90 SCOTTISH FORESTS IN EARLY TIMES. 



name. Then in 78 a.d. Agricola began his series of campaigns, and 

 Tacitus, the historian, takes up the tale. The Roman fleet 

 circumnavigated Scotland in 84 a.d. 



To assist in forming some conception of the actual extent and 

 state of old Scottish woodlands I propose marshalling some 

 evidence contemporaneous written history (i.e. Roman) gives, and 

 also referring to the accounts of more recent writers, and those 

 further forms of evidence which I may briefly characterise as 

 natural or topographical and traditional. 



That the Romans have left us little in the way of descriptions 

 of Scotland need cause no surprise. They were here as an army 

 of conquest and occupation, military affairs were their business, 

 and the references they make to such natural features as 

 woodlands are incidental only, and of the most general nature. 

 Strabo says, speaking of the ancient Britions — " forests are their 

 cities ; for having enclosed an ample space with felled trees, they 

 make themselves huts therein" (B.4. C.52); but this has probably 

 more direct reference to England. In Agricola's second campaign 

 (79 a.d.) he "explored in person the estuaries and forests (silvas)" 

 on the west coast, south of the Clyde, including the Solway. He 

 found a " fierce and savage people running wild in the woods " 

 there. In the campaign of 83 a.d., when he had penetrated 

 beyond Bodotria, i.e. north of the Firth of Forth, Tacitus, his 

 historian, speaks of "deep woods and mountain passes." In 

 addressing their respective armies before the great battle at Mons 

 Graupius (a disputed locality, but where the Isla joins the Tay, 

 according to Skene), Galgacus, the native leader, speaks of the 

 Romans as forcing their captives to "clear woods and drain 

 marshes," and Agricola reminds his men that in their marches 

 they have " penetrated forests." The natives, being put to flight, 

 " rallied in the woods ; " and the " woods and marshes sheltered 

 the fugitives " after another battle. 



Scottish localities mentioned by Roman writers are not easy 

 to identify, and at the most such passages as the above, which 

 are from the Agricola of Tacitus, do not cover much ground. 

 The description of the army of Agricola in order of march 

 advancing northwards, cutting down woods, using trunks of 

 trees to form roadways across morasses, building bridges of 

 timber, and clearing brushwood and trees away from the neighbour- 



