LITERATURE OF SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURE. 213 



invaders, belonging to a race far advanced in civilisation and in 

 the arts and sciences of the period, and boasting in their literature 

 some of the most famous authors and philosophers the world has 

 ever seen, have handed down to us a clear and vivid picture of the 

 condition of this island, and its inhabitants, and their occupations, 

 when they first landed upon its shores. We learn from their records 

 that Britain was then in great part covered with dense forest. 

 Julius Crcsar, the leader of the Eoman legions, who took possession 

 of the island, says: — "A town among the Britons is nothing more 

 than a thick wood, fortified with a ditch aud rampart, to serve as a 

 place of retreat against the incursions of their enemies." Strabo 

 also, in describing a British town, says : — " Forests were the only 

 towns in use among them, which were formed by cutting down a 

 large circle of wood and erecting huts within it, and sheds for cattle." 

 Groves were also used by the ancient Britons as places of worship ; 

 and the altars of the Druids were generally erected in woods, and 

 the oak was regarded by them as a sacred tree. That this densely 

 wooded condition of ancient Britain had existed from very early ages, 

 is quite apparent from the number of whole trees (fir chiefly) fre- 

 quently found embedded in deep bogs, conclusively proving that 

 many centuries ago, the wolf and the boar roamed unmolested 

 through deep woods and tangled thickets ; that the wind, tearing 

 its way through the mighty forest, swept down the trees in its 

 course, and these being unvalued and unmissed, were allowed to lie 

 till the fallen leaves of centuries, silently gathering over them, 

 shrouded them from sight, to be dug up afterwards, in distant 

 years it might be, as the silent historians of far off ages. Assuming, 

 then, that the general condition of Britain, at the time of the Roman 

 invasion, was chiefly that of a forest, or series of forests, and know- 

 ing the proficiency of the Romans in all gardening and rural matters, 

 we may very naturally suppose that they taught and introduced 

 many new modes of propagation of timber trees, and various original 

 methods of treatment of them. For the Romans had long been 

 celebrated in the art of gardening, and in the culture of trees ; 

 and, indeed, all the nations of antiquity were uncommonly fond of 

 gardening and such like occupations or recreations. Hence we read 

 of the fabulous gardens of the Hesperides, so beautifully described 

 by Virgil,* and of other equally famous gardens and grounds men- 

 tioned by other authors, f and repeatedly quoted or referred to when 



* Virgil, ^Eneid, iv. 484. 



+ Ovid, Am. i. 10, 56. Stat. Sylv. i. 3, 81. Plin. xix. 4. Cin.. Att. xii. 

 23. Horat. Od. ii. 14, 22; ct ii. 15, 4. 



