Sir W. Scott's Connection with Ashiesteel, by Miss Russell. 439 



The ford lias only been quite disused within the last few years ; 

 the other one which named the cross-roads Clovenfords, the 

 King's ford below the mouth of the Caddon, has been much 

 longer completely closed. 



It is not known at present where Sir Walter found the name 

 of Glenkinnon, which he applies to the valley of the Peel burn, 

 the neighbourhood of which adds so much to the amenity of 

 Ashiesteel, but there is no reason to doubt that he had some 

 authority for it. The rabbits, to which the name probably 

 refers, were, till quite of late years, much reduced, but there 

 were always a few holes in the lower part of the glen. 



There are some interesting points about this valley, especially 

 in connection with a heedless assertion of Sir Walter's, in one of 

 his essays on forestry, that till the time of Charles I., Ettrick 

 Forest was covered with wood, except on the tops of the hills. 



Not only do Pont's maps, in Bleau's Atlas, which were surveyed 

 in James VI. 's reign, mark the wood in most places very much 

 where it is now ; but the name of Penmanscore, that of a small 

 ravine by which a path leads from this valley into that of the 

 Yarrow, is still recognisable as meaning in Welsh slightly cor- 

 rupted, "the head of the great wood;" the wood does not now 

 extend so far up ; but this shows that the valley being wooded 

 was already sufficiently remarkable to be a distinction as long 

 ago as the time of the Strathclyde Britons, whenever that was 

 exactly. This name alone goes far to establish the Catrail as 

 being their frontier. 



Sir Walter, no doubt, knew as well as any one, when not 

 specially excited about the subject, that the "foresta" of the 

 charters means a tract of ground kept in a wild state, and that 

 in such documents a wood, when mentioned, is called a wood, 

 that is by the Latin word, " silva." 



The lower ground of Ettrick Eorest is, undoubtedly, very 

 favourable for the growth of wood ; it is a positive fact, that a 

 gentleman having property in Selkirkshire, and also in another 

 county, was in the habit of receiving a higher price for wood 

 grown on the former, than for similar wood from the other. 



The larger plantations at Ashiesteel, those above the haugh, 

 were made by Mrs Eussell ; they are principally of beech. 

 Some of the larger beeches have latterly been decaying at the 

 heart, which does not seem to happen on the sunny or Yarrow 

 side of the hill. 



2c 



