i||pi!lgpfPlilfSiSil"i Columbia 2BnttJem'tp intiieCttpoflftugork THE LIBRARIES THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. III s I Ji; i THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND; ^bcir past au^ present State^ By JOHN R. TUDOR, " Old Wick," of " The Field." WITH CHAPTERS ON GEOLOGY By BENJAMIN N. PEACH, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., And JOHN HORNE, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Of the Geological Survey of Scotland. AND NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE ORKNEYS, By WILLIAM IRVINE FORTESCUE, The Yr. of Kin^causie and Swanbister. AND NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SHETLAND, By PETER WKITE, L.R.T S.E. EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS, SAV. Kirkwall: Wm. Peace & Son. Lerwick: C. & A. Sandison, 1883. LONDON : K. Clay, Sons and Tavlok, BREAD STREET HILL. r.-...-A^ ^ PREFACE. Whilst writing a series of papers, which, during the years 1878, 79, and 80, appeared in the columns of The Field under the title of Rambling and Angling Notes from Shetland, I was struck by the fact, that there was no book in existence that brought the past and present condition of that northern group before the reader. The works of Drs. Edmonston and Hibbert, admirable as both were at the time they were pub- lished, are not only, at the present day, out of date, but also out of print. Such being the case I at first thought of compiling a book on Shetland alone ; however, on going more fully into the matter I found that any historical description of Shetland must constantly refer to the Orkneys, and that, in addition, the southern group required writing up to date nearly as much as the northern one. I therefore spent several months in the autumn of 1880 amongst the different islands of the Orcadian group, and embodied the results of my rambles in some papers which, under the title of Orcadian Jottings, appeared in the columns of The Field in the course of the following year. Whilst wandering over Shetland I several times fell in with my old friend Mr. Peach, of the Scottish Geological 130158 vi PREFACE. Survey, and his colleague Mr. Home, who, for many years, spent their yearly vacations in examining into the much vexed (till settled by them) question as to the glaciation of Shetland, the Orkneys, and the North of Scotland. They kindly promised, if ever I went to press, to aid me by writing the chapters on the geology of these northern isles, a promise which they have most admirably kept, as the reader himself can see. To Mr. Irvine Fortescue, the Yr. of Kingcausie and Swanbister, and Mr, White, I am indebted for the chapters on the Flora of the Orkneys and Shetland respectively ; Dr. Anderson, the Curator of the National Museum of Scotland and editor of the translation of the Orkneyinga Saga, was kind enough to read over in MS. the chapters on the Pictish and Norse Periods ; and Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart., Flonorary Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, kindly perused the chapter on St. Magnus' Cathedral (Chapter XVin.), checked the various architectural descriptions through- out the book, and also kindly placed the collection of water- colour drawings and sketches he had made, during the many visits he had paid to the Orkneys and Shetland, at my disposal for reproduction. I have also to thank Ivlr. James Walls Cursiter, F.S.A.S., Messrs. Christopher and Andrew Sandison, of Lerwick, Mr. Lewis, F. U. Garriock, of Berry, The Rev. George Gibson, M.A., the English Chaplain at Dieppe, and many other gentlemen in Shetland, the Orkneys, and elsewhere for information and assistance kindly rendered or for hospitality shown me when wandering over the islands. To the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland I am indebted for the permission to reproduce such of the woodcuts as have already appeared in the Proceedings of the Society ; to Herr Cammermeyer, PREFACE, vii of Christiania, for permission to copy on a reduced scale the engraving of the Viking Ship from Gokstad ; to the proprietors of Tlie Illustrated Loudon Neius, for kindly permitting me to copy A Westerly Gale in the Orkneys, Roray Head, Hoy, and to Mr. Samuel Read the artist for putting the finishing touches to the block ; to Mr. Thomas S. Peace, of Kirkwall, for the sketch of the Gentlemen's Ha', Westray ; and to Mr. J. T. Irvine, F.S.A.S., for the etching of Muness Castle, Unst. I should also state that, in addition to what has already appeared in the columns of The Field, a good deal of the subject-matter of Chapter XII. The Fisherman-Crofter Ashore, appeared last year in Tlie Dundee Advertiser. Except where, as before mentioned. I am indebted to Messrs. Peach, Home, Fortescue, and White, for the chapters on the Geology and the Flora, and to Dr. Anderson and Sir Henry Dr3^den, for looking over and checking portions of the MS., I alone am responsible for any opinions expressed or statements made, and none of the gentlemen who have so kindly aided me must, in any way, be held liable for any of the views I have put forth. That the book in many respects is not what I should have wished it to have been, I am painfully aware, as owing to circumstances out of my own control, the greater portion had to be drafted, so to speak, when out of reach of any reference library, and a considerable portion has, in consequence, practically had to be rewritten as the sheets were passing through the press, and to this cause the reader must kindly attribute any shortcomings, inaccuracies, or discrepancies he may discover. John R. Tudor. London, 1883. Woollen Hood, 32 inches long, 17 mches broad, and with a fringe of two-ply cord, 35 inches ,n depth, found in the mo^s in St. Andrew's Par.sh, on the Mainland of the Orkneys. 'Jo/ace Table of Contents. CONTENTS. PACK INTRODUCTION xxxi — xxxiii CHAPTER I. THE PICTISH OR PREHISTORIC PERIOD. Early Notices of the Groups — Christianity of the Celtic Population — • Description of the Bressay and Papil Tombstones — Description of the Brochs — List of Brochs — Age of Brochs — Brochs Celtic not Norse — Picts Houses — Stone Circles — Standing Stones — Burial Mounds. Pages 3 — 1 6 CHAPTER .II. THE NORSE PERIOD. Land Tenure of the Norsemen — The Althing — Local or Parochial Things — Sigurd becomes first Jarl — Torf Einar slays Halfdan Halegg — Con- version of Sigurd the Stout — Battle of Clontarf — Gray's Fatal Sisters Pages 17 — 29 CHAPTER III. THE NORSE PERIOD — THE NORSE JARLS (continuea). Yht Great Jarl Thorfinn — Sir Edmund Head's Verses describing Thorfinn's interview with King Magnus — Paul and Erlend joint Jarls — Deposed by Magnus Barelegs — Battleof the Mcnai Straits — Hakon and Magnus CONTENTS. become Jarls — Death of Jarl Magnus — Hakon visits the Holy Land — Harald SlettmaH dies from poisoned garment and succeeded in the Jarldom by his brother Paul — Early Life of Kali Kol's son, is created Jarl, and renamed Rognvald — Futile attempts on the Orkneys. Pages 30 — 40 CHAPTER IV. THE NORSE PERIOD — THE NORSE JARI.S {cflntinucd). Swein Asleif's son, slays Swein Briostreip at Orphir — ^Jarl Rognvald lands in Westray — Kidnapping of Jarl Paul — Landing of Harald Maddad's son — Burning of Frakork — Siege of Lambaborg — Rognvald and Harald visit Norway — Jorsalafaring — Erlend Harald's son becomes Jarl and slain — Rognvald murdered by Thorbiorn Klerk — Swein slain in Dublin — Mutilation of Bishop Jon — -Burning of Bishop Adam — Jon the last of the Norse Jarls . Pages 41 — 53 CHAPTER V. THE NORSE PERIOD {continued). The Earldom in the Angfts, Stratherne, and St. Clair Lines. llakon Hakon's son ; Defeat at Largs, and Death in Kirkwall — Maid of Norway— False Maid of Norway — Earldom in the Stratherne Line — Earldom in the St. Clair Line ; Slaughter of Malise Sperra — Raids of the Lewismen — Marriage of Margaret, daughter of Christian the First of Denmark, to James the Third Pages 54 — 60 CHAPTER VL THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. The Orkneys under Scottish and British Rule — State on Transfer from Denmark — Earldom annexed to Scottish Crown and Farmed out — Flodden, Battle of — Summerdale, Battle of — ^James the Fifth in Kirk- wall — Reid, Robert Bishop — Lord Robert Stewart obtains Tacks — Bothwell, James Earl of, marries Mary, flies to Norway, and dies there — Lord Robert accused of Oppression, created Earl of Orkney and dies — Earl Patrick's Career — Siege of Kirkwall Castle — Bishop Graham renounces Episcopacy — Montrose's Expedition — Cromwellian Troops iu the Islands Pjges 61 — 76 COXTENTS. xi .CHAPTER VII. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE {continued). Ecclesiastical. Ministers eiected by General Assembly — Bishops Honeyman and Mac- kenzie — Mode of Worship under Episcopacy — Presbyterianism Estab- lished — Survival of Roman Catholic Customs and Beliefs — Mein of Cross and Burness — Sands of Birsay, charged with Sheep-stealing^ — Blaw of Westray, the Cat-killer — Song from Jacobite Relics — Con- cordat betvFeen Ministers and Justices — Leading Horses through and tethering them in Cathedral — Nisbet of Firth, banished to Plantations for Adultery — Lyell of Lady Parish — Liddell of Orphir — Anti- Patronage Movement — Commencement of the United Presbyterian Church in Islands — Free Church — Bishopric Estates sold. Pages 77—88 CHAPTER VIII. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE (continued). The Old Country Acts. Islands under Norse Laws till 1611 — Country Acts: Stock — Swine — Sheep — Butchers — Publicans — Forestalling — Restrictions on Sale of Produce — Servants — Parochial /^j-jt' — Baihes . . . Pages "if) — 94 CHAPTER IX. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE {cOJltinued). Agriculture at the coin/neiueiiient of the Century, Superstitions, &^r. Backward state of Agriculture, causes of — Superstitions — Witchcraft Trials ; Jonet Dever, Katherine Bigland, Elspeth Reoch, Marabel Couper, Anie Tailzeour, Marion Richart, Katherine Craigie, and Jonet Reid — General Superstitious Beliefs and Customs — Hudson's Bay Company — The FiAeries — Linen Manufacture — Straw Plaiting — Kelp Trade — Agriculture at the Present Day Pages 95 — loS CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. lutercourse with Norway up to Late Date — Will of Sir David Synclar — Respite of Edward Sinclare — How Skat and Rents Paid — Weights and Measures — Oppressions of Laurence Bruce — Earl Patrick petitioned against — Trial of the Faws — Houses at Lerwick ordered to be Demolished — Visits of Fleets to Bressay Sound— Tlie Kise and Fall of " The Great Fishoy" ; Early History of, Laws, Regulations, Herring Time-Table, Dutch Jack Ashore, Decline of Great Fishery — Shetland Herring Fishery Pages 109 — 128 CHAPTER XL SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE {continued). The Ling or Haaf; and Cod, Smack, or Faroe Fishings. Formerly in the hands of German Merchants — Proprietors compelled to take up — Description of Boats — Norse Words still in Use — Haaf Stations — How Fishing carried on — Method of Curing Fish — Mode of Payment — Opposition to Large Boats — Boats Molested by Whales, &c. — The Cod, Smack, or Faroe Fishery — History of — How Conducted — Loss of Smacks — Shetlanders m Merchant Service — Naval Reserve Pages 129—145 CHAPTER XIL SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE {continued]. The Fisherman- Crofter Ashore. Causes retarding Agricultural Improvement — Holdings or Crofts- — Old Wooden Plough described— Tillage of Crofts — Shetland Water Mill — Crops Grown — Scatholds— Shetland Cattle — Sheep — Ponies — Swine — Geese— Crofter's Cottage — Mode of Life — Kelp Making— Hosiery — Shetland Tweed or " Claith " Pages \/ifi—\(iO CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XIII. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE {continued). General Characteristics of the Shetlanders, Folk lore, &^c. Physical and mental characteristics — Report to Gifford — Morale — Religion — " Convulsion Fits " — Drinking very prevalent in Former Years — Superstitious Beliefs and Customs ; concerning Boats, Fishing, the Rescue of Drowning Persons, Aquatic Monsters, Freemasonry, King's Evil, Childbirth, and "Cutting abiin da Breath " — Charms ; Tooth- ache, Sprains, Burns, Ringworm, and Sparrows — Hair- eel —Mice — Pilgrimages — Counting — Small-pox — Funerals — Weddings — Love for Old Rock — General Summary of Social State — Suggestions. Pages i6i — 179 CHAPTER XIV. THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. BY B. N. PEACH, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., AND JOHN HORNE, F.R.S.E., F.G.S. 0/ the Geological Surz'ey of Scotla?id. Crystalline Rocks — Lower Old Red Sandstone, Characteristics of — General Arrangement of Strata — Westray — Eday — Sanday — Shapinsay — Rousay — North Coast of Hoy — Mainland — Cava — Fara — Flotta — South Ronaldsay — Burray — Organic Remains — Upper Old Red Sand- stone of Hoy— Volcanic Rocks — History of the Old Red Sandstone in the Orkneys — Basalt, Dykes of — Glaciation, Double System of — Shelly Boulder Clay — Moraines — Savil Boulder — Raised Beaches, none in the Orkneys Pages 180 — 194 CHAPTER XV. THE ORKNEYS. Tipyn Bob Pdh. General Bird's-eye View of the Islands — Tides — Swelkie, Bore of Papa — Gales — Climate — Representation — Population and Rental — Old Families — Norse Place-names and Patronymics, Dialect, &c. — Tee Names — Mammalia — Ornithology Pages 195 — 218 CONTEN'TS. CHAPTER XVI. NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE ORKNEYS. BY WILLIAM IRVINE FORTESCUE. General Description of — List of Rare Plants .... Pages 219 — 222 CHAPTER XVII. THE ORKNEYS — KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND. Routes to the Orkneys — Charters of the Borough — General Description — Church of St. Ola — Scene of the Slaughter of Captain Moodie — Town Hall, How Erected, &c. — Market Cross — Annual Game of Football on New Year's Day Pages 223 — 234 CHAPTER XVIII. THE ORKNEYS — KIRK^VALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND {continued). The Cathedral Church dedicated to St. Magytus. General Description of — Dimensions of Kirkwall and other Cathedrals — Neale's Opinion- — Dryden as to Traditionary History — Choir, present condition — East Window — Doorways at West End and South Tran- sept — Masons' Marks — Tombstones, niort brod, S:c. — Alms' Dishes — Tower — Destruction of Steeple — Bells .... Pages 235 — 243 CHAPTER XIX. THE ORKNEYS — KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND {continued). Historical Incidents connected with the Cathedral Church dedicated to St. Magnus. Removal of the Relics of the Saint from St. Ola's to Cathedral — Interments of Jarl Rognvald, Bishop William, and Hakon Hakon's son — Visit of James V. to Kirkwall — Bishop Reid ; Founds Cathedral Chapter Death at Dieppe, Monument to — Relics of Saint Magnus — Ministers Feuing away the Teinds, &c. — Death of Eai-1 Robert — Attempted CONTENTS. XV Demolition of Cathedral by Earl of Caithness — Cathedral Register commences — " Bigging" of Seats — Act against Promiscuous Bathing — Solemn League and Covenant — Tombstones torn up by Lord Morti m with Sanction of Session — Bishop William Tulloch's Tomb broken open by CromwelHans — Brawl between Mudie the Yr. of Melsetter and Douglas the Yr. of Spynie — Administration of the Sacrament — The Town-guard — Scene between Baikie and Wilson — Loutit Leases and Ploughs up Portion of the Churchyard — Principal Gordon's Account of State of Cathedral — Meason's Mortification — Shirreffs Account — Reredos, Bishop's Throne, and Earl's Pew — Tombs of William the Old and the Great Bishop Tulloch Robbed — Petrie's Account — Cathedral fitted up again for Presbyterian Worship — William the Old's remains carted away with the rubbish — Suggested Commemorative Inscription Pages 244 — 265 CHAPTER XX- THE ORKNEYS — KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND [continUc'd ) . The Bishop's and the EarVs Palaces. Bishop's Palace, Description of — Earl's Palace, Description of — Banque to the Earl of Sutherland — Trial of Elspeth Reoch. Pages 266 — 273 CHAPTER XXI. THE ORKNEYS — KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND {cofUillUed). Deej-ness, Holm St. Mary, Shapinsay, Wideford Hill, and Orphir. Clay Loan, place of Execution — Copin«ay and Corn Holm — Church of Deerness — Sandside — < Uoup of Deerness — Broughof Deerness — Ship- wreck of the Croivn and Drowning of Whig Prisoners — Holm St. Mary — Village of — Graemeshall — Shapinsay — Balfour Castle — Ruined Church Dedicated to Sr. Catherine— Ruins on EUer Holm — Wid,ford Hill — Heather and Bees — View from Summit — Chambered Mounds on Wideford Hill and at Quanternes'- — Eirde House at Saveroch — Orphir — Lammas-Fair — Corse— Caldale Coins — ^Broch of Lingrow- Kirbuster Loch — Circular Church Pages 274 — 290 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. THE ORKNEYS — STROMNESS AND THE WEST MAINLAND. Firth Oysters — Damisay — Summerdale, Battle of, Tradition concerning — Stromness — Gow the Pirate — George Stewart of the Bounty — Bessy Millie — As'erolepis — Black Craig Pages 291 — 298 CHAPTER XXIII. THE ORKNEYS — STROMNESS AND THE WEST MAINLAND [continued). The Lochs of Stenness and Harray ; Maes Hoive ; The Rings of Slenness and Brogar, and the Weem of Skara Brae. Loch of Sternest — The Bush — Fishes and Aquatic Plants — Loch of Harray — Lythe Fishing — Maes Howe and Runes — Ring of Stenness, Stone of Odin, and Watchstone — Rings of Brogar and Bukan, and Tumuli — Remains'Celtic not Scandinavian — Customs connected with them in last Century — Destructvon of Stone of Odin by Highland Goth — Stones of Via — Weem of Skara Brae — Hole of Row . . Pages 299 — 311 CHAPTER XXIV. THE ORKNEYS — STROMNESS AND THE WEST MAINLAND {continued}. Bii'say. Palace of — Church and Churchyard — Disgraceful state of most Orcadian and Shetlandic Graveyards — Brough of Birsay and the Ruins of the Old Nor.-e Church — Knowe of Saverough — Costa and Bir.'jay Heads — Lochs of Birsay, Hundland, and Swannay . . . Pages 312 — 318 CHAPTER XXV. THE ORKNEYS — THE SOUTH ISLES. Hoy and Walls. Description of — Orcadian Small Boats — The Kaim — Braebrough — Old Man — Wreck of the Albion — The Manse — Dwarfie Stone — Ward Hill — Pulpit in Church — Meadow of the Kaitn — The Kaim — Brae- CONTENTS. xvii rough — Old Man — Rackwick — Berriedale — "A far better coo and a far bonnier wife" — Longhope — Garth Head — Gloups of Snelsetter — Mummies of Osmondwall — Melsetter — Lyres — Berry Head — Hoglins and Helliel Waters — Oysters Faoes 319 — 332 chaptp:r XXVI. THE ORKNEYS — THE SOUTH ISLES {continued). Flotta, South Konaldsay, and Burray. Crosses — Marriage Customs — Mammie Scott — South Konaldsay : How to get there — Broch of Hoxa — Standing Stone — Tomison's Academy — Stone in Burwick Church — Old Chapels — Rental of Provestrie — Gloup of Halcro — Ferry to Huna — Burray; East and West Brouhs — Mills and Thirling — Decree against Hand Querns — Finn-men ^^s^'-'s 333—3+- CHAPTER XXVH. THE ORKNEYS — THE WESTERN ISLES. How to reach them — Gainay ; Old Man-ion House of the Craigies — The Hen — Swine Holm — Veira ; Cobbe Row's Castle — Church — Egilsay ; Church of — Scene of Murder of St. Magnus — Rousay ; General De- scription of — Goukheads — Camp of Jupiter Fring — Westness — Swendro Church — Church on Eynhallow — Paradise Geo — Sinions of Cutclaws — Kiln of Dusty — Stack of the Lobest — Kilns of Brin Never — Loch of Wasbister — Old Chapels — Urn found at Corquoy Pa^s 343—353 CHAPTER XXVin. THE NORTH ISLES. Stronsay, Sunday, and North Ronahhay. Route to — Stronsay ;.V^-\^ Stronsay, Chapels on — Well of Kildin'^uie — Broch at I.amb Head — Geo of Odin — Vat of K rbuster — Story about a Tr'>w — Sanday ; Descrijjti >n of — Runabral^e — Brochs — West Brugh — Helzie Geo — Legend about Holy Cross Parish — Purgatory and Hell — Golf — Wrecks — North Ronaldsay ; Post-boat — Descri|)iion of the Lland — Kelji-making — Old Orkney Sheep — Broch of Burria;i — Mounds — >ail Fluke — Seals Skerry — Alexander Smith — New Zealand Flax /'"^'v, 354—366 xviii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXTX. THE ORK>JEYS— THE NORTH ISLES [continued). EJay — Carrick — Earl of Carrick Tried for vSorcery — Torturing Pri?;oners — Roasting an Abbot — How " the landis of Glenluce wes conqueist " — Peat — Red Head — Calf of Eday — Gow the Pirate — John Fea — Bell at Carrick Westray — Grave Mounds — Farmer Kugi — Parishes and Endowments — Eirde House — Gloup= — Noltland Castle — Gentlemen's Ha' — Noup Head — Lochs of Saintear and Burness — ^ Bloody Tuacks — High- landman's Hamar — Cross Kirk Papa Westray — St. Tred wall's Chapel — St. Boniface — Habra Plellyer — Auks and Dundus — Deers' Antlers — Chambered Mound — Great Auk — " I could na afford to lose baith wife and whales the same day" Pages 367—383 CHAPTER XXX. THE GEOLOGY OF SHETLAND. Rock Formations in Shetland — Distribution of Metamorphic Rocks on the Mainland — Mineralogical Localities in Northmaven — Geological Structure of Unst and Fetlar — Igneous Rocks in the Metamorphic Series — Old Red Sandstone Order of Succession on the East side of the Mainland — Organic Remains — Area of altered Old Red Sandstone West of Weisdale — Representatives in Foula — Contemporaneous Igneous Rocks — Intrusive Igneous Rocks — Double System of Glacia- tion — Direction of Ice Markings — Boulder Clay — Moraine Deposits — Explanation of the Glacial Phenomena of the Orkneys and Shetland — Rock-basins — Origin of Voes — Peat — Absence of Raised Beaches Pages 384 — 40S CHAPTER XXXI. SHETLAND. Central, TopographkaU and Statistical with N'otes on Afammah and Birds. Contrast to the Orkneys — Divisions for Descriptive Purposes — Climate — Population — Commissioners of Supply — Surnames — Mammals — Whales, Divi-ion of— Ornithology Pages /^og— ^21 CONTENTS. chaptp:r XXXII. Notes on the Flora of Shetland by Peter White, L.K.C.S.E. Pages 422 — j\ CHAPTER XXXIII. S H E T L A N D — F AIR ISLE. As to Landing &c. — Fair Isle a Mistake — General Description — Stewarts of Erugh — Wreck of El Gran Grifon — Melvill's Account — Description of Vessel, Crew, &c. — Contract as to Raising Guns — Chairs and Cup — Parish and Inhabitants — Fair Isle Skiffs — Hosiery — Wreck of the Duncan — Malcolm's Head — Wreck of the Carl Constantine — Holes of Reeva — ^View from Ward Hill — Kirn of the Skroo — Sheep Craig — Wreck of the Lessing — Roar of Tide at Night — Puffins and Northern Lights Pages 429 — 444 CHAPTER XXXIV. SHETLAND — LERWICK. Sumhurgh Roost — The Bay of Lerwick on a Midsummer's Night — Want of a Pier — Hotels and Lodging-houses — Description of town — Whalers and Dutch Sailors — Fort Charlotte — New Town Hall — Town Arms — ('hurches — The Knali — Regatta Pages 445 — 453 CHAPTER XXXV. SHETLAND — LERWICK AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. Br essay and Ness. Ward Hill of Bressay — Pony Farm — Church at Culbinsbrough — Chapef on Noss — Holmof Noss — Noup of Noss — Kirkabister Ness — Orkneyman's Cave — Giant's Leg Pages 454 — 459 fi 2 XX CONTENrS. CHAPTER XXXVI. SHETLANn — LERWICK AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD [coniiniiect). To Scalloway and Back, Broch of Click-em-in — Village of Sound — Sandy Loch — Mile-posts — Flossy Loch — Scord of Scalloway — Scalloway Castle — Pier of Blackness — Westshoi'e — Standing Stone at Asta — Holm on Tingwall Loch and Althing — ^Old Tingwall Church — The Rev. John Turnbull — View from Churchyard — Veensgarth — Windy Grind — Stony Hill — Shetland Knitters Pages 460 — ^470 CHAPTER XXXVH. SHETLAND, CUNNINGSBURGH, MAISES, AND DUNROSSNESS. Gulber Wick — Broch of Burland — Loch of Brindister — East Quarff — Place for Sea-trout — Laxdale Burn — Cunningsburgh Church — Ogham and Rune-Inscribed Stones — David Lesley to do Penance — Reputation for Inhospitality — Shetland Jack Shepherd — Primroses and Larks — Mails Voe — Broch of Mousa — Otters and Seals — Driving in Shetland — Chaimer Wick — Leven Wick — Woman Delivered of Tobacco — Yell Smuggling story — Boddam — Abundance of Kirks — Links of Sumburgh -and Quendale — Holm-gang — Garth Ness — Fitful Head — St. Ninian's Isle — Sumburgh Head and Jarlshof — Lochs of Spiggie and Brow — Drumming of the Snipe Pages 471 — 488 CHAPTER XXXVIII. SHETLAND — WALLS AND THE WEST MAINLAND. Wormidale Hill — Airv House, Iluxter — Loch of Strom — Weisdale Voe, Burn, and Hill — Our Lady's Kirk — View from Scord of Weisdale — Reawick — Safesta, Underground Gallery — Giant's Grave — Walls — Accommodation — Vaila — Broch of Culswick — Churchyard — Church — Closing of old path — Walk to Melby — Voes, Lochs, and Trout Pages 489 — 496 CONTENTS. xxi CHAPTER XXXIX. SHETLAND — WALLS AND THE WEST MAINLAND (continued). Papa Sloiir. General Appearance of the Lland — Clingarie Geo. Caves — Hamna Voe — Francie's Hole — Christie's Hole — Lyra Skeriy — Stack of Snolda — Ve Skeiries — Horn of Papa — Hole of Bordie — Brei Holm — Fran Stack — Housa Voe — Church — Leprosy — Population — Sword Dance — Story of Edwin M Pages 497 — 508 CHAPTER XL. SHETLAND — THE AVEST MAINLAND. Ftntla. How to get there — Voyage of Mad Woman — Appearance of Island — In- habitants — Strom Ness — Friar Stacks — Kittiwake Hall — North Banks — Low's Account — The Kaim — Nebbefield — Wester Hsevdi — Muckle- bergand Uffshins — Wreck of the Ceres — The Noup — Rooeskie Cliffs — Hamnafield — Lum of Liorafield — The Sneug — Bonxies or Great Skuas — View from Wester Hievdi — The Pinnacle of the Kaim — Simon's Head — Richardson's Skuas or Scoutie Allans — Dye and Tonic — Putting the Stone Pa^es 509 — 524 CHAPTER XLI. SHETLAND — NESTINt;, LUNNASTING, AND DELTING ; OR. THE EAST MAINLAND. Sail round to Brae — Loch of Strand and Lax Firth — Loch of Girlsta — Sandwater Inn — The Lang Kaim — Dourye Laxa Burn — Lunna — Voe — Mossbank — " How are Oranges in Delting" — Olna Firth — Brae — Muckle Rooe Pages 525 — 529 xxii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLII. SHETLAND — NORTHMAVEN. Mavis Grind — Parish described — Isle of Egilsay — Magnusetter Voe and Burn — Vaadle of Sullam — Punds Water — Eela Water — Hillswick — The Drongs — Heads of Grocken — Stenness — Cross Kirk — Calder's Geo — Vilhans of Ure — Holes of Scraada — Grind of the Navir — Giant's Grave — Hamna Voe and Sea Trout — Rooeness Hill from Asta — Dutchman's Knowe — Ura Firth — Ollaberry — Lochend — Giant's Maisie, Garden, and Grave — Rooeness Hill — Banks over Lang Ayre — Birka Water and Rooer Water — North Rooe and Feideland — Uya — Rooer Burn, Rooer Water, Lochs of Huxter and Flugarth, &c. Pages 530—541 CHAPTER XLIH. SHETLAND — THE NORTH ISLES. IVJialsay, The Out Skerries, Yell, and Fetlar. Luggie's Knowe — Unicorn Reef — Catfirth Voe — Frau Stack — Noup of Nesting — Slaughter of " Colvile Persoun of Urquhart " — Whalsay ; Symbister — Wreck oilsslaffa — The Out Skerries ; Description of Group — " The Skerry Fight" — Wreck of the Carmelan — Crops and Fuel — Yell; Description of Island — Sea Trout — Church at Papil — Gloup Voe — Yell ^'arns — Fetlar ; Communication with — Lambhoga — Manse and Loch of Tresta — Magnetite — Old Chapels — Funzie to Strandburgh Ness — Wreck of the Vandela — View from Vord Hill — Fetlar Ponies — Submarine Earthquake Pages 542 — 556 CHAPTER XLIV. SHETLAND — THE NORTH ISLES {continued). Unst. Description of — The Edmondston Family — Blot's account of his stay at Buness — Press-gang — Balta Sound and Island — St. Sunnifa's Chapel — Colvidale Chapel — Sandwick — Muness Castle — Characteristics of Noltland, Scalloway, and Muness Castles — Door Knocker from Muness COKTENTS. xxiii — Standing Stone and Grave Mounds — Chapel on Uya — Lochs of Belmont and Stoural — Broch of Snaburgh — The Blue Mull — Wick and Farm of Lund — Loch of Watley — Stone Circles on Crucifield — Haraldswick — Cro^s Kirk, Norvvick — Saxe's Kettle — Saxevord — The Reverend John Ingram — Loch Cliff — Herman Ness — Mathevvson and the Eagle — Buness Ha and Hols Hellier — The Muckle Flugga Light- house — Finis Pages 557- — 578 APPENDICES. APPENDIX A. The Long-Ships of The Early Viking Period .... Pages 579 — 581 APPENDIX B. Renunciatijn by George Graham, Bishop of Orkney, of Episcopacy Pages 5S1 — 582 APPENDIX C. Declaration of the Ministers of the Presbytery of Orkney Pages 583 — 584 APPENDIX D I. " A Letter from a Gentleman in Orkney " Pages ^%:\ — 590 APPENDIX D 2. "Articles of Agreement Betwixt the Honourable Justices of Peace for Orkney and the Presbytery of Kn^kwall ; mutually with consent gone into " Pages S9^—S')Z APPENDIX D 3. The Supplication of James Flett of Bea Pages S9\ — 55^5 CONTENTS. APPENDIX E I. Agricultural Holdings in Caithness, the Orkneys, and Shetland, from the Official Returns — Table i. Number of Holdings in each Class — Table 2. Total Acreage of each Class of Holdings — Table 3. Analysis of Tables l and 2, showing Average Number of Acres in each Class — Table 4. Total Area and Acreage under each kind of Crop, Fallow, and Grass — Table 5. Number of Live Stock . . Pages 596 — 598 APPENDIX E 2. Stock and Egg Exports from Orkney Pages 599 — 601 APPENDIX F. No. I. Acciu'it. Number of Barrels of Herrings ciught in the Orkneys and Shetland, and their Classification for Years 1877- 1881 — ^O- 2. Account. Showing Number of Smacks and quantity of Cod, Ling, and Hake caught in them or in Open Boats — No. 3. Account. Showing the totil quantity of Cod, Ling, and Hake exported from the Orkneys and Shetland — No. 4. Account. Showing number and tonnage of Boats of the Fifst, Second, and Third Classes for Years 1877-81 Registered in the Orkneys and Shetland — No. 5. Account. Showing number of Fishermen and Boys, of Fish-curers, Coopers, and other persons con- nected with the Fisheries in the Orkneys and Shetland ; and the Estimated Value of the Boats, Nets, and Lines for the Years 1877- 1881 — No. 6. Account. Show^ing the tonnage of vessels and number of men employed in importing Stave-wood and Hoops or Salt for the Fi-.hei-ies ; carrying Herrings or White Fi^h Coastwise ; and exporting them Abroad from the Orkneys and Shetland for the Years 1877-1881 Pages 601 — 604 APPENDIX G. Shetland Smack and Ilaaf Fisiicries. Account showing the average yearly number of Smacks, Open Boats, Sailors, and Fishermen engaged in the Smack and Haaf Fisheries ; quantity of Ling, Cod, &c., cured diy in Shetland, and its relative ])roportion to what is cured dry oy&x all Scotland (Shetlmd included) ; also number of barrels of Herrings cured from 1821-1880, both inclusive Page 605 CONTENTS. APPENDIX II. " Account of a Voyage to the Ilaaf, as given by a Fisherman at Feideland in Northmavine " — From Hibbert's Slietland Isles . Pages 606 — 607 APPENDIX I. " Commission and Instructions to the Society for Regulating of Servants and Reformation of Manners." — From Gifford's Zetland Islands Pages 607 — 609 APPENDIX J I. Table showing average Jmontlily and yearly temperature and rainfall of the Orkneys and Shetland Fage 610 APPENDIX J 2. Table showing mean temperature and rainfall at various stations in the United Kingdom, inserted for the purpose of comparison . Fage6ii APPENDIX K. Population of the Orkneys and Shetland at each Decennial Census since the commencement of the Nineteenth Century Pjge 612 APPENDIX L. Local Tte, Tue, or A^/r/{'-names Pages 612 — 615 APPENDIX M. Characteristics, Monuments, Proportions, and Dates of the Ruined Churches in the Orkneys and Shetland — From a Paper in The Orcadian by Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart., Hon. Mem. Soc. Antiq. Scot. Pages 616 — 619 xxvi CONTENTS. APPENDIX N. " Of Buryall '' — YxQXii](A\\\Y^\\oyl% Book of Co'iinon Order. . Page i)\<^ APPENDIX O I, 2. Extracts from Pitcairn's Criminal Trials Pages 620 — 623 APPENDIX P. Extracts relative to the Rev. Alexander Smith from the Justices of His Alaties Peace Book 0/ Records Pages 62T, — 626 APPENDIX Q. Extracts from the Gow Correspondence contained in Peterkin's N'otes Pages 626— 62S APPENDIX K. Extract from a Paper On Kiiuc inscribed Norse Relics in Slietland, read before the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland . . Pages 628 — 629 APPENDIX S. The Day Dawn and The Fouia Reel taken from Ilibbert's Shetland hies Pages 630—632 APPENDIX T, John Gow alias Smith, additional matter concerning . . Pages 633 — 637 APPENDIX U. Poor Law and Education Pages 638 — 642 Glossary of Noi-sc, Orcadian, Shetlandic, anil Scottish words and phrases used in the preceding pages ; to which are added some notes omitted from their proper places Pages 643 — 670 List of Authors and works referred to or consulted . . P.tS.s 671 — 679 Index to Contents Pages 681 — 703 Celtic Tombstone, from the Churchyard at Papil, Isle of Burra, Shetland. To face list of Maps and Illnsiratfons. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, AND PLANS. ILL USTRA TIONS. PACK 1. Scalloway from the N.E. From a water-colour drawing by Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart Froiitispiece. 2. \Yoollen Hood, 32 inches long, 17 inches broad, and with fringe of two-ply cord, 35 inches in depth, found in the moss in St. Andrew's Parish on the Mainland of the Orkneys To face Tabic of Contents 3. Celtic Tombstone, from the Churchyard at Papil, Isle of Burra, Shetland To face List of Illustrations and Maps. 4. Celtic Pemiannular Brooch. From Viking grave, Westiay, similar to those found in the Brochs 3 5. The Bressay Stone, Obverse to face 5 6. Do. do. Reverse ,, 6 7. Long-Handled Comb. From the Broch of Eurrian 16 8. The Gokstad Viking Ship 17 9. Sword of Viking Period. Found in Viking grave, Westray . . 29 10. Oval-Bowl Brooch. Found in Viking grave, Westray .... 30 11. Wooden Lock. From North Ronaldsay 76 12. Scheveningen Bomschuits 128 13. Shetland Sixareen 129 14. One-Stilted Plough. From Cunningsb\u-gh 146 15. Quern and Frame. From North Yell 161 16. Knockin' Stane and Mell. From North Veil 179 17. The Cathedral Church, dedicated to St. Magnus, from the S.E. to face 233 xxviii LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 1 8. Ruined Chuich on Egilsay, near the scene of the murder of St, Magnus. From a water-colour drawing by Sir Henry E, L. Dryden, Bart 265 19. Roray Head and The Old Man of Hoy during a westerly gale to face 319 20. Urn of Steatife. From Corquoy, Rousay 353 2r. Combs. From the Broch of Burrian, North Ronaldsay .... 366 22. The Gentlemen's Ha', with the Brough of Birsay in the distance. From a sketch by Mr. Thomas S. Peace .... 367 23. .Spanish Galleon. Taken from the original woodcut on the title- page of a translation of the Orders set down by the Duke de Medina Sidojila for the discipline of the Armada, published in London in the year 1588 444 24. The Ward Hill of Bressay, and Lerwick, from the N. of Fort Charlotte. From a water-colour drawing by Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart 470 25. Stone sinkers from Walls, Shetland 496 26. Foula from Watt's Ness, distant about eighteen miles. From a sketch by Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart 509 27. The Heads of Grocken, the Quida, the Runk, and the Rippack Stacks, and the Door Holm from Hillswick Ness. From a water-colour drawing by Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart. to face 534 2S. Ruined Church, dedicated to St. Olaf, at Papil, North Yell. From a water-colour drawing by Sir Henry E. L. Dryden, Bart 542 29. Muness Castle, Unst. From an etching by Mr. J. T. Irvine . 