102 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I 



fine specimens, wliich will be severally noticed in the course of 

 this work. 



Hopetoun House, the property of the Earl of Hopetoun, is 

 still celebrated for its cedars. According to a letter, dated No- 

 vember, 1834, which we received from Mr. Smith, the gardener 

 there, the cedars alluded to by Dr. Walker were brought from 

 London by Archibald Duke of Argyll, and a number of other 

 exotic trees, such as tulip trees, evergreens, oaks, &c., appear to 

 have been planted about the same time. It is remarkable, Mr. 

 Smith observes, that these cedar trees are the fastest-growing 

 trees on the estate. The largest, in ISS*, measured nearly 

 15^ ft. in girt, at a foot from the ground, and was 68 ft. high. 

 The silver fir there was 90 ft. high ; the tulip tree 60 ft. high ; 

 the Carolina or evergreen birdcherr}^, mentioned by Dr. Walker, 

 70 ft. high ; the sweet chestnut 75 ft. high ; the arbor vitse 3.5 ft. 

 high ; the common holly 44 ft. high ; and the common yew 28 ft. 

 high. On the whole, Hopetoun House is one of the most cele- 

 brated places for foreign trees and shrubs in Scotland. (See 

 Eiicyc. of Gard., § 1225. edit. 1835.) 



Carraichael was, we believe, situated in Clydesdale, and be- 

 longed to the Earl of Hyndford. Mellerstane, in Berwickshire, 

 was the seat of George Baillie of Jerviswood. The mansion is 

 magnificent, and the grounds extensive. Elliock, in Dumfries- 

 shire, belongs to the Veitch famil}^, some of whom were formerly 

 Lords of Session. It has very extensive plantations. 



By Leith, where the balsam poplar was first planted, we find, 

 from anotlier passage in Dr. Walker's works, was meant a nur- 

 sery in Leith Walk; in all probability that of Mr. Richmond, 

 who was the first to establish a nursery there, which, about 

 1 780, merged in that of Messrs. Dickson and Co. 



It is observed by Dr. Walker, that most of the foregoing 

 trees were only planted in gardens and pleasure-grounds as 

 objects of rarity or beauty. Planting on a large scale, for profit, 

 was chiefly performed, as may readily be imagined, with indi- 

 genous trees. The father of this description of planting in 

 Scotland was, according to the sarne undoubted authority, 

 Thomas Earl of Haddington, who began to plant Tyningham, 

 near Dunbar, in the year 1705. He enclosed 1000 acres, called 

 Binning Wood, and wrote a Treatise on Forest 'Jrees, which 

 was printed in 1733. The earl died at New^ Hailes near Edin- 

 burgh in 1735, and was succeeded by his grandson, to whom he 

 had addressed the letters which compose the treatise. The earl 

 informs us in his treatise, that when he came to live at Ty- 

 ningham, in the year 1700, there were not above fourteen acres 

 set with trees. The earl's grandfather, he tells us, after the 

 civil wars in the time of Charles I. were over, " tried to raise 

 some trees," and for that purpose planted two rows round the 



