CHAP, Il. BRITISH ISLANDS. 101 
the course of the river was afterwards turned to it. It is greatly 
to the honour of this family, that for a century past their im- 
provements, such as roadmaking, bridge-building, and planting, 
have been made more with a view to the general benefit of the 
country than to lodging themselves sumptuously. 
New Hailes, near Musselburgh, was a seat of Baron Dal- 
rymple, a celebrated lawyer and improver, and is now the 
property of Miss Dalrymple. 
Arbigland, in Dumfriesshire, was the property of William 
Craik, Esq., a contemporary of Maxwell and of Fletcher of 
Saltoun, and one of the original members of the Society for the 
Improvement of Agriculture in Scotland. He was one of the 
first to study the works of Tull, and to adopt the drill sys- 
tem. He died in 1798, at the age of 95 years. We visited 
Arbigland in 1804, and again in 1806, and found the place still 
celebrated for its old silver firs. A life of this distinguished 
agriculturist will be found in the Farmer’s Magazine, vol. xii. 
. 145. 
; Loudon Castle, in Ayrshire, was one of the first places 
in the West of Scotland where foreign trees were planted. 
«¢ John Earl of Loudon,” Walker observes, “ formed at Loudon 
Castle, in Ayrshire, the most extensive collection of willows, that 
has been made in this country, which he interspersed in his 
extensive plantations. Wherever he went during his long mili- 
tary services, he sent home every valuable sort of tree that he met 
with, All the willows he found cultivated in England, Ireland, 
Holland, Flanders, and Germany, as also in America and Por- 
tugal, where he commanded, were procured and sent to Loudon. 
(Econ. Hist., §c., p. 161.) In 1806, and again in 1831, we 
found a number of fine old trees at Loudon Castle; we recollect, 
in particular, robinias, gleditschias, American oaks, hickories, 
walnuts, taxodiums, acers, poplars, and a variety of others. 
Some are recorded by Dr. Walker as having been remarkably 
fine specimens in 1780. 
Dalmahoy, near Edinburgh, is the property of the Earl of © 
Morton, and there are still a few specimens of old trees there. 
Mount Steuart, the next place mentioned in the list, is situated 
in the Island of Bute, and was built in 1718 by James Earl of 
Bute, father of the celebrated earl of that name, who was minister 
to George III. The plantations there, according to Dr. Walker, 
were begun in the same year. Speaking of them in 1780, he 
says, * They are equal, if not superior, to those of the same age 
in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire. ‘The Oriental plane grows here 
almost like a willow; is never hurt in winter, and forms a fine 
dressed shady tree.” ‘The Marquess of Bute’s family have planted 
from 200,000 to 300,000 trees every year since the beginning 
of the present century. The place contains many remarkably 
H 4 
