Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 49 



manure or tillage. Much of the land and muir near the house poor and 

 boggy. The people poor, ignorant, and slothful, and ingrained enemies to 

 planting, inclosing, or any hnprovements, or cleanness ; no keeping [breeding] 

 of sheep or cattle, or roads [no regular roads kept, but the most direct line 

 from one point to another taken], but four months, when oats and bear, which 

 was the only sorts of their grain, was on the ground. The farm-houses, and 

 even corn mills, and manse and school, all poor dirty hntts, pulled to pieces 

 for manure, or fell of themselves, almost each alternate year." 



" In my early days, soon after the Union, husbandry and manufactures 

 were in low state. Turneps in fields, for cattle, by Earle of Rothes and very 

 few others, were wondered at. Wheat was almost confined to East Lothian. 

 Inclosures few, and planting very little. No repair of roads ; all bad, and 

 very few wheel carriages. No coach, chariot, or chaise, and few carts beneath 

 Tay. In 1720, I could not, in chariot, get my wife from Aberdeen to Mony- 

 musk. Coll. Midleton the first who used carts or waggons there; and he and 

 I the first beneath Tay who had hay, except very little at Gordon Castle. 

 Mr. Lockhart of Carnwath, author of Memoirs, the first that attempted rais- 

 ing or feeding cattle to size. Aberdeen was then poor and small, having 

 some Dutch and French trade by salmond and stockings, and serges, and 

 plaiding, had first use of tea, then very scarce and little used at Edinburgh, 

 supplied Edinburgh with French wines. Table and body linen seldom shifted, 

 and but coarse, except for extraordinary occasions. Moveing necks and 

 sleeves of better kinds being then used by best. Many wooden, mud, and 

 thatched houses within gates of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen ; few 

 others without gates. All improvements of security, husbandry, manufactures, 

 commerce, or police are since 1707; with which literature, in any extensive 

 degree, except school jargon, hath kept pace." 



Such was the state of Aberdeenshire generally in the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century ; but such it happily no longer is ; for, greatly owing to 

 the exertions of the worthy and active writer of these notices, and of others 

 who followed the good example which he had set, this county is now scarcely 

 behind any part of the kingdom in the march of improvement. 



On the property of Monymusk there are now, instead of a few trees only, 

 several thousand acres of flourishing woods. The houses now are all sub- 

 stantially constructed of stone, and certainly not likely to be soon "pulled to 

 pieces for manure, or to fall of themselves." The roads are among the best 

 in the country ; and the people certainly no longer " ingrained enemies to any 

 improvements." 



For a specimen of the cattle now bred in that district, I would refer your 

 readers to p. 104, 103. of the Treatise on Cattle, published by the Society for 

 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, where is a good portrait and account of a 

 vei-y beautiful ox which Lord Kintore, who has been very successful in breed- 

 ing sheep and cattle, showed me, in his farmyard at Keith Hall, near Mony- 

 musk, in 1833. — W. C. Trevelyan. WaUiiigton, Oct. 5. 1834. 



We have sent a Return Paper to Monymusk, and hope to receive ample 

 information respecting the numerous fine old trees that must now be stand- 

 ing on that estate. — Cond. 



The Peppei'well Oak, at Methven Castle, near Perth, is the largest tree of 

 the kind in Scotland. It must have been of some consequence in 1722, as 

 100 marks were then offered for it. In 1796 it increased 14|ft. in circum- 

 ference. It now measures 18 ft., and contains 700 cubic feet of timber. The 

 diameter of the space occupied by its branches is about 100 ft. 



The largest Cedar in Scotland is at Gray House, near Dundee ; the largest 

 beech, at Newbattle Abbey, Mid-Lothian ; and the largest plane [sycamore], at 

 Kippencross, near Dumblane. {Dundee Chronicle, July, 1834.) We should 

 be glad to receive the particulars of these and other such trees, in every part 

 of Scotland ; for though we have sent a number of Retiu'n Papers to our 

 friends in that country, it is not likely that we have hit upon one tithe of the 

 estates from which we ought to have sought for information. — Cond. 



Vol. XI. — No. 38. e 



