And the Kepping or Trysting Tree, which grows near | it, and which is much more picturesque in form, measures twenty-one feet above the roots; it speedily divides itself into two branches, which measure respectively eleven feet six inches, and fourteen feet. It is upwards of seventy feet high, and covers an area of ninety-two feet in diameter. These two trees are considered to be remnants of the great forest of Jedwood. An oak which stands near the middle of Inch Marin, in Loch Lomond, measured, in 1786, eighteen feet one inch in girth. This tree is remarkable for its fine expanded head.

But none of these trees have attained the celebrity of Wallace's Oaks, two trees of considerable antiquity, one in Stirlingshire, the other in Renfrewshire. The former, which is now completely gone, in 1771 measured twenty-two feet in circumference in the trunk, and grew upon a little knoll in Torwood. From surrounding vestiges, it is believed that this oak originally mingled in the scene of Druidic worship, at a far remote period of our history. But its celebrity depended on events of a much later date. When that illustrious hero, William Wallace, roused the spirit of the Scotch nation to oppose the tyranny of Edward, he often chose the solitude of the Torwood as a place of rendezvous for his army. Here he concealed his numbers and his designs, sallying out suddenly on the enemy's garrisons, and retreating as suddenly when he feared to be overpowered. While his army lay in those woods, the oak which we are now commemorating was commonly his head-quarters. Here, it is said, the hero generally slept, the hollow trunk being capacious enough to afford shelter not only to himself but several of his associates. This tree was thence afterwards known as Wallace's Oak. There is another Wallace's Oak at Elderslie, in Renfrewshire, near the place where Wallace was born. It is a very noble tree, twenty-one feet in circumference at the ground. It is sixty-seven feet high, and its branches extend forty-five feet east, thirty-six west, thirty south, and twenty-five north, covering altogether nineteen English poles of ground. Tradition relates that Wallace and a large party of his followers hid themselves from the English among the branches of this tree, which was then in full leaf. It is a custom in Scotland to indent small portions of the wood of this famed tree in snuff-boxes, along with perhaps minute portions of a tree said to be planted by Queen Mary at Holyrood, and lately removed-of another tree which the same queen sat under near Crookston, while witnessing the battle of Langside-of the rafters of Alloway Kirk, celebrated by Burns-with pieces of various other trees and timbers either brought into notice in history, or some way connected with the popular literature and traditions of the country.

It is a very remarkable fact, that the trunks of large oak-trees are frequently dug out of the ground in Scotland, both in the mainland and islands, at places where there are now not only no trees of an ordinary size, but where, in the present day, trees will not grow. There is no way of accounting for this, but by supposing that the climate has very much changed since the period when all was one universal forest. "Some very large masses of oak (says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, in his notes to Gilpin's work) were brought up by the dredging-machine employed in deepening the line of the Caledonian Canal, in Loch Dochfour, from under sixteen feet of gravel which lay at the bottom of the lake. One of these fragments measured thirty feet round; and though it manifestly appeared to be only a small portion of the original tree, it was calculated to contain about two hundred and twenty cubic feet. It was black as ebony, and perfectly fresh and hard. Although there are fine thriving oaks in Scotland at this moment, yet few of them approach the dimensions of these fragments of the olden time.

The best elm we have recorded as of Scottish growth, was that in the parish of Roxburgh, in Teviotdale, called the Trysting-Tree, which was measured in the year 1796, and found to be thirty feet in girth. The

ruins of this noble tree still remain at the Friars, near the old castle of Roxburgh. The most plausible tradition regarding the origin of the name of the TrystingTree is, that the lairds of Cessford and Fernyhirst, with a number of Scottish gentry, assembled there in 1547, to meet the Protector Somerset, during his rough courtship of the young Queen Mary, and to swear homage to the King of England. There can be no doubt that he was there; and this spot, which was near the old priory, was certainly a very likely place for such an assemblage. The Trysting-Tree was also famous, in later times, as the scene of much innocent pleasantry. After the Reformation, and until the present house of Fleurs was built, in 1718, the family of Roxburga made an occasional residence of the remains of the religious house at Friars, which was then called East Roxburgh. The gardens belonging to it were kept up until the year 1780, when old Coles, who was butler to Duke John, ploughed them up, and destroyed some beautiful vestiges of antiquity. In these gardens there was a raised walk, called the Lover's Walk, between two rows of old elms, forming a vista, which terminated with the Trysting-Tree, whither the beaux and belles of these old times used to resort, to enjoy themselves, on a summer evening, and to eat the fruit, which was always sold during the absence of the family. Upos these occasions, the gentlemen were often made to walk blindfolded in the alley; and if any one failed to grope his way from one end of it to the other, without diverging from the grass into either border, he was immedi ately fined in a treat of fruit. What a picture would Watteau have made of so admirable a subject! Many a courtship was brought to a happy termination at the antiquated Vauxhall.

