The Oak beside the River at Ashiesteel. 385 



kept shut, but she said he avoided eyerything connected with 

 death ; that he kept his father's workshop, where he used 

 to do carpentering, in one of the wings of the house, 

 entirely shut up. Her impression was, that his own, the 

 last Lord Traquair's funeral, had been taken out by the 

 great gate, which seems unlikely, but is quite possible. 



The piece of water to the north of the house was called 

 the Wall Pool. 



I find that a brother of the late lamented Mr Mathieson 

 of Inverleithen, who attended the funeral of Lord Traquair 

 as a boy, and later that of Lady Louisa Stuart, is quite 

 certain that the great gate of Traquair was not opened 

 on either occasion. 



The Oak beside the River at Ashiesteel. By Miss 

 Russell. (Plate VIIL) 



The Oak tree in the haugh at Ashiesteel, which is 

 mentioned as having been already a large one when Sir 

 Walter Scott lived there, measures, at 5 feet from the ground, 

 9 feet 3 inches round the trunk, and from the ground to 

 the first branch 9 feet 10 inches. Above this height there 

 can hardly be said to be any trunk, the tree having separated 

 entirely into branches. The long branches, which were 

 broken by the snow, were measured before being finally cut 

 off ; one of them was 33 feet long, and the others about 

 the same, which gives a spread of about 70 feet. 



The Oak has probably been planted at some time or other, 

 as there is a row of old trees along the river, some of which 

 are Sycamores, and probably planted, for though that tree 

 seeds very freely, self-sown specimens are not common. And, 

 indeed, wood does not seem to grow spontaneously on the 

 sandy haugh land, even in this district ; and the old map 

 of Ashiesteel, which is supposed to have been made about 

 1772, when so much of Scotland seems to have been surveyed, 

 shows the haugh as open ground, while above . it the wood 

 extends unbroken, except for the garden in front of the 

 house, to some distance above the highroad, to, at least, the 

 beginning of the Eampy fields, west of the haugh. 