557 30. Doorknocker, Muness Castle 57^ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. MAPS AND PLANS. PAGE 1. Coloured map, ]iart of Caithness, tlie Orkneys and Shetland, showing elevation of land and depth of sea To face the Introductioii 2. Coloured Geological Map of the Orkneys, showing the primary and secondary glaciations to face i8o 3. Topographical Map of the Orkneys ,, 195 4. Ground Plan of St. Magnus's Cathedral ,, 236 5. Ground Plan of the Broch of Lingrow 289 6. Coloured Geological Map of Shetland, showing the primary and secondary glaciations to face 384 7. Topographical Map of Shetland ,, 409 8. Map of Fair Isle ,, 429 9. Map of Lerwick and neighbourhood ,, 445 10. Ground Plan and Section of Elevation of the Broch of Mousa to face 478 11. Map of Papa S tour ,, 497 12. Map of Foula ,, 511 ', 9iir^- y^nid Head J OBOGRAPHICAL SKETCH I OF THE ORKNEYS & SHETIAND eflerence Reflerence Lartd, below 260 frt Mufht Orefn ' ehtm, ILO/lr {■ hflfw SOO r* nmi Orrrri ■' ' soo f ■■ -nioof a-rf l^ater to ihe^ depth of 20 faefuirnfi [ZJ hiLw jA THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. INTRODUCTORY. LviXG to the north of the most extreme northern point of the British mainland, exposed to the full force of the Atlantic rollers and the hardly less turbulent surges of the wild North Sea, and surrounded by some of the fiercest tideways in the world, one cannot wonder that, till comisaratively recent years, the Orkneys and Shetland should to the average Englishman, or Scotchman too for that matter, have been geographical expressions and nothing more. At the commencement of the present century the ignorance about them, even of educated people, was something stu pendous. Thus in one, of the many editions of Nathan Bailey's dictionaries, published at the modern Athens, in the year 1800, when Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, and others were com- mencing the education of the Whigs, Shetland was described as consisting " of about forty islands at the north of Scotland, where the sun does not set for two months in summer, and does not rise for two months in winter;" and Shirrefif,' writing in 1 8 14, stated that the Commissioners of Customs had refused ' SliirrelT's Shetland, p. I02. xxxii THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. a few years previously to pay the bounties on some herring caught during the winter time in Shetland waters, on the ground that no fish could then have been caught there, as the islands were at that period of the year surrounded by ice. Even as lately as the Crimean War the ofificials at either the Home or the Foreign Office appear to have been under the impression that the Orcadians were a Gaelic-speaking race. Most people know better now-a-days : still even educated people are apt to be somewhat confused in their ideas about the two groups, and to have a vague impression : — that the Orkneys and Shetland are one and the same thing ; ' that they consist of some scattered islands not much larger than the Scilly Isles ; and that they are inhabited by a semi-civilised race, who live chiefly on sea-fowl and their eggs, and are in urgent need of missionaries to convert them from their semi-heathen practices. And yet, more interesting islands — rich in the relics of a pre-historic past ; with a special history of their own extending over six centuries ; possessing a coast-scenery, which for grandeur of form and beauty of colouring cannot be surpassed in the British Isles ; and affording in the northern group one of the most interesting fields for study possible to the geologist and mineralogist — would be hard to find. It is this very many- sidedness, if one may be allowed to coin a word, that makes it so hard to do these northern isles equal justice from the many points of view from wiiich they have to be considered. The brochs, chambered cairns, and other relics of a pre- historic age alone would furnish the materials for a volume in themselves, and the painter of the picturesque could cover reams of paper in expatiating on the weird charms of a northern summer's night ; on the exquisite colour effects you sometimes see both on land and sea ; on the feelings of awe with which ^ The following appeared in one of the most important London morning papers of August i6th, 1882 : — " Kirkwall. — An artist from Glasgow was found floating in the sea, dead, off Kirkwall, Shetland, on Sunday. It is supposed he fell over the cliff and was drowned." INTRODUCTORY. xxxiii the cliffs of Hoy, or the still grander coast-line of P'oula, im- press you ; and on the many other attractions the storm-swept Orcades and regions of Ultima Tliiile present to one who has eyes to see, and knows how to use them. Again, in any other part of Britain, the history of the district is that of the rest of the kingdom, with a {q.\v local details to be worked in. In tlie case, however, of the Orkneys and Shetland, — owing to their having been for centuries the almost independent dependencies of the Norwegian crown ; to their system of land-tenure having been allodial and not feudal in its origin ; to the oppressions and exactions of the Stewarts and other donatories, and of the Scottish locusts who followed in their train ; and to the fact of the greater bulk of the inhabit- ants having been, till nearly modern times, alien to their masters, not only in race, but in speech as well — a much more lengthy historical description, than the mere area of the islands would seem to warrant, is needed to bring before the reader what their condition in former times really was, and to enable him to realise the full significance of many of the customs and practices that have survived to the present day. This historical description naturally divides itself into three periods or eras : the Pictish or Prehistoric ; the Norse ; and the Scottish and British. a CELTIC ['ENANNULAR BROOCH. From Viking grave, Westray, similar to those found in the Brochs. CHAPTER I. THE PICTISH OR PREHISTORTC PERIOD. Properly speaking, according to strict historical canons, the above heading is somewhat in the nature of an Irish bull. So little, however, really trustworthy information have we about both groups, prior to the appearance on the scene of the Norsemen, that Pictish and Prehistoric as far as they are concerned are practically convertible terms. That Agricola, after the battle of Mons Granpius, a.d. 89, despatched his fleet to coast round the northern portion of Great Britain, and that such fleet discovered and subdued the Orkneys, whence was seen what their crews imagined to be the Thule of still earlier Grecian or Roman explorers, we know on the authority of Tacitus.' ^ Tacitus, Agricola: Vita, B 2 4 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Our next glimpse is in Claudian's poetical description of the exploits of Theodosius in clearing Roman Britain of that day of the Picts, Scots, and Attacotts, and we gather that at that time, A.D. 396, the Saxons, — forerunners of the still sturdier Norse rovers, who were to follow after a lapse of four centuries, — had established themselves, for how long we do not know, amongst the Orkneys. Probably only temporarily, as Adamnan in his Life of St. Columba states,^ that Cormac, a follower of the saint, had reached the Orkneys, when sailing from lona " to discover a desert in the ocean ; " and adds that, to the intercession of Columba with Brude, King of the Northern Picts, Cormac and his com- panions probably owed their lives, as a ruler of the Orkneys was at that time, about 565, a hostage in the hands of King Brude. ^dan, King of the Dalriadic Scots, is, according to the annals of Ulster, said to have led an expedition against the Orkneys, in the year 580, and Anderson conjectures, that the islands probably remained under Dalriadic rule till they were laid waste, in the year 682, by Brude, the son of Bile, then King of the Northern Picts. That Christianity had taken root, either owing to the preach- ing of Cormac and his companions, or through the instrumen- tality of later missionaries, amongst the Orkneys, and that from thence it spread to Shetland and was the religion of the inhabitants of both groups till they were conquered, if not exterminated, by the Scandinavian worshippers of Odin and Thor, there can be little doubt. An Irish monk, Dicuil,- who wrote a treatise De Meiismd Orbis Ten-a?'um, about the year 825, states that some thirty years previously, a " certain honest monk had visited some islands in the northern British seas one summer, after sailing a day and a night and another day, in a two-benched boat." The islands referred to were, there is little doubt, Shetland. ^ Adamnan's Life 0/ St. Cohimba, p. 71. * Ork. Sag. Intro, p. xi. The Bressay Stone, Obverse. To face fin^e 5. THE PICTISIl OR PREIIISTOKJC PERIOD. 5 The evidence cited might be considered somewhat shadowy, when taken alone, to prove that the Pictish inhabitants of these northern isles were Christians, but it can be supple- mented by the names of islands and places in both groups, that show that the Papa., as the Norsemen termed the Irish missionaries, whom we know to have visited and established themselves in Iceland prior to the ninth century, must have been widely distributed both in the Orkneys and Shetland. In the latter we have Papil, a place in North Yell ; Papa Stour, an island on the west side of the Mainland ; another Papa close to Scalloway ; and another Papil in the Isle of Burra. In the Orkneys we have Papa Westray (the Papey Meiri of the Saga) ; Papa Stronsay (the Papey Mi7ini) \ Papley [Papnli), both on the Mainland ; and in South Ronaldsay ; and Papdale close to Kirk- wall. The island of Damsay {^Danisey or Daminsey) is sup- posed to mean St. Adamnan's isle ; and the Norse name of North Ronaldsay was Rmansey or Ringan's isle ; Ringan being another name by which St. Ninian was known. There is, by the way, another St. Ninian's Isle in Shetland. The most important silent witnesses to the early Christianity of these northern isles, however, are the Ogham inscribed stones, that have been found within recent years in both Shetland and the Orkneys. The Bressay stone, now in the National Museum at Edin- burgh, found by the late Dr. Hamilton, the minister of Bressay, in the year 1864, near the old ruined church of Culbinsbrugh, on that island, is " a slab of chlorite slate, three feet nine inches in length, about sixteen inches wide at the top, and tapering to a little less than a foot at the bottom, and about an inch and three-quarters thick." ' On one side is sculptured in low relief an elaborate interlaced cross ; over which are two monstrosities of fish swallowing a human being. In the centre, below the cross, is a man on horseback, between two ecclesi- astics holding pastoral staves; below this is a much larger horse without a rider; and below the horse a sow. On the ^ Anderson's Scotland in Early Christian Times, Second Series, p. 208. 6 THE ORKAEYS AND SHETLAND. other side, at the top, is another interlaced cross, but of a simpler pattern \ below which are the figures of two beasts with their jaws extended, apparently trying to swallow each other ; and below the beasts, two ecclesiastics with their hands and staves touching. " The inscription is written down both edges of the stone, and is divided into words by colon-like points. The digits are arranged upon a stem-Une, which keeps the centre of the width of the edge of the stone." Not only does the inscription resemble a Runic one, but the language is said to be mixed Scandinavian and Celtic. It has been rendered — " The cross of Naddodd's daughter here Beni-es the son of the Druid here." " Dr. Graves," one of the experts in Ogham characters to whom the inscription was submitted, "points out that the Naddodd, according to the Landnama-bdk, (Book of Settlement), was a famous Viking of the Faroes, who being on a voyage between them and Norway in a.d. 86i, was driven out of his course by a storm, and thus discovered Iceland. He had a grandson named Benir, who would thus be the Benres of the monument, the person commemorated in the first part of the inscription being his mother. The name Moccadruidis occurs in Adam- nan's Life of St. Columba as the patronymic of Eec of Colon - say." Three other Ogham inscribed stones have been found in Shetland, one at Lunnasting, one at Cunningsburgh, and one at St. Ninian's Isle ; and one in the Orkneys in the broch of Burrian. In addition to these Ogham inscribed stones, a tombstone, clearly from the carving of Celtic or Pictish origin, was, in July, 187 7, ■" discovered in the graveyard at Papil, in the island of Burra, near Scalloway, in Shetland. The stone, a slab of finely- grained sandstone, measures 6 feet 10 inches in length, and varies in breadth from i foot 7 inches at the top to i foot 5 inches at the bottom, and in thickness from i^ inches to 2\ inches. It is only ^ Proc. Scot. Ant. vol. xv. p. 1 19. The Bressay Stone, Reverse. To face pa-y 6. THE PICTISII OR PREHISTORIC PERIOD. 7 carved on one side. At the top is a Maltese cross inclosed within two circular incised lines ; below are the figures of four eccle- siastics holding pastoral staves. Under the ecclesiastics is an animal, which Mr. Goudie, who discovered the stone, says has a certain resemblance to a lion. It may be intended for a lion ecclesiastical, but the writer \-entures to suggest that it may have been meant for the old British mastiflf, a dog for which the islands were celebrated in Roman days. Below the lion or dog, whichever it is, are a couple of nondescripts with the heads and feet of birds, and the rest of their bodies human. Each holds an axe over his shoulder, and their beaks are inserted in what appears to be a human skull. In the same churchyard at Papil another slab, 5 feet 4.^ inches long, by I foot 3J inches at its greatest width, and having a very graceful cross incised on it, was discovered at the same time. Two square-shaped bells of bronze and iron have been found in the Orkneys, one at Saverough, close to Birsay, and the other in the broch of Burrian ; the latter measures 2\ inches in height, 2 inches in breadth, and i inch in width, with a loop handle at the top. These bells are supposed to be of Celtic make; but bells of various sizes, fabricated in a somewhat similar form, have been in use in subsequent times, and are even at the present day attached to sheep, mules, and goats. If the history of the two groups during the Pictish period so far as written records go, is of the most shadowy kind, we have in the Pictish brochs, Pictish houses, &c., unwritten records that enable us to form some sort of notion, vague though it may be, of what the mpde of life of the original Celtic inhabitants was like. These unwritten records consist of:— I St. Pictish brochs. 2nd. Picts' houses. 3rd. Stone circles and standing stones. 4th. Burial mounds. The Pictish broughs, brochs, towers, castles, or forts (hereafter 8 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. called brochs), have probably exercised the minds of anti- quarians as much as any architectural remains concerning which and their builders we have so scanty written records. "The typical form of the broch," says Dr. Anderson/ the Curator of the National Museum at Edinburgh, " is that of a hollow circular tower of dry-built masonry, about 60 feet in diameter and about 50 feet high. Its wall, which is 15 feet thick, is carried up solid for about 8 feet, except where two or three oblong chambers, with rudely-vaulted roofs, are constructed in its thickness. "Above the height of about 8 feet, the wall is carried up with a hollow space of about 3 feet wide between its exterior and interior shell. This hollow space, at about the height of a man, is crossed horizontally by a roof of slabs, the upper surfaces of which form the floor of the space above. This is repeated at about every 5 or 6 feet of its further height. These spaces thus form horizontal galleries, separated from each other vertically by the slabs of their floors and roofs. The galleries run completely round the tower, except that they are crossed by the stair, so that each gallery opens in front of the steps, and its further end is closed by the back of the staircase on the same level. " The only opening to the outside of the tower is the main entrance, a narrow, tunnel-like passage 15 feet long, 5 to 6 feet in height, and rarely more than 3 feet in width, leading straight through the wall on the ground level, and often flanked on either side by guard chambers opening into it. This gives access to the central area or courtyard of the tower, round the inner circumference of which, in different positions, are placed the entrances to the chambers on the ground-floor, and to the staircase leading to the galleries above. In its external aspect, the tower is a truncated cone of solid masonry, unpierced by any opening save the narrow doorway ; while the central court presents the aspect of a circular well 30 feet in diameter bounded by a perpendicular wall 50 feet high, and presenting at ^ Proc. Scot. Aiit. vol. xii. p. 314. THE PICTISH OR PREHISrORIC PERIOD. 9 intervals on the ground-floor several low and narrow doorways, giving access to the chambers and stair, and above these ranges of small window-like openings rising perpendicularly- over each other to admit light and air to the galleries." It has been supposed by some people, that, not only were these structures roofed over, but that there were also floors. Sir Henry Dryden, — who and Dr. Anderson must be con- sidered the two principal authorities on all questions relating to the brochs, — has, however, shown ' that, after weighing carefully the /"/'(^.y and the cons on the subject, they can neither have been roofed nor floored, and has proved that the outward curvature, which is noticeable in the case of Mousa from the centre to the top of the outer of the two walls, and which at one time was supposed to have been part of the original plan, is due to subsidence. How numerous these structures must have been at one period is shown by the list of them and the map, showing their distribution over the north of Scotland, attached to Anderson's paper in Vol. V. of the Archceologia Scotica. From these it will be seen that out of a total of 374 sites known : 75 are in Shetland; 70 in the Orkneys; 79 in Caithness; and 60 in Sutherland. That the brochs were altered and added to both externally and internally some time after their original construction, is shown in the case of many of them, and notably in those of Lingrow in the Orkneys, and Clickemin in Shetland, and for the purposes of these secondary erections the materials of the original structure were largely utilised. The following list of certain brochs in the two groups, showing their dimensions, is taken from a paper by the late Mr. George Petrie, of Kirkwall, to whom the antiquary and archaeologist are so much indebted for the labour bestowed on the history and antiquities of his native islands, publi.shed in Vol. V. of the Archceologia Scotica. ^ Arch. S.ot. vol. V. p. 201. THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Dimensions of Brochs in the Orkneys, from Measurements TAKEN (except THAT OF BuRGAR) BY Mr. GeORGE Pe'IRIE. Locality. Exterior Interior Thickness Diameter. Diameter. of Wall. Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft In. Burgar, Evie, Mainland... 60 26 17 Okstro. Birsay, Mainland 69 45 12 Near Manse of Harray, Mainland 57 33 12 Stirlintjow, Firth, Mainland 45 27 9 Ingi.s-how, Firth, Mainland 60 33 13 6 Birstane, St. Ola, Mainland 6c 33 13 6 Dingis-how, St. Andrew's, Mainland ... 57 33 12 Top of Mound Langskail, St. Andrew's, Mainland 40 20 10 East Broch, Burray 66 6 36 6 15 West Broch, Burray 56 31 12 6 Hoxay, South Ronaldsay 58 30 14 Borrowston, Shapinsay ... 55 6 31 6 12 Lamb Head, Stronsay ... 69 45 12 Dimensions of Brochs in Shetland, from Measurements kv Sir Henry Dryuen, Bart., and Mr. J. T. Irvine. Locality. E.>:terior Interior Thicknes.s Diameter. Diameter. of Wall. Ft. In. Ft. In. Ft. In. Clickemin, Mainland 66 4 26 20 2 Brindister, Mainland 68 17 12 6 Levenwick, Mainland ... 54 6 28 6 13 Burraland, Mainland 55 37 9 Mousa 49 20 14 6 Houbie, Fetlar ... 58 33 12 6 Snaburgh, Unst ... 63 6 27 6 18 Underhool, Unst 55 9 25 9 15 Brongh, Unst 50 25 12 Burraness, Yell 57 27 15 « Culswick, Mainland 50 8 24 8 130 1 What is the real age of the brochs is a moot point, that cannot, on archaeological evidence, ever be satisfactorily settled. Mr. Samuel Laing, M.P.,^ assigned a very great ^ Proc. Scot, Ant. vol. vii. p. 63. THE PICTISH OR PREHISTORIC PERIOD. 1 1 antiquity to them, and certainly adduced very strong evi- dence in support of his theory. At Breckness, close to Stromness, were, when Mr. Laing wrote, still standing some fifteen feet of a broch, which, when entire, must, from the cur- vature of the remaining portion, have had an exterior diameter of sixty-eight feet. Not only had the other portions of the broch disappeared, but some fifty feet at least of the very rock on which it stood had been destroyed by the erosive action of the sea, and that, too, at a by no means exceptionally exposed part of the coast-line. In the case of the Okstro Broch, near Birsay, a number of cists containing ashes and burnt bones were found deposited on the top of the broch, which shows that at the time of being so deposited the ruins of the broch were probably a grass- covered mound. Now, cremation must have been given up as a heathen practice by the middle of the eleventh century. Dr. Traill,^ in the same volume of the Proceedings^ in a paper on the " Dwellings of the Prehistoric Races of Orkney," comes to the conclusion that deer, bones and horns of which are found in great profusion both in the brochs and the Picts' houses, have been extinct in those islands for 2,000 years at least, and we certainly have no mention of them in the Orkneyinga Saga as existing on the islands during Norse times, though we read of the jarls hunting hares and otters, and shooting moor-fowl with arrows, and we are told that Jarls Rognvald and Harald went over every summer to Caithness to hunt the red and the rein-deer. Anderson considers, that they (the brochs) were erected between the fifth and ninth centuries, whilst Dr. James Fer- gusson,^ the well-known writer on Indian architectural remains, is the only person of eminence at the present day, who main- tains that they were erected by the Norsemen. His reasons may be summed up as follows : — ^ Proc. Scot. Anl. vol. vii. p. 426. ^ Fergiisson's Brochs and the Rude Stone Monuments of the Orkney Islands, ^c. 12 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. I St. That the Celts or Picts were not sufficiently civilised to have been able to have built such structures. 2nd. That the area in which they have been found is co- extensive, or nearly so, with the territories occupied by the Norsemen on the mainland and islands of Scotland. 3rd. That they were built as fortified posts, which could be held, when the rest of the able-bodied men were away on raiding expeditions, by very small garrisons, to overawe the aboriginal Celtic population. 4th. That the Norsemen built them of stone, and not, as they did their buildings in Norway, of wood, because the stone was on the spot, and the wood was wanting. Against these conclusions Anderson ^ points out that : — (i) No brochs are found in Norway or in any of the Viking colonies, except the north of Scotland, and that they have been found, outside the Norwegian area, in what is known to have been purely Celtic Scotland. (2) That no edifices of dry-built masonry are known in Nor- way, either of the Viking period or previously ; but that such edifices are characteristic of the Celtic or early Christian period, both in Scotland and Ireland. (3) That there were no vaulted roofs of dry-built masonry in Norway, but that they were characteristic features of early Celtic structures. (4) That the implements found in the brochs were Celtic and not Norse in style and type. The tortoise brooch espe- cially, the most characteristic ornamental relic of the Viking period, having only been found in one broch, and in that case the broch had been used as a place of sepulture. Both Anderson and Fergusson, however, appear to have overlooked one piece of evidence, which, in the writer's opinion, bears strongly against the Norse theory of the erection of the brochs. This is the innumerable cases of arson or fire-raising mentioned in the Saga^ which clearly show that the buildings burnt cannot have been brochs, and that they must have 1 Proc. Scot. Ant. vol. xii. p. 314. THE PICTISH OR PREHISTORIC PERIOD. 13 been constructed, like the Icelandic Ska/as, in a great measure of timber. The numerous names of islands, voes, lakes, and places with the prefix of Bur, Burra, and Burga, both in the Orkneys and Shetland, again, point to the fact that the Norsemen on arriving, found these brochs so scattered about, that, being a matter-of- fact race in their nomenclature, both of places and people, they spoke of the islands of the broch, the voes of the broch, &c. That they actually occupied some of them we know from the case of ]\Iousa, in which a certain Bjorn Brynulfson spent his honeymoon, when he fled from Norway, about the year goo, with Thora Roald's daughter. Mousa was again occupied two and a-half centuries later much in a similar manner by that frisky dowager, Margaret, Countess of Athole, when she fled from the Orkneys with Erlend Ungi, and was besieged therein by her son, Jarl Harald, who objected strongly to his mother's conduct, not merely in the case of Erlend, but of others as well. That the original inhabitants of these brochs were very far removed from the mere savages, that some people might fancy them to have been, is proved by the implements, &c., which have been found. That they had flocks of domesticated animals is shown by the remains of the Celtic shorthorn {Bos Lo?igifrons), sheep, and swine ; that they cultivated the ground and grew some sort of cereal produce, by the numerous stone querns or hand-mills ; that they manufactured some kind of woollen fabrics, by the stone whorls used in connection with the distaff, and by the long-handled bone combs, with which, Anderson ^ has pointed out, they must have beaten the thread of the weft together on the upright loom. That they under- stood the manufacture of pottery, and that they used stone lamps, rude imitations of Roman models, we also know. No celts or stone weapons have been found in connection with any of the brochs. Those who wish to know more about them will find in Vols. VII. IX. and XII. of the Proceedings of the Society ^ Proc. Scot. Ant. vol. ix. p. 548. 14 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. of Antiquaries of Scotland^ in Vol. V. of the Ai'chceologia Scotica, and in Fergusson's Brochs and the Rude Stone Monuments of the Orkney Islands, 6^VAL BOWL BROOCH, FROM VIKING GRAVE, WESTKAV. CHAPTER III THE NORSE PERIOD. The Norse Jarls — {contmued). In addition to Hundi, Sigurd had three other sons by his first wife, Summarhdi, Briisi, and Einar ; and by his second wife, a daughter of Malcolm King of the Scots, a son named Thorfinn, who at the time of his father's death was only five years old. Of Thorfinn's career — how he was created Earl of Caithness while still a child by Malcolm his grandfather ; how, like a young Indian brave, he went on the war path, that is on viking expeditions, before he was fifteen years old ; how Einar and Thorfinn from time to time fell out about the division of the jarldom and lands ; how Briisi acted the peacemaker between his brothers ; how Thorfinn permitted Thorkel Fostri, so called from his having acted as I'horfinn's foster-father, to slay Einar at a banquet in his, Thorkel's, house ; how Thorfinn twice defeated Karl Hundason, King of Scotland, once in a sea-fight off Deerness, and a second time on THE NORSE PERIOD. 31 land somewhere in Sutherland ; how he raided every summer ; how, after living in amity for years with Thorfinn, Rognvald, Briisi's son, first tried to burn his uncle alive, and, not suc- ceeding, was in his turn burnt out and then slain by Thorkel ; how Thorfinn by his boldness obtained pardon from King Magnus for his nephew's slaughter ; how becoming weary of piracy, arson, and bloodshed, he went to Rome, got abso- lution for his many crimes from the Holy Father, and on his return from foreign parts erected Christ's Kirk at Birsay ; and how', having past three ^ score years and ten, Thorfinn died, leaving behind him the reputation of having been both the ablest and most powerful of all the Norse Jarls— fuller details will be found in the Saga. The following spirited verses from the pen of Sir Edmund Head, which appeared in Fraser s Magazine for January, 1868, describe Thorfinn's interview with his Suzerain, King Magnus : — " King Magnus sate at his midday meal, Where his fleet at anchor rode, When a stranger cross'd the royal deck And straight to tlie table strode. " He greeted the king ; he took the loaf That lay upon the board ; And broke and ate, as if of right, Whilst neither spoke a word. " King Magnus gazed ; as he wiped his beard, ' Wilt thou not drink ?' he said, And pass'd the cup : the stranger drank, And bow'd in thanks his head. " ' Thy name ? ' ' My name is Thorfinn, sir,' ' Earl Thorfinn, can it be ? ' He smiled — ' Well, yes ; men call me thus Beyond the western sea.' 1 If, ho\\ever, Thorfinn was only five years old in 1014, wlien his father was slain at Clontarf, he could only have been fifty-five years of age when he died in 1064. 33 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. " ' And is it so ? ' the King i-eplied ; ' I had resolved me well That if we two met — what pass'd when we met Thou shouldst not live to tell. " ' Together now we've broken bread, And thus my hand is stay'd ; But think thou not the score is quit, Though vengeance be delay 'd.' " It chanced as friends they drank one day — On the deck a Norseman stood ; ' Lord earl,' he said, ' from thee I claim The price of a brother's blood. " ' When Kirkwall-street was drench'd in gore, And the king's men slaughter'd lay. By thy command that brother died — Wilt thou his manbote pay ? ' " Loud iaugh'd the Earl — ' What ho ! thou fool, Thou must oft have heard it said, How Thorfinn scores of men hath slain, But manbote never paid.' " ' All this, lord earl, is nought to me ; 'Tis nought if our king sits by, Nor cares to avenge those men of his. Led out like sheep to die.' ' ' Then Thorfinn look'd again, and swore, ' By the rood, I know thee well — Why, I gave thee thy life in Kirkwall town. When all thy comrades fell. " ' My chance is hard — I have oft been blamed Too many that I slew. And now this evil hath come about Because I have slain too few.' " The King's brow flushed with wi-ath : ' Forsooth, It seemeth to vex thee sore That in thwarting my rights and slaying my men Thou hast not done still more.' " But now a fair breeze fills each sail. And pennons are floating free, As the long war-ships with their dragon heads Go cleaving the dark blue sea. THE NGKSE PERIOD. 33 " And aye to the west of the Norway fleet Earl Thorfiiin steers his bark ; Men saw her holding her course with them One night when the sky grew dark : " But wlien morning broke that bark was gone Far, far, o'er the western foam, Where Orkney breasts the waves, and where Earl Thorfinn sits in Kirkwall fair, Sole lord of his island home." Paul and Erlend, his sons, succeeded Thorfinn about llie year 1064, and accompanied Harald Hardradi on that EngHsh expedition, when, at Stamford Bridge, the English Harold provided the Norwegian monarch witli that seven feet of English soil he had promised him. Luckier than their sovereign, Paul and Erlend returned home in safety, where, until their families grew up, they lived together in amity ; Paul ruling on his brother's account as well as his own. Paul married a granddaughter of King Magnus the Good, by whom he had a son named Hakon, and several daughters, one of whom — Herbiorg — was the mother-in-law of Sigurd of Westness, and Kolbein Hriiga, of whom we shall hear again. Erlend married Thora, a descendant in the fourth generation of Hall of Side, one of the finest characters in the Saga of Burnt Njal, and had by her two sons, Erling and Magnus, and two daughters, one of whom was the mother of Rdgnvald Kol's son, the finest character in the whole of the Orkneyhiga Saga. When Hakon grew up he wanted to lord it over his cousins, on account of his royal descent on his mother's side. Magnus, as became a future saint, does not seem to have minded it, but Erling objected strongly ; and at last, for the sake of peace and quietness, Hakon was packed off on his travels, from W'hich he returned with his kinsman King Magnus Barelegs. The Norwegian monarch deposed Jarls Paul and Erlend, and substituted in their place his son Sigurd, "a hopeful boy" of some eight winters old. Having sent the deposed D 34 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Jarls to Norway, where they died in exile, and appointed guardians to Sigurd, Magnus Barelegs, as a further precautionary measure on his son's behalf, insisted on Hakon, Erhng, and Magnus accompanying him on his raiding expedition through the Irish Sea. In the course of this expedition, during the memorable engagement in the Menai Straits with Hugh the Stout, Earl of Chester, and Hugh the Bold, Earl of Salop, Magnus, Erlend's son, refused to fight, on the ground that he had no quarrel with their opponents ; but instead of going below, when ordered to do so, remained on deck chanting psalms. His conduct naturally irritated King Magnus, who, like many nineteenth-century people, probably looked upon con- scientious scruples as humbug, and made things so unpleasant for the future saint, that at last he deserted, and after spending some time with a Welsh Bishop, and in England, eventually made his way to the Scottish Court, where he remained as long as Magnus Barelegs was alive. On hearing of the death of Jarls Paul and Erlend, King Magnus married Kol to Gunnhild, Erlend's daughter, as a compensation for the loss of his father Kali, who had died in the Hebrides from wounds received in the fight in the Menai Straits. Erling was slain either at the Menai Straits, or else in the battle in Ulster (1103) where Magnus Barelegs perished. On his father's death, Sigurd left the Orkneys and became joint King of Norway with his brothers Ey stein and Olaf, who, a winter or so after their father's death, created Hakon Jarl of Orkney. Some years after Hakon had been created Jarl, INIagnus, his cousin, was also created Jarl by King Eystein. Magnus, \ve are told in the Saga, was a most excellent man. " He was of large stature, a man of noble presence and intel- lectual countenance. He was of blameless life, victorious in battle, wise, eloquent, strong-minded, liberal and magnanimous, sagacious in counsel, and more beloved than any other man. THE NORSE PERIOD. 35 To wise men and good he was gentle and afi'able in his conver- sation ; but severe and unsparing with robbers and vikings. Many of those who had plundered the landowners and the inhabitants of the land he caused to be put to death. He also seized murderers and thieves, and punished rich and poor impartially for robberies and thefts and all crimes. He was just in his judgments, and had more respect to divine justice than difference in the estates of men. He gave large presents to chiefs and rich men, yet the greatest share of his liberality was given to the i)Oor. In all things he strictly obeyed the Divine commands ; and he chastened his body in many things which in his glorious life were known to God, but hidden from men." The Saga then goes on to narrate how he married "a maiden of a most excellent family in Scotland," and lived with her after the fiishion of Edward the Confessor of pious memory. The cousins seem to have got along together very v/cll for some years, and we are told how they slew their third cousin, Dufnial, and also a famous Viking named Thorbiorn, in West Burra Fiord {Borgarfiord) in Shetland, where the remains of a broch are to be seen to the present day, which may have been used as the pirate's stronghold. Hakon after a time got jealous of his cousin's popularity, and at last their dissensions grew to such a pitch, that, mustering their forces, they were about to engage in conflict at the Thing- stead, when, mutual friends intervening, a peace was patched up between them for a time. Hdkon, however, had made up his mind that the joint ruler- ship should no longer exist, so arranged for a meeting with his cousin shortly after Easter on the little island of Egilsey. It was stipulated that each of them should bring only two ships and an equal body of men to the conference. Magnus, who kept to the stipulations, arrived first at the place of meeting, his boat, which he steered himself, having been pooped by a heavy sea in comparatively smooth water, an D 2 36 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. incident which he construed as a warning that his end was close at hand. Hakon, on the other hand, embarked a large force on board eight war-ships, and, on these vessels approaching Egilse}', Magnus in the first place retired to tlie church, where, after refusing the offer of his own men to stand by him to the last, he first heard mass, and then retreated to a hiding-place on another part of the island. From this hiding-place, however, he emerged on Hakon's landing, and suggested three alternative courses to his cousin, in order, we are told, to save him from the guilt of bloodshed and perjur)'. ist. To permit him, Magnus, to go to Rome or Jerusalem on his undertaking never to return. 