1772 ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. PART III. 



stone, Esq., we are enabled to give the dimensions of this tree, as taken in No- 

 vember, 1836. Height, 49ft.; circumference of the trunk, 16ft. ; diameter of 

 the head, 68 ft. " This tree stands in a wood of oaks, in which the Castle of 

 Lochwood (the original residence of the Johnstone family) is situated. It is 

 quite vigorous ; but most of the other trees are in a state of decay. There are 

 the remains of larger oaks, the diameter of the trunk of one of which is 6 ft. ; 

 but little of its head remains." An oak at Barjarg, in Nithsdale, in 1796, mea- 

 sured 17 ft. in circumference. In the year 1762, Lord Barjarg was informed 

 by some very old people, that, about 90 years previous to that date, the tree 

 had been bored, with a view to ascertain if it were sound, which it was ; and 

 from the margin of the hole bored some branches proceeded, one of which 

 was then (1762) a considerable bough. QVaf/cer's Essays., p. 6.) The Blind 

 Oak of Keir, on the estate of W. H. Hunter, Esq., is mentioned in the title 

 deeds of the estate, about 200 years ago. In 1810, it measured 17ft. 2 in. in 

 circumference, at 4 ft. 6 in. from the ground. 



Inverness-shire. In a very old oak wood on the north of Loch Arkeg, in 

 Lochaber, Dr. Walker mentions a tree which measured 24ft. 6 in. in circum- 

 ference at 4 ft. from the ground. In the same county, Sir Thomas Dick 

 Lauder found the remains of a " magnificent oak forest, not, as is commonly 

 the case, embedded in peat earth, but lying on the surface of the solid ground, 

 as trees would do that had been newly thrown down. Many years must have 

 elapsed since these trees were laid prostrate ; for there is now a very old and 

 beautiful birch wood growing on the ground they formerly occupied. We 

 measured one of these trunks, and found it to be 23 ft. long, without a branch; 

 16 ft. round the but end ; and 1 1 ft. in circumference towards the smaller end, 

 under the fork. With the exception of an inch or two of the external part, 

 which was weather-wasted, it appeared perfectly fresh. It lay within a yard 

 of the root on which it grew ; but it was not easy to determine, from appear- 

 ances, how it was severed from it. The stump remaining in the ground was 

 worn away in the centre, and hollowed out ; so that it now encircles a large 

 birch tree of more than 1 ft. in diameter, self-sown, and growing vigorously, 

 within the ancient shell of the oak." (Lander's Gilpin, i. p. 253.) 



Renfrewshire. The Wallace Oak. (fig. 1621.) At ., . 91 



Ellerslie, the native village of the hero Wallace, 

 there is still standing " the large oak tree," among 

 whose branches it is said that he and 300 of his 

 men hid themselves from the English. Its cir- 

 cumference at the base is 21ft.; and at 15ft., 

 13 ft. 2 in. : its height is 67 ft. ; and the expanse of ^ 

 its boughs is, E. 45 ft., w. 36 ft., s. 30 ft., N. 25 ft. ; ~ 

 thus spreading over an extent of 19 English, or 

 15 Scotch, poles. This oak, we are informed by 

 Alexander Spiers, Esq., the proprietor of Ellerslie, 

 is still in the same state as when Strutt's drawing 

 was made, of which ours is a reduced copy. Ac- 

 cording to another legend, Wallace hid himself 

 among the boughs of this oak when his enemies were sacking his house at 

 Ellerslie. (See Miss Porter's Scottish Chiefs, &c.) 



Roxburghshire. Near Jedburgh, on the estate of the Marquess of Lothian, 

 stands a remarkable oak, called the King of the Woods. " It is now (January 

 19. 1837) 16 ft. 6 in. in circumference, at 1 ft. from the ground ; its whole height 

 is 73ft. ; the height of the trunk, before it forms branches, is 43 ft.; and it is as 

 straight as, and something of the form of, a wax candle. It is, perhaps, the 

 finest piece of oak timber in Scotland ; and its beauty has probably saved it 

 from the axe, for it, and its neighbour, the Capon Tree, seem to be a century 

 older than any of the other old trees in the county. The Capon Tree is also 

 an oak ; but it possesses quite a different character from that of the King of the 

 Woods; the trunk, and every branch of it, being excessively crooked. At one 

 time, it must have covered an immense space of ground ; but, from being long 



