28 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. 



Forest, and others which have been celebrated in history 

 and in song.* 



Chalmers, in his work entitled Caledonia, to which 

 reference has been made, tells that daring the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries, not only the king, but the bishops, 

 barons, and abbots, ha<i their forests in every district of 

 North Britain ;' and he adds, ' it will scarce be credited 

 that many black moors which now disfigure the face of the 

 country, and produce only barren heath, were formerly 

 clothed with wood, and furnished useful timber and excel- 

 lent pasturage ; yet it is a fact clearly proved by the posi- 

 tive evidence of record, a great part of which is now 

 without a tree.' 



Corroborative evidence of the existence of forests afore- 

 time, where forests now there are none, is afforded by 

 immense quanities of wood found in various places in peat 

 bogs and similar formations. 



Similar remains of ancient forests buried in the ground 

 and submerged in the sea are met with in England, details 

 in regard to some of which are given in Forests oj England, 

 &c, [pp. 168-188]. In Ireland also we meet with the 

 remains of buried forests; and in Scotland they are not 

 awanting. 



* Mention is made by Pliny of the Caledonian Forest. The ancient town of Caledonia 

 had become in Buchanan's time, in the 16th century, he tells us, vulgarly (or commonly) 

 called Dunkeld the Hill of Hazel Trees ; ' for here,' says he, ' the hazel tree spreads 

 itself widely in these uncultivated places, and having covered the country with shady 

 woods, gave a name both to the town and to the tribe.' Upon this statement Aikman, 

 the translator of Buchanan's History of Scotland, remarks in a note : ' This derivation 

 of the name is now generally allowed to be correct, though some Gaelic etymologists 

 derive it from Dun ghael dhun" the fortress of the Gaels of the hills." (Stat. vol. 

 xx. p. 411.) The name Caledonians, which belonged to the tribe, who formed one part 

 of the Pictish kingdom, Mr Pinkerton alleges was given them by their neighbours, and 

 it would seem means Woodlanders, as their territories were then covered with woods, 

 and especially the vast Si/loa Caledonia. (Inq. vol. i. p. 20.) 



By Latin writers the name Caledonia was applied to the whole peninsula north of the 

 Forth, and there is reason to believe that, at a time long after the days of Pliny, the 

 whole country was still thickly covered with woods. Buchanan tells : ' Beneath 

 Caledonia, about twelve miles on the same right bank, is Perth. On the left bank, 

 below Athole, looking towards the east, lies the Carse of Gowrie, a noble corn country. 

 Beyond this again, between the Tay and the Esk, extends the county of Angus, or as 

 the ancient Scots termed it Aeneia, by some called Horrestia (so named from the 

 Horesti, a tribe mentioned by Tacitus, but omitted by Ptolemy), and by the English 

 Forestia (woodland). In this tract are the cities of Cupar and Dundee, which Boethius, 

 desirous of gratifying his countrymen, calls Deidonum (the gift of God), but of which 

 I think the ancient name was Taodunutn, that is a hill near the Tay, dun signifying a, 

 hill, at the bottom of which the town ia built.' 



