AND PEAT MOSSES OF SCOTLAND. 371 



the old cartularies " abound with notices of forests in every shire during the 

 Scoto-Saxon period." I have not hesitated to quote the authority of those 

 records, and the opinions of two such learned and correct writers as Chalmers 

 and Tytler. No one can deny that the evidence of the cartularies is in 

 favour of a better wooded condition for the country than now obtains. But 

 we must guard against the mistake of supposing that all the area embraced 

 under the designation of a " forest" was covered with forest trees. And there can 

 be little doubt that both Chalmers and Tytler read the cartularies in the light 

 of the facts which are disclosed by our peat mosses. The trunks of pine, oak, 

 ash, and other hard timber dug out of the mosses, were regarded as proofs that 

 the regions indicated by the cartularies were in reality the sites of great forests 

 at the time to which those records refer. But it is probable, nay, in many cases 

 quite certain, that much of this buried timber belongs to a more remote period . 

 But even with this reservation, Scotland, down to the fourteenth century, would 

 appear scarcely to have merited the description given by ^Eneas Silvius at a 

 later date. During the civil commotions of the country, and the long wars with 

 England, much wood seems to have been destroyed, and the gradual progress of 

 cultivation also began to encroach upon the forest lands. Another cause which 

 aided in clearing away the woods from some portions of the maritime districts, 

 is to be found in the great number of salt-pans that were early established in 

 Scotland, and the right which the proprietors usually obtained to cut the requisite 

 firewood from the forests of the country. But although wood appears to have 

 been the fuel commonly employed in the manufacture of salt, yet it is not 

 unlikely that peats may also have been burned in some cases. It is certain, 

 at least, that peat was a common enough fuel in David I.'s reign, and that, as 

 Chalmers says,* " petaries became frequent objects of grant to the abbots and 

 convents during the Scoto-Saxon period." This fact ought perhaps to be looked 

 upon as a further proof of the increasing decay of the forests. 



But by far the most remarkable testimony to the bare condition of the country 

 is furnished by the Acts of the Scottish Parliament. From the times of the First 

 James, stringent acts were adopted by successive Parliaments,! having for their 



* Caledonia, vol. i. p. 793. 



f Vide Acts of Scottish Parliament. The more interesting acts referring to the state of the 

 woods were passed as follows : — James I., Second Parliament, a.d. 1424 ; James II., Fourteenth 

 Parliament, a.d. 1457; James IV., Sext Parliament, a.d. 1503; James V., Fourth Parliament, 

 a.d. 1535; Mary, Sext Parliament, 1555; James VI., First Parliament, 1567, Sixth Parliament, 

 1579, Eleventh Parliament, 1587. It is curious to notice how, from the time of James I. the 

 penalties imposed upon the destroyers of wood increase in severity. Pecuniary fines are succeeded 

 in time hy stocks, prison, or irons ; the culprit is to be fed on bread and water during confinement, 

 and to be scourged before parting from his jailers. The climax is reached in the following 

 act, which became law in 1587 : — -"Whatsoever persone or persones wilfully destroyis and cuttis 

 growand trees and cornes, sail be called therefore before the Justice or his deputes, at Justice Airs, 

 or particular diettes, and punished therefore to the death, as thieves." 



VOL. XXIV. FART II. 5 H 



