LITERATURE OF SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURE. 217 



"Whether their arboriculture was of a scientific kind or not, it is cer- 

 tain that, like the agriculture of the period under the supervision 

 of the monks, it was systematic, and under strict regulation. The 

 old Granges, which were the chief houses of each of the abbey- 

 baronies, were usually surrounded by plantations tastefully arranged; 

 and it is to the early monks, and their frequent pilgrimages to the 

 East and to continental shrines and countries, that we owe the 

 introduction and acclimatisation in Britain of many species of trees, 

 and shrubs, and plants now common amongst us. It may be 

 noticed, as a type of civilisation developing itself in Scotland, and 

 existing already in no mean degree, that we read " that in the cham- 

 berlain's books there is a charge for a gardener at the king's castle at 

 Forfar ; " * and in a document of the year 1261, one pleads a right 

 to a garden in Morayshire, whence pot-herbs were to be supplied 

 for the king's table when he dwelt in the castle of Elgin. Forty- 

 two years later, when King Edward was in possession of Scotland, the 

 Dean of Elgin beseeches him for a grant of oak-wood from a neigh- 

 bouring forest, that he may rebuild certain houses and the enclo- 

 sure of his garden, destroyed by the conquering army.t Early in 

 the War of Independence there is a claim for damage by the English 

 army on the estates of the nunnery of Coldstream, and of this, one 

 item is for the " punier " or orchard, which yielded the value of a 

 hundred shillings annually beyond the fruit consumed by the house. j 

 The enlightened attention and evident interest in all agricultural 

 affairs that mark the era of the monastic institutions, from the reign 

 of David I. and for centuries afterwards, spread by degrees from the 

 monastery to the entire population during that peaceful monarch's 

 reign and benign government ; and as it is an axiom true of every 

 country and people, that for "agriculture to succeed, arboriculture 

 must precede," so we may safely infer that the art of tree growing, 

 propagation, and planting was in an advanced state in our country 

 in those interesting and early ages. Doubtless, in common with 

 agriculture and other subjects which interested their material pro- 

 sperity and comforts, the monks of the middle ages compiled and 

 wrote treatises on arboricultural subjects. Unless they had done 

 so, it is impossible to account for the progressive strides made in 

 the culture of trees in their time, and these writings formed pro- 

 bably the earliest written literature of the science. 



* Innes' Scotland in the Middle Ages, p. 124. 

 t Documents illustrative of Scotland, ii. 451. 

 X Hill Burton's History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 109. 