2nd. To send him to Scotland, there to be detained in custody. 3rd. To throw him into a dungeon, blind or maim him, as Hakon thought best. The last was the proposal Hakon would have accepted, but his followers, who seem to have grown tired of the joint ruler- ship, insisted that one of them should die, whereupon, after Ofeig, Hakon's banner-bearer, had refused to act as executioner, Lifolf his cook was compelled to undertake the office. Jarl Magnus, according to the Romish Calendar, was slain on the 1 6th of April 1 1 10 ; but, according to Anderson, on the i6th of April 1 1 15. After his death his remains were permitted by Hakon to be interred in that Christ Kirk at Birsay which their grandfather, the great Jarl Thorfinn, had erected. Christ Kirk soon became a place of pilgrimage for people from all parts of the Orkneys and Shetland, and wonder- ful cures were said to have been effected there. Bishop William, the first Norse Bishop of the Orkneys, if not the very first Bishop, who seems to have been an eminently cautious politic prelate, refused for a long time to believe in the miracles said to have been worked, but at last even he seems to have been convinced somehow or another, and to have THE NORSE PERIOD. 37 permitted the remains to be transferred to Kirkwall, where they were probably deposited in the original church of St. Ola till the Cathedral was ready to receive them. Jarl Magnus was canonised in 1135, and at the Reformation, according to Baring- Gould, his relics were carried away to Aix-la-Chapelle and the Church of St. Vitus at Prague.^ Having, after the slaughter of his cousin, made his footing good throughout the Orkneys, Hakon, like his grandfather, went to Rome, and thence, probably as a penance imposed by the Holy Father, to the Holy Land, where he bathed in the river Jordan and brought away relics from Jerusalem, all which no doubt made him feel that he had fully atoned for the death of Magnus. On his return " he became so popular that the Orkney men desired no other ruler than Hakon and his issue." During Hakon's rule there lived at Dale {-Dal) in Caithness a certain nobleman named Maddan, v.'ho had two daughters, Helga and Frakork. By the former, to whom, however, he was not married, Hakon had a son named Harald Slettmali (smooth-talker), and two daughters, of whom one, Margaret, married Maddad, Earl of Athole. Hakon had also another son, named Paul, but by whom is not recorded. On Hakon's death his sons succeeded him, but there seems to have been no love lost between them from the first. Paul, who, by the way, was known as Umalgi (speechless), is described as a taciturn man, modest, generous, but not warlike, and was always attended by Thorkel Fostri, his foster-father. For some reason or another Thorkel was obnoxious to Harald, who at last, in conjunction with a certain Sigurd Slembir, who had come over with Harald's aunt, Frakork, slew him. For this murder Paul insisted on a manbote being paid to him, and on Sigurd Slembir and others being banished from 1 .See pai,'e 252, 38 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the islands.^ One of the conditions of the reconciUation thus hatched up was, that the brothers should always spend Christmas and the chief Church festivals together. Accordingly Paul was expected to spend one Christmas-tide with Harald at Orphir {Orfjara), and the latter, we are told, had made great preparations for his brother's entertainment. Helga and Frakork were then staying with Harald and had been busy making a highly embroidered shirt, which Harald, after taking a nap, laid hold of, and, being told that it was meant for his brother Paul, complained that they never made him such fine garments, and, in spite of their protestations, put it on. Shivering set in as soon as the garment touched his skin, and shortly after taking to his bed Harald died, and was succeeded, with the consent of the Bcendr, in the whole of his possessions by his brother. Paul, we are told, "considered that the splendid under- clothing which Earl Harald had put on had been intended for him, and therefore he did not like the sisters to stay in the Orkneys." Now Kali son of Kol and Gunnhild comes on the stage, the hero of the Orhieyinga Saga, whose life and doings occupy more than half of the whole Saga. He is described as having been of middle size, well pro- portioned, with light auburn hair, affable, popular, and highly accomplished, a great dandy, and, as a young man, thinking a great deal of himself In some verses, for the making of which he was celebrated, he thus described himself ! — • " At the game-board I am skilful ; Knowing in no less than nine arts ; Runic lore I well remember ; Books I like ; with tools I'm handy ; Expert am I on the snow-shoes, With the bow, and pull an oar well ; And, besides, I am an adept At the harp and making verses." ^ Sigurd Slembir's whole career seems to have been an extraordinary one, even iu those days of adventure. See Heimskringla, vol. iii. pp. 225 et scq. THE NORSE PERIOD. 39 Altogether, a good all-round character, and, as far as one can judge, a far more lovable personage than his sainted uncle, whose goodness, like that of Aristides, must have been somewhat overpowering to most people. In the description of Kali's earlier life we have a graphic account of a blood-feud between Jon Pe'trsson and Kali, which had arisen out of the slaughter of Havard, a companion of Kali, by one of Jon's followers. Jon, who also was a dandy, and Kali had been boon companions, and the quarrel which led to the first manslaughter took place in a drunken row, which arose one night after Kali and Jon had retired, between their followers. The matter was eventually settled by King Sigurd, whose award was, that Jon should marry Ingiri'd, Kali's sister, that the killed on each side should be set off against each other, and that each party should be bound to assist the other both at home and abroad. King Sigurd, at the same time, created Kali Earl or Jarl, and re-named him Rognvald, after Brusi's son, because his mother, Gunnhild, considered Rognvald had been the most accomplished of all the Orkney Jarls, and thought that the change of name would bring luck to her son. At the same time he granted him half of the Orkneys to hold conjointly with Jarl Paul. Sigurd died shortly after making the award, but, owing to the contest between his son Magnus and Harald Gillichrist, an illegitimate son of Magnus Barelegs, it was four years before Kali, now Rognvald, was able to attempt to make good his claims on the Orkneys. He, or rather his father Kol on his behalf, made overtures to Jarl Paul, and, negotiations failing, entered into an arrangement with Frakork and her son, Olvir Rosta, that they should make an attack on Jarl Paul from the south, whilst Rognvald invaded the Orkneys from the north, and that in case of success Frakork and her son should be entitled to half of the island. Both schemes failed ; Paul first of all defeated Olvir Rosta off Tankerness, and then, having captured five of his vessels, proceeded at once to Shetland, where he caught Rognvald napping, and, seizing his ships, declined Rognvald's proposal 40 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. that they should have it out on shore. Rognvald and his followers, therefore, were compelled to find their way back to Norway, with their combs cut, in merchant vessels ; and Paul, as a precautionary measure, established a beacon on Fair Isle {Fridarey), which should be lighted on the approach of a hostile force from Shetland {Bjaltland), and other beacons on North Ronaldsay {Rinaiist-y) ahd others of the Orkneys. CHAPTER IV. I'HE NORSE PERIOD. The Norse Juris — {continued). SvvEiN, the Viking, and, after Rognvald Kol's son and the great Jarl Thorfinn, the most prominent figure in the whole Saga, now appears on the scene. His father Olaf was a man of mark and means, being greatly esteemed by Jarl Paul and owning Gairsay [Gareksey), Stroma {Straumsey), and an estate at Duncansbay {Dungalshce) in Caithness. He had invited a number of friends to spend Christmas with him in Caithness, when he was burnt in his house three days before that festival by Olvir Rosta. Swein, from being at the time sea-fishing, and his mother Asleif and his brother, Gunni, from being away visiting friends, escaped the fate which no doubt Olvir Rosta intended for them as well. Jarl Paul had also invited his friends to come and spend the Yule-tide with him at Orphir, and amongst them Valthiof, another son of Olaf, who resided on Stroma. Swein, hence- forth known as Asleif's son, on learning his father's fate, at once proceeded to Orphir to inform Jarl Paul, and was asked to stay with him. Here we get a vivid picture of the curious mixture of devo- tion, drinking, and bloodshed, the life of these Orcadian 42 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Norsemen must at this period have been. Close to Jarl Paul's drinking or banqueting hall was, we are told, a magnificent church, probably erected by Jarl Hakon on his return from the Holy Land, of which church a small portion is still standing close to the present parish church. After attending evensong the banquet took place, at which Swein Asleif 's son was placed on one side of the Jarl, and Swein Briostreip, Paul's forecastleman, who had greatly dis- tinguished himself in the fight with Olvir Rosta off Tankerness, sat on the other. Whilst the tables were being removed, or, as we should have said a few years back, the cloth was being taken oft", the loss of Valthiof, Swein Asleif 's son's brother (who had been drowned when on his way to Orphir on Christmas-eve some- where in the West Firth, probably in the Swelkie, a dangerous rost between Stroma and Cantick Head), was announced to Paul, who, however, ordered that no one should inform his brother of it till after the festival, as he had quite trouble enough to think about already. At midnight, after high mass, they all sat down to another meal, at which Swein Briostreip quarrelled with his namesake for not drinking fair. After drinking for a while they all adjourned for nones service, and, on return from church, the heavy drinking out of horns set in, and Swein Briostreip, evidently altogether a bad lot, being quarrelsome over his drink, was overheard to say, " Swein will be the death of Swein, and Swein shall be the death of Swein." This was repeated to the other Swein, who resolved to take the initiative, and, the drinking going on all day, slew Swein Briostreip about evensong, as he was walking out of the house. Swein Asleif's son, who hereafter will be referred to simply as Swein, fled to his kinsman, Bishop William, at Egilsey, who thanked him for the slaughter of Swein Briostreip, who, being given to consulting the stars and using other magical rites, was probably, as Anderson suggests, in bad odour with the cloth. By the Bishop Swein was smuggled off" to Tiree THE NORSE PERIOD 43 in the Hebrides, and for this murder was outlawed by Jarl Paul. Rognvald the meanwhile had been making preparations for another attempt on the Orkneys, and, by the advice of Kol his father, vowed, if successful, to erect " a stone minster at Kirkwall " {Kirkiiivag), and dedicate it to his uncle Jarl Magnus the Holy. The great thing to be done was to make the descent on the Orkneys before Paul had time to collect his forces, and the system of beacon signals, which had been established, had for this purpose to be neutralised. Uni, therefore, who "was a wise man," and had been one of the actors in Petrsson feud, Avas consulted, but refused at first to state what course he should advise. Kol, however, collecting a fleet of small boats together in Shetland, made a feint in Sumburgh Roost, stopping the way of his boats, which were under sail, with the oars. His ruse succeeded, and all the beacons were lighted and Paul collected his forces to resist the supposed threatened attack. Uni now went to Fair Isle in the guise of a Norwegian, who had been robbed by Rognvald's men, and, after gaining the confidence of the inhabitants, rendered the beacon useless by pouring water on it, and thus enabled Rognvald to land unexpectedly at Pierowall in Westray. Thanks to Bishop William's intervention, it was at length decided that Jarl Rognvald should reside on the Mainland [Hrossey), and Jarl Paul at Rousay [Hrblfsey). Swein in the meantime had been burning Thorkel Flettir, to whom Jarl Paul had assigned Stroma during his (Swein's) banishment, in his house at Stroma, and then proceeded to offer his services to Jarl Rognvald, which were accepted. After leaving Tiree, where he had spent the winter, Swein had stopped some time with Maddad, Earl of Athole, who had married Margaret, Hakon's daughter, and afterwards proceeded to Thurso {T/wrsey), where he stayed with Earl Ottar, Frakork's brother, to whom he promised to aid Erlend, Harald 44 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Slettmali's son, whenever he wished to claim his patrimony in the Orkneys. Probably the burning of Thorkel Flettir and the visit to Earl Rognvald occurred about this time, as the two statements read somewhat at ^•ariance with each other in the Saga. Swein now resolved to carry out a plot, the idea of which he had probably conceived when staying with Earl Maddad. Crossing the Pentland Firth in a barge manned by thirty men, he coasted along the west side of the Mainland till he came to Rousay, where Jarl Paul was then stopping with Sigurd of Westness. Paul was with some men hunting otters in a stone heap on . the south side of the island, when Swein's barge came in sight, and after a smart fight, in which Paul's party lost nineteen men, Paul was seized, borne on board Swein's vessel and conveyed straight to Earl Maddad. Here Paul disappears from view. Whether he was- blinded by Swein at the instigation of his sister Margaret and was subsequently put to death, also through her instrumentality, is not known for certain ; anyhow he never returned to the Orkneys. The glinipses we get of Jarl Paul show us a man far beyond his contemporaries in uprightness, and one who preferred straight courses to crooked ways. Sigurd of Westness, too, is another cf the few truly upright men whom we meet with in the Saga, and, till Paul's fate was finally known, he refused to swear fealty to Jarl Rognvald. Swein appeared suddenly at a Thing meeting held at Kirk- wall, and through the intercession of Bishop William was received into the favour of Rognvald, and became '' his man." Rognvald, being now {circa 1137 or 38) estabhshed firmly in the Orkneys, proceeded to carry out his vow by commencing the erection of St. Magnus Cathedral, the superintendence of the work of which Kol his father was intrusted with, if he was not the actual architect. In order to raise money, Rognvald passed a law by which all Odal property should be considered as inherited by the Jarls, but that the heirs should be able to THE NORSE PER WD. 45 redeem their estates. This not being palatable to the Boendr, Rognvald proposed to them that they should purchase up at once any future claims on their estates, and by this means he obtained ample funds for his building. Some two years after Rognvald had been in possession of the islands, Bishop Jon arrived from Athole to negotiate an arrangement about the claims of Harald Maddad's son, through his mother Margare't, and it was settled that he should be entitled to half the Orkneys, but that Jarl Rognvald was to have supreme rule, even when Harald grew up. Harald, who at this time must have been about five or six years old, was brought to the islands byThorbiorn Klerk, a grandson of Frakork, who had married Ingirid, a sister of Swein Asleifs son, and, we are told, the brothers-in-law were warm friends. This friendship, however, did not prevent Swein taking ven- geance on Olvir Rosta and his fiend of a mother for the burning of his father Olaf at Duncansby. Olvir Rosta escaped, but Swein had the satisfaction of burning his mother Frakork alive in her own house, somewhere in the Strath of Helmsdale. According to the mythological ^ history of the Lewis, Olvir Rosta appears to have escaped to that western island of the Hebrides and become the ancestor of the Macaulays, and therefore of the present Chief Secretary for Ireland, and his cousin the Under-Secretary, who, by the way, is a Shetlander by birth, being a son of the late minister of Bressay, Dr. Hamilton. Having cleared off this score, Swein sailed for the Irish Sea, and remained there raiding and burning, as was his wont, for some time. Thorbiorn Klerk, during Swein's absence in the south-west, had been avenging his grandmother's death by slaying some of his (Swein's) followers, who had assisted at her cremation, which caused a coolness between the brothers-in-law for a time ; but, on Jarl Rognvald intervening, they became again, as they were before, almost inseparable. Having made up their little differences, they proceeded to the Hebrides, to take vengeance for some treachery done to Swein ^ Proc. Scot. A III. vol. xiv. p. 31S. 46 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. by a kindred spirit to themselves, named Hdlbodi, formerly a friend of Swein. Holbodi they did not catch, bat they obtained great booty, about the division of which they quarrelled, as Swein wanted a larger share as leader. Though the thieves fell out, it does not appear that honest men got their own again — perhaps there were no honest men knocking about there — ^judging from the samples of humanity the Saga shows us, they must have been uncommonly scarce. By way of showing his spite to Swein, Thorbiorn divorced himself from Ingiri'd, and sent her back to him in Caithness. Whilst Swein had been in the Hebrides he had left a friend named Margad to look after his affairs in Caithness, who, on Swein's return, murdered a man named Hroald at Wick ( F/X'), after which he took refuge with Swein at Lambaborg, which Anderson identifies with a castle called BuchoUy near Freswick, and from here they ravaged the surrounding country, till besieged by Jarl Rognvald. On being summoned to deliver up Margad, Swein refused, although he declared he would willingly be on good terms with the Jarl. When nearly starved out, Swein had himself and Margad lowered down into the sea from the top of the cliff on which the castle stood, and made his escape to Morayshire, where they found an Orkney vessel, in which they plundered the monastery on the Isle of May. From May Swein went to David, King of Scotland, at Edinburgh, to whom he made a clean breast • of everything, including his last little episode of sacrilege, and requested David's good offices with Jarl Rognvald. .There must have been something very taking about Swein after all, unmitigated rufiian as he appears to modern eyes, as David, instead of hanging him straightway as most monarchs would have done, made good all their losses to the men whom Swein had robbed, and got him reconciled to Jarl Rognvald. Iri the year 1150 Jarls Rognvald andHarald, the latter being then, the Saga says, nineteen years of age, went over to Norway THE NORSE PERIOD. 47 on the invitation of King Ingi, one of the two joint monarchs of Norway at that date, sons of Harald GiUichrist, who had been one of the earUest friends of Rognvald. Whilst staying with King Ingi, a certain Eindridi Ungi, who had that year returned from Constantinople, having, as Anderson conjectures, been probably one of the Varangian bodyguard of the Greek emperor, sug- gested to Rognvald that to give himself special renown he should make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. After spending two winters in making preparations and inducing Bishop William to accompany him, Rognvald sailed for the Holy Land, leaving Harald in supreme command during his absence. Of the details of that pilgrimage — made, not in ordinary palmer fashion with staff in hand and sandal on foot, but with sword girt on thigh and helm on head — -how they arrived at the court of Ermingerd, and Rognvald, as was his wont, went making verses ; how they captured the castle in Gallicia, which Bishop William would not permit them to assault during Yule- tide, and Rognvald made more rhymes ; how they captured the Drdmund, or Saracen privateer, when the Jarl made still more verses ; how they visited Jerusalem, bathed in Jordan, where yet again the rhyming faculty came out strong ; how they went to Constantinople, where they found Eindridi Ungi, who had deserted them at Gibraltar ; how Jarl Rognvald, Bishop William, and others rode from Apulia in Italy to Denmark, and thence made their way home, via Norway, full details are given in the Saga. The story of Rognvald's Jorsala-faring is the cameo of the whole Saga, and gives a curious picture of the mixture of piety and plundering which animated the best of the Norsemen of that day. Whilst Rognvald was travelling in foreign parts, stirring events were taking place in the dominions he had left under the rule of Harald. The very summer, 1152, he sailed. King Eystein came westward wath a large army, and, surprising Harald at Thurso, compelled him to become " his man," a compact which was confirmed by the usual oaths intended to be kept by each side as long as was convenient and no longer. 48 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. From thence King Eystein proceeded southwards, plunder- ing both in Scotland and England, " considering," so far as his English raid was concerned, " that he was taking revenge for King Harald Sigurd's son," who had been slain at Stamford Bridge eighty-six years previously. Maddad, Earl of Athole, was now dead, and his widow, Margaret, was living in Orkney with Gunni, brother of Swein Asleifs son, by whom she had several children. The Saga describes her as "a handsome woman, but a virago." Erlend, the son of Harald Slettmali, had been living, since his grandmother and great-aunt had been banished from the Orkneys by his uncle Jarl Paul, at first with his aunt Frakork and afterwards with her brother Earl Ottar, at Thurso. He is described as "a very promising man, and accomplished in most things, liberal in money, gentle, open to advice, and greatly loved by his men." Having been created Earl of Caithness by Malcolm, King of Scots, Erlend, after negotiations with Jarl Harald, which seem, however, to have come to nothing, finally took possession of all the islands, with the assent of the Boendr,^ which Swein seems to have obtained for him on the understanding that Jarl Rognvald, on his return, should be allowed to claim a half. Erlend, having settled himself in the Orkneys, another Erlend, and distinguished from him as Erlend Ungi or Erlend the Younger, appears to have proceeded to court Margare't, Harald's mother, or she to entrap hirn, which is quite as likely. Harald, however, objected to the alliance, so the somewhat ancient Delilah fled with her new lover to Mousa, a small island on the south-east side of the Mainland of Shetland, to which place they were followed by Harald, who besieged them in the broch, which is still standing, and after a time permitted the marriage to be solemnised. Circa 115 5. Jarl Rognvald had now returned from his pilgrimage via Norway to the Orkneys, when he and Erlend ^ Plural of BSndi, "dweller" or "resident," and used in place of Odallers or^ Freeholders. THE NORSE PERIOD. 49 came to terms and made an alliance against Earl Harald, which was, as usual, confirmed with oaths. However, the Rognvald-Erlend alliance was not of long standing, as, on Harald turning up at Thurso, he and Rognvald did some more swearing, and proceeded to attack Erlend. After divers skirmishes and alarms, as they say in the old jjlays, Rognvald and Harald eventually surprised Erlend about live nights before Christmas, and slew him on the island of Damsay. Erlend, having been keeping up the season, was so drunk, that, we are told, he had to be lifted into the boat when his followers tried to escape. Swein was now nominally reconciled to Jarls Rognvald and Harald, for the former, pirate and marauder as Swein was, he seems to have had a sincere regard, but with Harald he was, for some years, constantly at feud, and in place of there being only two Jarls, there were practically three, the third Swein apparently considering himself at liberty to rob and slay anywhere. Every summer, we are told, Rognvald and Harald were in the habit of crossing over to Caithness " to hunt the red-deer or the reindeer," a passage which, taken in conjunction with the fact of horns of reindeer having been found in the brochs of the north of Scotland, shows that reindeer still existed in that district at this period. During one of these hunting excursions Jarl Rognvald was slain at Calder in Caithness by Thorbiorn Klerk, the worthy grandson of the fiend Frakork. And so died in 1158 Jarl Rognvald, the brightest, and, take him all round, the best of those Norse Jarls whose reign over the Orkneys was now draw- ing to a close ; though why he should have been canonised in 1 1 98, unless it was for building St. Magnus, is somewhat of an enigma. Harald was inclined to let Thorbiorn Klerk off, both on the ground of his having acted as his tutor and foster-father, and also on the score of relationship, but Magnus Gunni's son (not Gunni Swein's brother), the noblest of Harald' s followers, told him that if he did so, he (Harald) would be charged with having E 50 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. plotted Rognvald's death. As Harald still hung back, Magnus proceeded to burn the miscreant out of some buildings in which he had taken refuge, and on his attempting to escape slew him and all his followers. The murder took place somewhere about the Loch of Calder, and, after Thorbiorn had been duly accounted for, Magnus took the corpse of the murdered Jarl to Forss and thence to Thurso. From Thurso the remains of Rhyming Rognvald were transported in state to Kirkwall, where, as was fitting, they were interred in that Cathedral which he had erected, and which to this day forms his sole monument in the Orkneys or Shetland, as, strange to say, not a single church appears to have been dedicated to his memory. Swein, after Rognvald's death, kept on his old courses, spending the winter, late summer, and early autumn on his property at Gairsay, where he had erected the largest drinking hall in the islands and kept some eighty kindred spirits, who, when non-resident, accompanied him on his freebooting forays. Swein's " little game " was thus described by Ein'k the Icelander : — " Half-a-dozen homesteads burning, Haifa-dozen households plundered : This was Swein's work of a morning — This his vengeance ; coals he lent them " Jarl Harald warned him that the pitcher would go once too often to the well, but Swein would have one more autumn expedition, after which he intended no doubt to live cleanly and " make his soul," as the Irish say. However, this autumn's foray was destined to prove the truth of Harald's prediction, and Swein was slain in the streets of Dublin, saying with his last breath — " Know all men, whether I die to-day or not, that I am the holy Earl Rognvald's henchman, and my confidence is where he is with God." Like that of Rob Roy, Swein's epitaph should be " ower bad for blessing, ower good for banning." Rognvald's daughter and only child Ingigerd had married THE NORSE PERIOD. 51 one Eiri'k Slagbrellir, and had three sons and three daughters. Harald Ungi, the eldest of the sons, when he grew up was granted half the islands by Magnus Erling's son, then King of Norway, and half of the earldom of Caithness by William the Lion, King of Scotland. Jarl Harald the Elder, as might have been expected, refused to recognise his namesake's claims, and the two Jarls at length met in battle somewhere near Thurso, in Caithness, where the younger Harald fell. Innumerable miracles, according to the Saga^ testified to the sanctity of the ground on which the combat took place, and a church was afterwards erected on the spot where he fell. Miracle-working seems to have been hereditary in this family. To avenge the younger Harald' s death and the occupation of Caithness by the elder one without his leave or license, William the Lion ordered Rognvald, the King of the Hebrides, to seize and occupy Caithness, which he did for some time, and, on his departure, left three stewards or syshanemi to manage the affairs of the district, one of whom was murdered by a follower of Harald. Bishop Jon, who was then Bishop of Caithness, had refused to allow the collection in his diocese of the Peter's pence, which Jarl Harald had granted to the Holy See ; so when, on Harald's landing in Caithness, the bishop attempted to act the peace-maker between the Jarl and the Caithnessmen, his inter- vention only made Harald more furious, who stormed the borg in which the bishop had taken refuge, and, having slain most of the garrison, caused the bishop to be blinded and his tongue cut out. Jon, however, on praying to St. Tredwell, the occulist among saints, recovered both his sight and speech. For this outrage Harald was compelled by King William — who is said to have previously blinded and otherwise horribly mutilated Harald's son, Thorfinn — to pay a fine amounting to 2,000 marks of silver. Whilst thus involved with his Scottish Suzerain, Harald had also been mixed up in the conspiracy of the Eyjarskeggjar E 2 52 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. against his other lord paramount, Sverrir, King of Norway, and for his complicity in this rebellion was in 1195 deprived of the lordship of Shetland, which remained severed from the Jarldom of Orkney till it was granted to Henry St. Clair in 1379 by King Hakon Magnus' son. Harald died, according to Anderson, in the year 1206, and was succeeded by his sons Jon and David. Harald, says the Saga^ was one of the three greatest of the Orcadian Jarls, the other two being Sigurd the first Jarl, and the great Jarl Thorfinn. In conjuction with Jarl Rognvald he had ruled for twenty years, and, after Rognvald's murder, for forty-eight years longer he ruled alone. David, his son, died in the year 12 14, and after his death his brother Jon became Jarl of all the Orkneys. As was the case with his father Harald, Jon found himself in trouble with his Scottish and Norwegian Suzerains. Bishop Jon, who had survived his mutilation eleven years, was succeeded in the see of Caithness by Adam, Abbot of Melrose, who oppressed his flock in the most unblushing manner, till, goaded to madness by his exactions, they burnt him to death in his own kitchen at Halkirk {Hd Kirkia), up the valley of the Thurso. This tragedy is thus quaintly described ^ by Wyntoun : — " Thre hundyre men in company Gaddyrt on hym suddanly, Tuk liym owt quhare that he lay Of his chawmyre befor day, Modyr naked hys body bare ; Thai band hym, dang hym, and woundyt sair, Into the nycht or day couth dawe. The monk thai slwe thare. hys falaw e, And the child that in his chawmyr lay, Tliare thai slwe hym before day. Hymself bwndyn and wowndyt syne Thai pwt hym in hys awyn kychyne, In thair felny and thare ire Thare thai brynt him in a fyre." ^ Ork, Sag. Introduction, p, xliv THE NORSE PERIOD. 53 For the bishop's murder Alexander II. of Scotland exacted a fearful retribution, causing the feet and hands to be hewn from eighty men who had been present at the tragedy. Jarl Jon, who had refused to intervene between the bishop and his flock, was heavily fined by Alexander, for his apathy, if it were nothing worse. No sooner was this matter settled than he was suspected by his Norwegian sovereign of com- plicity in the rebellious designs of Jarl Skule, and to clear himself was compelled to go to Bergen, where, on his return to the Orkneys, he left his only son Harald as a hostage for his future good behaviour, who was drowned at sea in 1226, probably, as Anderson suggests, on his voyage home. King Hakon appears to have appointed one Hanef Ungi as his resident or commissioner in the Orkneys, to see that Jon for the future kept clear of all treasonable proceedings. With Hanef, SnaekoU Gunni's son, a grandson of Jarl Rogn- vald, and one Aulver lUteit, Jon quarrelled in 1231, and was slain by them in the cellar of the inn in which he was staying at Thurso. His murderers fled to Kolbein Hriiga's Castle, in Veira or Wyre, the grass-grown remains of which are known to the present day as Cobbe Row's Castle, where they were besieged by Jon's partisans, till both sides agreed to refer the matter to King Hakon, who executed Aulver lUteit and others and imprisoned Hanef and SnaekoU. The greater number of the leading men in the Orkneys went over to Norway for this trial, and were all lost at sea on their voyage home. With Jon's death the line of the Norse Jarls, and the principle of Odal Right, so far as the Jarldom of the Orkneys was concerned, came to an end together, as in none of the succeeding lines do we find any instance of the Jarldom being held by more than one person at a time. CHAPTER V. THE NORSE PERIOD — (continued). The Earldom in the Angus line, 1231 — 1321. With the Norse Jarls the romantic and, as some people would say, the heroic era of Orcadian history came to an end, and the glimpses we afterwards get of the islands are few and far between, till they passed under the sway of the Scottish Crown more than two centuries later on. Of Shetland, even under the Norse Jarls, we have very few notices, and for the last two centuries of Norwegian rule we have fewer still. The materials for the better elucidation of the history of both groups, and especially of the northern one, which from 1195 to 1379 was, with the Faroes, directly administered by the Norwegian monarchs, are probably lying in the archives at Bergen. On the death of Jon, Magnus, a son of Gilbride Earl of Angus, and whose mother was either sister or daughter of the last of the Norse Jarls, was created Earl of Caithness by Alexander II. of Scotland, who, however, granted what is now known as Sutherland, and which hitherto had formed part of the Earldom of Caithness, to William Freskyn. Magnus, who seems to have been either created or allowed to assume the title of Earl of Orkney by the King of Norway, is, according to the Icelandic Annals, said to have died in THE NORSE PERIOD. 55 1239, and was succeeded by one Gilbride, but whether his father, his brother, or his son, does not appear. Gilbride, who died in 1256, was succeeded by his son Magnus, who accom- l)anied King Hakon, in 1263, on that iU-starred expedition when the Norsemen went out to shear and came back shorn, and the Viking expeditions on British soil and in British seas were for ever put an end to by the bloody defeat at Largs. Sick, sad, and weary, Hakon, with what remnants of his fleet the Scots and the elements had spared to him, returned to the Orkneys, where, having laid up his long ships in Midland Harbour (now Smoogra Bay) and Scapa Bay, he rode into Kirkwall, and taking to his bed in the bishop's palace, departed on the 15th of December, 1263, to join his Viking ancestors in the halls of Valhalla. After temporary interment in St. Magnus Cathedral, the remains of the Norwegian monarch were conveyed in the March following on board his own war-ship to Bergen. Hakon was succeeded by his son Magnus the Seventh, who, learning wisdom from the result of his father's fatal expedition, by a treaty' entered into at Perth, in the year 1266, between liimself and Alexander the Third of Scotland, yielded up to the Scottish crown the Isle of Man, and all other islands in the western and southern portion of the great "haff," to- gether with all right of patronage to the See of Man free from all jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Nidaros in Norway, " exceptis insulis Orcadie et Yhetlandie quas idem rex Norwagie cum dominiis homagiis et redditibus serviciis et omnibus juribus et pertinenciis suis infra easdem contiguis dominio suo specialiter reseruauit," in consideration of an annual payment of "centum marcas bonorum et legalium sterlingorum secundum modum et usum curie Romane ac regnorum Francie Anglee et Scocie " in the Church of St. Magnus in Orkney, into the hands of the Bishop of Orkney, or of the representative, specially deputed for that pur])ose, of the King of Norway ; and if neither bishop nor special agent, then into the hands of the ^ Peterkin's Rentals, Appendix, p. 2. 