SCOTTISH FORESTS IN TIMES PAST 311 



IN ABERDEENSHIRE 



Or take the case of Aberdeenshire. Here there were no 

 fewer than eight forests, Dyce, Drumoak, Birse, Mar, 

 Stocket, Kintore, Buchan and Bennachie. The last was 

 included in grants by the Earl of Mar to Sir Robert de 

 Erskine (1358) "cum pastura in foresta de Benechkey 

 [Bennachie]." In 1324 King Robert the Bruce granted 

 lands in Buchan "cum nova foresta" and the forest of Kin- 

 tore to Robert Keith, Marischal of the Kingdom. But the 

 most interesting of the Aberdeenshire forests, in view of its 

 history and early disappearance, was that of Stocket, wherein, 

 in loio, Malcolm 1 1 came near to losing his life by the attack 

 of a wolf. In 1319 this forest was granted by Robert the 

 Bruce to the burgh of Aberdeen, for an annual reddenda of 

 ^"213. 6s. &/. the King reserving the right of "vert" and 

 hunting therein. The Provost of Aberdeen for the time 

 being, was Keeper of the Forest of Stocket, which extended 

 to some thirty square miles and was ultimately held by 

 Aberdeen in free Burgage of the Crown at a nominal rent. 

 Under the town's auspices this ancient forest, which lay just 

 outside the bounds of modern Aberdeen, was soon " im- 

 proved and alienated from its original purpose." 



IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER 



After the period referred to in these charters it is evident 

 that the woods of Scotland suffered rapid destruction at the 

 hands of man, for law after law was passed aiming at the 

 preservation of the old timber and the planting of new. In 

 1424 



it is ordained, that... them that be night steelis greene woodde, or pealis the 

 bark off trees, destroiand wooddes...sall paie fourtie shillings to the King 

 for the unlaw and assyith the partie skaithed ; 



and in the middle of the century, freeholders, temporal and 

 spiritual, were commanded to order their tenants to plant 

 woods and trees, to make hedges and sow broom in con- 

 venient places and according to the extent of their holdings. 

 These regulations seem to have done little to stay the destruc- 

 tion. Parliament after Parliament passed similar enactments, 

 putting the old acts " in sharp execution," increasing the 

 obligation of landholders on the plea that 



