SCOTTISH GAEDENS 



charter, confirming them in possession of their burgh 

 and infefting them, their heirs and successors for 

 ever, as owners of the royal forest of the Stocket, 

 saving only to the Crown the timber growing in the 

 said forest and such beasts of the chase as might 

 chance to be found therein. 



Were good " King Hobbe " (as Edward Long- 

 shanks used in derision to nickname his doughty 

 opponent), permitted to revisit Aberdeen, it would be 

 fine to watch his puzzled countenance as his eyes 

 roved in vain quest for some familiar landmark. 

 All, all is changed ; only the river runs in its accus- 

 tomed course. As for the forest, so earnestly have 

 the Aberdonians exercised the right conferred in 

 their charter of erecting "dwelling-houses and other 

 buildings," that one can but guess now where were 

 its precincts. Streets and terraces climb the braes 

 where of old the stag couched and the red fox 

 prowled, a state of things whereof the memory 

 lingers in the name of Mr. Barclay's pretty resi- 

 dence, Raeden House the lair of the roe. It was 

 once the property of Provost More, who built himself 

 here a country residence towards the end of the 

 eighteenth century, and enclosed with high walls of 

 lasting granite, faced with brick, an ample garden. 

 House and garden are now sundered, the latter 

 being occupied by a market-gardener ; and Mr. Barclay 

 has filched from his pasture land the flowerbeds 

 which Miss Wilson has depicted in their autumn 

 glow of chrysanthemums. It is a charmingly tran- 



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