55 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND, canons of that church. Magnus, Earl of Orkney, died some- where about 1273, and was succeeded by his son of the same name, who, dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother John in 12S4. Here we come to an episode in Norwegian history, which, like the Perkin Warbeck incident in England and that of the lost Dauphin in France, showed the power and extent of popular credulity. Ein'k the Priest Hater, who succeeded Magnus the Fourth as King of Norway, married, in the year 1 28 1, Margaret, daughter of Alexander the Third of Scotland. Of this marriage the only issue was Margaret, " the Maid of Norway," who, through her mother being heiress to the Scotch crown, was betrothed to Edward of England, son of the greatest of the Plantagenets. " The Maid" was, in the year 1290, despatched to Scotland, but died at sea either in the month of September or October. It was for a long while believed that she had been buried in St. Magnus Cathedral, but it has been proved ^ in recent years that the body was not even temporarily interred there, but was carried straight back to Bergen, where Eirik had the coffin opened, to satisfy himself as to the identity of the corpse before it was deposited in the choir of Christ Church, where likewise the remains of Hakon the Unfortunate had been laid. Ein'k the Priest Hater, died about the year 1290, and was succeeded by his brother Hakon the Seventh, shortly after whose succession a woman appeared in Bergen and an- nounced that she was the Maid of Norway, and that she had been " sold " by her attendant, one Ingibiorg Erlingsdatter. The whole story was improbable, and in 1301 she paid the penalty for her imposture by being burnt at Nordness. The populace, however, looked upon her as a martyr, and the pilgrimages to the place of her execution had to be put down with the strong hand. John Earl of Orkney died somewhere about 13 10, and was succeeded by his son Magnus, who \vas one of the ^ Troc. Scot. Ant. vol. x. p. 418. THE NORSE PEJUOn. 57 ninety-nine Scottish nobles who in the year 1320 signed the letter to the Pope asserting the independence of the Scottish Crown. Magnus, including the Saint, the fifth of that name who had been Earls of Orkney, is supposed to have died in 132 1, and with him the Angus line of the Earls of Orkney came to an end. The Ear/doi/i in the Strathcrne line, 1321- — 1379. A good deal of obscurity has for a long while lain over this ]jeriod of Orcadian history, from the fact, in a great measure, of no less than four Earls of Stratherne having successively borne the name of Malise. From some " Notes ^ on the Earldom of Caithness," read by Dn Skene, the well-known historian, at a meeting of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries in 1878, we find that, in all probability, MaUse, fourth Earl of Stratherne, was created Earl of Orkney in right of his mother, though how she was connected with the previous Earls of Orkney of the Angus line does not appear. Earl Malise, who appears to have been twice married, had several daughters, one . of whom, Agneta, left a ^on named Erngils Suneson, who, in 1353, Earl Malise having died, it is beheved, about 1350, was created Earl of Orkney. Erngils, however, did not long enjoy the Earldom, _as all his rights thereto and in connection there- with were sequestered by King Magnus in 1357, after which the Earldom seems to have remained in abeyance till the St. Clairs first come on the scene. The Earldom in the St. Clair line., i379 — 1468. In the year 1379 Henry St. Clair of Roslin and a certain ]^Ialise Sperra, both apparently through their mothers, daughters of Earl Malise, laid claim to the Earldom of Orkney, in which contest Henry St. Clair was successful, and was invested not only with the Earldom of Orkney, but also ^ Proc. Scot. Ant. vol. xii. p. 471-76. 58 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the Lordship of Shetland, which had been severed from the Earldom in the time of Harald Maddad's son. The first act of the newly created Earl was, in defiance of the prohibition against building places of strength in the islands which King Hakon had imposed on him, to erect the castle of Kirkwall, the last relics of which were only swept away a few years since. About this time (1382) William, the fourth Bishop of Orkney of that name, was either slain or burnt by his flock. Malise Sperra seems to have endeavoured to establish himself in Shetland, and in a quarrel which arose between the cousins at a Thing meeting in the year 1389, was slain ; when the standing stone of grey granite close to the roadside between the Lochs of Tingwall and Asta was probably erected to mark the spot where he fell. Earl Henry is supposed to have died about 1400, and was succeeded by his son Henry, who was sent in charge of James the First, the Poet King of Scotland, on that unfortunate voyage to France for James's education, when they were captured on the 13th November, 1405, off Flam- borough Head. On the death- of Henry, the second Earl of that name, in 141 8, his son William seems to have been a minor, and the islands were first administered by the Bishop, Thomas TuUoch, then by David Menzies of Weem, and again by the Bishop, till in 1434 Earl William was formally invested. Menzies was the forerunner of those greedy gripping Scotch donatories, who looked upon the islands as a milch cow, to be squeezed for their own special benefit, and a long string of charges was brought by the natives whom he had oppressed before King Eirik. A copy of these charges will be found by the curious in Balfour's Oppi-essions. The connection of the later Earls with Scotland led to a great influx of Scotchmen into the Isles, and the dislike, almost amounting to hatred at times, of the "ferry louping " strangers, was probably first engendered about this period. That the Orcadians were being Scotticised before the transfer of the islands in 1468 is shown by a deed ' of gift in English or Scotch, made on the 6th day 1 Orkney, Deeds relating to, p. iii. THE NORSE PERIOD. 59 of June, in the year 1433, by one ''Duncan off Law," of a house in Kirkwall to one " Donalde Gierke," as a marriage portion with Jonet Law, sister of the donor. We have seen how Swein and his like used to ravage the AVestern Isles, and the sins of the fathers were now being visited on tlie children, and, in the years 1460 and 1461, complaints were made to King Christian I. of the raids during the summer season of John of Ross Lord of the Isles, and his bands of Islemen, Irish, and Scots from the woods, who wasted the lands, plundered the farms, destroyed habitations, and put the in- habitants to the sword without regard to age or sex. Traditions about these raids still survive in Westray in the Orkneys, and in Dunrossness on the Mainland of Shetland, and in Foula 3 and in the last-named island ^ the Lewismen, as these raiders were always termed by the natives, are said to have cut and burnt down the trees to prevent their being used as a place of refuge for the inhabitants. The annual tribute of a hundred marks, payable in respect of the Hebrides, and known as the " Annual of Norway," had now been unpaid for many years, and the arrears, with the fines for non-punctual payment, amounted to a lar-ge sum, and after fruitless negotiations between Christian the First, King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and James the Second of Scotland, for the settlement of the matter, it was agreed to refer the questions in dispute to Charles the Seventh of France, who recommended the marriage of Margaret, Chris- tian's daughter, to the son and heir of James. The death of the last-named monarch at the siege of Roxburgh for a time put an end to the negotiations, and it was not until the 8th of September, 1468, that the contract- of marriage between Margaret and James the Third was signed. By this contract, in return for the dowry settled by the Scottish monarch. Christian relin- quished all claims, both past and prospective, in respect of the Annual of Norway, pledged the Orkneys for the sum of ^ Low's Tour, p. 103. - Peterkin's Rentals, Appendix, pp. 7-14. 6o THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. 50,000 florins of the Rhine, and agreed to pay a further sum of ] 0,000 florins before the departure of Margaret to Scotland. Before that event took place Christian, however, powerful monarch as he was, could only find 2,000 out of the stipulated 10,000 florins, and for the balance of 8,000 pledged Shetland on similar terms to those on which the Orkneys had already been mortgaged. That the transaction was originally, what it was said to be, merely a temporary pledging, is shown by all the attendant circumstances, and even as late as 1668 the right of redemption was said by the Plenipotentiaries assembled at Breda not only not to have been barred by prescription, but to be imprescribable. A few years back one would have said that the idea of Britain handing over or back the Orkneys and Shetland, to whichever of the three Scandinavian powers the right of redemp- tion may now belong, was the dream of an idiot, but in these days of the awakening of the national conscience it is hard to tell what may happen. Whether the most ardent of the Philo-Scandinavians amongst the Orcadians and Shetlanders would care to sever their connection with the British Crown and become the inhabitants of far-ofT dependencies of some second-rate European power, is, however, somewhat doubtful. CHAPTER VI. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. "Six centuries of Odal sub-division had minutely inter- mingled the lands, rights, and privileges of every Townland. At each succession the Odalsjord was shared among the Odal- born, male and female — the Jarl claimed for himself or for the crown all lands forfeited and unredeemed, and seized as idtvnus hceres every inheritance lapsed or unclaimed — the Bishop asserted the Church's right to the gifts of the pious, a share of the forfeits of the guilty, the teinds of all, and the corban perpetuity of every indulgence once permitted to a Churchman- — and Scottish settlers claimed Odal lands and Odal rights by descent, affinity, or purchase. Thus the Odals- jords and their vague and customary pertinents were mixed in alternate patches, ridges, or furrows, not only with other Odals, but with the claims of Jarl, Bishop, or settler, as, undefined, but more arbitrarily expansive. Even before the Odallers' final change of masters, two centuries of such foreign and native influence had prepared the way for such a revolution, by modifying his privileges, altering his customs, and effacing much even of his own memory of their origin and traditions. But his spirit was still unbroken, he was still a Thingman, his order was still that of the Gofugar and Goedingar of the Sagas, the proceres commtinitatis, whose wealth and influence pointed them out as marks of the oppressor. Their Odal lands, 62 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. ' pertinents, and immunities, were still the field whence lawless ])Ower could reap a golden harvest, and more than a century of Scottish oppression was still required to level the Peasant Noble of Orkney with the Tacksman or Husbandman of the Earldom or Bishopric." ' Such is the graphic picture Balfour gives of the state of the Orkneys when they passed from under the Danebrog to beneath the folds of the white cross standard of Scotland. How matters Avould have worked out had the islands been left to shape their own destinies by the ordinary course of natural laws may be doubtful, but that sooner or later a social cataclysm of some sort must have upset the existing state of society is evident. James HI., however, was clearly determined from the first, that he would not have another vassal, who at any moment might become a source of danger to his kingdom; and as William, Earl of Orkney, who had been created Earl of Caithness by James II. in 1455, was anxious to have the right of succession to that title taken from his eldest son William, by his first marriage with Lady Margaret Douglas daughter of Archibald fourth Earl of Douglas, and re-granted to his son William by his second marriage with Marjory daughter of Alexander Sutherland of Dunbeath, he readily yielded up all his rights in and to the earldom of Orkney in exchange for a grant of the lands and castle of Ravenscraig in Fifeshire, a pension of fifty marks, and an alteration of the right to the succession of the Caithness earldom in accordance with his wish. His eldest and disinherited son William, succeeded to the castle and lands of Ravenscraig, and in 1489 /lis son Henry was created,- as being "chieff of yat blude," Baron Sinclair, the thirteenth holder of which title is now the representative, through Catherine daughter of John, seventh baron, of "the lordly line of high St. Clair." As soon as the exchange was effected the earldom of Orkney and lordship of Shetland were, by an Act passed on the ^ Balfour's Oppressions, p. xxxiv. ^ Douglas's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 468. THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RUIE. 63 20th February, 147 1, annexed to the Scottish Crown "nocht to be given away in time to cum to na persain or persaines excep alenarily to ane of ye kings sonis of lauchful bed." This, however, was not enough, and as, in those days, people had not yet come to question the power of the Holy See to grant countries, together with the human chattels thereto belonging, to any one who went the right way to obtain the sanction of the successor of St. Peter, Innocent VIII. was asked to hall-mark the whole transaction with his blessing. The earldom and lordship were then farmed to William, sixth Bishop of Orkney of that name, who had been one of the commissioners for arranging the marriage with Margaret of Denmark, and on his translation to the see of Moray in 1477, Andrew, his successor in the diocese of Orkney for six years longer, was enabled to squeeze the unfortunate people subject to his tender mercies. Both of these episcopal publicans seem to have been under some misapprehension as to what was ])roperty belonging to the earldom, of which they were only tacksmen, and what were properly bishopric estates, with the natural result, that, on Bishop Andrew's tack terminating in 1485, whilst the Crown property had largely decreased the estates of the bishopric had as largely increased. The earldom was now farmed out to Henry Sinclair, not as yet Baron Sinclair, probably as some recompense for his grandfather's unnatural conduct towards his father ; and under his rule, although he corrected some of the wrongs of the right reverend publicans who had preceded him, the Scotticising the .institu- tions of both the Orkneys and Shetland, according to Balfour, went on unchecked. Lord Sinclair fell on the 9th of September, 15 13, at that fatal field of Flodden where the chivalry of Scotland went down, like swathes of grass before the mowers, under the pikes of the sturdy yeomanry of " the north countree," sacrificed by the pig-headed, Stewart-like obstinacy of their monarch. At Flodden, the announcement in Edinburgh of the terrible issue of which fight, Aytoun, a former sheriff-depute of Orkney and Zetland, has so 64 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. ringingly described in his Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers^ some five hundred Caithness Sinclairs under William second Earl of Caithness, who had been previously under attainder, perished as well as Henry, first Lord Sinclair. Calder mentions a tradition that, an evening or two before the battle, James IV. saw a fine body of men clad in green, marching in to join his forces, and on being told that they were the men of Caithness under their earl, " The king mused a little and then said, ' Well, if that be William Sinclair I will pardon him.' ' There being no parchment in the camp James ordered the deed of removal of forfeiture to be extended on a drum- head. When the document had received the royal signature it was cut out and handed to the Earl, w^ho forthwith despatched one of his men with it to Caithness, shortly enjoining him to deliver it into the hands of his lady, so that in the event of his faUing in battle the family might be secured in their titles and lands. The bearer of it was the only one of the Caithness corps that ever returned — the rest having been all killed in the engagement. The Earl, on his way south, had crossed the Ord of Caithness on a Monday, and for a long time after, no Sinclair would cross it on that day of the week, or wear anything ap- proaching the colour of green." ^ Margaret, widow of Lord Sinclair, on his death succeeded to such rights as he had held in the Earldom, and by successive grants held them till James V. resumed possession in 1540. The Orcadians, how- ever, seem to have objected to being ruled by a distaff, and in the year 15 15 the Odallers elected Sir James Sinclair, a cadet of the family with the baton sinister, as their leader. After a time they refused to pay any scat or rents to Lady Sinclair ; and in 1526 compelled her son William Lord Sinclair to surrender the castle of Kirkwall, and to fly into Caithness ; whence he returned in the following year with his cousin John Earl of Caithness and a large force at his back, only to be signally defeated at Summerdale or Bigswell, on the north side of the Ward Hill of Orphir, by the Orcadians under ^ Calder's History of Caithness, p. 93. THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCOTTISH AX D BKJTISH RULE. 65 the leadership of Sir James, when the Earl of Caithness and most of his men were slaughtered. Balfour says Sir James captured Lord Sinclair, beheaded Nicol Hall the Lawmnn, and seized the islands, and that the fight took ])lace in 1529. John Bellenden, generally known as Jo Ben, who wrote in 1529, gives 1527 as the year in which the fight took place, and adds, "Cathenenses omnes obversi fiierunt et interfecti, adeo ut ne ([uidam unus superfuit." The accounts of the wliole contror versy between Sir James and his legitimate kith and kin arc very conflicting, as the invasion or attempt to put down re- bellion, whichever it may be termed, appears to have been duly authorised by James V., who nevertheless pardoned Sir James, and granted him, under false representations, the islands of Sanday and Eday, though Sinclair of Strome and others who had taken part in the battle were not respited till 1539. James V. had now, 1540, resolved to see for himself the state of the different islands subject 'to his crown, and in the course of his voyage round to the Western Isles called in at Kirkwall, where he was entertained in what was then the episcopal palace, a house or houses till within a few years ago standing on the west side of Victoria Street, by Bishop Max- well. According to Principal Gordon, i of the Scots' College ai Paris, who visited the Orkneys in 1780, the bed in which James slept was still preserved till the middle of that century. " It was of wainscot gilded over ; but some Cothic gentleman thought proper to convert it into a gate to an inclosure. This I had from a friend who saw the bed in its first and last state." James having put the bishop to rights in a i^w particulars in which, like an Orcadian prelate, he had gone astray, and find- ing the earldom too good a thing to be allowed any longer to remain for any lengthy period out of the royal hands, in spite of her protests, revoked all tacks and leases to Lady Sinclair. The earldom with its rights was then leased to that " minion " of James, Oliver Sinclair, whose gross ignorance of military matters or gross treachery led to the shameful defeat of ^ Arch. Scot. vol. i. p. 261. F 66 THE ORKXEYS AND SHETLAND. Solway Moss, when 300 English horsemen, under Dacrc and Musgrave, routed 10,000 Scottish troops and captured over 1,000 prisoners, a defeat which, with the defection of that turbulant nobiHty so often the bane of Scottish monarchs, broke the heart of the King of the Commons. Sinclair was, however, not permitted to enjoy his tack without litigation, as Marie of Guise, the Queen Dowager, laid claim to the earl- dom and its rights as part of her dower. Whether Sinclair ever got anything out of his lease, or whether the rents and revenues of the earldom were collected on behalf of the Queen Dowager to the date of her death in 1560 by Bonot the Frenchman and the Earl of Huntly, whom at different times she appears to have appointed governors of the islands, seems doubtful. According to Balfour/ respites and pardons for murder were for nearly twenty years the sole records of the islands. Robert Reid, Prior of Beauly, who had in 1540 succeeded Maxwell as Bishop of Orkney, was probably the most en- lightened and one of the ablest of all the prelates who held that see whether before or after the Reformation. He not only rebuilt the parish church of St. Ola, now degraded into a dwelling-house ; restored the old Bishop's palace, in which King Hakon had breathed his last, and added to it a square and a circular tower, of which the latter is still standing : lengthened the nave of the cathedral ; reorganised the chapter : but also founded the grammar-school. To his wise fore- thought also Scotland is indebted for the University of Edinburgh, he having by his will bequeathed the sum of 8,000 marks for the purpose of endowing three schools, one for grammar, another for poetry and oratory, and a third for civil and common law. As one of the commissioners appointed by the Scottish Estates, Reid attended in 1558 the marriage of Mary to Francis the Dauphin of France, was wrecked at Boulogne in going, and died at Dieppe on his way home, poisoned, with his brother commissioners, the Earls of Rothes 1 Balfour's Oppressions, p. xlv. THE ORKXE YS UNDER SCO TT/SH .LVD BRITISH RULE. 67 and of Cassillis and Lord Fleming, Chancellor of Scotland, it was believed, through Guisean treachery. The bodies of all four were embalmed and interred in the chapel dedicated to Saint Andrew in the church of Saint James, Dieppe, where in 1872 Abbe Cochet, Inspector of National Monuments for Seine Inferieure, put up a mural tablet to the Bishop's memory. Adam Bothwell, the first Protestant Bishop of Orkney, was a prelate of a different stamp, and one of his first acts on being inducted into his see was, in 1560, to feu the Castle of Nolt- land in Westray with the lands thereto belonging to his brother- in-law Sir Gilbert Balfour, who a few years afterwards obtained from the Prebendary of St. Catherine a feu of other church-lands in Westray, Sanday, and Stronsay. James V., who, though a wise, able, and politic monarch., was anything but a saint where the other sex was con- cerned, had, by Eupheme daughter of the first Baron Elphin- stone, a son, who was to prove the Malleus Orcadensium, such as none of the preceding donatories had been. They had scourged them with whips, he was to scourge them with scorpions. By his first charter,^ dated the 19th December, 1564, Lord Robert Stewart, as he was then styled, was granted not only all the Crown rights and possessions in the Orkneys and Shetland, but also the estates of all the Odallers in those islands, as well as being created Sheriff" of both groups. This charter, however, though not expressly revoked, was not for a time acted on, as Gilbert Balfour, now master of the Queen's Household, was about the same period appointed Governor and Sheriff of both the Orkneys and Shetland ; and Lord Robert, as a sop to Cerberus for the nice, meaty Orcadian bone, which was about apparently to be taken still further from his reach, was created Abbot of Holyrood on the i6th of April, 1567. His sister Mary was now about to commit the irrevocable mistake which, in spite of all her charms and beauty (and what almost will not men pardon in a beautiful woman) did more than anything else to l)last her reputation ^ PeterUin's Notes, Appendix, p. ?. K 2 68 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. both at the time and in the pages of history — her infatuated marriage with James, Earl of Bothwell, whom, probably because of his descent through his mother, Agnes Sinclair, from the illustrious, if unfortunate, St. Clairs of the Isles, she created Duke of Orkney. His brief honeymoon over, and the gods of war having pronounced against him at Carberry, Bothwell fled northwards only to be repulsed from Kirkwall by Gilbert Balfour. Con- tinuing his flight to Shetland, he for a time " lived upon the enemy," and by his levying forced supplies of cattle from the inhabitants, created a precedent for the ox and sheep money of the Stewarts, an exaction continued by succeeding donatories, and existing at the present day as a legal burden under some other name. Kirkaldy of Grange, to whom Mary had yielded at Carberry, and Adam Bothwell, now anxious to sever with the axe the knot matrimonial which he himself had tied so short a time previously, were like bloodhounds hunting the accursed plotter of the Kirk of Field tragedy ; and driving him from his last shelter on Scottish ground, compelled him to take flight again to Norway, where he was seized as a pirate and imprisoned in the Castle of Malmoc, in which he died ^ in the year 1576. After Mary's escape from Lochleven, defeat at Langside, and fatal flight into England, Gilbert Balfour, who seems to have adhered loyally to his ill-starred mistress through good report and evil, was compelled to take refuge in Sweden, where he eventually died in the service of King Eric XIV. Balfour fallen, Lord Robert, who had on the 30th of September, 1 568,- exchanged the temporalities of the Abbey of Holyrood for those of the Bishopric of Orkney with Adam Bothwell, who left his diocese to the pastoral care of a deputy shepherd one Mr. James Annand,'*^ now saw his ojjcning, and, again sheriff of ' Potit's Mary Sliiart, p, 297. - Balfaur's Oppressions, p. xlvii. ^ In 1569 the excliange with Lord Robert was charged against Adam Bothwell at the General Assembly as being simoniacal, and it was stated that, in conKequence of his neglect of his diocese, "not only ignorance is THE ORK'XE \ S L XDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 69 both groups, was enabled to develop his natural talent for "gripping" to the full. His enormities and exactions are set out under nearly forty heads, in " The Complaints of the Inhabitants of Orkney and Zetland in tlie Year 1575," given at length in Balfour's Oppressions of Orkney and Zetland ; and a Turkish Pasha of either ancient or modern days, or a Spanish Viceroy in the early days of the Hispano-American concjuests, would have found it hard to have given points to this Very Reverend robber in high place. He not only deforced the king's officers, imprisoned his lieges, executed and banished them without trial ; made, as the purser did in the sailor's story, dead men chew tobacco, otherwise convicted men, who had shuffled off this mortal coil, of any offences that came first to mind, for the purpose of procuring escheats ; lived upon the natives by compelling them to entertain him on his progress through the islands ; played booty with pirates ; granted licenses for " men to fight singular combats ; " tampered with the system of weights and measures — but in this item succeeding donatories were to improve vastly ; stopped the ferries to the mainland, and had all ships searched lest complaints should by any chance con- vince those in power that he was stretching his exactions a little too far, even in those days of high prerogative ; but, cruellest blov/ of all, twisted the old system of Things and the Odal laws to suit his own purpose. Visions of obtaining for himself the semi-regal position increased, but afo mo.~t abundantly all vice and horrible crimes are thee committed, as the number of six liundreth persons, convict of incest, adultery, and fornication in Zetland beareth witness." Probably, however, Eoihwell's greatest crime was styling " himself w ith Roman titles, as Reverend Father in God, which pertaineth to no minister of C'hrist Jesus, nor is given them lu Scriptures." In his defence the Bishop admitted "That it is true, that in the 58 year of God, before the reformation of religione, he was accord- ing to the order then observed, provided to the Bishopric of Orkney." This shows the see was filled up immediately on Rotiert Reid's death, an historical fact not generally known. See Ads of Gemnil Assemblies, 1 560 — 1618, vol. 1. p. 162. 70 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. enjoyed by the old Norse Jarls appear also to have floated before his eyes, and in 1572 i we find him intriguing for this end with the King of Denmark, who seems to have lent a not unwilling ear to his proposals. Not merely content with " stressing the Odallers," and such small game, Lord Robert must also interfere with Balfour of Westray, and other feuers of those church-lands which Adam Bothwell and the smaller clerical fry were granting broadcast over the islands. Gripping the lands of, and oppressing the Odallers, were, however, one thing ; but when l^ord Robert laid his covetous grasp on these larger properties it was a case of a hawk picking out hawks' een and not to be borne, and proceedings were taken against him before the Lords of Council, which for a time deprived him of his pashalik. However, owing to the civil tumults of the time, these pro- ceedings seem to have lapsed, and in 158;, James VL, who, pedant and prig as he was, was better fitted to be bailie of a third-rate Scotch borough than monarch, as he was to become, of England, Scotland, and Ireland, confirmed the charter granted by Mary in 1564, in favour of " dicte nostre matris dilecto fratri Roberto Stewart, consanguineo nostro, &c.," created his bastard uncle Earl of Orkney, and added all those rights of Justiciary, x'Ydmiralty, &c., which Lord Robert had formerly been charged with usurping. In 1585, the original excambion or exchange with Adam Bothwell, was confirmed, only however to be in 1587 revoked, together with all other grants to" dicte nostre matris dilecto fratri," by his fickle-minded, toady-havmted nephew, who annexed the bishopric to the crown and farmed out the earldom to his Chancellor and Justice-Clerk, who were commissioned to inquire into " the oppressions of Lord Robert Stewart lait Erie of Orkney." Two years later, nevertheless, found the Earl with a new charter, which, on his death in 1591, was ratified by Act of Parliament to his son and worthy successor, Patrick. Earl Robert by his marriage with Lady Janet Kennedy? ' Balfour's Opprcsiions, p. 3. THE ORKKE\ 'S UNDER SCOTTISH AXD TA'J TISH RULE. 7 1 daughter of Gilbert third Ivirl of CassilUs, liad Henry, wliu died in liis father's Hfetime, Patrick his successor, Jolm, who was created Lord Kinclaven and Earl of Carrick, and several daughters. In addition to his legitimate offspring he had at least four illegitimate children, the Hon. Sir James Stewart of Tullos, the Hon. Sir Robert Stewart, (xeorge Stewart, and I'^^dward Stewart of Brugh, South Ronaldsay. Of the illegiti- mate sons, the first two were legitimated by Queen Mary l)y special charter; and from Edward Stewart were descended the Stewarts of lirugh, a family wliich only became extinct in the direct male line a few years bnck.' Earl Patrick had hardly succeeded to the inheritance obtained by fraud, treachery, and crime of every description bequeathed by his father, before he in his turn was ])etitioned against by the Odallers of Orkney and Shetland. Nothing, however, seems to have come of this petition, and Earl Patrick for seventeen years longer was permitted to " stress the Odallers." The same system of forced labour, which his father had recourse to for the erection of his palace at Birsay, he made use of to build the still more magnificent palace on the southern side of the cathedral, now known as the Earl's Palace. Adam Bothwell went to his account in the year 1593, but for thirteen years before his death had ceased even to be titular Bishop of Orkney, the General Assembly having abolished the episcopal order in 1580, and the see of Orkney remained vacant till 1606, when James Law was appointed to the diocese, whom, although he had, in 1607, entered into an arrangement with Earl Patrick as to the temporalities of the bishojmc, we find in the following year writing to James on behalf of the oppressed Orcadians and Shetlanders, " not in humble ambition, nor in covered covetousness, intending by the correction of that Nobleman {i.e. Earl Patrick) to seek the erection of my base estate and poor fortune, but once tf) acquit myself of that duty, which, as I think, God, my ' See Douglas's /"cCTV/^r, and S'otcs and Queries, vol. iii. ]"i. 51. 