136 



SYLVA SCOTICA. 



sent dimensions of the Wallace Oak, as communi- 

 cated by Mr. Macquisten, an accurate land-sur- 

 veyor, are twenty-one feet in circumference at the 

 ground ; and at five feet from it, thirteen feet two 

 inches. It is sixty-seven feet in height, and its 

 branches extend on the east side to forty-five feet, 

 on the west to thirty-six, on the south to thirty, and 

 on the north to twenty-five, covering altogether an 

 extent of nineteen English, or fifteen Scotch poles, 

 land-measure. According to the testimony of aged 

 residents in the neighbourhood, the branches of this 

 tree, about thirty years ago, covered above a Scotch 

 acre of ground ; and one old person pointed out a 

 spot on the ancient turnpike road, forty yards north 

 from the trunk of the tree, where he said that, when 

 young, he used to strike the branches with his stilt. 

 The Wallace Oak seems destined, in sharing the fame 

 of others of its brethren, who have been honoured by 

 sheltering the hero Wallace, to share their fate like- 

 wise of despoliation : every year its branches pay 

 tribute to its renown, and the western Highlanders, 

 in particular, carry off relics from it in abundance, 

 which threatens extinction, at no very distant period, 

 to the parent stem, unless it be protected from fur- 

 ther violence by its present owner, Archibald Spiers, 

 Esq. of Elderslie, M.P. who may not be quite aware 

 of the extent to which ravages are committed upon 

 it through the good feeling, though mistaken judg- 

 ment, of the majority of its visitants. 



