Mr. Tate on the Red or Common Squirrel. 441 



Whether squirrels are indigenous to the Borders, or existed 

 there in ancient times, is doubtful ; the climate is evidently 

 not unsuited to them; and it is possible that the extensive 

 destruction of forests and woods, from the period of the Nor- 

 man Conquest till the accession of James I. to the English 

 throne, may have caused the extirpation of the original 

 breed ; but of this there is not evidence. The skins of 

 squirrels, as well as of cats, foxes, hares, rabbits, kids and 

 lamb, were articles of commerce in the district in 1377, when, 

 according to a charter for pontage, one hundred of them was 

 charged a toll of one halfpenny on passing over Alnwick 

 bridge ; but such skins may not have been grown in the dis- 

 trict. Wallis, in his Natural History of Northumberland, in 

 1768, does not mention squirrels. The present breed appears, 

 from good evidence, to have been introduced in the early 

 part of the present century. Mr D. Milne Home informs me 

 that he had heard his father say that a Duchess of Buccleuch, 

 being fond of the animal^ imported it from England to Dal- 

 keith, and that it spread thence into the neighbouring 

 counties. A letter from the Earl of Home confirms the 

 account, and says : — " I believe it to be perfectly true that 

 my grandmother, Elizabeth, Duchess of Buccleuch, was the 

 person who imported squirrels into Scotland. I cannot tell 

 the year, but, to the best of my recollection, it w^as more than 

 sixty-six years ago. The Duchess had been used to see them, 

 and to admire them, on her English estates, and desired to 

 see them at Dalkeith Park. She did not foresee that the 

 little animal, comparatively harmless in England, where the 

 trees are chiefly oak, and other deciduous kinds, would be 

 very destructive where the fir predominates. From Dal- 

 keith, where they soon increased rapidly, the squirrels ex- 

 tended to Arniston, about twelve miles from Dalkeith, and 

 then on to Selkirkshire. For many years their progress 

 seemed arrested ; but a good many years ago — I am not able 

 to say what year, but I think it was before my father's death, 

 in 1841 — the first squirrel appeared at the Hirsel (near 

 Coldstream.) Its appearance created great astonishment 

 among the people, who had never seen one. In a very short 

 time the squirrels increased, and they now are only too 

 plentiful ; but as the woods here are chiefly oak and other 

 deciduous trees, they do no material harm. The squirrels 

 also abound at Douglas Castle, in Lanarkshire, where, the 

 trees being chiefly fir, I have been forced to order their de- 

 struction." It is unfortunate that a creature so pretty. 