72 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. conscience, my calling, your Majesty's favours, &c., toward me, and the fidelity of my bounden service does require at my hands." ^ The bishop, however, when Earl Patrick was out of his way, was, according to Balfour, as grasping as any of his predecessors. Owing to the bishop's interference Earl Patrick was summoned to Edinburgh in 1609, and remained in durance vile there and at Dumbarton till his execution in 161 5. In 1 614, Robert Stewart, his natural son, accompanied by one Patrick Halcro, seized the castle of Kirkwall and the steeple of the cathedral, alleging that the bishop, to whom he had yielded them in 16 12, up to which time he seems to have held them for his father, had not complied with the terms then entered into. The Caithness family never seem to have forgotten or for- given the bloody defeat of Summerdale, and George, then Earl of Caithness, had in 1608 seized some servants of Earl Patrick, who were compelled by stress of weather to land on his property, first made them drunk, then shaved one side of their heads and beards, and finally compelled them to put to sea though the tempest was still raging. He now for his own ends offered to put down this Orcadian insurrection at his own charges, a great consideration to the bawbee-loving Solomon, who could be mean enough where Baby Charles, Steenie, and his like were not concerned. Driven out of the steeple, Robert Stewart with his followers took refuge in the castle, which he was compelled to yield u]) through the treachery of Halcro. The castle surrendered, the Earl of Caithness was only prevented by the exertions of the bishop t'rom utterly wrecking the cathedral. For this rebellion Robert Stewart was executed in Edinburgh on the ist of January 161 5 ; on the 6th of February in the same year Earl Patrick his father met with a similar fate; and in order to pre- vent its being again seized by any rebel James had the Castle of Kirkwall dismantled. In 16 1 2 the old farce had been once more played, th.e ^ Peterkin's Notes, Appei.dix, p 52. THE ORKNEYS UXDER SCOTTISH AXT URITISH RL I.E. 7;, lands and earldom being again annexed to the Crown, " to remain perpetually and inseparably therewith in all times coming"; and in 1614, by a charter dated the 4th of October, James granted to the bishop and his successors " the whole lands in the parishes of Holm, Orphir, Stromness, Sandwick, Shappinshaw, Walls, and Hoy, and also certain lands in the parish of St. 011a therein enumerated, all situate in Orkney," in exchange for the bishopric estates situate in Zetland and other parts of the Orkneys ; and by the same charter the bishop was emj^owered to appoint sheriffs and bailies, who were to have the sole jurisdiction over the bishopric estates, which were freed from the jurisdiction of the earldom officials, and all rights of patronage within the bishopric estates were vested in the bishop. From this date the state of almost chaos, under which the property cf the earldom and bishopric had lain so mixed and jumbkd up together, that questions of jurisdiction had been constantly arising, was once and for all swept away. Law was in 161 5 translated to the see of Glasgow, and was succeeded in the diocese of Orkney by George Graliam, who himself had been translated from Dunblane. Graham held the see till 1638, when, the General Assembly of the Kirk at Glasgow having excommunicated all bishoi)s and such like useless creatures, he, in order to prevent confiscation of his goods and gear, cx\ Neill's Tot/r, p. 37. •• Barry's Orkmy, pp. 347-34S. THE ORKNE \ 'S UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R ULE. 8 1 observed with the most studious care, not indeed as times of religious worship, but as days exempted from labour, and de- voted to feasting and conviviality. On some of these days they must be allowed to be entirely idle ; on others they will engage a little in some kinds of work. One while they must go a-fishing, another they must carefully abstain from that sort of employment ; now they must eat fish, now flesh, now eggs milk and so on, as the particular day or season directs." . . "AVTiere the incumbent was Episcopal," says Dr. Story,^ " it is to be feared charges of negligence, or immorality, or heterodoxy were only too readily framed and sustained." Perhaps Richard Mein, minister of the parish of Cross and Burness, 1683-1703, was a victim to something of the kind, as he is said - to have been " accused of neglect of ministerial duty, not visiting families, of being often abroad, light in his conversation, and particularly at a feast in Stoave, in company with others, of having entered into a play, and his part was to stand upon a seat above the rest, with his eyes, mouth, and nose blacked and to cry 'Cape and gloure,' with his hands held up, 'who would have or kiss me now ? ' " Some of the ministers brought in to supply the places of those deposed seem, to say the least, to have been curious characters. One, the Rev. James Sands, minister of Birsay and Harray, was charged with sheep-stealing, and though, by direction of the Lord Advocate of the time, the matter was allowed to drop, it is by no means certain the reverend gentleman was guiltless of the charges brought against him,^ Another, William Blaw, minister of Westray, is said to have been^ the hero who killed the Sabbath-breaking cat, immortalised in the song ^ " There was a Cameronian cat Was hunting for a prey, And in the house she catch'd a mouse Upon the Sabbath day. ^ St. Gileses Lectures, p. 243. " Fasti, vol. v. p. 410. * See Appendix, D i, p. 584. * Fasti, vol. v. p. 419. ^ Hogg's ^acoliite Reh'cs, vol. i, p. 37. G 82 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. " The Whig, being offended, At such an act prophane, Laid by his book, the cat he took, And bound her in a chain. " ' Thou damn'd, thou cursed creature, This deed so dark with thee, Think'st thou to bring to hell below. My holy wife and me ? " ' Assure thyself, that for the deed Thou blood for blood shall pay For killing of the Lord's own mouse Upon the Sabbath-day.' " The presbyter laid by the book, And earnestly he pray'd. That the great sin the cat had done Might not on him be laid. " And straight to execution Poor baudrons she was drawn, And high hang'd was upon a tree Mass John he sang a psalm. " And when the work was ended. They thought the cat near dead ; She gave a paw, and tlien a mew. And stretched out her head. " 'Thy name,' said he, 'shall certainly A beacon still remain, A terror unto evil ones, For evermore. Amen.' " a prey. And *=p:ri= ^ £ ^-m- =s catch'd a mo^.ise, Up the Sab - bath - day. THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH R UIE. 83 Was cat-killing, for mousing on a Sabbath, common amongst the " Puritane-ones " of the period, as Richard Braithwait or Brathwait, wlio lived 1588-1673, makes Faustus, in Barnabee Harrington' s Travels to the NortJi, say : " In my progresse travelling Northward, Taking my farewell o' th' Southward, To Banbay came I, O prophane one ! Where I saw a Puritane-one, Hanging of his Cat on Monday, For killing of a Mouse on Sonday." That the new ministers should not have got on well with the Jacobite lairds, that they should have been puffed up with spiritual and pharisaical pride, and behaved bumptiously all round, is perhaps not to be wondered at ; but that a Concordat, such as that contained in the Articles of Agreement given at length in Appendix D 2, should have been entered into between the magistrates and the presbytery speaks volumes as to what an out-of-the-world place the Orkneys must have been at that time. All the ministers, who signed the agreement, were new presbyterian brooms appointed after 1698. The Mr. Lyon referred to was a non-juring clergyman, who conducted epis- copalian worship in Kirkwall from 1708 — 1710, when he left the kingdom for a time, being threatened with a prosecution for baptising children contrary to a statute of Charles II., originally directed against the covenanters. After a short stay abroad Lyon returned to Kirkwall, which he finally left in 17 18. Sheep-stealing Sands wrote a pamphlet denying the necessity of the episcopal order in church government, to which Lyon replied at length, reprinting his opponent's letter along with his own reply. In the preface Lyon mentioned that the Rev. Andrew Ker, minister of the second charge at Kirkwall, had' been pro- cessed for conversing with him (Lyon), and that process failing, was proceeded against for scandalous carriage, when he was refused permission to clear himself by oath, a course which had been allowed to Sands when charged with a similar oflfence. He G 2 84 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. also mentioned that Sands had, when officiating in St. Magnus Cathedral, led his horse through the building into the church- yard to pasture, and that another minister had actually tethered his horse to one of the pillars during the sermon, and added, " In our Saviour's Days God's House was made a Den of Thieves, and now these people make it a stable for their Horses." All through the century the Orcadian clergy seem to have had more than their fair quota of queer characters among them. In a curious and rare pamphlet, printed in 1760, entitled A Familiar Epistle from His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Orhiey^ to his Mightiness the Prolocutor of the Athelnsto?ifo?-d Cofigregatioji in East Lothian, the author quotes the saying of an Orkney fisherman, " that he had read in the Bible that the devils had entered into the swine, and now they had come out of the swine and gone into the Ministers." In another pamphlet^ the amount of smuggling done in the islands is said to have been enormous, and the clergy, both in the Orkneys and Shetland, down to the end of the century, are said to have winked at their churches being used as depots in which to place the smuggled goods.^ William Nisbet, Minister of Firth and Stenness, was in May, 1766,^ tried before the Lords of the Circuit Court at Inverness, and found guilty of having com- mitted adultery with a certain Mrs. Agnew, and was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, to be fed during such impri- sonment on bread-and-water, and then to be sent to the plantations and banished for life. He is said to have been deposed by the Presbytery of Inverness on his own confession on the 8th of July following, when the rest of the sentence was carried into effect. After two months of bread-and-water it is highly probable the prisoner would have confessed to murder, rape, arson, or any other crime if they had charged him with it. Why did they send him to the plantations ? Was it on a somewhat similar train of reasoning, which made a late Archbishop of Canterbury petition for the ^ Hepburn's Letter on Causes of Poverty. ^ Hall's Travels, vol. ii, p. 517 ^ Fasti, vol. v. p. 397^ THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R ULE. 8$ commutation of sentence of death into transportation for life in the case of a schoolmistress, who had been found guilty of parricide, on the ground "that she would make such an excellent Scripture reader for the colonies " ? ^ Lyell, a friend of Nisbet and minister of the Lady parish, Sanday, 1 747-1 766, was libelled on over a dozen charges of scandalous carriage, and seems to have been a regular clerical Don Juan ; ,and the memorial iof the Rev. George Trail who prosecuted, and the libel, form a large thick quarto much sought after by book-hunters. Francis Liddell, minister of Orphir from 1776 to 1807, when he was deposed, was probably the Orphir clergyman referred to by Scott,- who, on being charged with drunken- ness, replied " Reverend ]\Ioderator, I do drink as other gentlemen do." His memorial, also a literary curiosity at the present day, gives a curious picture of the times. Liddell being desirous to marry his housekeeper, applied first to one and then to the other of the parish ministers of Kirkwall to perform the ceremony, which they both refused, according to his version, in the hope that they might find he had been guilty of the greatest crime in clerical eyes. Having protested against the conduct of his clerical brethren before a notary, Liddell was married by the said notary to the object of his affections. Irregular marriages seem to have had a fascination for some people till comparatively recent years, as it is not so very long since a minister of one of the numerous bodies, that now provide for the wants of the people, was deposed for marrying his housekeeper privately, the happy pair having signed a mutual agreement to that effect in writing. If the ranks of the Orcadian clergy in the eighteenth century produced such characters as Lyell and Nisbet, they also included George Low, minister of Birsay and Harray from 1774 — 1795. Low was the most distinguished in the long series of clergy and resident gentry in the Orkneys and Shetland, who have done so much ^ See Saturday Review, September 13th, 1S62, and April 1st, 1SS2. 2 Scotis Life, p. 195. 1 S6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. for the archeology, history, fauna, and flora of the islands in which their lot had been cast, and a conspicuous example of which, to whom the science of meteorology is so much in- debted, is living to the present day in the Rev. Charles Clouston, minister of Sandwick. Poor Low, who did as good work as Gilbert White of Selborne, in a much more ungenial climate, furnished the storehouse from which so many ^vriters have since drawn materials relating to Orcadian and Shetland history. Barry, for instance, is believed to have taken his flora and embodied it without the slightest acknowledgment in his work on Orkney. The Anti-Patronage movement was felt in the Orkneys about the middle of the century, and on the settlement of George Tyrie ^ in Sandwick and Stromness in 1747, women ill-treated those who attended divine service, and raised scandalous stories against Tyrie himself, not a difficult matter one could fancy at that day. Two years previously, on John Reid ^ attempting to obtain possession of the church at Orphir, he was prevented by his parishioners, who closed the church and raised such a disturbance, that at last troops had to be brought over from Caithness, by whom one woman was killed and several persons wounded. The first body of Presbyterian dissenters from the Estab- lished Church in Orkney hived off in 1795 and applied to the General Associate Synod, who represented the seceders who had left the Church and "lifted their testimony" on the Patronage question in 1733, and who now form the United Presbyterians, the largest and most powerful body in the Orkneys, where their sway is nearly as powerful as that of the Free Church in the Highlands. Barry says the original secession was caused by the incorpo- rated trades of Kirkwall, which had waxed fat under the golden influences of three contested elections during one Parliament, falling out with the kirk session about the poors' funds, and, ^ Fasti, vol. V. p. 403. - Ibidei)!, p. 40c. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R ULE. S; on being worsted in the courts of law, leaving the kirk in a huff and starting a new church of their own.^ Messrs. Haldane,- Aikman, and Rate, however, have another story to tell. According to them, a native of Kirkwall, when residing at Newcastle, sat under a Mr. Graham, an Antiburgher minister. On his return home he started a prayer-meeting, the members of which applied to the Antiburgher Synod for a minister to preach to them. According to Haldane's account the clergy as a body do not seem to have suffered from excess of zeal. That Haldane and his friends were actuated by no hostile spirit to the Church as established is shown by the high eulogium they passed on the Rev. Gavin Hamilton, the minister of Hoy ; and there can be little doubt that, as in the case of the Church of England in Wales, had the clergy in the Orkneys and Shetland bestirred themselves more during the last century about the spiritual wants of their flocks, dissent would not have had near such a thriving time of it as has actually been the case. At the Disruption in 1843 another swarm left the Old Kirk, and, at the present time, those nice in their theologi- cal tastes will have no difficulty in satisfying them in the Orkneys, to which Cormac, St. Columba's follower, is sup- posed to have brought the Gospel tidings thirteen hundred years ago. The bishopric estates on the abolition of Episcopacy became vested in the Crown, and were farmed out from time to time to various lessees at the rent of ;^20o sterling, till on the 27th of July, 1775, they were let "during pleasure " to Sir Thomas Dundas, afterwards Lord Dundas, at the yearly rent of ;^5o sterling. Under this lease the bishopric estates were long enjoyed by the Dundas family, till they were resumed by the Crown in 1825. Since that date, the greater portion, if not all, of the property has been sold by the Woods and ^ Barry's Orkney, p. 341. * Tour through The Northern Counties of Scotland, p. 5^ 88 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLANiX Forests, and only a few feu duties now remain in the hands of the Crown out of the large revenues and estates formerly held by the Bishops of Orkney. That the money realised by the sale of the bishopric estates should have been expended in pro- viding parks for the Londoners is one of the special Orcadian grievances. CHAPTER VIII. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE — (coilt billed). The Old Country Acts, When, in 1468, the Orkneys and Shetland became subject to the Scottish Crown, there seems to have been an implied, if not an explicit, understanding that their inhabitants should remain subject to the same Scandinavian system of legal procedure that they had hitherto been under, and that they should, as the Isle of Man, itself a former Scandinavian settle- ment, and the Channel Islands do to the present day, have the power of legislating for themselves from time to time. That this must have been the case is shown by the fact, that when, in 1503, an Act of the Scottish Parliament was passed by which all foreign laws or systems of legal procedure in any way antagonistic to the common law of Scotland were abolished, the Orkneys and Shetland were expressly excepted from its provisions; and when, in December, 1567, it was mooted in the Scottish Parliament " quhider Orkney and Zetland sal be subject to the commone law of this realme, or gif thai sal bruike thair awne lawis ? " it was decided " that thai aught to be subject to thair awne lawis." The use made by Earls Robert and Patrick of the local courts and legal procedure for their own ends, however, led to an Act of "the Lordis of Secret Council," dated the 22nd 90 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. of March, 1611, the vahdity or non-vahdity of which it is not necessary to go into, whereby all foreign laws theretofore in use in the Orkneys and Shetland were discharged, and all magistrates in those islands were directed to use " the proper laws of this kingdom." In spite, however, of this Act, both groups seem to have had a modified sort of " Home Rule " accorded to them, under which Country Acts,^ as they were termed, were from time to time passed, which have only been allowed to fall into disuse in quite modern times. From these Country Acts we are enabled to get some sort of idea of what the mode of life of the Orcadians and Shetlanders, at any rate during the seven- teenth and a greater portion of the eighteenth century, was like. Only those Acts relating to the Orkneys will now be touched upon, and the points in which the Shetland Acts differed from those of the southern group will be shown further on. Thanks to the system of Odal tenure, by which the subdivision of lands was perpetually going on ; to its inevit- able seqidhir runrig cultivation under which there might be half- a-dozen different owners or tenants interested in one field of oats ; and to the system of commonties, as they were termed in the Orkneys, scatholds in Shetland, that is hill-pastures held in common property, alike in the soil itself and the stock carried by it, was so mixed up, that a very paternal system of govern- ment was required to prevent the smaller owners and tenants following the example so freely set them by those in high places of " gripping " anything they could lay their hands on. In fact, there was a special Act directed against gripping either land or gear passed on the 6th of November, 1632. Owing to the stock of all kinds and of many owners feeding in com- mon, walls and gates became matters of vital importance in order to protect the cultivated land from the incursions of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine ; and consequently all dykes or walls had to be built up to a certain height and kept in repair annually; all grinds or gates had to be carefully shut by ^ Ads and Statutes of the Laivting. THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R ULE. 9 1 any one passing through them ; and, in order to preserve public rights of way, no grinds once opened could be built up again. Swine, to prevent their rooting up the land under cultivation, had to be turned outside the dykes by the 15th of March, sheep had to be herded till the ist of April, horses and cattle till the I St of May, after which dates they appear to have been, like the swine, turned on to the hill land. Any one found riding another man's horse was liable to a fine proportionate to the distance at which he was caught from the owner's residence, and any one guilty of cutting the tail of a horse belonging to another man could be fined j[,'i-o, Scots. Sheep, as might naturally be expected, were the subject of many regulations. Every owner had his own sheep-mark, which was registered with the bailie of the parish, and no one could use the King's mark. As is the case at the present day with the native sheep in Shetland, with which breed they were identical, all sheep in Orkney were rooed or plucked, not shorn, and no " rooing " was permitted before the date fixed by the bailie of each parish, for fear any one might mis- take his neighbour's fleeces for his own, nor could any rooing take place on Sunday. Wool, too, being an article easily stolen and almost impossible, when stolen, to be identified, all wobsteris, or weavers, had to prove to the satisfaction of the bailie from whence they obtained their raw material, and to hand in half-yearly inventories of all cloth made by them ; and special Acts were directed against all " tiggers," or hawkers, of wool. Sheep-dogs could only be kept by such sheep-owners as were specially licensed by and registered with the bailie ; and any one guilty of keeping " running-dogs that run from house to house slaying their neighbour's sheep " were liable to special penalties. No one was allowed to go through his neighbour's ologange or " commonty " with a sheep-dog unless accompanied by tvvo credible witnesses, and any one doing so after nightfall, and not possessing the best of characters, could be treated as a thief 92 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. As eagles were numerous, any one slaying an "earn" could claim %d. from each " reik " in the parish, except in the case of cottars who owned no sheep ; and the head of each eagle so slain the bailie had to present at the next court; and for harrying an earn's nest the destroyer was entitled to 205. Bent grass could not be cut, nor rushes pulled before Lammas. No one was allowed to let land of a certain value to any persons, unless they were " able with own goods and gear to labour them," Fleshers or butchers were not allowed to dispose of any meat until they had proved to the satisfaction of the bailie from whom they had purchased the beasts, and that such beasts were the property of the sellers. Publicans were compelled to sell wine at the same price for which it was sold in Edinburgh, and a regular tariff was fixed at which ale of varying strengths could be sold. Forestalling and regrating, as was the case both in England and Scotland for long enough, were specially guarded against, and fishermen and fishmongers were subject to special regulations to prevent their forming what is known at Billingsgate as a "fish ring." The price of shoes, whether of adults or children, was sjDecially fixed ; and for working "ilk hyd In the auneris house" 2qs, with their entertainment, was all that was allowed to " cordinaris " or cobblers ; and, lest shoe-leather should become scarce, no tanned leather could be exported before it had been offered to the bailie of the parish or the shoemakers of Kirkwall ; and, for fear of the long winter nights having to be spent in dark- ness, no tallow could be exported, till the bailie had had the refusal of it. The donatories and farmers for the time being of the earl- dom or bishopric estates, of course through their chamberlains, took care that their rights should not in any way be endangered by any absurd nonsense about people choosing their own time for selling the produce of their lands, so no one was allowed to sell " any bestial, butter, nor oyle before St. Andrew's Day yearly ; nor any victual, bear, malt, or meall till the first of THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 93 Lammas yearly," except at Kirkwall Market or upon leave specially given. As to servants, if not actually adscriptl glebce, they were very few degrees removed from it. The bailie had to fix the number of servants in each household, whose wages were to be paid, not according to the value of the services rendered, but according to the station in life of the person served. All clandestine buying ^ or selling with another person's servants was held to be tainted with theft, and no servant could be hired unless it could be proved that he had been discharged from his last place or had given his employer forty days' notice before term. Absconding servants were " to be joggit at the kirk-door upon Sunday from aucht houris in the morning quhill twelff houris at noon ; " and, for fear of a scarcity of labour in conse- quence of " the repaire of English ships to the countrie, who fie, hyre, and conduce young men and servants to leave their parents and masters, and follow them to the fishing to Iceland, the Lewis, and other parts thereabout to the great prejudice of the labouring of the ground, &c.," no young man nor servant was allowed to hire himself to any such strangers, " without ane testimoniall from the minister, bailie, or two or three of the elders of ilk isle or paroch," and, this not being enough, the Lords of Secret Council were petitioned to forbid all masters of vessels engaging any Orcadian young men or servants. Owing to the islands being Hable to attacks by "the Claneane quha ar turnit piratis and suspect to cum into this countrie to burn, slay, and spoil the sam," and other rovers of a like kind, the bailies had to see that the beacons on each ward hill were ready for lighting ; that proper watchmen were in attendance on them ; that every " bound " or farmer was supplied with arms according to his station, and was in readi- ness to muster at the assembling place of the bailerie ; and that all boat-owners kept their boats in a serviceable and weather- tight condition to convey the parochial posse to Kirkwall on ^ Kaffirs at the Diamond Fields, at the present day. 94 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the beacon on the Wideford Hill being fired, when all other beacons had to be lighted. In addition to his duties as the parochial representative of the majesty of the law, each bailie was expected to act as aide-de-camp to the minister in seeing to the carrying out all Acts made by the Kirk Sessions " for the maintenance of God's worship, keeping of the Sabbath, suppressing all idolatry, especially of walks and pilgrimages and all other vices, and punishing the refractive and disobedient to their discipline ; " and in order to compel people to be godly, special directions were given for passing the " corss " or cross from house to house " for admonishing the people either to conveen to church, for preaching or prayers, or for his Majesty's service, and such other necessary causes as shall be thought expedient by the Minister, sheriffs, institutioners, or their baillies."^ The bailies again were aided in their many duties by rancellors,^ who seem to have been a cross between parish constables and officials of a Calvinistic Holy Office. ^ What a clerical ring there was about the whole thing. His Majesty's service plays second fiddle to the preaching, and the minister takes preced- ence of the sheriff. No wonder Elspeth Reoch's farie man thought the country Priestqone. S&e post, p. 99. * Raiin-sSkn. A legal temi in Iceland, applied to searching a house for stolen things. To search, rann-saka, hence, probably, our English, to ransack. CHAPTER IX. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH 'RV\.'E—{amtillllcd). Agriculture at the Commencement of the Century^ Superstitions^ &~r. Even as late as the commencement of the present century very- little improvement seems to have been made in agricultural matters. Barry described the greater portion of the islands as being cultivated in a much similar manner to what the crofter hold- ings are in Shetland at the present day. The farms, however, were larger than are the crofts in Shetland, running from ten to forty acres of arable land, which was considered a sufficient quantity to be worked by one of the old Orcadian wooden ploughs — one of the most primitive implements possible, and identical \vith the rude wooden scratching machine formerly in use in Shetland described further on. Some of these primitive implements are said to be still in use about Rackwick in Hoy. Only the coast-line was under cultivation, and all the interior was commonty, on which, as a rule, owing to stinting being unknown, more stock was kept than the land would carry. Though lime and marl were abundant in many places they were ne\er used as manure, for which seaweed was the only substance utilised, and which, according to Mackaile, affected the malt so much that all strangers drinking ale made from it were "troubled with a little diarrhoea wherein there is no hazard." 96 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Carts were almost unknown ; swine ran riot all over the arable lands, in some parts to such an extent, that oats would be sown without the soil receiving any further breaking-up or cultivation than what it had got from the rutting and rooting of the unclean animals. Both commonties and infield pastures were disfigured and injured by the turf being stripped in the most reckless manner, and by the utter want of method with which the peat-cutting was conducted. Many, if not most of the farms, were let on Steelbow, that is, the tenants on entry were supplied with a certain number of cattle and horses, and quantity of seed bere and oats, which on removal they had to replace. IMost of the rents were paid in kind, and in many instances arbitrary services were exacted as well. Owing to the want of regular markets at Kirkwall and Stromness, the farmers had difficulty in disposing of their produce, and the inhabitants of these towns were charged ^ with forming " rings " to keep down the price of all farm produce, and with only dealing with the farmers when the latter were far gone in drink, and incapable of properly transacting business. Under all the circumstances one can hardly wonder at a very low tone of morality being prevalent. Barry ^ describes the agricultural population as "in a high degree indolent ; wedded to old customs, averse to any improvement, dark, artful, interested ; respectful to their superiors, as much from fear as from love and suspicion ; sometimes endeavouring to undermine and slander one another." The belief in witchcraft was all but universal amongst the common people, even down to the end of the last century, and charms for killing sparrows that destroyed the early corn, expelHng rats and mice from houses, for success in brewing and churning, procuring good luck, curing diseases of cattle, stock, and human beings, &c., were in constant use. What some of these beliefs were like, and how the charms were worked, can be gathered from the finding of the jury in the trial for witch- craft of Jonet Drever and Katherine Bigland in the year 1615 ; 1 Barry's Orkney, p. 340. 2 ibidem, p. 343. THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RUIE. 97 in the indictment against Aganes Elspeth Reoch for a like offence in the following year, contained in the Acts and Statutes of the Lata ting ; and also in the trials for \Yitchcraft, sorcery, and superstition in Orkney, given in full in the first volume of the Abbotsford Club Miscellanies. Jonet Drever was found guilty on her own confession "of the fostering of ane bairne in the hill of Westray to the fary folk callit of hir our guid nich- bouris," 1 and of having had conversation with the fairy twenty- six years previously. Katherine Bigland " for laying ane duyning and quotidean seiknes upon William Bigland in Swartmiln hir master," and thereof for a time curing him by bringing into his house what appeared to be water, " and wesching of the said William his back therwith. And laying him doun, saying he wald gitt guid rest and lying doun betuix him and the dor, having refuissed to ly in any uther place. And the said William haveing walknit with fear and crying and feilling a thing lyke a ruche scheip abone him. In saying to him be not affrayit, for it is the evill spreit that trublit yow that is going away. And in taking of the said William upon the morne at nicht efter sun setting under the bankis and wesching of him with salt wattir at that tyme. And fyve or six vthir nichtis therefter quhill he receavit healthe be hir unlaufull and divelische airt of witchcraft." In trans- ferring the sickness from Bigland, the master, to Robert Brown his servant, " quha continewit therin almost mad tuo dayis quhill schoe cam and graippit his pulses and brow and straikit his hair backwards and saying he wald be weill. And casting of the same seiknes immediatlie upon the said William Bigland." Jonet Drever got off with scourging and banishment, but Katherine Bigland was sentenced to be hanged, and her body afterwards burnt. Elspeth Reoch, who was described as " dochter to umquhill Donald Reoch sumtyme pyper to the Earle of Cathnes," was charged on her own confession, that when twelve years of age she had wandered to her aunt's house at Lochaber, and that ^ See Gregor's Folk Lore, pp. 65 and 59. n 98 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. whilst waiting one day at the loch side to be ferried across, " thair cam tua men to her ane cled in blak and the uther with ane grein tartane plaid about him And that the man with the plaid said to her she wes ane prettie and he wald lerne her to ken and sie ony thing she wald desyre The uther man said she wald nocht keep counsell and foirbaid him He ansuerit he wald warrand hir And she being desyrous to knaw said how could she ken that And he said Tak ane eg and rost it And tak the sweit of it thre Sondayis And with onwashin handis wash her eyes quhairby she sould sie and knaw ony thing she desyrit. . . . And thairefter within tua yeir . . . the blak man cam to her that first came to hir at Lochquhaber And callit him selff ane faire man quha wes sumtyme her kinsman callit Johne Stewart quha wes slane be McKy at the doun going of the soone And therfor nather deid nor leiving bot wald ever go betuix the heaven and the earth quha delt with you tua nychtis and wald never let her sleip persuading hir to let him ly with hir wald give yow a guidly fe And to be dum for haveing teacheit hir to sie and ken ony thing she desyrit He said that gif she spak gentlemen wald trouble hir and gar hir give reassounes for hir doings Quhairupoun she mycht be challengeit and hurt And upon the thrid nycht that he com to hir she being asleip and laid his hand upon her breist and walknit her and theirefter semeit to ly with her and upon the morrow she haid na power of hir toung nor could nocht speik quhairthrow hir brother dang her with ane branks quhill she bled becaus she wald nocht speik and pat ane bow string about hir head to gar her speik And thairefter tuik her three severall tymes Sondayis to the kirk and prayit for hir Fra the quhilk tyme she still continewit dumb going about and deceaveing the people Synding telling foir shawing thame quhat they had done and quhat they sould do And that be secund sicht grantit to hir in maner foirsaid She saw Robert Stewart sone naturall to umquhill Patrik sumtyme earl of Orkney with Patrik Traill to quhom she was with bairne and certane utheris with towis THE ORKNE YS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 99 about thair craigis in Edmond Callendaris hous at ther efter- noones drink befoir the Earl of Caithnes cuming to the cuntrey And that be the plucking of the herb callit Merefow quhilk causis the nose bleid He had taucht hir to tell quhat- soever sould be speirit at hir Be sitting on hir rycht knie and pulling and pilling it betuix hir mid finger and thumb And saying of In nomine patris JiUi et spiritus sancti be vertue quherof she haweit ane bairne to Magnus Sinclair in Some at the desyre of his wyf At quhilk tyme on yule day she confest the devell quhilk she callis the farie man lay with hir At quhilk tyme he bade hir leave Orkney and go home to her awin contrey becaus this countrey was Priestgone quhilk he exponit that ther was our mony Ministeris in it. And gif she taryit she wald be hurt And forder for airt part useing banting and conversing with the Devell at diverse and sindrie tymes and at severall partis &c., &c." Elspeth was of course found guilty, and sentenced to be strangled at the stake, after which her body was to be burnt. Of the women whose trials are given at length in the Abbots- ford volume, Marabel Couper ^ was charged inter alia with be- witching the querns or hand-mills so that either they could not be worked, or else only ground dirt ; also with bewitching a man's cattle so that — " nixt zeir the said Dauid and Margaret had thrie kyne, quhairof the ane diet in callowing, and the caltif tane out of hir wombe ; .the nixt callowit ane calff, and never gave milk ; and the thrid thir four zeiris past never tuik bull." Anie Tailzeour with stopping the ploughs as well as a mill,- and with taking away the profit of kyne for twenty days, and then removing the spell by the following means : — " Ye ansuerit, it was to tak thrie hairis of the kowis taill, thrie of hir memberis, and thrie of hir papis, and gang thryse woderwardis ^ about the kow, and straik her in the left syd, and 1 Witchcraft Trials, p, 137. - Ibidem, p. 143 ; see also Gregor's Folk Lore, p. 183. •* " Withershins." As it ^\as supposed that witches always acted in H 2 loo THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. cast the hair in the kirne, and say thryse ' Cum butter, cum,' and sua thei sould haue the haill proffeit of that flock, quhair that kow was." Marion Richart ^ was charged with washing a cat's feet in bait water, and then throwing the water into the sea as the fisher- man started for luck ; also with washing a cat's head and feet, and then throwing the water on the fisherman, " his sea caschie ^ and into his bait coube.""^ To restore the profit to the churn her instructions were as follows : — " Goe thy way to the sea, and tell nyne boares of the sea cum in, that is to say, nyne waues of the sea and let the hind- most of the nyne go back againe ; and the nixt thairefter, tak thrie loofifullis ^ off the water and put within thy stoupe, and quhen thow come home, put it within thy kirne, and thow wilt get thy profeit agane." The skipper of a boat, who, on his road to the beach, had refused alms ^ to Marion Richart, suddenly went mad when at sea, and tried to leap overboard, and, on his son's preventing him, he too went mad, till another man made a dog, which was in the boat, bleed on his shoulders, whereupon all on board were saved, though the dog went mad and all the dogs on shore " gaue yow abundantly." Catherine Miller '^ advised the owner of a sick horse to take three sorts of sillneris" in a sieve, and sift them over the animal's back. Katherine Craigie ^ on being consulted about a man's illness said it was caused by a hill-spirit, a kirk-spirit, or a water- spirit, and that to effect a cure, three stones were to be put in the fire and kept there till sunset, when they were to be placed contrariety to the laws of nature, we hear of their going thrice linther- ' shins round a thing to render it subject to their power. "Superstitions of Teviotdale," Edinburgh Magazine, June, 1820, p. 533. 