94 



SCOTTISH FORESTS IN EARLY TIMES. 



At different dates, and in varying words, and of many localities, 

 the same story is told — the name of the Caledonian Forest being 

 taken more or less accurately or inaccurately. Thus Hector 

 Boece, writing circa 1527, says : "The gret wod of Calidon . . 

 ran fra Striveling throw Menteith and Stratherne to Atholl 

 and Lochquhabir; as Ptolome writtis, in his first table." The 

 Torwood was identified by the same old writer with the Caledonian 

 Forest. John Major, writing in the 16th century, says : "Round 

 the foot of the mountains are great woods. There, I incline to 

 think, was the Caledonian Forest of which Ptolemy and the 

 Roman writers make mention, and in these woodis is found an 

 incredible number of stags and hinds." Modern writers take up 

 the tale : — " As for Scotland, ... in the south a vast forest 

 filled the intervening space between Chillingham and Hamilton, 

 a distance, as the crow flies, of about 80 miles, including within 

 it Ettrick and numerous other forests; and further north the 

 great Caledonian wood, known even at Rome, covered the 

 greater part of both the Lowlands and Highlands, its recesses 

 affording shelter at one time to bears, wolves, wild boars and 

 wild white cattle." * Professer Veitch says : — " The extensive area 

 covered by the old forests of the South of Scotland, which may be 

 taken as including the vales of the Ettrick, the Yarrow, the Meggat, 

 the Caddon and part of the Tweed, was but the remains of that 

 great and ancient forest of Caledon — Coit Celidon — which stretched 

 across the west of Scotland, including Cadzow, portions of Renfrew 

 and Ayr, and the carses by and beyond the Forth, piercing 

 northwards to the great plain bounded by the Highland mountains. 

 In the border country, particularly in the secluded dales of Ettrick 

 and Yarrow, there was abundant wood. It is possible even that 

 the name of the original inhabitants of at least a portion of the 

 Border district — Gadeni or Cadeni — meant dwellers in the wood." 2 

 Mr. Jas. Barbour says : — " When the Romans entered Galloway 

 about a.d. 80 they found the country covered with wood, except 

 the exposed soilless summits of rocks and low marshy spots where 

 wood would not grow. The trees were principally oak, ash, birch, 

 alder and rowan .... also an undergrowth of hazels and 



1 Harting's Extinct British Animals, p. 9. 



2 History and Poetry of the Scottish Border, p. 13. 



