TEE CUMBERNAULD FOREST. 323 



(daughter of the sixth earl), with Charles, tenth Lord 

 Elphinstone, the estates were carried into that family ; 

 and they have since become, in right of his mother, the 

 property of the Hon. Cornwallis Fleeming, the eldest 

 son of Viscount Hawarden. Unfortunately the devoted 

 loyalty in every age, as history clearly shows, of the 

 Flemings to the House of Stuart, seriously impaired 

 from time to time the estate of Cumbernauld, and at 

 last necessitated its sale. The present owner is Mr. 

 John William Burns, of Kilmahew Castle, Cardross, 

 Dumbarton. 



The Castle of Cumbernauld, now destroyed, was a 

 place of much importance ; the undoubted antiquity of 

 its military works, which yet remain, makes it evident 

 that it was of great strength ages since. Its turrets 

 frowned from the summit of the glen — the only part of 

 the property where timber to any extent still remains — 

 commanding its two passes to the west and north, and 

 in close approximation to the dun or pristine fortifi- 

 cation which protected it on three sides of the steep, 

 while a fourth was made inaccessible by a fosse of water. 

 In those days miles of dense forest stretched around, 

 tenanted by herds of wild cattle, and by deer and 

 various wild animals. This forest extended northward 

 and eastward to the rivers Bonny, Kelvin, and Carron ; 

 westward many miles ; and southward, in one direction, 

 to the river Avon, in another to the great moss which 

 extended from Shotts, east of Hamilton, to the baronies 

 which adjoined the royal lands of Linlithgow. All is 

 now disafforested, and there are three farms on the 

 curtailed estate of Cumbernauld which bear the names 

 of East, Middle, and West Forest respectively. The 

 civil war in the time of Charles I. seems to have 

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