1 Witchcraft Trials, p. 160. - Fi^h basket. '■^ Smaller basket, used to keep bait in. ^ Handfuls. Lufe, luiff, luifile, loof, the palm of the hand. Jamieson, vol. ii. ° See/(?-f/, p. 172. <5 Witchcraft Trials, p. 154. ^ Mr. Cursiter suggests that ".'•illneris " is a misprint for " silveris. " * Witchcraft Trials, p. 165. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. loi under a door and kept there till just before sunrise, at which time they were to be thrown into a vessel of water, when one of them would be heard to " chirne and churle." Jonet Reid ^ " to keip the profeit of cornis " recommended that some " quhyt moss or fogge " should be put " in bear stak." Robert Sinclair's case, on which he consulted Jonet, is especially amusing, being "trublit in his sleip with apparitiounes of his '6 first wyiff, which wexit and disquietit him verie much, he was advysit be zow to goe to his first wyifis grave, and to chairge hir to ly still and truble him no moir." A child who had the " hart cake " was thus treated by Jonet.^ She laid a pair of tongs across a pot of water, then " ane codd ^ above the tonges," put the child on the codd, and then took "ane seif and set (it) on the childis head, and set ane cogge full of water in the seive, and then laid ane wol: scheir^ on the coggis mouth, and ze took lead and put it in ane iroun lamp, and meltit it, and powrit it throw the boul '' of the scheir into the water thrie severall tymes, devining throw the lead whither the child wold recover or not ; and quhen ze haid done all, ze gaue the child ane drink of the said water, and said he wold be weill (but as zit the child is not).'' A propos of " cods " there is a good modern story of an Orcadian lad, being ill on board a Grimsby smack, and asking for a cod^ whereupon, thinking he was a bit off his head, to quiet him, they brought a dried cod, on which he still further bothered them by saying what he wanted was not a fish cod but a feather cod. No one could praise a child or any article of value for fear of harm befalling the child or article so praised, a crime known as "forespeaking"; and persons " fore- spoken " could only be cured by being washed in some water, the recipe of which was kept as a great secret by the women who prepared it.*' The evil eye and the evil tongue were also ^ Witchcraft Trials, p. 1S2. - See Gregor's Folk Lore, p. 43. ■' Pillow. Cod, Scotch; Koddi, Island ic, Suio Gothic, Kodde, Jamieson. ^ Shearing scissors. '■> The loop handle. ® See Gregor's Folk Lore, pp. 7, 8, 35, and 43. 102 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. dreaded, and their effects obviated by some occult rites. How diseases were transferred from one person to another we learn from the extract from the Session Register given by Low. After the patient had been washed the water used was thrown down at a gateway, after which the disease, whatever it was, attacked the first person who passed through the gateway. When cattle were struck by the fairies with elf-shot an old woman was sent for to find the hole by which the elf arrow had entered, and to cure the animal by washing the injured part.^ In the First Statistical Acconrit of South Ronaldsay it is stated that a minister who was proceeding to baptise a female child before a male one, was told that if he did so the lassie, when she grew up, would be afflicted with a strong beard whilst the boy would have none.^ It was considered lucky to be married with a grow- ing moon, and by some people with a flowing tide, and Thurs- day and Friday were considered lucky days for the ceremony. If a horse or cow was lost some woman was blamed for it, and cut " above the breath " till blood came, though whether the maiming was inflicted as a punishment on the evil doer, or as a means of recovering the lost animal, does not seem clear. Probably, owing to the numerous remains of brochs and under- ground chambers that are found so plentifully through the islands, the Picts or " Pechts " were in some way supposed to have been an uncanny race. Stevenson, ^ the celebrated lighthouse engineer, on landing one time at North Ronaldsay, was compelled to rout out of bed a small niannikin of a mis- sionary, whom, because he was so "peerie," the " Selkies " suspected of being a Pecht. Probably most of the old beliefs and superstitions have in a measure died out, but there is always a transition period about such things, when people, though inwardly believing in them, are yet ashamed to let it be known that they do so. It is not so very many years since a boy suffering from epilepsy was treated for it in a strange quasi-homoeopathic manner not ten miles from Kirkwall. A skull was exhumed from ^ See Gregor's Folk Lore, p. 184. - See ibidem, p. 13. ^ Scott's Life, vol. iii. p. 195. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 103 a neighbouring graveyard, and a portion of it having been ground to powder was mixed with water and given to the patient.^ According to the First Statistical Account capital crime>was rare, but petty theft was of frequent occurrence, though convictions could be rarely obtained " because there is a very general belief that whoever is concerned in bringing the guilty to punishment will never thrive." With all their failings and drawbacks the Orcadians seem to have been, even at the commencement of the century, a thrifty, saving race, as Shirreff ^ was told by Captain Sutherland of Burray, that there was more gold amongst the small tenants, than could be found any where else in Britain amongst men of the same position in life. Hndso7fs Bay Company. About the year 1741 the Hudson's Bay Company began to hire their boatmen, artificers, &c., in the Orkneys, and at the time of the First Statistical Account from sixty to one hundred men embarked yearly at Stromness for service in those vast regions, the monopoly of the trade with which was granted by Charles II. to Prince Rupert and others. For long enough the Orkneys supplied all the rank and file to the great fur-col- lecting Company, but at the present day few, if any, Orcadians find their way out to Fort York. Amongst many Orcadians, who have risen to eminence in the service of the Company may be mentioned Dr. Rae, whose reputation as an Arctic explorer is world-wide. The Fisheries. Before the present century the fisheries, whether with nets for herrings, or hand or with long line for ling and cod, were almost completely neglected as regular industries. A few fish were occasionally caught by the farmers for their ' See Mitchell's The Past in the Present, p. 155. - Shirreff 's Orknt^', p. 43. 104 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. own consumption, but nothing further was attempted till the bounty system came into force. Splendid boatmen as the Orcadians, from force of circum- stances, are compelled to be, owing to the islands being situated in some of the fiercest tideways in British seas, they are not, like the Shetlanders, fishermen by birth. The differ- ence between the inhabitants of the two groups was very happily put to the writer by the son of one, to whose pains- taking research the student of Orcadian history is probably more indebted, than to any one else. " The Shetlander," he said, " is a fisherman who has a farm ; ihe Orcadian a farmer who has a boat." Both cod and herring fisheries were started in the year 1815, and for many years a very large number of boats prosecuted the herring fishery from Stronsay, till the increasing demand for labourers, arising from the improvement in agriculture, combined with a fev\' bad seasons' fishing, and other causes, reduced the number fishing from that quarter considerably. Latterly the number of boats have been gradually falling off year by year. The principal stations are in Water Sound, Holm Sound, and in the island of Stronsay. A considerable cod and ling fishery, however, is still carried on by open boats from the North Isles, and a fair number of smacks prosecute the fishing in the Faroe and Iceland waters for Orcadian curers. In the cod and ling fishery, in fact, the Orkneys rank next after Shetland, so far as the smack fishery is concerned, and in the returns for the fishery, as prosecuted by open boats, third on the list, Stornoway being second to Shetland. The returns given in Appendix F (pp. 601, 2, 3, 4) for the last five years will show the relative position of the tAvo groups as fishing centres. Large quantities of lobsters have yearly, since before the com- mencement of the century, been exported from the Orkneys, though of late, owing to non-observance of close time and to taking undersized fish, the quantity' taken is every year be- coming less ; and unless some steps are taken to prevent the THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTT ISH AND BRITISH RULE. 105 sale of berried fish, will sooner or later become as scarce as the oysters now are for which the Orkneys were once so celebrated. Linen Manufacture. For some fifty years or so a good deal of linen yarn and of linen itself was made in the islands, the manufacture having been introduced by Andrew Ross chamberlain to the Earl of IMorton and tacksman of the Bishopric estates, in 1747. A good deal of flax was also at one time grown, and many of the tenants were compelled to grow it, and even to manufacture linen. Straw Plaiting. To the manufacture of linen and yarn succeeded in 1805 straw plaiting, and at one time from 6,000 to 7,000 females are said to have been engaged in it. It, however, like the linen manufacture, was killed by foreign competition, and by the reduction of the duty on foreign straw-plait. The Kelp Trade. The manufacture of kelp from the seaweeds which grow on the shores of the islands, or are driven ashore in the spring from the deeper water, was introduced,^ in the year 1722, by James Fea of Whitehall in the island of Stronsay, and for a long time was the special Orcadian industry, to which every- thing else had to give place. Like all new ideas submitted to a race so intensely suspicious and ultra-conservative as the Orcadians of that day must have been, it was some time before they could be got to recognise what a mine of wealth lay close to their doors. Barry, in the First Statistical Account of Kirkwall, describes the opposition in the following terms : " Averse to have any kind of labour but what they had been accustomed to see and 1 Neill'b Tour, p. 28. io6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. hear of, they repi-esented how hurtful that new business was likely to be, for they could have no doubt of its driving the fish from the coast, and ruining the fishing ; they were certain it would destroy both the corn and the grass, and they were very much afraid that it might even prevent their women from having any children." The last fear was especially needless, as a more prolific, or, as Wallace ^ ungallantly phrased it, broody, race than the Orcadians could hardly have been found. One provost of Kirkwall is said to have had thirty-six children by only two wives, and one Marjorie Bimbister- was, in the year 1683, brought to bed of a male child in the sixty-third year of her age, as was vouched for by James Graham, minister of Evie and Rendall, and three other credible persons. To return to the kelp trade, between the years 1740 and 1760 the price was about 45^'. a ton, and about ^^2,000 yearly brought mto the islands ; 1760 — 70, ;^4 4^. a ton, and ;^6,ooo yearly; 1770 — 80, ;Q^ a ton, and ;^'"io,ooo yearly; 1780 — 91, nearly ;2^6 a ton, and ;^'i 7,000. During the long French war the price rose as high as ;^20 a ton, and even as late as 1826, 3,500 tons, the largest quantity produced in one year, were made in the islands, and sold at £^'] a ton. The aboli- tion of the duty on barilla, which is largely used in the manu- facture of glass, for a time almost annihilated the industry, though of late years it has been springing up again, and some 1,500 tons are said to be made yearly amongst the North Isles The temporary destruction of the kelp trade, in reality, was a blessing in disguise, as it compelled the proprietors to turn their attention to the land, the proper cultivation of which had been so long neglected Agriculture at the Present Day. It was not, however, till 1840 that any very general efforts were made at improvement. At that date " nmrig " was universal amongst the bulk of the farms, i&f^, if any 1 Wallace's Orkney, p. 64. - Ibidem, p. 64. THE ORKNEYS UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 107 of the commonties were divided, the sheep, except in a few places amongst the North Isles, were simply of the native breed, and rotation of crops was almost unknown. In the last forty years enormous strides have been made, to which steam communication with the south and the passing of " The Orkney Road Acts" in 1857 have largely contributed. Up 10 that date very it.\N roads existed in the higher sense of the word, now few districts on the mainland of Scotland are better supplied. Now rotation of crops on the five-shift course is the usual thing, the fields are squared with almost painful regularity, and well dyked in, and the voice of the steam threshing machine is heard in the land. Steam cultivation itself can not be used on account, it is said, of the shallowness of the soil. Shorthorn bulls have been largely used to improve the beef- producing qualities of the cattle, and by some farmers polled Angus blood has been introduced. The old native sheep have retired to North Ronaldsay and the wilder parts of Hoy, and Cheviots and crosses between the Leicester and Cheviot taken their place. The quantity of stock exported to the Aberdeen market, is, considering the superficial area of the islands, very great. The returns, given in Appendix E (pp. 596-601), will show more fully the position of the islands both in regard to agri- culture and stock raising, and how they compare on those points, not only with northern group Shetland, but also with Caithness. Altogether the Orkneys have passed out of the picturesque stage of history, and are at the present time, probably, as thriving as any portion of Her Majesty's dominions. How much so can be judged from the following facts : — during four months, spent wandering to and fro through the islands, in 1880, the writer never once saw a bare-footed man, woman, or child, nor was he once accosted by a beggar. Of what other district in Scotland could the same be said ? Bankruptcy amongst the loS THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. farmers has, it is said, never been known, and over a million was, in 1880, stated to be lying on deposit in the banks at Kirkwall, Stromness, and St. Margaret's Hope, to the credit of the farmers and " peerie lairds." And long may they thrive, as, take. them all in all, finer, more self-reliant subjects, than the Orcadians, the Queen does not possess. CHAPTER X. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. Of the northern group, for more than a hundred years after /they became subject to the Scottish Crown, we have Httle or no historical information. Owing to their geographical situation, and to the fact of the inhabitants being a fishing rather than an agricultural people, the connection with the mother country, Norway, lasted till quite modern days ; and whilst in the case of the Orkneys the Scotticising of the population commenced at the end of the fourteenth century, if not earlier, the Shetlanders remained till nearly the end of the sixteenth century, to all intents and purposes, as Scandinavian, not only in their customs, but also in their language, as if they had still been subjects of the Norwegian Crown. Thus, according to the Fasti Ecclesiie Scotticance, Magnus Norsk, so-called probably from his journey. Minister of Unst, was compelled in 1593 to proceed to Norway to learn Norse, as his flock were acquainted with no other language. Of the constant intercourse that at one time was carried on between Shetland, or Hjaltland, as it was termed, and Norway, we are reminded by the name by which the northern entrance to Bergen harbour is known to the present day, Hjelte-fjord} Again, some few years back, was found, by the late Mr, Petrie, Sheriff-Clerk of Orkney, amongst the records at Kirkwall, a ^ Memoircs des Aniiqiiaires dti A^ord, 1850-60, p. 91. no THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. notarially attested translation of the will of " Sir David Synclar of Swynbrocht Knycht." ^ Sir David, who was the third son of William, last Earl of Orkney, of the line of " high St. Clair " by Marjorie Sutherland, was not only Governor of Hjaltland. under the Scottish Crown, but also Chief Captain of the Palace of Bergen. By his will, executed at Tingwall, and dated the 9th of July, 1506, after directing his body to be buried in St. Magnus Kirk at Tingwall, and praying James IV. to protect his testament, he left all his land that he had inherited on his father's death in Zetland, his pension of Zetland for that year, and his " best siluer stope wyth twelffe stoppis inclussit in the samen," a twelve-pegged tankard, in fact, " wyth my schipe callit the Carvell wyth hir pertinentis, and twa sadillis " ; and several other devises and bequests to different members of the family, and other persons ; his " red cote of weluote " " to the hie alter of the Cathedral Kyrk of Orknaye," " to Sanct Magnus Kyrk in Tyngvell, the twa part of my black welwoss cote, and the thrid parte I leife to the Corss Kyrk in Dynrosness " ; whilst his gold chain or collar, given him by the King of Denmark, and probably a badge of office as Captain of the Palace, he bequeathed to St. George's altar at Roeskilde, the ancient capital of Denmark. For a long period representatives of the Sinclair family were proprietors in Shet- land ; and the Sinclairs of Quendale in Dunrossness only became extinct about the middle of the last century. In the disputes between the Odallers under Sir James Sinclair and Lord Sinclair, which culminated in the battle of Summerdale, the Shetland members of the family were on the popular side, and in the nineteen years respite ^ granted by James V. to Sinclair of Stroma and others, for the slaughter of the Earl of Caithness, we find in addition to that of " Edward Sinclare of Strome," the names of " Magnus Sinclare of Worsetter, Johnne Sinclare of Tollap, William Sinclare of House, Olive Sinclare, Helura, Magnus Sinclare, Lawrence Sinclare, and James Sinclare." Till within the last twenty years or so the remains 1 Bannatyne, Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 103. - Low's Joii7-, p. 208. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R UIE. 1 1 1 of the chapel of the Sinclairs, Barons of Brugh, or Burgh, dehneated in Hibbert, were standing not far from the head of Catfirth Voe, but, stones being scarce in Shetland, they were pulled down to build a dyke round the burial-ground of Garth. Even as late as 1662^ we see Frederick III. of Denmark confirming a gi-ant of land at Sumburgh, formerly part of the estates of the provestrie or deanery of the Dom-Kirk, Bergen, to one Captain Laurence Middleton. It was not till Lord Robert Stewart appears on the scene that we find Shetland figuring at all prominently in Scottish records, and, even then, it was due to the evil deeds of himself and his rifif-rafif following that it did so. Eupheme Elphin- stone, when her royal paramour James V. was tired of her, was made an honest woman of by John Bruce, the laird of Cultmalundie in Fife, to whom she bore, with other children, a son Laurence or Lucas, who followed his bastard brother's lead in crime to the best of his abiUties. When Lord Robert, on Balfour's fall, became Sheriff of Orkney and Great Fond of Shetland, he appointed Laurence Bruce his deputy as Foud, who was no sooner installed in office than he showed how fitted he was to act as his brother's lieutenant. On the presentation of "The Complaints of the Inhabitants of Orkney and Zetland," in the year 1575, against the oppression and misrule of Lord Robert, a commission was issued, under the royal signet, by Morton, then Regent, to William Mudie of Breckness, who had at one time been Chamberlain of Orkney, and William Henderson, Dingwall Pursuivant, to proceed to Shetland and inquire on the spot into the truth of the said complaints. This they did during the month of February, 1576-77, at Tingwall, where they seem to have examined on oath the greater portion of the heads of families of all the different parishes in the islands. As the largest count in the indictment against Laurence Bruce seems to have been his tampering with the system of weights and measures, — which had existed unchanged, ' Proc. Scot. Ant. vol. xiv. p. 13. 112 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. up to that date, from Norse days, — in order to increase the amount of skat and other duties payable under Odal tenure, and of the rents called landiiiaics, payable by the tenants of the lordship lands, it may be as well to show how those duties and rents were paid, and what were the instruments by which the correct weights and measures were ascertained. All Odal lands were liable — to skat payable to the holder of the lordship lands as representing the crown ; to forcop, a proportionate share of the salary paid to the lawman ; and to wattel, the fee of the Under-foud, which last-named payment was for a long time supposed to have been originally exacted for the good offices of some saintly woman with the higher powers. The tenants again of the lordship or bishopric lands paid landmales or rents, partly in malt or meal, partly in cattle or live stock, and partly in "pennyworths," as they were termed, small quantities of grain, butter, oil, or other produce which went to make up any deficiencies on the other two heads. Skat seems to have been paid chiefly in kind, though a very small amount may have been paid in coin. Wadmell, as the native cloth was termed, was largely used as a representative of value, and certain quantities of malt, meal, butter, and oil, were equivalent not only to so much current coin, but also to articles of live stock. The unit of weight, before weights and measures were tampered with by Lord Robert and succeeding donatories, was the eyrar, or troy ounce, 8 of which made i mark ; 24 marks made i lispund, or setteen ; 6 lispunds went to the meil, and 2 meils to the last. All these were ascertained either by the bismar or by the pjwdlar ox puudar. The unit of barrel bulk was the can or ka?ina of Norway, 48 of which made a barrel, and were equal to 15 lispunds of butter, whilst 12 barrels went to the last. In measurement of length the aittel was the unit, and was equal to the Scottish ell. 6 cuttels were equal in value to the eyrar or to a gidlioiin, and 10 guUiouns made a pack. In Skene's De Verborum Significatione^ we read that "10 meales makis ane sufficient Cow, and ane sufficient Oxe ; also ane SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 113 gild Oxe is apprised to 15 meales, and ane wedder is four meales. Item ane Gouse is twa meales ; Item ane Capon is half ane Gouse, viz., ane meale." Each Vardthing elected from time to time a logrettman or la7vrightman, whose special duty it was to keep the standard weights and measures, and to attend when the skat and other dues were collected in each parish by the Under-foud, and who had also to sit as a sort of assessor at the parochial courts. Laurence Bruce, on his appointment as Deputy-foud, proceeded to eject the lawrightmen of the different parishes, and to substitute in their places creatures of his own, who increasing the length of the cuttel, exacted one-third more wadmell than had previously been paid : — " ffor ^ quhan thai complanit of him of the wrangus mett, he said it was na velvat, swa thai gat no vther remeid, bot quhan thai held the wadmell in thair hand to haue gottin richt mett, they wald gifif thame ane straik on the hand with the cuttell to gar thaim lat it gang." Erling of Bw, lawrightman of Dunrossness, testified that Bruce would neither let him measure the wadmell nor let his cuttel be used in measuring : " Quhaifoir - the said Lawrichtman, seing he was refusit, in sing of the disobe- dience and wrang that was done, in the presence of the haill Commownis, he brak his cuttellis and requyrit the haill Commownis witness heiroff." The "Duchemen" from whom the Shetlanders purchased most of the articles not of home growth or manufacture that they were in need of, used unjust his7nars of their own, and generally " did " the natives all round, with the connivance of Bruce, who for so acquiescing received certain goods for his own use from them gratis. From these "Duchemen"^ Bruce "gart serse out the grittest bismeyre," but as it only cheated to the tune of three or four marks, " he wald not ressaue the buttir thairupoun, bot upon his awin bismeyre, quhilk he had gart mak ; quhilk was twa or thre merkis mar of everie lespund nor the grittest bismeyre ^ Balfour's Oppressions, p. 23. '^ Ibidem, p. 34. 3 Ibidem, p. 35. 114 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. that was amangis the Duchemen." SwindUng them by unjust weights and measures was not the only grievance the Shetlanders had against Bruce. From time to time he and his followers, never less^ than twelve in number, took forcible occupa- tion of some man's house, and lived there till they had eaten and drunk all available victuals and drink within reach, and, to add insult to injury, " ofttymes the gudman of the houss. at thair departing, behuvit to propyne the maister houshald, the cuik, and Stewart with sum gift." Even then the "gud- man's" troubles were not over, as these perambulating locusts had to be transported - by boat or horse, the meanest boy in the train disdaining to walk, and if he had a gun expecting it to be carried for him. When making one of his "pro- gresses " " in sum mennis houses, the Laird, with his companie, wald remane quhill he wald dreink halff ane last of beir, and sumtyme mair ; . . . . And the gudwyffes of the housse nor thair servandis gat na entress in thair awin sellaris sa lang as he remanit."^ A fine had always been paid, where any man's swine had injured his neighbour's land, to the owner of the land so injured, but Bruce levied a tax on all swine, which was so unpopular, that in some parishes the people destroyed all their pigs sooner than pay it. He packed the juries with his own creatures, James Bruce, probably a relation, sitting upon one, notwithstanding that he was " at the Kingis home and unrelaxit,"* i.e. for the time being an outlaw and so civilly dead. Even the ministers ^ were not above taking a hint from the Foud's book of how to spoil the flocks committed to their spiritual guidance, and made use of the unjust weights and measures to exact a greater quantity of teinds than they were entitled to. As has been shown before, the report of Mudy and Henderson, conjoined with other causes, led to a temporary retirement of Lord Robert from his northern pashalik, but his brother and Deputy-foud does not seem to have been punished for the numerous torts committed Avhen ^ Balfour's Oppressions, p. 42. - Ibidem, p. 62. 3 Ibidem, p. 43. ■* Ibidem, p. 44. ^ Ibidem, p. 65. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 115 he held office. On his return to the north, Lord Robert, now Earl of Orkney, continued his former career of plunder and oppression, which, with the short interval during which he was again under his nephew's displeasure, lasted till his death in 1591. No sooner was his father dead than Earl Patrick applied to Parliament for a grant of the greater part of the Odal lands in the Orkneys and Shetland on the ground of their having " fallen in Nonentrie," that is, lapsed to the Crown. This called forth " a Supplicatioun ^ to the Parliament be the Gentillmen of Orknay and Zetland" "fifor our selff and in name of the remanent Our Sowerane Lordis gwid subjectis heritable possessoris of the Udack lands in Orknay and Yetland," in which the nature of Odal tenure, to which " nonentrie " was not applicable, was fully set forth, and in which it was stated that having com- plained to Earl Patrick of the infeoffment which he had jjurchased, he had promised to let it lapse if they repaid to him the moneys he had expended in obtaining the same, which they had done. It was further stated, that the Earl had been care- ful not to include in the charter the Odal lands belonging to " some Lordis in Noroway and Denmark," and that he had only included the lands of the petitioners " whome he thinkis to owircrow at his pleasur." Strange to say, the first name on the petition is that of " that worthie man " Laurence Bruce, who fifteen years previously had been charged with every form of extortion and oppression. Whether " the Lordis of the Articles of the Parliament " con- descended to notice the supplication of "the Gentillmen of Orknay and Zetland " any further than by directing it to " lie on the table" does not appear, but Earl Patrick does not seem in any way to have been affected by it if they did. Earl Robert had erected for himself two residences in Shetland, one at Wethersta in Delting, and another known as Jarlshof on the shores of the West Voe in Dunrossness, where the ruins of this latter dwelling-house are to be seen to the present day. 1 Balfour's Oppressions, p. lOl. I 2 li6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Neither Wethersta nor Jarlshof were, however, good enough for his successor, who soon after his accession to the title must have commenced building that castle at Scalloway, the walls of which still frown over the most beautiful of the many beautiful bays with which Shetland is so plentifully supplied. In this fortalice, erected by forced labour of every description, the meetings of the Althing were from time to time held, if a tribunal which simply had to register whatever Earl Patrick as Foud chose to decree can be dignified with such a name. The first of the Acts,' of which we have any record, passed, on the 24th day of August, 1602, at Scallowa)', shows, that, in one thing at least, Earl Patrick was better than his father, as by it it was ordered that all " the Dutche Merchandis " and other strangers trafficking in the islands should have their weights and measures properly adjusted and seen to by the local authorities under pain of confiscation of ship and cargo. The cloven foot, however, peeped out very shortly, as on the next day it was ordered that any one who should venture to appeal to " the Lordis of Counsale " should " tyne the benefeit of the lawis of the coyntrie and newer to be hard in ony caus therefter." That he should have passed acts for the compulsory supply of peats to his household, that ferries should be kept up by which his followers should be transported free of charge, and that a goodly store of oxen and wether sheep would be demanded for his retinue was to be expected. Even when he forbade oxen being sold to the "Duchemen" and other strangers he was perhaps not exceeding the exactions common to the age. These, however, were not enough, and by an act passed at Scalloway on the 22nd of August, 1604, it was decreed not only that no lands should be sold till the next of kin had had the offer of them, which in fact, as has been shown, was in strict accordance with Odal law and custom, but that, on the refusal of the next of kin to purchase, the lands should be offered " to my Lord himselfif," who would no doubt take ample care that the price paid was not exorbitant. ^ Act.s and Statutes of the La^oting. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R ULE. 1 1 7 On Earl Patrick's imprisonment, Bishop Law for a short time held sway in the islands, not only in his episcopal capacity, but also as holding the king's commission as sheriff, and held his first court at Scalloway on the 21st day of August, 161 2, at which many acts for "good neighbourhood," as they were long termed in Shetland, were passed, which acts, in the main, were similar to those we have already seen as having been in force in Orkney. At this court " Johne Faw elder callit mekill Johne Faw Johne Faw younger calit Littill Johne Faw Katherin Faw spous to umquhill Murdo Brown Agnes Faw sister to the said Litill Johne wer indicted " for the murder of the said Murdo Brown, and Littill Johne for incest with his wife's sister and her daughter, and for adultery with Katherine Faw, and all for theft, sorcery, and fortune- teUing, " and that they can help or hinder in the proffeit of the milk of bestiale." Katherin, who pleaded guilty to having slain her husband with " a lang braig knyff," was sentenced ^' to be tane to the Bulwark and cassen over the same in the sey to be drownit to the death and dome given thairupone, and decerns the remanent persones to be quyt of the crymes abonewrittin." Walter Ritchie, who seems to have appeared as counsel for the accused, pleaded that it was not usual to take cognisance of murder amongst the Egyptians. This clearly proves them to have been gipsies, and the name to have been, probably, Fea. Query : can the Orcadian Feas have been ol" gipsy descent ? " The Great Fishery," as the Dutch styled that herring-fishing which they so long and successfully carried on off the shores of the British Isles to the envy and disgust of the various English and Scottish writers, who wrote on the subject during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies, was now nearly at the acme of its prosperity, and their busses were congregating in Bressay Sound, till St. Jolui's Day permitted them to commence fishing, in yearly increasing numbers. Jack ashore is not always the quietest of mortals, and Dutch Jack was no exception, and we find two acts directed against the disorders, that ensued when the Dutchmen Ii8 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. were holding their yearly carnival. The one was passed in 1615, and the other on the 7th of November, 1625. By the latter, which is entitled "Act anent the demolishing of the houssis of Lerwick," Sir John Buchanan, who was then Sheriff Principal of Orkney and Shetland, " being informit of the great abominatioun and wickednes committit yeirlie be the HoUanderis and cuntrie people godles and prophane per- sones repairing to thame at the houssis of Lerwick quhilk is a desert place To the venteris of beir thair quha as appeiris voyd of all feir of God and misregarding all ciuell anc ecclesiastical governement in thair drunkenes and utherwayis committis manifest bludshed " . . . . " also in committing manifold adultrie and fornicatioun with women venteris of the said beir and utheris women evill Inclyned quha resortis thither under pretext of selling of sokis and utheris necessaris to thame" .... "stealing off pursis from the HoUenderis," &c., ordered that the houses should be demolished, that no persons should go to Bressay to sell beer, and that " no woman of quhatsumeuer rank or qualitie sail repair to the said Sound syd for selling of sockis to the said HoUenderis or bying of necessaris from thame Bot sail caus thair husband thair sones or servandis sell and buy fra thame As thay will eschew to be repute and haldin commoun and prophane adultereris and punischet thairfoir at all rigour." Although Lerwick was thus described in 1625 as "a desert place," and such houses as then stood there were probably demolished in accordance with Sir John Buchanan's order, the natural fitness of the situation for the principal place and port of the islands was too marked to be overlooked, and by Charles the Second's time it had become so important that a fort was built, probably on the same site whereon Fort Charlotte now stands, and a garrison of 300 men, under a Captain William Sinclair, a native of Shetland, stationed there to protect the place against the Dutch. On the fir^t war with the Mynheers coming to an end, however, not only was the garrison with- drawn, but even the cannon removed, and in the next war a SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 119 Dutch frigate sailed into the Sound, and burnt not only the fort, but also the best houses in the place.