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On the Ancient Forests of Scotland. By P. F. Tytler, Esq. 



F.R.S. K.A.S. &C. 



We must be careful not to permit the ideas which are derived 

 from the condition of Scotland in the present day, to influence 

 our conclusions as to its appearance in the rude and early ages 

 of its history. No two pictures could be more dissimilar than 

 Scotland in the thirteenth and fourteenth, and Scotland in the 

 nineteenth century. The mountains, indeed, and the rivers, are 

 stern and indomitable features of nature, upon which the hand 

 of man can introduce but feeble alterations ; yet, with this ex- 

 ception, every thing was different. The face of the country was 

 covered by immense forests chiefly of oak, in the midst of which, 

 upon the precipitous banks of rivers, or on rocks which formed 

 a natural fortification, and were deemed impregnable by the mi- 

 litary art of that period, were placed the castles of the feudal 

 barons. One principal source of the wealth of the proprietors of 

 these extensive forests consisted in the noble timber which they 

 contained, and the deer and other animals of the chase with 

 which they abounded. When Edward I. subdued and overran 

 the country, we find him in the constant practice of repaying the 

 services of those who submitted to his authority, by presents of 

 so many stags and oaks from the forests which he found in pos- 

 session of the crown. Thus, on the 18th of August, 1291. the 

 king directed the keeper of the Forest of Selkirk to deliver thirty 

 stags to the Archbishop of St Andrews, twentv stags and sixty 

 oaks to the Bishop of Glasgow, ten to the High Steward, and 

 six to Brother Brian, Preceptor of the Order of Knights Tem- 

 plars in Scotland.* 



" These curious details, illustrative of the former extent of the Forests 

 of Scotland, are extracted from volume ii. of a History of Scotland, by Pat- 

 rick Fraser Tytler, Esq., F.R.S. and F.A.S. ; a work distinguished by those 

 qualities which ought to characterize legitimate and patriotic history. No 

 one, indeed, who takes an interest in the glorious deeds of arms, and striking 

 displays of mental energy exhibited by our ancestors, and who delight in 

 tracing the gradual advancement of Scotland from its comj)aratively rude and 

 simple state, to its more refined althougli less energetic condition, but will 

 peruse the volumes of this work with feelings of unmixed pleasure, and ex- 

 jiress the liope that the author may finish the plan lie has .-sketched out. 



