OBITUARY. 119 



OBITUARY. 



Caroline, Countess of Seafield. 



The death of Caroline, Countess of Seafield, at CuUen House, 

 on 6th October 191 1, removed from the list of Scottish 

 proprietors the name of one who was probably the largest owner 

 of private woodlands in the United Kingdom. Lady Seafield 

 possessed extensive and valuable landed property in various 

 districts — at CuUen, Keith, Elgin, Strathspey, and Glenurquhart. 

 Each of these estates contained woods of various ages, and her 

 Strathspey estate in particular has had a reputation even beyond 

 the bounds of Great Britain for the extent, prosperity and 

 successful management of its woods and forests. 



For centuries the natural pine forests of Abernethy and 

 Duthil had been a source of revenue to the family of Grant ; 

 and her immediate predecessors in the ownership of Strathspey 

 had adopted the wise policy of adding to their wide area of 

 natural forest by extensive and judicious planting. Francis 

 William, the sixth Earl of Seafield, is said to have planted 

 8000 acres on his various estates. His son John Charles, the 

 seventh Earl, husband of the late Countess, continued planting 

 operations on probably an even greater scale, especially in 

 Strathspey, till his death in 1881 ; and her son Ian Charles, 

 the eighth Earl, during his brief tenure of three years, continued 

 the same policy. The seventh and eighth Earls had as their 

 Commissioner the Hon. T. C. Bruce, and in Mr J. Grant 

 Thomson they had a wood-manager well qualified to carry out 

 this form of estate development. With the assistance of 

 capable district foresters, not only were the older woods 

 satisfactorily managed, but vast acres of bare moorland were 

 covered with new and thriving plantations. On Aviemore hill 

 alone, it is said that 9,000,000 plants were put into the soil 

 Altogether the Strathspey woods probably cover about 30,000 

 acres, mostly of Scots fir, but also with much larch, spruce and 

 birch ; and they afford practical evidence that wide areas of 

 bare heather in the Highlands can be converted by judicious 

 afforestation into thriving and picturesque plantations 