^ Bressay Sound occasionally saw stirring sights enacted in those days. In 1640 ten Spanish men-of-war, Dunkirkers as they were termed, surprised four Dutch men-of-war, waiting to convoy the East India fleet, of which two were sunk on the west side of the Sound, one was run ashore and blown up by her skipper, and the fourth was captured by the Dons. During the Common- wealth the English fleet, consisting of ninety-four sail, under Admirals Deans and Monk, lay for several days there in 1653, and in August, 1665, ninety-two sail, under the Earl of Sandwich.^ Of this last visit, there is a curious record, in an old Justices of the Peace Book at Kirkwall, of some sailors, who had been left on shore when their vessels sailed from Ler- wick. In the wars with France at the commencement of the eighteenth century, French privateers sailed as they liked around the islands, though, according to Gifford,^ Mounsieur behaved more courteously than Mynheer. In 1688, however, a French frigate carried away for a time the daughter of Alexander Craig,'* minister of Unst, from the bay of Norwick. History does not relate in what plight the damsel returned, as is mentioned in the First Statistical Account of Orphir,^ in the case of two girls who were taken from the little island of Cava by Gow the pirate. Of them it is said, that after spending a few days on board ship, they were returned " to their friends loaded with presents, and they both soon afterwards got husbands." It may be as well here to give a short sketch of "The Great Fishery." ^ Gifford's Zetland, p. 6. ^ Sibbald's Zetland, pp. 61, 62. 3 Gifford's Zetland, p. 6. ■* Easti, vol. v. p. 441. s First Statistical Account, vol. xix. p. 398. I20 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. The Rise and Fall of " The Great Fishery T From the middle of the ninth century, and for many years afterwards, the fishermen on the east coast of Scotland supplied the Low Countries with herring, and it was not till the middle of the twelfth century that the Netherlanders are said to have commenced fishing on their own account.^ Even then the Scotch fishermen probably continued to dispose of a portion of their catch to the fishermen of the Low Countries, as in the year 1429- an Ordinance of the Royal Burghs of Scotland was passed, by which no fish were allowed to be sold to foreigners till the coast towns had been supplied at a fixed rate. In consequence of this ordinance large numbers of Scotch fishermen are said to have abandoned the trade in their native country and to have settled in Holland.^ Till the end of the fourteenth century the Hollanders seem to have cured their fish in a very rough manner, probably in wet pickle, and only in sufficient quantities to supply their home markets ; but about that period one William Beakelson, of Biervelet, taught them how " to gill, salt, and pack herrings in casks." ^ Eeakelson's discovery, or improved method of curing, whichever it really was, led the Hollanders to turn their attention to the export trade, and early in the fifteenth century we find them securing a footing in those Baltic markets, of vv^hich for four centuries or so they had practically the monopoly, and to which, at the present day, more than three quarters of the herrings exported from Scotland are sent. So important had " The Great Fishery " become by the middle of the sixteenth century that, according to Jan de Witt, the Great Pensionary, eight vessels of war were fitted out to protect the busses from the Dunkirk pirates, and a special ^ Anderson's Origin of Commerce, vol. i. p. 41. " Ibidem, vol. i. p. 259. •* Appendix to Irish Fisheries Report, 1837, p. 2. ■* Jan de Witt's Political Maxims, p. 22. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R DIE. 1 2 1 tax was levied for their maintenance, known as the "Great Impost." ^ John Keymor, a dependant of Sir Waher Raleigh, who visited in the course of his inij^uiries not only Holland but also the various Hanseatic towns, stated - that, when he wrote (1601), the Hollanders possessed 2,000 busses out of a total fleet of fishing vessels of nearly 5,000, from 60 to 100 and 200 tons apiece, and that they exported ^ fish, not only over all the north of Europe and to every part almost of the Mediterranean, but even as far as Brazil. Probably, in consequence of Keymor's report, James I. and VI. forbade foreigners to fish in British waters without license first had and obtained, and for such license the Hollanders are said to have agreed to pay, though how much is not stated. In the year 1625 the "Dunkirkers seem to have especially harassed the fishing fleet, and in consequence the next year the Deputies of the United Provinces fitted out thirty additional men-of-war, and estab- lished a scale of rewards for the capture of the enemies' vessels, varying from 30,000 down to 4,000 guilders ; and, according to de Witt,'^ " 'twas also resolved to put the law in execution which commands the men of Dunkirk to be thrown over-board." Their "High Mightinesses," however, being bad paymasters, a few years afterwards the seamen of the Dutch men-of-war deserted to the enemy, and sailed " with them upon freebooting ; " but, as de Witt ^ quaintly put it, " the pigs were fain to pay for the sow's offence," and the heads of the Admiralty were declared infamous and punished. In the year 1633 one John Smith, "^ who was sent by the Earl of Pembroke and others concerned in the English Royal Fishery Corporation "for the discovery of the Island of Schotland," and to report generally on the Hollanders' manner of fishing, was informed that at the time of his visit to the islands there were 1,500 sail of herring busses of about eiglit}- ^ IsLnAQy^iiVs Political lilaxims, p. 140. - Keymor's Obso-vaiions, p. 2. ^ Ibidem, p. 6. * Jan de Witt, p. 166. ^ Ibidem, p. 169. ^ Smith's Trade and Fishing of Great Britain, p. 7. 122 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. tons burden each, besides a small fleet of doggers of sixty tons and upwards, engaged in the ling and cod fishing in Shetland waters, the whole being convoyed by twenty wafters, i.e. vessels bearing the pennant, each of twenty guns. Probably, in consequence of representations from Lord Pembroke and his colleagues, Charles I., on the loth of May, 1636, issued a similar proclamation to that of his father before referred to, and, to show that he could bite as well as bark, appeared, according to Rushworth,^ during the following summer, with "a formidable Armado " of sixty sail, under the Earl of Northumberland, " upon the coasts of the Isles, part of the King of Great Britain's Dominions," where the Dutch busses were then fishing. The Dutch, refusing to desist from fishing, were fired into, some busses being sunk and some captured, upon which they agreed to give _;2^3 0,000 for the remainder of that season's fishing, and to pay a yearly tribute in future. This tribute, according to de Witt,- consisted of every tenth herring, and " must have been paid had not the Free States of Holland, in the year 1667, brought their Maritime affairs into another state and condition. " At this period he ^ estimated that, out of a total population of 2,400,000, 450,000 subsisted by the deep sea fisheries alone, and that upwards of 300,000 lasts (from 12 to 14 barrels to the last as sold by the fishermen) of herrings and other fish were landed yearly from them. Here it may be as well to give some account of the rules and regulations under which the Dutch fisheries were carried on. By the Ordin- ance ■* for the Government of the Great Fishery^ passed at the Hague in 165 1, and renewed again in 1656, in which the Great Fishery was styled The principal Mi/ie and chief Support of these Countries, and of the Inhabitants therein, the benefits arising therefrom were jealously restricted to the in- habitants of the provinces of Holland and West Frizeland, who were forbidden to hold shares in any buss partially owned ^ Rushworth's Collections, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 322. ^ Jan de Witt, p. 182. 3 ibidem, p. 35. * Repo}-t on British Herring Fishery, p. 1 74. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 123 by any persons residing out of those provinces, and by article eight the captains of the men-of-war were directed to arrest any buss, the crew of which should be detected selling herrings to the Zealanders or inhabitants of the United Pro- vinces, other tlian of Holland or West Frizeland. No herrings were allowed to be caught, except for bait on the Dogger- bank, before the feast of St. John the Baptist, the 24th June N.S., and none after the 31st of December ; and before sailing each buss skipper was compelled to state where he intended to fish, to what port he intended to return, and what private mark he used on the bung-stave of his casks, and to swear that he would strictly keep all the regulations, and not sell any salt, fishing-line, other materials for fishing, or any other merchan- dise whatever to the people of Shetland or any other foreign nation. No herrings, not salted the evening they were caught, were allowed to be cured, and the fish caught one night had to be carefully separated from those caught another, the fish being laid close and even, and not crossways nor pressed witli baskets or trays, and each class of fish being carefully assorted. Up to the 15th of July, Vent Jaggers, Hkewise under strict regulations, were allowed to visit the fleet on the fishing-grounds and purchase fish from them, though no fish could be sold until they had lain ten days in pickle. There seems to have been a graduated system of bounties of some kind on these early caught fish, which are said at times to have realised the enormous price of one hundred dollars per barrel. After the 15th of July no herrings were allowed to be sold till the busses returned to port, where their cure had to be finally perfected within three weeks after being landed, no fresh pickle being allowed to freshen them up, and all repacking having to be done openly. When finally ready for sale the prices of the different assortments had to be declared, and masters and supercargoes were forbidden to concern them- selves in the sale by Taste at the Btmghole, whatever that may have meant. In the early fishing, only Spanish or 124 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Portugal salt was allowed to be used ; after Bartholomew- tide fish could be cured with boiled sea-salt, made according to a contract with the city of Cologne. No fish were allowed to be exported to France and the western markets but those caught after Bartholomewtide ; and only those cured with coarse salt could be sent to Bremen and the eastern markets. At their second outset vessels were not permitted to sail before the 14th of September or fish before the 20th, after which date masters might put their herrings in other vessels, and assist their crews in hauling nets. All these rules were enforced by fines, imprisonment with bread and water diet, corporal punishment, or Naval Discipline. Query : did Naval Discipline mean keel-hauling ? According to Edmondston,^ who wrote at the commencement of the present century, the busses, which ran from seventy to eighty tons, carried one large lug sail and a small inizen, and had crews of fourteen hands, of which some were boys. Keymor ^ stated that in his day each buss carried forty men, and de Witt ^ estimated the cost of a buss at 4,550 guilders, and of fitting her for sea at 5,500 more, which, taking the guilder at a trifle under is. lod., would make the total expenditure about ^920. Their nets, of which each buss generally carried two fleets, were, according to Edmondston,^ sixty yards long and fifteen feet deep, and twenty made a fleet, and as the busses carried no boats they had to be shot and hauled from the deck. The reason for the restriction of the fishery to between St. John's day and the last day of the year probably arose from the idea so long prevalent, that the herrings, instead of, as is believed to be the case nowadays, moving in from the deep water to the shore for the purpose of spawning, migrated in several vast shoals from the northern regions. Several writers give a sort of time-table for the arrival of the fish at different points on the coast ; de Witt,^ for instance, saying that 1 Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. i. p. 268. - Keyinor, p. 7. •■' Jan de Witt, p. 22. •* Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. i. p. 269. * Jan de Witt, p. 22 ; see also Puckle's England's Way, p. 9. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R ULE. 1 25 Holland was well situated not only for the Doggerbank, " but also near the herring-fishery, which is only to be found on the coast of Great Britain^ viz., from St. J^ohn's to St. James's, about Scket-Latid, Phartt, and Boekjiess ; from St. James's to the Elevation of the Cross about Bockelson or Seveniot, from the Elevation of the Cross to St. Katherinis in the deep waters to the eastward of Yarmouth.'''' During the period which inter- vened between the arrival of the busses in Bressay Sound, or Buss Haven, as the Hollanders termed it, and John's Mass, when they were at liberty to commence fishing, their crews seem to have held high carnival on shore, and to have amused themselves like a lot of playful grampuses. In a pamphlet,^ published in the middle of the last century, we get a good picture of Dutch Jack ashore. " There is no Horse-hire demanded here, unless it be in the Summer, when the Dutch are upon the Coast ; during that Time, some of the Country People bring in their Horses for the Dutchmen to ride, and I must own, that if they were not better Sailors than Riders, I would not chuse to venture my Live as far as G?-avesefid in one of their best Bottoms. There is a Spot of Ground above the Town, al)out a Quarter of a Mile in Length, and pretty even Ground, which is very rare in Zetland ; here the Countryman comes with his Horse, enquiring in Dutch., who will ride ; immediately comes a clumsy Dutch7nan., gives him a Dublekee (that is Twopence), then up he mounts ; the Owner of the Horse immediately falls a beating the Creature, and pricks its Tail with the Point of his Stick ; then behold ! in an Instant, down comes the Dutch- 7tian ; up he gets again, and mounts afresh, but before he gets on a second Time, there must be a second Dublekee, and he is scarce up before he is down again ; so that the Fellow often makes a Shilling of the Dutchman before he comes to the End of the Place ; this, together with what Money they receive for their Stockings, is all the Cash they have from one Year's End to the other ; unless when some Dutchman fancy any of their Horses then they chance to make a good Profit, as they will ^ Campbell's Great White Herring Fishery, p. 9. 126 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. sell a Horse to a Dutchman for a Pound, that they cannot sell to their Neighbours for three Half-Crowns. " Probably the middle of the seventeenth century saw the great fishery at its zenith, Brand ^ and Gifford - both stating that they had been told of 2,200 sail having been in Bressay Sound at once, and the former writer remarking, " Yea, some- times so thick do the Ships ly in the Sound, that they say men might go from one side of the Sound to the other stepping from ship to ship." In the year 1702 ^ a French fleet attacked the Dutch men-of-war off Fair Isle, and, sinking the admiral's ship, proceeded to Bressay Sound, where, according to Gifford, they burnt 150 busses. From this blow the great fishery is said never to have thoroughly rallied, Fraser'^ putting the number of busses in 1736 at 300, and in 1779 at 162. During the Napoleonic wars, as the Dutch sided, willingly or unwillingly, with the Corsican, they had to abandon their old fishing-grounds for a time, though after Waterloo they returned again. After many fluctuations the number of vessels had fallen as low as 90 in 1865, since which time they have been gradually picking up again. In 1878 there were 391 vessels of all classes engaged in the Dutch herring trade, of which eighty-nine were loggers ; eighteen were loggers vief stoomp- spill, that is, with steam winches for hauling their nets ; twelve were sloeps : seven only were hoekers, that is, the old busses; two hundred and sixty-four were homschuits ; and one was an ijzeren schroefstoom-logger. The bomschuits, called in Shetland " booms," hail chiefly from Scheveningen, in North Holland, are bluff-bowed and sterned, flat-bottomed or nearly so, to admit their being run ashore, ketch or yawl rigged, and carry weather-boards to lessen their drifting when on a wind. The loggers are said to be built on the model of the Grimsby smacks. In 1857 all the old laws affecting the fishery were 1 Brand's Orkney and Zetland, p. S9. 2 Gifford's Zetland, p. 5. •^ Ibidem, p. 5- ■* ¥x2iSQX^s Domestic Fisheries, Appendix, p. 75. SHE TLAND L 'NDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 127 abolished, and a Fishery Board constituted similar to what has existed in Scotland since i8og. Whilst the Dutch were thus coining money out of the seas which wash the shores of the British Isles, the natives of those isles had, so far as the herring fishery was concerned, to look on apparently helpless. It was not for want of companies being started for the prosecution and encouragement of the British fisheries, as company, after company, was got up, only to collapse in a few years' time, either from the gross ignorance of those entrusted with the management, or else, which is more probable, from the special unfitness of any company to prosecute the fishing trade to a profit. Tlie Shetland Herring Fishery. The Shetlanders, till the commencement of the present century, contented themselves with catching a few barrels of herrings, "the gleanings," as John Smith termed them, "of the Hollanders' busses, for the busses driving at sea break the scull or shoal of herrings." The year 1826 was practically the first year in which any quantity of herrings were cured in Shetland for exportation, since when the fishery has fluctuated from time to time, as will be seen from the returns given in the Appendix. At present it is on the rise ^ again, a good many boats from Caithness and the south having the last few years come north to prosecute the herring fishing in Shetland waters, and the adoption by the Shetlanders themselves of large boats, for all classes of fishing any distance from land, will probably prevent its ever collapsing again, as the old-fashioned six-oared Shetland yawls are too small to carry a proper fleet of nets. A ^ On the i6th of September in the present year (1882), the total herring catch for Shetland for the season so far was estimated at 104,000 crans, or barrels, giving the enormous average for each large boat engaged of about sSo crans. I2S rilE ORKNEYS. AND SHETLAND. curious fact in Ihe natural liistory of the herring is that on the west side of .Shetland the fish arc shotten or spent by the end of August, whilst on the cast side tlicy remain />/// to the end of September.^ 1 Rtpciyt on the Ihrrins; Fisheries, 1S78, Appendix, p. xxi. SCMEVKNINGEM I!( MSCIIMITS. CHAPTER XI. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND liRlTISlI RULE — {cOtlH/lKCd). The Liti}^, or Tlaaf Fishini\. TuK Shetland fishery, and in fact tJic L^nx-at mainstay of the islands fur centuries, has been the long-line fishing for ling, tusk, and cod, sometimes known as the ling fishing, and more generally as the Jiaaf fishing, so called from the Danish and Norwegian //rtrz', Gothic haaf^ the sea, in contradistinction to the fishing carried on inshore. Up to the year 17 12, when a higii duty was placed on all imported salt, and a custom-house established for the first time at Lerwick, the fish trade of the islands was almost completely in the hands of the merchants K 130 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. from Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, who, coming over about the commencement of May in every year, hired booths., or store- houses, from the proprietors in which to store their hemp, lines, hooks, tar, linen, tobacco, spirits, and beer, and also rented the ayres., or stone beaches, as curing-grounds. According to Smithand Gifford, Scotch and English merchants also came ; but the greater bulk of the trade was undoubtedly in the hands of the " Dutchmen," as these North German traders were termed. To them the native fishermen trucked the fish they caught in exchange for their various commodities, or sold them for the foreign currency the merchants had brought with them. For long enough German and Danish coins were the only ones current in Shetland, very much to the disad- vantage of the natives, as the rate of exchange was all against them. Even in 1806,^ Dutch and Danish coins were more common in Lerwick than British money. On the imposition of the salt duties the Hanseatic traders were driven away, and the proprietors compelled to turn fish- curers themselves. Einding the business, thus thrust on them in the first instance, a very profitable one, they after a time commenced that subdivision - of farms, which has intensified the evils of the small crofting system — the bane of the islands — if it did not actually create them. Under the old Country Acts early and improvident marriages were in some degree prevented by young couples not being allowed to marry, unless they could show that they had at least " forty pounds Scots of free gear to set up house upon, or some lawful trade whereby to subsist." All these restrictions were now thrown to the winds, and everything was done to encourage early marriages to such a degree, that between the years 1755 and 1793, according to Edmondston,^ Shetland increased its population by 4,976 inhabitants ; w'hilst during the same period only one hundred had been added to that of Orkney, a much richer and more fertile country. Numerous writers, from Adam Smith down- ^ Neill's Tour, p. 71. " A''ezci Method of Fishing. ^ Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 344. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 131 wards, have described the state of the Shetland peasantry till quite recent times as little better than serfdom. Up to quite modern times a Shetlander could only fish for his laird or his laird's tacksman ; had to procure every article he was in need of from the shop of the laird or tacksman ; and was. expected to dispose of every article of farm produce and every beast he had for sale at the same place. Nay, more, if a lad went to the Greenland Whale P'ishery for the summer, his family had to pay a guinea ^ as a fine for his so doing. The Shetlander thus realised to the full the advantages of buying in the dearest market and selling in the cheapest.^ Competition was unknown, as no one could start a shop, in most places, without the proprietor's leave, and even if they could have done so, the fishermen for obvious reasons could not have dealt there. At :the present day very few of the proprietors engage in fish-curing on their own account, shops are springing up all over the islands, and the tenants on most estates are said no longer to be compelled to fish for their landlord's nominee, but that many evils arising from the system still survive is undoubted. Till within the last forty or fifty years, all the boats used for the haaf fishing were imported from Norway in pieces ready for putting together. At the present day, all the boats used, with the exception of some of the big East Country boats, and of which more hereafter, are built in the islands, though the model used is, with little, if any alteration, still the same, that of the Norwegian yawl. Sixareens or sixerns, sexaringr, (so called from their pulling six oars), are the boats principally used at the haaf. They run from eighteen to twenty-two feet of keel, and, as a rule, are built entirely of Norway pine, though occasionally larch is used for the lower timbers and boards. They are all clinker-built, stem and stern alike, with great sheer fore and aft, and great rake in stem and sternposts — so that a boat which measures only twenty-one feet on keel, is nearly thirty over all. 1 Neill's Tour, p. 9S. 2 Shirreff 's Shetland, p. 15. K 2 132 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Buoyant as corks in a seaway, they are very tender at first, though stiff enough when down to their bearings. The sail used is a dipping lug, hoisted on a mast stepped nearly amidships, and occasionally you may see a small jib or foresail set as well. They pull six oars double banked, and use one thole-pin, called a kabe., and a humlabund or grummet, made sometimes of cord, generally of raw cowhide and down at The Ness (as Dunrossness is always called in other parts of Shetland) of whale sinew, when it can be obtained. They prefer the grummet to the double thole-pin on the ground of its being handier in a seaway. The names of every article of A boat's equipment, and most of the terms used in the navi- gation or management of it, are of pure Norse derivation. A boat itself is either /d-z-r or kuoren ; the stern is kupp or steven ; the loose boards forming the flooring are the tilfer ; the plug used to stop the hole through which, when run ashore, any water, the boat may have made when afloat, is run off, is the Jii/e ; the scoop used in baling is auskfrrie ; the division boards dividing a boat into compartments ^xo. fiskafeal ; the compart- ments themselves are rooms ; a stone anchor is a fastie; the band binding the ribs together is hadaband ; the horn used to show the course to other boats at night, or in fog, is looder- horn ; a boat's compass is a diackle ; oars are renis^ remaks, or ars ; the mast is steng ; the crooked piece of wood or horn by means of which the yard is hoisted up and down the mast is rakie ; the halliards are the tows, a term also sometimes applied to the fishing lines ; the starboard side of a boat is called the linebnrd, because the lines are hauled in on that side ; whilst the port side is for obvious reasons termed back- burd ; to keep a boat in position in a tideway, or up to wind, is to atidoo ; to back water is to shoo; and to reef a sail is to sivift. In Appendix H will be found a fisherman's yarn, given in the Shetland dialect, and taken from Hibbert. There is a softness, some people call it lisping, about Shetland speech, with which a stranger, accustomed to the broad Doric of the east coast of Scotland fishermen, is always struck at first. SHE TLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH R VIE. 133 One great peculiarity is the use, as in Germany, of the second person singular, instead of the second person plural. The boats, which cost on an average about £,2 1 apiece, are, when not hired from the curer, generally owned by the crew, in shares, who form what is called a "company." For a very long time, probably down to the commencement of the present century, if not later, the Shetlanders, like their Faroese cousins to the present day, knew hardly anything of the manage- ment of a boat under sail, and trusted almost entirely to their oars to reach their fishing-grounds and to return therefrom. Hence the selection of many of the haaf stations, as they are termed, to which the fishermen resort for the summer months. Each boat's crew at the haaf station have their own hut, built of rough stones, and roofed with pones, i.e. thin strips of dried turf, which are also packed into the chinks and crannies of the walls to render them air-tight. The amount of air space would, if the yet is ever steeked, hardly satisfy a sanitary inspector, whose sense of smell too would probably be offended by the amount of putrescent fish and offlxl that is scattered about all over the place. Each curer's boys have a hut to themselves, whilst the storekeepers sleep in the booths belonging to their respective employers. The fishermen and boys return to their homes every Saturday, for the helie, as they term the interval between sunset on Saturday and sunrise on Monday, — a period during which, by the Old Country Acts, all Shetlanders were forbidden to fish, travel by sea or land, or be in any way engaged on secular matters. The banks or gruns lie at all distances from the land, the principal one at the Feideland haaf, lying about forty miles north-west from the station, though boats are said sometimes to go as far as sixty miles from the land, sinking Rooeness Hill before the lines are completely set in " the deep waters." On the east side they must at times go even further, as last summer (18S1) the boats from The Skerries and Fetlar are said to have been hauling in sight of fishermen from the Norwegian coast. Rocky or coral bottoms are said to be best for ling and tusk, 134 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. and should the lines by any chance in foggy or misty weather get shot on certain " long lanes " or channels with a sandy bottom, the fish taken are rendered worthless by the cega tridens, or bee, as it is termed in Northmaven. This sessile-eyed crus- tacean resembles a gigantic woodlouse, about an inch and a half in length, of a light crablike colour, and with a hard crus- taceous covering. Creeping in through the gills the bee eats away the inside of tusk, ling, and cod, and leaves the fishermen nothing but the skin and bone. Flat fish, such as skate and halibut, it is compelled to leave untouched, as these fish have the power of closing the gill-covers, which prevents the bee getting access to the interior of the fish. In order to enable the fishermen' to know what sort of ground they are over, Mr. Cobb, who was sent to Shetland about the year 1770, for the purpose of giving the fishermen hints as to improved methods of catching and curing fish, invented a sort of dredg- ing trawl, made of stout canvas, and with a mouth like that of a Highlander's purse, made of strong tin. The Shetlanders saw the good of it, but the moment Cobb had left the islands, gave up using it.^ In fine weather the sixareens make two trips a week to the fiir haaf, starting from eight to ten a.m. on the Monday, and return- ing on the Wednesday, and again from Thursday to Saturday. The smaller boats, fourareens, {fcefingr) going about half the distance, ten to thirty miles, lay and haul their lines every day, and, as a rule, get more conger, than do the boats at the far haaf. The whole complement of lines in a boat is termed a long line or fleet, each member of the crew contributing his own portion, termed a packie, which is made up of so many boiights or buchts, each of forty fathoms of from 2 lb. to 2\ lb. line. The number of boughts to the packie varies in different parts from nine at The Ness, to twenty or twenty-one in Northmaven, where a fleet of lines will cost about jQi'] ids. Occasionally, lines as well as boats are rented from the curer ; ;£6, as a rule, being paid for a season's hire of lines and boats, or jQz to ^£,'3 for ^ Fea's Considerations, part ii. j). 55. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R UIE. 1 35 boat alone. Each bought has eleven hooks fastened to it at regular intervals by tomes or snoodings, a yard long ; the part next the hook, called the bid^ having one strand taken out to prevent its being destroyed by the teeth of the fish. When the different packies are joined together and make a haak^ bolta- stanes, or kappics^ heavy sinkers of stone are attached to each end, and smaller stones called bighters fastened at intervals to keep the line in position. To each of the kappies a bow or buoy of pigskin is attached by a line of the same thickness as that forming the back, and another bow is fastened to a kappie in the centre. For bait, herring, haddock, halibut, mackerel, piltocks, conger, tusk, cod, and ling are all used at times, the three last named only Avhen short of other bait at the fishing grounds. Herring is the best of all bait, where it can be pro- cured, and is either caught in nets, on the white fly, or with bare white hooks on dandy lines, worked up and down from a boat that is andooed for the purpose. So numerous are the herrings at times, that the sinker (^ lb. to i lb. lead) is stopped on its descent by the number of fish striking at the same moment, and six hundred have been taken by one boat between eight and ten o'clock in the evening. Haddock are caught on small long lines of five boughts each, with ten score hooks laid in about twenty to sixty fathom water, and baited with hmpets, cockles, or razor fish, or, what is best of all, when they can be obtained, mussels. One of the Old Country Acts ordained, " That none use mussels or other bait, but such as all or the most part of fishers hath, under the pain of £,\o ; and that none fish with haddock lines within voes from Beltane to Martinmas, or so long as they can draw haddocks on the hand lines, and that none take bait nor cut tang in another man's ebb, under the like pain of ^10." The Shetlanders are said to have nearly exhausted the large whelks known as bieckies, and to be fast destroying the mussel scalps as they have already done the oyster-beds which formerly existed in Cliff Sound and other places. At the far haaf the lines are generally set and hauled three times every trip, and at depths varying from 136 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. 80 to 120 fathoms. The setting in fine weather takes from two to two and a-half hours, and, after the operation is over, they hang on to the last buoy for a couple of hours. Hauling, or kailin^ as it is termed, takes from three to four hours, and is conducted as follows : two men shoo the boat ; one hauls the line ; another gaffs or clips the fish with the hnggie-staff^ cavils, or unhooks the fish, and kaaes the hooks, that is, inserts the points in the snoodings to prevent their ravel- ling ; whilst a fifth guts and takes the heads off. The heads are dried by the fishermen for their own use, and the livers used to make oil. If a heavy fishing is made, not only are heads and livers thrown over, but, at times, even small ling, tusk, and cod have to make way for their betters. Ling, tusk, and cod, are the fish handed over to the curer, though conger, skate, and halibut, which latter fish the Shetlanders call turbot, are also caught in large numbers, and used by the fishermen for their own consumption. Conger are looked upon as miclean, and are only used for bait. According to Scott,^ skate also were con- sidered unclean by the Fair Islanders. The true turbot is very rare in Shetland waters. The dog-fish, heckla, as the natives call him, at times does a deal of damage. The tusk, torsk, or brismark, as the Shetlanders term the gadus brosme, is essentially a fish of the northern regions, being rarely found south of the Orkneys, and not in any great quantity even off those coasts ; and in Shetland waters it is far more abundant on the eastern than on the western side of the islands. To be properly appreciated tusk should be eaten fresh, as when cured they lose, as old Brand says, "much of their savour and relish." The skin is very gelatinous, and melts in your mouth like the " thin " of a turbot. Before being cooked, the fish should be laid on a stone and well mashed with a " beetle," or heavy piece of wood, as otherwise they are apt to be somewhat tough. Small sharks are sometimes caught at The Ness, and on being hooked are drawn alongside the boat, a slip-knot passed round the tail, and the liver cut out, after which the fish is cast off, to see if 1 Scotfs Life, vol. iii. p. 173. