 



