ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 71 



proved by the positive evidence of record. Oak 

 appears, in those times, to have been the wood of 

 most general use. The bridges, the castles, the 

 churches, and the towns were chiefly built with 

 this useful timber. The waste of domestic use, 

 as well as the wars of Edward I., left many woods 

 of great magnitude, and usefulness, in every shire 

 of Scotland, at the accession of Robert Bruce. 

 Still more wasteful wars commenced with that 

 event, which may be said to have lasted, with 

 little intermission, during half a century. Add 

 to the devastation of these wars the destruction of 

 time and chance, of neglect and idleness, whence 

 we may clearly perceive adequate causes of the 

 deplorable waste of the Scottish woods. There 

 are in the maps of Scotland a thousand names of 

 places, which are derived from the woods, which 

 no longer exist on the face of the country. 

 And there are in the Chartularies numerous 

 notices of forests, in many places where not a 

 tree is now to be seen.' 



What remains, for example, of Ettrick Forest 

 in Selkirkshire, consisting largely of pine mixed 

 with oak, birch, and hazel, where ' beasts of 

 chase, and birds of prey, formerly abounded ' ? 



