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Book Review
| A History of the Native Woodlands of Scotland, 1500–1920. By T. C. Smout, Alan R. MacDonald, and Fiona Watson. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. xiv + 434 pp. 69 illustrations. $110.00 cloth.
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| This well-produced book was written by three prominent Scottish historians, but mainly by the senior author, who is the historiographer royal for Scotland. It has been a great pleasure for me to read and, indeed, I wish it had been written years ago so that I could have recommended it during my course on Quaternary paleoecology with special reference to Scotland and humankind's effect on vegetation. Already we have Oliver Rackham's books on the historical ecology of woodlands in England, William Linnard's for Wales and Eoin Neeson's for Ireland. Now, at last, we have a thorough, scholarly account for Scotland and so all parts of the British Isles are covered. |
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The book has sixteen chapters, sixteen maps, thirty-seven figures, sixteen color plates, and sixteen tables. The first two chapters on "The extent and character of the woods before 1500" and "The extent and character of the woods, 1500–1920" are of particular interest to this reviewer. They are followed by chapters on the exploitation of woodlands for various purposes such as pasture, charcoal, and tan bark and chapters on detailed histories of particular regions such as Skye, Rothiemurchus, and Glenorchy. Every one of the color plates is appropriate and attractive. |
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Scottish ecologists and historians are blessed with the wonderful maps made by Timothy Pont in the 1590s. They are full of the most fascinating detail and, apposite for this book, they indicate woodlands, both enclosed and unenclosed. It is satisfactory to see them given such much deserved prominence. |
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With the stance of a botanist, I have some quibbles with Table 1.1 which is a list of trees and shrubs native to Scotland. That it gives both Pedunculate (or English Oak) and Sessile Oaks as native pleases me because many, especially foresters, have had the erroneous opinion that Pedunculate was an introduction north of the border. Similarly, it is good to see the status of Yew given as questionable, though my works in which the matter is fully discussed are not cited. Why is Net-leaved Willow included? Indeed, it is woody but, having nothing to do with woodland, it creeps at high altitudes in a few Highland mountains and, at an average height of about 5 to 15 cm, is it worth listing in a book that deals mainly with trees and tall shrubs of economic importance? If so, why not Dwarf Willow too? It is even smaller but nonetheless woody. Or, for that matter, Bog Myrtle and, even more so, members of the Ericaceae family, which are clearly shrubby such as Heather and Bilberry, sometimes reaching one meter or more tall, and of economic importance and grow in the understory of open woods? |
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Finally, I stress again my admiration of this book. The last sentence in the book is as follows: "If we have shown in our book how the native woods are both nature and culture, their story entangled with ours just like that of historic buildings and archaeological monuments, and just as worthy of care, then we shall rest content." The three authors can be very content. |
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James H. Dickson is professor emeritus (archaeobotany and plant systematics) at the University of Glasgow. Long interested in the prehistoric effects of humankind on vegetation, he is the author or coauthor of five books, including Plants and People in Ancient Scotland (Tempus, 2000, with Camilla Dickson). His current research is on the ancient glacier mummies, Oetzi, and Long Ago Person Found; see Scientific American May 2003.
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