ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 205 



With regard to the date when wild red deer ceased to 

 wander over the Lothians, Mr Clarke informs me that, 

 unfortunately, there are no trustworthy records. He 

 adds — " It was not a few centuries." Without doubt, in 

 this part of East Lothian, with its early civilisation, and 

 absence of mountains, the red deer became extinct at an 

 earlier period than in many parts of the south oP-^^tland, 

 where they had greater opportunities of concealment. 



The lower portion of an old circular stone mill, with 

 moulded spout, was also found. 



Sheltered as the neighbourhood of the lake is, from 

 the prevailing S.W. wind, it offered an admirable situation 

 for the planting of coniferye and other trees and shrubs. 

 This was fully taken advantage of I might add, too 

 fully, because, with the very natural disinclination to 

 cut out trees one has watched growing from childhood 

 to maturity, many have been damaged by too close 

 proximity to each other. The sheltered position has, 

 however, this disadvantage, that when the trees get above 

 the shelter they are apt to lose their tops, as has been 

 markedly the case with Douglas and Grandis, the latter 

 having all lost their tops, without exception. 



This was the age of those pioneers of conifer collecting — 

 Coulter, Douglas, Fortune, Lobb, and others. 



Robert Fortune we claim for our district. He was a 

 native of Berwickshire, and received his education at 

 Edrom. Perhaps one or two details of his life may not 

 be devoid of interest. He was born in 1812, and died 

 in 1880. He served an apprenticeship at the Botanical 

 Gardens in Edinburgh. In 1841 he went to London, 

 on being appointed foreman of the Horticultural Society's 

 Gardens at Chiswick, and from there to China. Here 

 he travelled extensively. In '46 he returned to this 

 country, and was appointed to the curatorship of Chelsea 

 Gardens, and there he remained till 1848, when he started 

 on an expedition to China, in the employ of the East 

 India Company, to collect tea seeds for transmission to 



