ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, NOVEMBER 6, 1877. 199 



was,' says the judge, 'on a fine Sunday, lying on the grassy 

 summit of Benarty, above its craggy brow, that Sir "Walter said, 

 looking first on the flat expanse of Kinross-shire (on the south 

 side of the Ochils), and then at the space which Blairadam fills 

 between the Hill of Drumglow (the highest of the Cleish Hills) 

 and the valley of Loch Ore, " What an extraordinary thing it is, 

 that here to the north so little appears to have been done, when 

 there are so many proprietors to work upon it ; and to the south, 

 here is a district of country entirely made by the efforts of one 

 family, in three generations, and one of them amongst us in the 

 full enjoyment of what has been done by his two predecessors and 

 himself. Blairadam, as I have always heard, had a wild, uncomely, 

 and inhospitable appearance, before its improvements were begun. 

 It would be most curious to record in writing its original state, 

 and trace its gradual progress to its present condition.'" Upon 

 this suggestion, enforced by the approbation of the other members 

 present, the President of the Blairadam Club commenced arranging 

 materials for what constitutes a most instructive as well as enter- 

 taining history of the agricultural and arboricultural progress 

 of his domains, in course of a hundred years, under his grand- 

 father, his father, and himself; and Sir Walter had only 

 suggested to his friend at Kinross-shire what he was resolved to 

 put into practice, with regard to his own improvements on Tweed- 

 side ; for he began at precisely the same period to keep a regular 

 journal of all his rural transactions, under the title of ' Sylva 

 Abbotsfordiensis.' " 



The result of this suggestion was the book of which I have 

 spoken, and I regret that time does not permit me to go more 

 fully into the different ei*as of planting as carried out on the 

 estate, beginning first before 1733 with squares, straight lines, and 

 the formal strips of that period, and followed by their conversion 

 into clumps and the irregular and wavy lines of the next period as 

 the taste in planting changed ; but if I cannot enter into these just 

 now, I can only say that if during your summer excursions any 

 of my fellow - members would visit Blaii'adam, it would give 

 me very great pleasure ; and it might perhaps interest you now, 

 and add to the inducement to visit the place, were I shortly to 

 state the size and dimensions of some of the trees, especially of 

 silver firs which were planted in the earliest era. The silver fir 

 has always flourished luxuriantly, and is the most remarkable 

 species of tree on the estate. There are four still living of 



