Most Scots recognise the name of their historical novelist, poet and national treasure Sir Walter Scott. Fewer can claim to have read many (or perhaps any) of his books, despite his prodigious output. But all members of the Royal Scottish Forestry Society should at least recognise their motto "Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping".That quotation comes from The Heart of Midlothian, one of Scott's Waverley novels. So who was this person and why is he important to Scotland and to forestry? To set the scene: the year of his birth was 1771; Spain had just ceded the Falkland Islands toBritain, Richard Arkwright was helping to kick start the Industrial Revolution with his spinning jenny and Captain Cook had just returned from his antipodean voyage of discovery. By the time Scott died 61 years later, the world was a very different place.
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