132 SYLVA SCOTICA. 



to it, when he first solicited that encouragement in 

 its support, which he now has gratefully to acknow- 

 ledge having been favoured with, beyond his most 

 sanguine hopes. Under these circumstances, he 

 trusts, that in devoting the concluding part of the 

 SYLVA BKITANNICA to the trees of North Britain, 

 he shall be considered as paying the tribute of his 

 respect not only generally to 



" A country famed for industry and song," 



but also more particularly to those public-spirited 

 noblemen and gentlemen, among the foremost of 

 whom he would reckon him to whom his feelings of 

 admiration and esteem have led him to dedicate this 

 portion of his work, who are daily consulting the in- 

 terests of posterity by clothing their native hills with 

 rich plantations, and carrying into execution every 

 benevolent and patriotic scheme that can increase 

 the sum of human happiness, and raise man in the 

 scale of intellectual being. 



Ancient Caledonia was, as the name implies, al- 

 most one vast forest. Many of the bleak moors and 

 mosses which now disfigure the face of the coun- 

 try, and produce only barren heath, were formerly 

 clothed with woods, that furnished useful timber 

 and excellent pasturage. " During the twelfth and 

 thirteenth centuries," says Chalmers, " not only the 

 kings, but the bishops, barons, and abbots, had their 

 forests in every district of North Britain, in which 



