274 THE LARCH 



his death in 1764 he had planted some twenty square 

 miles with larch. A story comes to me from a corre- 

 spondent, prettily illustrating the Duke's intense interest 

 in the restoration of forest, and not the less worthy of 

 repeating because, my correspondent being a Cameron 

 himself, it indicates some degree of haziness in his 

 clansman's conception of meum and tuum. If distance 

 cannot lend enchantment to theft, surely petty larceny 

 may borrow some glamour from antiquity. 



Mr. Cameron, one of many of his race who live 

 strenuous and useful lives in wealthier England, under- 

 took a few years ago a pious pilgrimage to the sepulchres 

 of his forbears in lonely Glen Nevis. As he trudged 

 up the glen from Fort William, his attention was drawn 

 to a group of eight huge larches growing on the bank of 

 the Nevis, and he remarked to his companion that 

 they reminded him of the parent larches of Dunkeld. 

 Their beauty and the grandeur of their branches im- 

 pressed him so much, that he spoke of them after- 

 wards in the presence of Canon M'Coll and Mr. , 



a tradesman of Fort William. 



'Maybe you will not be knowing how these trees 

 came in the glen ? ' said Mr. 



' I do not,' replied Mr. Cameron, ' but I would like to, 

 fine.' 



' Well and indeed,' said the other, ' it was a very 

 long time ago. It came about that Cameron of Glen 

 Nevis was landing from a ship, and in the boat with 

 him was the Duke of Atholl himself, and with the 

 Duke was a parcel of small trees, which lay behind 

 Glen Nevis in the boat. Now Glen Nevis was the 



