320 A SKETCH OF THE BOTANY OF 



Of this forest the red deer was probably the principal occupant ; 

 and in this extensive covert he ranged, in company with roes, 

 wild oxen, and swine, free of all annoyance, except, we sup- 

 pose, what is not unlikely, that the wolf was their contemporary 

 and cohabitant, for of the other savage animals which were their 

 mates, none were large enough to make them their prey. Amid 

 the woods there were extensive lakes, frequented doubtless by 

 numerous flocks of water-fowl ; and on the banks of which the 

 beaver constructed his singular dwellings *. Passing over some 

 centuries we find these lakes converted into morasses, the wood 

 in many places has decayed, and left a soil fitted for grain, the 

 deer and the savage beast have retired to the higher grounds, 

 and man, in a rude though not a savage state, presents himself, 

 subsisting much by the chase, yet not ignorant of the cultivation 

 of corn which he has brought along with him. Other centuries 

 have passed away, and with them all traces of the Roman inva- 

 sion, when the woods of Berwickshire have become scattered and 

 limited in their extent, haunted no longer by game and beasts of 

 prey, but where the villain pastures his cattle, and his more nu- 

 merous flocks of swine. The soil appears cultivated to a con- 

 siderable extent, and from its freshness is abundantly productive. 

 The strong towers of the chieftains, pitched on the edge of preci- 

 pices and deep ravines, or on an elevation in the midst of marshes, 

 form prominent objects in the landscape, yet less striking than 

 the splendid abbeys occupying sites chosen rather for their ferti- 

 lity and beauty than for their aptness of defence. At this pe- 

 riod it is probable that most of our fruit-trees and esculent vege- 

 tables were introduced, and many of our flowers, now run wild, 

 although even yet scarcely to be found far from the ruins of mo- 

 nasteries and castles. A few more centuries saw the decay and 

 destruction of these stately buildings; and the villains, freed from 

 their vassalage, left the precincts of places where they no longer 

 found a fostering shelter, and scattered their little villages of un- 

 hewn stone or mud-built cots over the country. Cultivation be- 

 came generally diffused, but it was slovenly done, and the return 

 was scanty ; the land was naked of trees, without hedges and 

 without roads, marshy in the extreme, and unwholesome ; and in 

 this condition it lay until peace and law assured the security of 



* NBILL in Edin. Phil. Journ. i. 184. 