At Newbottle Abbey, the seat of the Marquis of Lothian, a few miles south from Edinburgh, there ar some remarkably fine large trees, most probably planted by the monks prior to the Reformation. "Profess? Walker measured a beech at this place in 1789; its trunk, where thickest, was seventeen feet in girth, and the span of the branches was eighty-nine feet. He thinks that it must have been planted between 1540 and 1560. It was blown down a short time before the year 1809. It contained upwards of one thousand measur able feet of timber (twenty loads, or twenty-five tons), and it is with reason reckoned among the largest beeches that have ever grown in Scotland. A beech at Taymouth, of a like size, and seemingly coeval with this was blown down when it had reached above sixteen feet in girth. The large beech at Ormiston Hall, ia Haddingtonshire, the bole of which we remember to have seen scooped artificially out into a shelter-house, was measured on the 10th of May 1762, and found to be eighteen feet ten inches. We believe it was quite entire when it was destroyed by a high wind. A large beech near Oxenford Castle, in Edinburghshire, was measured on the 6th of June 1763. At the height of three feet from the ground, it was nineteen feet six inches. This fine tree was then decaying. Professor Walker says that the beech was not copiously planted in Scotland till a little before the Revolution; and the trees planted about that period do now form, in many places, considerable timber, as at Inverary and other places. But the four trees last mentioned, which ap pear to be nearly contemporary, are of a much more remote era. They seem to have been planted singly, and merely as curious foreign trees, in the gardens of some eminent persons. From their dimensions and manner of growth, they may be presumed, at least, to have been planted between 1540 and 1560, so that they may now be estimated at between two hundred and forty and two hundred and sixty years old. From the state of the Ormiston Hall and Newbottle trees, it may be concluded that the beech, if it meets with no accident, will grow with sound timber for at least two handred and fifty years."

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THE HORSE, well known as one of the most beautiful and useful of animals, is classified, according to the arrangements of zoologists, in the order Pachydermata, of which it constitutes a family-the Equide, along with the zebra, the ass, and several other animals. The horse, as a distinct species, differs from other members of the genus, not only in a few particulars of physical structure, but in its superior strength, spirit, and tractability. Of the absolutely natural character of the horse, however, mankind possess no certain account; for, in all the instances in which the animal is found in a wild state, the race appears to have been generally derived from a domesticated stock. The form and general qualifications of the animal are of a high order, and peculiarly susceptible of cultivation by art. The senses of smell and sight are remarkably acute, and the clearness of perception, excellence of memory, patient endurance, and gentleness, are not excelled in any other of the lower animals. The horse is altogether herbivorous, for which the structure of his teeth and lips is adapted; but he does not ruminate, and has only one stomach. His native country is believed to have been Tartary, whence the species has spread over the world, and separated into different varieties.

VARIETIES OF HORSES.

Horses exist in numerous varieties, distinguishable by size, strength, colour, and other qualifications, the result most likely of peculiarities of climate, food, and habits. The following is a brief notice of the leading varieties in which the animal is found :

Horses in a State of Nature.

Horses are found in a state of nature, living as wild animals, in various parts of America, Asia, and Africa. In the vast plains of South America, immense troops of wild horses are to be found, which have all sprung from emancipated individuals taken to that country by the Spaniards. The geographical range of these herds extends from the shores of La Plata to Patagonia. They have increased with such astonishing rapidity, that they are to be met with in troops of many thousands. Naturally gentle in disposition, these

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wild horses never attack other animals, but always act upon the defensive. Their wide pastures satisfy their appetites, and, when the food of one district is exhausted, they have only to shift their stations to places where it is more abundant. They are seldom to be taken by surprise; but, if attacked, the assailant rarely comes off victorious, for the whole troop unites in defence of their comrades, and frequently either tear their enemy to pieces or kick him to death. Wild horses usually retire to the confines of a forest to repose. One or more of their number are always awake to keep watch while the rest are asleep, and to warn their fellows of approaching danger, which is done by loud snorting or neighing; upon this signal they start to their feet, and either reconnoitre the enemy, or fly off with the swiftness of the wind, followed by the sentinel, and by the stallion who is patriarch of the herd.

