CELEBUATED TREES. 197 



memorating, was commonly liis headquarters. 

 Here the hero generally slept, its hollow trunk 

 being capacious enough to afford shelter, not only 

 to himself, but to several of his officers. This 

 tree has ever since been known by the name of 

 Wallace Tree, by which name it may easily be 

 found in Torwood to this day.* 



The ' Wallace Oak/ in Torwood Porestj must have dis- 

 appeared very early in the present century ; but at what 

 particular date it is extremely difficult to say, for the reason 

 that its remains were taken away, bit by bit, by that 

 numerous and insatiable class, the relic hunters. In Sir 

 Walter Scott's ' Tales of a Grandfather,' written about 

 the year 1827, occurs a reference to the tree. Scott says : 

 (Chapter VII. ' The Story of Sir William Wallace.') ' A 

 large Oak tree in the adjoining forest (Torwood) was long 

 shown as marking the spot where Wallace slept before the 

 battle ' (of Falkirk), ' or, as others said, in which he hid 

 himself after the defeat. Nearly forty years ago Grandpapa 

 saw some of its roots ; ' (evidently the ' ruins ' referred to 

 by Gilpin as existing about the same time) ' but the body 

 of the tree was, even then, entirely decayed, and there is 

 not now, and has not been for many years, the least 

 vestige of it to be seen.' — Ed. 



* See Nimmo's Hist, of Stirlingshire, p. 145. 



