Blair- Drummond. 595 



gardener, Mr. James Drummond, in our Volume for 1841, 

 p. 505. Great attention has been paid to preserve these trees 

 from injury, and to allow them to take their natural shapes. 

 Hence no animal has ever been allowed to graze in the park, 

 except sheep ; and hence all the trees may be said to be 

 feathered to the ground with branches. There are some very 

 remarkable spruce firs, Nos. 33. to 37. in the table in p. 507., 

 the branches of which rest on the ground, and cover a space 

 between 40 ft. and 50 ft. in diameter. Many of the lower 

 branches have struck root at their extremities, and are sending 

 up a circle of regular trees round their parent; a circumstance 

 not uncommon with the black spruce, and only seen in the 

 common spruce when it is in rich moist soil and of considerable 

 age. One spruce fir at Blair-Drummond has six young trees 

 round it, four of which are about as high as the parent in the 

 centre. Some of the larches are above 100 ft. high, and there 

 is a white poplar 106 ft. high. One larch, which was cut down, 

 contained above 100 cubic feet of sound timber; another, which 

 girted 9 ft. 2 in., had thirty-six circles of solid red wood ; it 

 grew on a red clay loam, on red sandstone. The highest 

 larches now standing are between 103 ft. and 105 ft. From 

 previous measurements, the larches at Blair-Drummond do not 

 seem to have gained above 4 or 5 inches in circumference in the 

 ten years preceding 1836, while some of the beeches and oaks 

 have added above 1 ft. to their circumference in the same period. 

 By comparing the measurement of the trees made in 1836, as 

 given in our preceding Volume, pp. 506. and 507., with the 

 measurement of the same trees made in August, 1841, as given 

 in p. 508., the progress they have made since 1836 may be 

 ascertained with accuracy. 



In the park there is an artificial lake 1000 yards in length, 

 and varying from 20 to 30 and 40 yards in breadth. At one 

 end it contains a beautifully wooded island, on which there are a 

 heronry and numerous jackdaws. On the water are swans, 

 wild ducks, and other aquatic fowls. 



The walks in the grove behind the house command fine views 

 of the western extremity of the Ochil Hills, Abbey Craig, Stir- 

 ling Castle, Craigforth, Touch, and Campsie Hills, the village 

 of Cambusbarn, and several gentlemen's seats. From the two 

 approaches, to the north and west are views of Ben-Lomond 

 and some of the Grampian Mountains, such as Ben-Ledie, Ben- 

 Virlich, with several others, and the fine old ruins of Doune 

 Castle. The Flanders Moss being now all brought under cul- 

 tivation, the Persian wheel which raised the water for floating 

 away the moss has been suffered to fall into decay, and is no 

 longer, as it used to be, one of the sights eagerly visited by 

 strangers. 



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