Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol03B.djvu/218

578 from which these trees grew might have been brought from Norway in early times ; and Sir H. Howorth suggests that the existence of the Capercaillie, whose bones have been found in Tertiary deposits in the eastern counties, would have been impossible unless either pines or spruce existed to feed them in winter.

The Rev. Leonard Blomfield read a paper before the Bath Antiquarian Field Club on December 9, 1885, in which he tried to prove that the numerous Scots pines, now growing in the neighbourhood of Bournemouth,’ are descended from aboriginal trees; and gave the following list of names of places in England in which the word fir occurs, indicating that these localities were in early days probably noted for woods of Pinus sylvestris :—Firbank in Westmoreland ; Furbecke or Firbeck, and Firbie or Firby, in Yorkshire; Furbie, Firby, or F irsby in Lincolnshire; Furcombe in the parish of Farnborough, Berkshire; Furle or Furleigh in Pevensey Rape, Sussex ; Furland, a tithing of Crewkerne in Somerset; and Furland Hill, between Brixham and Dartmouth.

Loudon, p. 2167, says that the tree only began to be planted in Britain about the end of the seventeenth century ; but the following extract from a letter’ of James I. to the Earl of Mar, dated Oct. 30, 1621, shows that the introduction of the Scots pine into England was earlier.

“The Marquis of Buckinghame, being desirous to have firre trees planted aboute his house at Burleigh on the Hille, hath earnestlie requested us to cause him to be furnished as well with the seede as with young trees, which his desire wee willinglie wold have performed with all expedition. And because wee know none who so readilie can give us satisfaction in this pointe as your selfe, we have thoughte good by these presentes to require you with all expedition to cause some store of seede to be gathered eyther in your owne boundes or in those of the Marquis of Huntlie, where it may be soonest had, and so soone as possiblie may be, sende a man of purpos to Burleigh on the Hille with so much of the freshest and fairest thereof as convenientlie may be caried. And that yee cause sette downe in writing at what time and in what kinde of grounde the same is to be sowed, and with the maner of sowing thereof; also when the time of year is fitting for removing and setting of plantes and young trees. Yee shall likewise sende one to Burleigh with four or five thousand of them, with the like instructions of time, place, and maner of setting and preserving.”.

There is no reference to these trees in the History of Burley on the Hill, published in 1901 ; and enquiries have elicited no information, except that there are now on the estate six or eight Scots firs, which are not more than 25 feet high. A local woodman, about 60 years of age, whose father was woodman before him, never heard of the existence of old pines at Burley.

The common Gaelic word for Pine is gius. It occurs in a few Scottish names of places, as Craiggush, Kingussie Altnaguish, Dalguise. This word is commonly used for pine also in Ireland, and ochtach occurs in books. In spite of the wide prevalence in ancient times of pine in Ireland, place-names with either of these words

1 The submerged pine forest on the sea-coast at Bournemouth is described by Sir C. Lyell in Principles of Geology, ii. 536 (1872).

2 Historical MSS. Commission, Report on MSS. of Earl of Mar, p. 103 (1904).