Royal Society of Edinburgh. 139 
The Bishop of Caithness, Chancellor of Scotland, and a friend of 
Edward the First, being engaged (a.p. 1291) in putting a roof on 
his cathedral of Dornoch, obtained from the king a grant of 40 
oaks, fit for timber, to ue taken out of the wood (bosco) of Darna- 
way, in Moray. 
The Bishop of Brechin granting (a.p. 1435) a lease of the Kirk- 
davoch of Strachan for three lives, took the tenant bound to de- 
liver, not periodically, but once only, oak laths enough for roofing 
20 perches of the cathedral, or the Bishop’s palace—tantas vulga- 
riter dictas lathis bonas et suficientes de quercu. 
Two centuries later (1606), Alexander Davidson, styled tymber- 
man in St Andrews, agrees with ‘the honest man that has bocht 
the wod of Drum, for als mekill tymber as will big ane bark.” 
The timber was to be floated down the Dee, ‘‘ how soon the water 
growis,’”’ This was evidently fir-timber. Nine trees were bought 
from the woodmen of Drum (1612-13) to make a sluice for one of the 
town of Aberdeen’s mills, for the price of £27. These may have 
been oak. The presumption seems very strong, from the present 
appearance of the ground, and all circumstances, that the timber 
in all these transactions was not planted, but of native growth, 
From all the evidence we have, old historical Scotland,—Scotland 
of the 14th to the 17th century, both included,—in regard to wood 
was very much as at present; making allowance, however, for the 
effect of cultivation which has:curtailed it a little, and plantation, 
which has immensely increased its quantity in the last century. 
Speaking generally, the levels were cultivated, or bare moorland 
or swamp; the upland pastures, whether green or heathery, were 
bare of wood, except where the steep and rough glens, ravines, 
and eraigersconrses, sheltered and protected from cattle a fringe of 
native wood—hazel, birch, or oak—the latter of small size. There 
are, and always have been, districts more or less willing to send up 
a native growth of timber—as Braemar ; the upper part of Strath- 
spey; the upper part of the valley of the Beauly; parts of Glen- 
moriston, and Loch Arkeg in Lochiel. 
To remedy the defect of wood, some of our old codes of criminal 
practice appointed a form of procedure against trespassers and de- 
stroyers of wood; and the parliamentary records of Scotland are 
full of ordinances to encourage planting of wood, and even broom, 
in minute quantities; and for the repression of offences against it. 
Following out the intention of the Legislature, the great pro- 
prietors made some efforts at planting in the 15th century. The 
Abbot of Cupar (4.pD. 1473) set in lease the lands of Balmyle, 
in Strathmore, and bound the tenants to ‘put al the land to al 
possibil policie in biggin of housis, plantacioun of treis—eschis, 
osaris, and sauch, and froit-treis—gif thei ma.” 
From that time downwards, there are documentary proofs of some 
