CHAP. II. 



BRITISH ISLANDS. 



101 



the course of the river was afterwards turned to it. It is greatly 

 to the honour of this family, that for a century past their im- 

 provements, such as roadmaking, bridge-building, and planting, 

 have been made more with a view to the general benefit of the 

 country than to lodging themselves sumptuously. 



New Hailes, near Musselburgh, was a seat of Baron Dal- 

 rymple, a celebrated lawyer and improver, and is now the 

 property of Miss Dalrymple. 



Arbigland, in Dumfriesshire, was the property of William 

 Craik, Esq., a contemporary of Maxwell and of Fletcher of 

 Saltoun, and one of the original members of the Society for the 

 Improvement of Agriculture in Scotland. He was one of the 

 first to study the works of Tull, and to adopt the drill sys- 

 tem. He died in 1798, at the age of 95 years. "We visited 

 Arbigland in 1804, and again in 1806, and found the place still 

 celebrated for its old silver firs. A life of this distinguished 

 agriculturist will be found in the Farmer'' s Magazine, vol. xii. 

 p. 145. 



Loudon Castle, in Ayrshire, was one of the first places 

 in the West of Scotland where foreign trees were planted. 

 *' John Earl of Loudon," Walker observes, " formed at Loudon 

 Castle, in Ayrshire, the most extensive collection of willows, that 

 has been made in this countrj^, which he interspersed in his 

 extensive plantations. Wherever he went during his long mili- 

 tary services, he sent home every valuable sort of tree that he met 

 with. All the willows he found cultivated in England, Ireland, 

 Holland, Flanders, and Germany, as also in America and Por- 

 tugal, where he commanded, were procured and sent to Loudon. 

 {Econ. Hist., Sj-c, p. 161.) In 1806, and again in 1831, we 

 found a number of fine old trees at Loudon Castle ; we recollect, 

 in particular, robinias, gleditschias, American oaks, hickories, 

 walnuts, taxodiums, acers, poplars, and a variety of others. 

 Some are recorded by Dr. Walker as having been remarkably 

 fine specimens in 1780. 



Dalmahoj', near Edinburgh, is the property of the Earl of 

 Morton, and there are still a few specimens of old trees there. 

 Mount Steuart, the next place mentioned in the list, is situated 

 in the Island of Bute, and was built in 1718 by James Earl of 

 Bute, father of the celebrated earl of that name, who was minister 

 to George III. The plantations there, according to Dr. Walker, 

 were begun in the same year. Speaking of them in 1780, he 

 says, " They are equal, if not superior, to those of the same age 

 in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire. The Oriental plane grows here 

 almost like a willow ; is never hurt in winter, and forms a fine 

 dressed shady tree." The Marquess of Bute's family have planted 

 from 200,000 to 300,000 trees every year since the beginning 

 of the present century. The place contains many remarkably 



H 4 