In the desert tracts along the sides of the Don, in Russia, there are numerous troops of wild horses, which have sprung from emancipated progenitors. The Cossacks frequently take these, and breed from them, by crossing them with their domesticated horses, which are said to be thereby greatly improved. Pallas says they abound in the vicinity of the Palus Mæotis. These herds are the descendants of the Russian horses which were used at the siege of Azoph in 1696, when taken from the Turks by Peter the Great, who was compelled, from want of forage, to set at liberty nearly the whole horses belonging to his cavalry, to seek food for themselves. They are now quite wild, and associate in troops in the same manner as other wild horses. Those herds which have remained close to the alluvial and fertile banks of the river, are of a large size, owing to the rankness of their food; the ground in these situations is so extremely swampy that no solid edifice can be erected near the river, the whole surrounding country being little better than a morass. The herds which inhabit the higher mountain districts have all the appearance of the horses from which they sprung. It is supposed that the troops found in the plains of Great Tartary are descended from the same source as those of the banks of the Don and the Ukraine.

In South America there are no regular stables, the horses being either kept in pastures, which are fenced, or in what they call corrals, which consist of a circular enclosure of rough posts, driven into the ground so close, that a horse cannot pass through between them. In these, however, the mares and foals are never confined, but are allowed to graze about at freedom. The natives, however, usually keep one horse tied at the door of their hut, to be ready in case of immediate need, which is fed on a scanty meal of maize at night. If an additional horse is wanted, the gaucho (or native inhabitant of the plains) goes to the corral with his lasso, and fetches one which may have been only subdued the preceding day; or he will go to the plain where they are grazing at freedom, and bring one which he has

backed for the first time; and when these horses have | been once used, they are either put into the corral and fed with maize, or returned to the plain to feed at liberty. The lasso is a very simple contrivance, but of great power in the hands of the gaucho, who is accustomed to use it from his youngest years, or at least to see it done, and he puts it in practice as soon as he has sufficient strength to use it. Miers, in his Travels in Chili, gives the following account of it :

"The lasso is a missile weapon, used by every native of the United Provinces and Chili. It is a very strong plaited thong, of equal thickness, half an inch in diameter, and forty feet long, made of stripes of green hide, plaited like a whip-thong, and rendered supple by grease. It has at one end an iron ring, about an inch and a half in diameter, through which the thong is passed, and this forms a running noose. The gaucho, or native peon, is generally mounted on horseback when he uses the lasso; one end of the thong is affixed to his saddle-girth; the remainder he coils carefully in his left hand, leaving about twelve feet belonging to the noose end in a coil, and a half of which he holds in his right hand. He then swings this long noose horizontally round his head, the weight of the iron ring at the end of the noose assisting in giving to it, by a continued circular motion, a sufficient force to project it the whole length of the line."

It is sometimes necessary to break in a number of horses at once: in this event, they drive a whole herd of wild horses into the corral at one time. This scene was witnessed by Miers, who thus describes it: "The corral was quite full of horses, most of which were young ones about two or three years old. The copitar (chief gaucho), mounted on a strong steady horse, rode into the corral, and threw his lasso over the neck of a young horse, and dragged him to the gate. For some time he was very unwilling to leave his comrades; but the moment he was forced out of the corral, his first idea was to gallop away; however, a timely jerk of the lasso checked him in the most effectual way. The peons now ran after him on foot, and threw a lasso over his fore-legs just above the fetlock, and, twitching it, they pulled his legs from under him so suddenly, that I really thought the fall he got had killed him. In one instant a gaucho was seated on his head, and with his long knife, and in a few seconds, cut off the whole of the horse's mane, while another cut the hair from the end of his tail. This, they told me, was a mark that the horse had been once mounted. They then put a piece of hide into his mouth, to serve for a bit, and a strong hide halter on his head. The gaucho who was to mount arranged his spurs, which were unusually long and sharp; and while two men held the horse by his ears, he put on the saddle, which he girthed extremely tight. He then caught hold of the horse's ear, and in an instant vaulted into the saddle, upon which the men who held the horse by the halter threw the end to the rider, and from that moment no one seemed to take any farther notice of him. The horse instantly began to jump in a manner which made it very difficult for the rider to keep his seat, and quite different from the kick or plunge of our English horse: however, the gaucho's spurs soon set him going, and off he galloped, doing every thing in his power to throw his rider.

