

92 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART I. 



1480; and is now the property of George William Campbell, 

 Duke of Argyll. It is a magnificent place, from its great extent, 

 with the sea in front, and backed by wooded hills and lofty 

 mountains. The house is an immense quadrangular building, 

 and with the plantations and pleasure-grounds, are said to have 

 cost, within the last half century, upwards of 300,000/. The 

 Portugal laurel was introduced here in 1695, and is said to have 

 been brought from Portugal by Duke Archibald ; one tree 

 spreads over a circle of 165 ft. in circumference, and is nearly 

 40 ft. high. In Smith's Agricultural Report of Argyllshire, the 

 oldest and largest trees at Inverary are supposed to have been 

 planted by the Marquess of Argyll (frequently mentioned by 

 Evelyn as a great planter), between the years 1650 and JG60. 

 Those of the next largest size and age were raised from seed by 

 Archibald Duke of Argyll in 1746 or 1747. These latter con- 

 sist chiefly of larches, New England pines, and spruce and silver 

 firs. (Report, fyc., p. 156.) The soil and climate at Inverary 

 are said to be remarkably favourable for the growth of trees. 



Prestonfield is a well known place in the neighbourhood of 

 Edinburgh, which, in 1783, belonged to Sir Alexander Dick, a 

 great horticulturist as well as agriculturist, and distinguished 

 by having been the first to produce good medicinal rhubarb in 

 Scotland. (See Wight's Husbandry of Scotland, vol. iii. pt. ii. 

 p. 443.) Kinross was built and planted, about 1685, by 

 Sir William Bruce, the celebrated architect, for his own re- 

 sidence, and was the first good house of regular architecture in 

 Scotland. It was approached by a fine avenue of trees. Drum- 

 lanrig, in Dumfriesshire, was built by the Duke of Queensberry 

 in a commanding situation : it took ten years in building, and 

 was finished in 1689. The duke expended an immense sum in 

 forming terraced gardens, which, according to Gilpin (Observ- 

 ations, Sfc., in Scotland, 1776), served only to deform a very de- 

 lightful piece of scenery. The duke, he adds, seems' to have 

 been aware of his folly, for he is said to have " bundled up all 

 the accounts together, and inscribed them with a grievous curse 

 on any of his posterity who should ever look into them." The 

 property now belongs to the Duke of Buccleugh and Queens- 

 berry, who is planting and building there very extensively. (See 

 an account of Drumlanrig, when visited by us in 1831, in the 

 Gardener's Magazine, vol. ix. p. 1.) 



Hamilton Palace, in Lanarkshire, the ancient seat of the 

 Dukes of Hamilton, was built at different periods ; the most 

 ancient part in 1501. The grounds were laid out in the year 

 1690. The gardens and lawns near the house were planted 

 with foreign trees, especially lime trees, some fine specimens of 

 which still remain. One of the earliest nursery gardens in Scot- 

 land appears to have been established at the little village of 



