gardens. To these may be added many ornamental shrubs, as well as valuable timber trees that adorn our sylvan plantations, and give promise of extensive future advantage to Britain. Of the plants alone, which are too numerous to specify in this work, he introduced fifty-three of the woody, and 145 of the herbaceous genus, while his dried collection of Californian plants alone consists of about 800 different kinds. He was thus no mere curiosity hunter, but a benefactor to society at large; and it may be, that while new productions are implanted in our soil, and naturalized in our climate, the name of the humble but sagacious and enterprising individual who thus benefited our country for ages to come, will pass into utter forgetfulness. But if he has been unable to command immortality, he has done more—he has deserved it.
DOUGLAS, James, Earl of Douglas.—This distinguished warrior, the close of whose life was so brilliant and romantic, was the second who bore the title of the earldom. From his earliest years he had been trained to warfare, in which his deeds were so remarkable that he was intrusted with high command, while the utmost confidence was reposed in his valour and leadership. This was especially the case in his final expedition, which was crowned by the victory of Otterburn.
At this period, Robert II., High Steward of Scotland, and son-in-law of Robert Bruce, was seated upon the throne of Scotland. His youth had been spent in war, in which he showed great activity and courage; but after his accession to the crown, he relapsed into a peaceful state, that was supposed by his impatient nobles to be merely the result of indolence. With this character he had already ruled eighteen years, while the war of independence against England still continued to rage; but notwithstanding his inertness, the valour of the Scottish nobility, and especially the Douglases, had succeeded in repelling every English inroad. At length, in 1388, a favourable opportunity seemed to have arrived of carrying an invasion into England. The Black Prince, the great terror of France and prop of the English crown, was dead. Richard II., the King of England, now only twenty-one years old, was ruling with all the folly and arrogance of boyhood; his council was rent with divisions and feuds, the nobility were arrayed against him, while the commons, lately awakened into a sense of their rights by the Wat Tyler insurrection, were equally hostile to the king who misruled, and to the chiefs who impoverished and oppressed them. This state of things presented an opportunity for retaliation and plunder which the Scots could not resist, and they resolved to change their defensive into an aggressive warfare. A council was held for this purpose at Edinburgh; and although Robert II. was opposed to the dangerous measure, his wishes were disregarded. A military muster of the kingdom was ordered to meet at Yetholm, and on the day appointed an army was assembled, composed of the chief force of Scotland. Forty thousand spearmen, including a band of Scottish archers, and twelve hundred men-at arms, were mustered upon the field of meeting—a greater force than that which had sufficed to achieve the victory of Bannockburn. The Earl of Fife, the king's second son, to whom the leading of this expedition had been committed, was neither a brave soldier nor a skilful general, but he had craft and policy enough to pass for both, while his chief captains were men inured to war, and well acquainted with the northern borders of England. The great question now at issue was the manner in which the invasion should be conducted, and the part of the English border that could be best assailed; and this was soon settled by a fortunate incident. The English
