216 FURTHER NOTES CONCERNING SIR WALTER SCOTT 



nothing at all antique about it, except that it is printed in black 

 letter. I think there are other treatises with the same signature, 

 so it is probably known who the author is. 



The novel idea, towards the end of the last century, was that 

 of planting the hills, especially with the evergreen Norway spruce, 

 and other conifers. And this seems to be somewhat against the 

 natural conditions, judging from the way in which whole woods 

 have been blown down by the storms of recent times, even when 

 of such extent that it might have been supposed the trees would 

 protect one another. Not that they are any loss in the way of 

 appearance. The Wordsworths, in 1803, were weighed upon 

 throughout Scotland by the ugliness of the fir-plantations, a great 

 many of which were then at the ugliest stage, with the artificial 

 outline sharply defined, and none of the dignity which a wood of 

 large firs must always have. 



One of the misleading statements about Ettrick Forest is that, 

 that formerly a man might walk from Selkirk to Ettrick Kirk, 

 and be under the shade of trees the whole way. For about two- 

 thirds of the way, this is the case still, or rather would be, if there 

 were no fences to restrict pedestrians to the high-road. 



That is, a steep heugh runs for a number of miles along the 

 west side of the side of the Ettrick, covered with natural wood. 



(The black-letter treatise on forestry referred to mentions that 

 there had been an avenue of Scotch firs at Sion, near London, 

 though it was then cut down ; so if James VI. really introduced 

 them into Wales, he did not for tlie first time into England. 



Charles Kingsley,in one of his letters, says they grew and spread 

 at his living of Eversley in Hampshire as if they were natives. 

 The most interesting object hitherto found at Silchester, appar- 

 ently, is a bucket of fir- wood with an iron handle ; and the Scotch 

 fir was found, felled by the Eomans, under the great moss at 

 Hatfield in Yorkshire. And it seems as if there might be a doubt 

 whether it really was quite extinct in England.) 



On the subject of Thomas the Rhymer, it is curious to find that 

 he, Michael Scott, and Merlin, are all known to tradition and 

 legend in the Highlands. One does not know what to infer from 

 it ; though the vocabulary remains of Gaelic are pretty strong 

 on the Borders {gom for nip I see is omitted in my list of three or 

 four years ago) one can hardly suppose it was spoken in the dis- 

 trict in the 13th century; and neither of the Merlins of legend was 

 Gaelic, the one apparently being Welsh, and the other Cumbrian. 