Another horse was immediately brought from the corral; and so quick was the operation, that twelve gauchos were mounted in a space which I think hardly exceeded an hour. It was wonderful to see the different manner in which different horses behaved. Some would actually scream while the gauchos were girthing the saddle upon their backs; some would instantly lie down and roll upon it, while some would stand without being held, their legs stiff, and in unnatural positions; their necks half-bent towards their tails, and looking vicious and obstinate; and I could not help thinking that I would not have mounted one of those for any reward that could be offered me, for they were invariably the most difficult to subdue.

It was now curious to look around and see the gauchos on the horizon, in different directions, trying to bring their horses back to the corral, which is the most difficult part of their work; for the poor creatures had been so scared there, that they were unwilling to return to the place. It was amusing to see the antics of the horses: they were jumping and dancing in different ways, while the right arm of the gauchos was seen flogging them. At last they brought the horses back, apparently subdued and broken in The saddles and bridles were taken off, and the young horses trotted off towards the corral, neighing to one another."

There is a remarkable difference in the dispositions of the Asiatic and South American wild horses: those of the former country can never be properly tamed unless trained very young; if taken when adults, they frequently break out into violent fits of rage in after las, exhibiting every mark of natural wildness; while these of America can be brought to perfect obedience, and even rendered somewhat docile, within a few weeks, nay, sometimes days. It would be difficult to account for this opposition of temper, unless we can suppose that it is influenced by climate.

The Arabian Horse.

The Arabian Horse is considered to occupy the high est rank among the numerous cultivated varieties, and embodies that qualification in its purest condition, known in England by the term thorough-bred. By the wa dering tribes of Arabia, he has been skilfully subdued and domesticated, and exhibits, with great beauty f figure, spirit, docility, and intelligence. The pure Ara bians are somewhat smaller than our race-horses, se dom exceeding fourteen hands two inches in height Their heads are very beautiful, clean, and wide betwees the jaws; the forehead is broad and square; the face flat; the muzzle short and fine; the eyes prominent and brilliant; the ears small and handsome; the nostrils large and open; the skin of the head thin, through which may be distinctly traced the whole veins of the head The body may, as a whole, be considered too light, and the breast rather narrow; but behind the arms, tur chest generally swells out greatly, leaving ample roc for the lungs to play. The shoulder is superior to that of any other breed; the scapula, or shoulder-blades, incline backwards, nearly in an angle of 45 degrees the withers are high and arched; the neck beautifu curved, and the mane and tail long, thin, and flowing. the legs are fine, thin, and wiry, with the pasteria placed somewhat oblique, which has led some to s pose that the strength was thereby lessened, whiet by no means the case; the bone is of uncommon dev sity, and the prominent muscles of the fore-arm as: thigh prove that the Arabian is fully equal to all test has been said of his physical powers.

The Arabs of the Desert have made the breed: of horses their sole occupation for ages bygone; art, from their strict attention to certain rules, they be justly regarded as the first breeders in the wor They take infinite trouble in grooming their steeds, a:! are extremely regular in their hours of feeding the: morning and evening. They get but little drink, 2 that is supplied to them two or three times a-day; they conceive that much water not only destroys their shape, but also affects their breathing. In spring they ar pastured on dry aromatic herbage; and during the r of the year they are fed on barley, with a small quan tity of straw; and they are the hardiest horses in " world. The Arab trains his horse by kindness, a never on any occasion strikes it; the consequence that the animal shows a degree of affection and tracta bility in which most British horses are quite defies The Arab horse is employed only for riding, and po sesses great fleetness.

The following interesting account of the harddat of the Arabian is given by M. Chateaubriand, his Travels in Greece-" They are never put und shelter, but left exposed to the most intense heat