276 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
belonged to James Ewing, Esq. (1774-1853), once'a well-known 
merchant in Glasgow, who, on acquiring it, changed the name 
from Levenside to Strathleven. His widow is life-rented in 
the estate. At one time he had a house in Glasgow, at the 
head of what is now Queen Street, where the N.B. Railway 
Station is. It was surrounded by tall trees; in which were 
a number of rooks’, or, as they are locally called, “crows’” 
nests. This fact was brought to our notice by the sight of a 
number of rooks’ nests in some fine beech trees to the front of 
Strathleven House. At this early season, and after a winter 
so severe, there is not much of biological interest to be seen 
except the trees, but with fine examples of these Strathleven is 
well supplied. On the bank of the river is an old Oak in a 
decaying condition, with many small lateral branches springing 
from the lower part of the trunk. These and the rough and 
uneven nature of the trunk render it difficult to measure the 
girth with exactness. The tape cannot be passed round on a 
straight line. The narrowest part of the trunk seems to be at a 
height averaging about 24 ft. from the ground, but as the tree 
grows at the top of a slope the tape at one point is only a foot 
from the ground, while at another it is about 4 ft. The girth 
reaches the respectable figure of 23 ft. and half-an-inch, and is 
exceeded only by the “ Pease” tree at The Lee—23 ft. 74 in. in 
1890. It is larger even than the “ Capon” tree near Jedburgh, 
which two members of the Society measured in 1893, and found to 
be 22 ft. 62 in. at the narrowest part of the trunk. But the “Capon” 
tree, though slightly less in girth, is really a grander tree than this 
venerable monarch of the “‘ Vale.” On our former visit to Strath- 
leven, in June, 1890, we found the girth to be 23 ft. 5 in. at 
an average height of 2} ft. There is thus an apparent decrease of 
41 in., which is to be accounted for by the fact that near the ground, 
and for about a foot up, the trunk is decaying, and large pieces of 
the bark and outer wood have fallen off. In the Transactions of the 
Highland and Agricultural Society for 1865 this tree is recorded 
as girthing 23 ft., but at what height from the ground is not stated. 
The height of the tree is said to be 60 ft., spread of branches, 
78 ft., and it is supposed to be above 200 years old—probably a 
very moderateestimate. In his lists of Old and Remarkable Trees 
of Scotland, published in the Highland and Agricultural Society's 