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 137 life is worth living without a liver. Occasionally very rare fish are caught, thus in 1878 an opah or kingfish was landed from the Feideland haaf, weighing nearly one and a-half cwt. Three tons of ling are looked upon as a very big fishing, though three tons and a-half are said to have been landed in very fine weather. Thirty cwt. is however considered an average good catch. In Northmaven a ling weighing 28 lbs. is looked upon as a big fish, the average 1 1 lbs.; 14 lbs. a big tusk, average 4 lbs. ; 28 lbs. a big cod, average 10 lbs. These weights are all taken as the fish are delivered to the curers, minus head and entrails. A ling is said to have been landed at Balta Sound this last May (1882) that weighed, as taken from the water, 84 lbs. It is reported to have measured 5 feet 11 inches in length and 3 feet in girth. Saith, or coal-fish {inerlangus carbonarms) are principally caught in the rapid tideways off The Ness, and the north of Unst, in smaller boats than those used at the haaf, by trolling a herring or a skinned piltock by a hook mounted on a five-fathom tome, when the tide runs strong ; and when it slackens, by yaaghig, that is jerking the bait up and down rapidly in the same way that dandy-lines are worked. Ling, tusk, and cod, will keep if the weather is tolerably cool, from Saturday till Monday ; but saith must be put in pickle at once. The fish when landed are weighed in a couple of hundred- weights at a time, each hundredweight being termed a 7veigh. They are then split, the backbones taken out, washed in the sea, and carefully brushed from shoulder to tail in order to remove blood or other impurities. They are then laid in a vat, the bottom of which has already been covered with salt, skin-side undermost, and sprinkled with salt, and so on layer after layer till the vat is full. Liverpool salt is always used at the present day for curing white fish, as ling, tusk, and cod are some- times termed, Lisbon and St. Ubes salt being only used for her- rings ; though in former years the latter was mostly used for all fish exported ; it being stated before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1785 that a gentleman residing in the islands had owned that he had in one year imported — euphemism for 1 38 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. smuggled — no less than 972 tons of foreign salt. The quantity of salt used has to be carefully regulated, otherwise the fish is apt to get salt-burned. After lying three days in pickle, the fish are again washed and brushed to remove any imjmrities the salt may have brought out, and are then placed heads and tails alike in a long row call a damp, and left in it for a couple of days or so, according to the weather, after which they are spread out on the beach to dry, skin-side undermost, except when sun or wind is drying them too rapidly, when the skin side is placed uppermost. They are thus spread out to dry every day or alternate days, according as they are -being cured slowly or quickly, being built up in small cubical hills called staples, and covered with tarpaulins at night or during rain. After thus being exposed for some time, till a white efflorescence, known as bloom, is shown by the salt appearing on the surface, they are again built up into larger staples ; and if, after remaining in these larger staples for a lime, the bloom should have disappeared, they have again to be spread out to dry, till by its becoming fixed the curing is shown to be completed, and the fish thoroughly ////^^ or dried, when they are carefully packed away in air-tight cellars or sheds till wanted for exportation. It takes from 2 cwt. i qr. to 2 cwt. i qr. 14 lbs. of wet or green fish to make i cwt. of dried fish, and the whole process of curing takes under favourable circumstances about a month. Up to the commencement of the present century the fishermen were paid by the lairds or their tacksmen so much for each fish ; in Low's ^ day the fishermen in Sand- ness received 4^. for each ling, and id. or 2d. for each tusk or cod; and nearly twenty years later- the Dunross- ness fishermen were receiving 3^'. for each ling, id. for each tusk, and Id. for each saith. Nowadays there is a sort of quasi partnership between the fisherman and the curer, the price the former receives for the green fish being calculated on what the dry fish are fetching in the later autumn months, ^ Low's Tour, p. 120. - Eirst Stat. Ace. vol. vii. p. 397. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 139 and not being known before Martinmas, and sometimes much later. The cost of curing, usually estimated at 2s. 6d. per cwt. dry, and curers' commission, likewise 2s. 6s. per cwt., are first deducted; then, if the cured fish are fetching 23^-. per cwt, and 2 cwts. i qr. of wet fish be required for the cwt. of dry, the fishermen will receive Si-, per cwt. for their fish as handed over to the curer. Ling, for the five years ending 1878, ranged from ^17 to ;;^28 per ton; cod ;!^'i6 to ^^26; tusk ^'15 to ^24; saith ^9 to ^16. The best cod, and occasionally ling, go to Bilbao and Santander for the Spanish market ; saith principally to Ireland and Leith ; the small cod, ling, and tusk being sent to Leith, Liverpool, or London for home consumption or exportation. The splitters, beach-boys, or women, are paid so much a season, varying from ^8 to ;£io for an experienced head curer, to 30J. for a beach-boy in his first year. The regular haaf season commences about the 15th of ALiy and continues till the 15th of August, when it is wound up at each of the stations by the /or or feast, in a square meal and a big drink, at which the principal toast is, " Lord, open the mouth of the grey fish, and baud thy hand abune da corn." The chief haaf stations are The Skerries ; Funi in Fetlar ; Gloup in North Yell ; Norwick in Unst ; Feideland, Uya, Heyla, and Stenness in Northmaven ; West Voe in Papa Stour ; Dale in Sandness ; the Isle of Burra ; and Spiggie and Boddam in Dunrossness. In addition to the summer fishing, an early spring fishing has been si)ringing up of late years, when the fishermen either fish for a curer at a fixed rate for each class of fish, or else cure for themselves. From Lerwick, too, of late years a fresh-fish trade with the south has arisen, which the increased steam communication will probably develop into a very pro- fitable business. 60 cwts. were despatched, packed in ice, in 1876; 100 in 1877; 300 in 1878; 1,000 in 1879; 6,000 in 1880 ; and 10,000 in 1881. Fishermen are always intensely conservative in their ideas, and for a long time it was an article of faith with the I40 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Shetlanders that no boat larger than sixareens could be em- ployed at the long-line fishing, it being supposed that bigger boats could not be handled deftly enough to pick up the lines without damage to them. In 1876, however, some Buckie-men — probably the finest and boldest fishermen in the British Islands — came north to try their hands at the ling fishing, and, taking some native fishermen to show them the way about, astonished their pilots by their hardiness and handiness, hardly losing a hook, though using much lighter lines than the Shetlanders. More came in 1877, and still more in 1878. Their example set the Shetlanders thinking that, after all, there might be something in the big-boat theory, and in 1877 five Burra men purchased a second-hand boat at Fraserburgh, which more than repaid her total cost {^120) the first season. The next year her owners are said to have had a hundred weighs at the spring fishing and six hundred between the 12th of May and the 20th of June, when they turned their attention to the herring fishing, at which they caught over 400 crans. Another big boat in 1878 was said to have divided nearly p^ioo a man amongst her company between the ling and the herring fisheries. Fifteen pounds a man was in former years considered as much as could be done by a sixareen at the haaf fishing, so it was not to be wondered at, that many others went in for the larger boats, and, intending to devote themselves wholly to fishing, gave up their farms. That the old Shetland sixareens must have given place to the wholly or half-decked boats in use on the east coast of Scotland was only a question of time, but the disaster of the 20th of July, 1881, when six boats from Gloup, one from Unst, one from Feideland, and one from Heyla were lost with all their crews, will probably accelerate the change much more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case. The opponents of change will probably cite the Ber- wickshire catastrophe as proof, that the big boats are no safer than the sixareens ; but, though perfect immunity from loss can never be guaranteed, there is little doubt the adoption SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 141 of either the split-lug, or the cutter-rig, which will obviate the necessity for the sail being lowered, when going about ; of some means by which shifting of ballast can be prevented ; and of some kind of rope bulwarks, will render the east country boats at present in use nearly as safe as human ingenuity can render them. One objection that has been advanced to the change is, that the big boats could not be used at the present exposed haaf stations, where the boats now in use are drawn up on the approach of dirty weather. As has, however, been shown, these stations were originally chosen because they lay closer to the fishing-grounds than many of the voes, and so necessitated less manual labour in rowing. This reason no longer holds good with boats, the motive power of which is chiefly that of the sails, and no portion of the British Isles is so rich as Shetland in natural harbours, which only require lighting to render access to them as easy on the darkest night as in broad daylight. The question of expense will really be the greatest obstacle to the proposed change. Prior to the calamity of 20th of July, 1 88 1, the greatest disaster the boats have met with at the haaf was in a gale which, commencing on the i6th of July, 1833, lasted four days, when thirty-one boats were lost, though the crews of fourteen were saved by the Dutch busses. The elements are however not the only dangers to which boats fishing in Shetland waters are exposed^ the leviathans of the deep, on amorous thoughts intent, being occasionally too obtrusive in their attentions. Finner whales and grampuses at times are given to following boats, and, when the latter did so in Edmondston's ^ day, the fishermen threw in some small coin, the idea being that the animals were begging. In July, 1878, the lighthouse boat belonging to the Flugga station was one day, when at the fishing, so persistently followed by a finner, which one of the light-keepers estimated as being over sixty feet in length, that the crew were compelled to take refuge at the Out Stack till the tyranny was overpast ; and only ^ Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 300. 142 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. last May (1S82) a boat was so pestered by a finner, that they had to cut away from their lines. In the month of June, 1878, whilst the Henrietta of West Yell was hanging on to her lines at Ihe Feideland haaf, a huge head was projected over the side and came down amongst the crew. So great was the force of the blow^, that the gunwale and three planks were smashed, the forethwart and sailyard being also broken, one man badly injured in the breast, and others scratched on faces and hands. As the skin of the fish was described as very rough, it was probably some species of shark. A few years previously a boat at the mackerel fishing from Fetlar was struck amidships by a fish, supposed to have been a swordfish, which had followed after the mackerel fleet, the boards being cut as if with a knife. The Cod, Smack, or Faroe Fishing. During the last century the smacks belonging to the islands seem to have been used principally to tow out to and convoy at the haaf the sixareens, though no doubt they did a certain amount of hand-line fishing on their own account. About the year 181 7, the Regent's Bank was discovered to the south-west of Foula, but the establishment of tonnage bounties for vessels engaged in the line and cod fisheries by i Geo. IV. c. 103, was undoubtedly the stimulant which called the Shetland smack-fishery into existence in its present form. In the year 182 1, only twenty-four smacks are shown in the Report of the Commissioners of the Fishery Board, as fishing from Shetland, whilst in 1829, the last year of the bounty system, the number had increased to eighty ; and though in 1830 we find none credited to Shetland, in 1831 we find seventy-four, since which date the number has fluctuated from time to time. The largest number in any one year was in 1864, when 107 smacks, of 4,362 tons aggregate burden, and manned by 1,185 men, were registered. As the SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISFI RULE. 143 increase in the number of open boats, when the small crofting system was established in the middle of the last century, com- pelled the fishermen to go further afield in search of fish, so the increase in the number of cod smacks obliged the latter from time to time to look out for fresh banks ; and about the years 1832 or 1833 the late Mr. Hay sent some vessels to fish on the coasts of the Faroes, and continued to do so for several years. After this there was a break in the Faroe fishing till the year 1849, when Mr. Hay again sent smacks there, and in a few years other owners followed his example, and at the present day so few smacks fish on the old giounds, that it is usual to speak of the smack fishing as the Faroe fishing. In the year 1846, and for several years afterwards, some Shetland smacks fished at Davis Straits, and so numerous were the cod the first year, that, it is stated in the Fishery Report for that year, they were strokehauled or jiggered with i-aspers, or bare hooks tied back to back on a line. The size of the fish too seems to have been enormous, some weighing, when taken out of the water, 80 lbs, and after being headed and gutted, over 60 lbs. However, by 1850, they had to give up the Davis Straits fishing, as the cod caught there were, more or less, found to be unmarketable, ■ owing to their rank and oily taste, due, it was supposed, to their feeding on the kreng of the whales. In the Faroe fish- ing the smacks belong to the curer, the crews, who join some time in March, agreeing to prosecute the fishing on the coasts of the Faroes and in the North Sea generally, with all due diligence until the middle of August, and, if required, to leave Faroe for Iceland before the 30th of August. In the Faroe portion of the fishing, there is a sort of partnership between curer and crew, the former curing and selling the fish for the benefit of all concerned. From the proceeds are first deducted expense of bait and curing, five per cent, for sale and com- mission, allowances to master and mate, and score-money of (>d. or ^d. to each member of the crew per score of sizeable fish caught by him. After these deductions the net proceeds 144 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. are divided between curer and crew, the latter having to find themselves in provisions, except i lb. of biscuits per diem supplied by the curer, and also to provide themselves with hand lines and hooks. The share of each member is settled at the time of engaging, according to whether he is a skilled or green hand. On the Iceland venture at the end of the season the curer used to find provisions and pay wages, but at the present time the Iceland fishing is said to be conducted generally on the same terms as the Faroe one. Such of the smacks as are well decked take out their bait — consisting of the larger mussels known in Shetland as yoags^ and of the large whelks termed buckles — alive in their wells. The other smacks take the same shell-fish in a salted state, and salted herrings, though when on the banks, as soon as they can get halibut, they prefer it, if not supplied with nets for the purpose of getting herrings. Formerly they used to get whelks in Faroe, but of late the natives have been forbidden to supply foreigners with them. The smacks make three or four voyages out and home in the season, and twenty to thirty tons is looked upon as a good fishing. On the Faroe bank they are said to get very large cod, twice as large as those caught in Shetland waters, though, it is said, of an inferior quality, and occasion- ally very large haddocks. A skate was caught on this bank in 1878 by the unfortunate smack, Telegraph, that was probably the largest ever known, if not the father of all "maids," and rivalling in size the celebrated half-an-acre Thurso skate of Dean Ramsay. The fish weighed 5 cwt. 3 qrs. 12 lbs., was 14 inches thick at the thickest part, and required five men to get it on board. The liver alone weighed 20 lbs. There is said to -be a very fine run of fish on the coast of Iceland in the months of May and June and till the middle of July, when, for some cause or another, the fish leave the coast for a short time. The Iceland cod run very small, as the following statistics will show: in 1877, when the Faroe fishing was moderate, the returns of Shetland smack-caught cod showed 1,174,795 fish, weighing when cured 32,878 cwt.; in 1878, SHE TLAXD UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RUIE. 1 45 when the Faroe fishing was a failure, and almost all the fish caught in Icelandic waters, it took 1,807,448 fish to make 34,146 cwt. Occasionally Shetland smacks fish around Rockall, a lonely skerry, 168 nautical miles west of St. Kilda. The well-decked smacks on their last voyage, when they go to Grimsby to refit, generally take back a cargo of live fish. On other voyages the fish are headed, gutted, split, and salted, and the curing finished, on their return to port, in the same manner as that of the fish caught at the haaf fishing, though, late in the season, or when the weather is very bad, the fish are hung up by the tails and dried by hot air in a long room, and this mode of cure has to be adopted in exceptionally bad years with the haaf caught fish.^ A good many smacks get wrecked from time to time. In 1878 three were lost, the Gondola and Harriet Louisa at Iceland, and the Telegraph, which is supposed to have foundered at sea, and in which were lost not only her own crew, but also eight of those saved from the Gondola. Shetland fishermen rarely insure Hves or boats, and till last year had no benefit society of their own. A certain amount of the money raised after the disaster of last year has been set aside to meet future emergencies, and, it may be, the lesson thus brought home may produce lasting effects, but it yet remains to be seen, whether more permanent harm than good has not been done by the very magnitude of the sum raised, — over ;;^'i 5^450- In addition to those employed in the home and smack fisheries, large numbers of Shetlanders form part of the crews of the whaling and sealing fleets, and numbers again go south, and sail foreign. No districts in the British Isles for their size can compare to the Orkneys and Shetland in the number of officers they supply to the mercantile marine, and that too, as often as not, from poor boys who work their way aft to the quarter-deck; and over a thousand naval reserve men muster at Lerwick during the late autumn and winter months, and finer raw material could hardly be found anywhere in the world. ^ See Appendices F and G, pp. 601-5. L ONE-STILTED PLOUGH KROM CUNNINGSEURGH. CHAPTER XII. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE — (continued). The Fisherman-Crofter Ashore. That agriculture, in any higher sense of the word, should, till comparatively recent years, have been an unknown quantity in Shetland, is hardly to be wondered at. We have seen, how the almost total failure of the kelp trade was needed to awaken the Orcadians from their apathetic neglect of that soil, which at the present day so well repays the labour expended upon it. In Shetland, however, kelp making had never been prosecuted to anything like the same extent that it had been in the southern group, and the failure of the potato crop, in the years 1847-48-49, was indirectly the cause of what- ever improvement there is at the present day in matters agricultural. At that period the only road in the island consisted of a very rough one between Lerwick and Scallo- way ; and it was to provide employment for the then starving population that almost all the roads, now in use throughout SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 147 the islands were laid out. In former years e\'erything was against the Shetland farmer ; his holding, in the first place, was too small to ensure its proper cultivation ; his rent was paid almost, if not entirely, in kind ; and the Scotch locusts, who had come into the islands in the train of the Stewarts and other donatories, had introduced kain fowls, forced labour, and other exactions dear to their feudalised minds. Cess, or land-tax, was levied for the crown ; and skat, forcop, wattle, sheep and ox pennies were payable to the donatories for the time being of the lordship of Shetland. The payment of cess, or land-tax, in addition to skat, has for long enough been a special grievance in Shetland and the Orkneys.^ The Church too, through its ministers, or their tacksmen, took tithe of every article of produce, and the amount exacted was left pretty much to the conscience of the gatherer, who, was not above, at times, fraudulently altering measures to increase the amount levied."^ Corn teinds were taken sometimes in tenth-sheaf, sometimes in butter, or oil, and occasionally in money. Sheep teinds were exacted in wool, and lamb teinds taken in lambs. Cow teinds were paid in butter, and calves were tithed in money. For each boat used at the fishing, so many ling were paid as composition ; and, according to Gifford,^ when a herd of ca'ing whales was driven ashore. Holy Mother Church claimed tithe on them as well. In addition to the foregoing payments, a certain number of fowls known as haivk-heiis were exacted from each reik or house by the king's falconer. This exaction was generally farmed out to some tacksman. All things considered, one cannot wonder at the intense hatred so long felt by the poor ground-down Shet- landers for the canny, and. so far as the Shetlanders were concerned, too often grasping Scots, and which was emphasised in the bitter proverb, current to the present day, " Naething ^ In 1750 the question was tried in the Cciirt of Session between the Heritors of Orkney and Shetland and Lord Morton, but was decided against the Heritors. "^ See Shirreff 's Shetland, pp. 24—33. ^ Gifford's Zetland, p. 24. I. 2 14S THE ORKNEYS A. YD SHETLAND. ever came from Scotland but dear meal and greedy ministers." Teinds are now done away with, and the stipends paid in money, but within the last ten years or so, the minister of Unst was entitled to claim from his flock 660 ling-fish, 1,200 cans of oil, 236 lispunds of butter, and ^i 12^-. in money. As will be seen from the returns given in Appendix E i, matters agricultural and pastoral are not so stagnant as they were, and in the vale of Tingwall, in Dunrossness, Unst, and a few other places, farms will be found that compare favourably, even with those situated in much more naturally- favoured districts. More than half the land under cultivation is, however, still in the hands of the crofter class, who till their holdings much in the same manner as when Shirreff visited the islands, and are still apt to act to the full on the motto, stare super vias antiqiias. Of these crofts, the manner in which they are cultivated, of the stock borne by the land, of the habitations in which the crofters dwell, and of their mode of life generally when on shore, the reader may per- haps form some idea from a perusal of the following pages. Scattered here and there along the coast-line, and along the sides of the valleys, will be found collections of cottages surrounded by patches of arable land, the whole fenced in by rude stone dykes from the scatJwld or hill-pasture outside. Each of such collections of cottages is known as a toon or town (Old Norse, Tun). Each crofter has so many jnerks of land inside the dykes, generally speaking clearly "planked " out, that is, defined from his neighbour's holding, but occasionally, though rarely, at the present day, held in runrig with his neighbours. Strictly speaking, a merk of land should contain 1,600 square fathoms, and an ure is the eighth of a merk, but at the present day a merk may mean almost any quantity. As a rule, the holdings vary from 3 to 8 or 10 acres. Till the subdivision of farms took place in the middle of the last century, ploughs, similar to the old Orcadian wooden scratching-machines, were in common use throughout the island, and are said to have been found in SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R L EE. 1 49 some parts till witliin the last forty years. These ploughs, and the mode in which they were worked, are thus described : — ^ " A large yoke is laid on the necks of the two outermost, and a small yoke on the innermost oxen." Four oxen were employed harnessed abreast, and were dragged on, rather than driven, by a man who walked backwards facing his team. " These yokes are joined by a double rope, to the middle of which is fixed the draught or chain, which is from 24 to 18 feet long, from the neck of the oxen to the nose of the plough. The plough is of a very singular construction ; a crooked piece of wood bent (naturally) almost to a right angle, forms the beam ; to which is fixed a piece of oak stave, about 7 feet long, which must be very pliable, and yield to the pressure of the driver's hand when he would deepen his fur. The coulter stands almost even up and down, and is always too short. A square hole is cut through the lower end of the beam, and the mercal, a piece of oak about 22 inches long, introduced, which at the other end holds the sock and sky. The furrow is made deep or shallow, by driving a wedge below or above the fnena/, on the outside of the beam. There is a stilt on the top of the plough ; and the man who holds it, walks on the white land at the side of it. This slender machine is liable to many accidents. A stone in the land, or even a stiff furrow, often breaks it in pieces, and the labour is much retarded : it turns the furrow almost quite round about ; and people are employed to cut and smooth it with spades, before the seed is sown." At the present day the tillage is all done by spade labour. A Shetland spade, however, is a very different implement from what one is accustomed to see in the south. To a stout wooden handle, some 4 feet long, is attached the iron delving part, some 10 inches in length, the lower portion of which, termed the hoe, is oval in shape and 6 inches in breadth. About 14 inches from the lower end is a bar of wood or iron, projecting at right angles, on which the foot is placed to ' Eirsl Statistical Account, vol. vii. p. 545. 150 7' HE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. drive the spade home. Oats, here, and potatoes form the crops, and generally speaking a fourth of the holding is undei potatoes, though anything like rotation is as a rule unknown. Potatoes, by the way, were not in general use in Shetland before the middle of tlie last century. Up to that date cabbages, introduced a century earlier by the Cromwellian troops stationed in the islands after Montrose's defeat and capture, were the only vegetable. With such a lack of vege- tables as antiscorbutics, combined with an almost entirely fish diet, either in the fresh, salted, or dried states, it was no wonder that for a long period skin complaints should have been prevalent — elephantiasis, or, as it was locally called, leprosy, amongst them, which necessitated the setting apart of leper-houses in various districts. To return, however, to the crofter cultivation, land is rarely if ever fallowed, and the only manure it gets, except when seaweed is procurable, is a compost made of peat-earth mixed with the heather which forms the bedding of the cattle in the byre, and farmyard manure. The compost thus made up is generally spread over the land before it is delved in March or April, though, sometimes,- the land is delved first, and the compost spread over it before sowing. Three kinds of oats are in use — white, black, and a kind known as Shetland oats, though the white variety is gradually superseding the others. When the ground is prepared, the seed is hand-sown from a straw basket, called a cassie (])ronounced kys/iie), in which it is carried, and is then covered over by the harrow, dragged, in some cases by men and sometimes by women. The harrow consists of four bars of wood, som.e 4 feet 3 inches long, laced together by crossbars some 2 feet 3 inches, the teeth being iron in most cases, though harrows with wooden teeth only are still to be found. The harvest in very favourable seasons takes place about the end of September, though in backward years the crops are often not off the ground much before the end of October. Owing to the late season at which the harvest is got in, and the dampness of the climate, the grain generally SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 151 requires to be kiln-dried, after which it is threslied in the ordinary way, and is next winnowed by being placed on a Jiackie, a large straw mat, and taken up in handfuls and let fall till tlic air has driven off the chaff The grain is now ready for the mill, which is nearly as primitive in its construc- tion as the hand-quern still in use in some places, the only advantage possessed by the mill being that the motive power is supplied by water, and not by manual labour. The Shetland mill, properly speaking, has no water-wheel. A stout cylindrical piece of wood, some 4 feet in length, standing perpendicu- larly, is fitted with a number of small boards so inclined as to receive tlie momentum communicated by the water which falls from above. This sets in motion the upper millstone, by means of an iron spindle, fixed in the upper end of the cylindrical post, which, passing through a hole in the lower millstone, is firmly wedged in the upper one. The hand-quern is similar in form to those long used by the peasantry in Scotland. Cleaning the ground is rarely, if ever, thought of, and weeds, in consequence, are abundant, conspicuous amongst them being the wild mustard, which on the approach of wet weather makes itself known to the nasal organ by its intensely sickening smell. Root crops are, except a few turnips grown for the use of the family in the small gardens, unknown, and the only attempt at hay consists in cutting the grass which grows around the surface drains which intersect the land under cultivation, and in some cases in the meadows. Cabbages are kept during the winter months in small walled inclosures called plaiii-a-cri/ives, whence they are transplanted in the spring to the gardens, in which the oats are during the winter stacked. So much for the purely agricultural side of the crofter's life. In addition to the arable land and what little in town pasturage he may hold, each crofter has unlimited rights of grazing over the scatholds, or hill-pastures, held in common by several tenants. In some parts of the islands the scatholds have been, or are being, divided, and until this is done there can be no hope 152 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. either of any material improvement in the cultivation of the land itself, or in the condition of the tenants, as "stinting" the number of stock held by each is, from the fact of several proprietors being, as often as not, interested in one scathold, a thing unknown. In Northmaven, one of the wildest and most primitive districts in the islands, and where no division of the scatholds has as yet taken place, each crofter will, on an average, possess some seven cows of the native breed, which, like the Alderneys, which they are said to resemble, were originally derived from Norwegian sources. Small as they are, old cows fattening up to 2 and 2\ cwt. and oxen up to 3, more beautiful cattle, both in form and glossiness of coat, can hardly be found. They are kindly milkers when well fed, a good cow sometimes producing eight quarts, though, in their general half-starved condition, three to four quarts will be above the average. Finer beef than that of the little beasts can, both for flavour and tenderness, hardly be got from any breed. They are said, however, to be essentially a breed suited to a poor barren country, as, when fed on a very rich pasturage in the south, they do not improve to the extent that might be expected, either in meat or milking properties. Black and white seem the principal colour, often brown and white, but whole-coloured beasts are very rarely met with. Up to vor, as sowing time is termed, the cattle, and stock generally, are allowed to wander at will all over the land, but at that time all dykes are built up, and the cattle either turned outside or tethered inside. During winter they are, in addition to what they can pick up outside, fed chiefly on straw, supplemented by what little hay has been made, and an occasional feed of oats. Calves are always hand-reared, never being allowed to suck their mothers, being first given fresh milk, and after a time bland, which may be termed the drink of the country, and is made by pouring boiling water into buttermilk. The butter made is, from want of ordinary care and clean- liness, and from the fact that for a long period most rents were paid in it, not inviting, and is generally handed into the SHETLAXD UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRTTL'iH RULE. 153 " shop " to be retailed in the neighbourhood, or sent south for not over fastidious purchasers. Like the cattle, the sheep, which run wild over the Shetland scatholds, are Scandinavian in origin, though in all probability they had been imported long before the Viking horde had colonised the islands, as the bones of sheep, identical in species with the native breed still in existence, have been found amongst other animal remains in the ruined brochs that are spread in such numbers, not only over the Orkneys and Shet- land, but over the north of Scotland as well. They are said to be identical with the argali, or wild sheep, still found in Siberia. Both males and females, as a rule, have horns, though in the case of the ewes the horns, which are short and straight, are sometimes wanting. The fleece is a mixture of hair and wool, and in the case of the lambs of the fine-woolled variety a reddish tinge is said to be found at the bottom of the fleece. The breed has constantly been debased by crossing with other varieties, and in a report made to the Highland and Agricul- tural Society in the year 1790 by one John TuUoch, the number of " kindly wooUcd sheep " was said not to exceed a thousand out of over one hundred thousand, then estimated to be the total number in the islands. What the actual number of the native sheep at the present day may be would be difficult to say, as in many places large tracts are under blackfaces, cheviots, and half-breds. Almost all shades of black, grey, fawn-coloured, and speckled are to be found, the most valued being a rich brown, known as moorat {mo'-raii6r, yellow brown). About 10 lbs. a quarter, or less, will be their weight, and the mutton is nearly as good as Welsh, which is saying something. Almost as agile as goats, to which in some characteristics they bear a greater resemblance than to their more obese stupid-looking cousins of southern pastures, they have in some districts to be carefully kept from the corn when it is coming up, for which purpose each household takes its turn in supplying a watchman. Fond, like all animals, of salt, they are occasionally to be seen at low tide foraging amongst the seaweed, and have 154 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. in Northmaven been even known to eat the salt fish spread out on the beach to dry. In former years the erne, or white-tailed eagle, was their great enemy, but nowadays ravens, hooded crows, and the greater black-backed gulls do most harm, especially amongst the ewes heavy with young and the lambs themselves. The feathered bipeds were, however, in former years, not the only enemies the flocks were in danger from, Shirrefif saying ; ^ " Thieves are greater enemies to sheep stock in these islands, than either defect of food, or inclemency of weather and persons have been detected in the island of Yell, who confessed that they had generally stolen two sheep every week for many years. It is difficult, however, in these islands to detect thieves, on account of a prevailing prejudice, that the person who discovers a thief will not thrive. This prejudice is pro- ductive of the worst effects, as it enables knaves to live as well, and probably better than the industrious. He who has got the best dog, is by some people alleged to be the greatest sheep- owner in one part of Shetland." Some years back an Icelandic fox, which had been brought home in a fishing smack, got loose in Lunnasting, and a high time that Icelandic reynard had of it, till, having grown corpulent from too good living, he was hunted down.^ Each crofter has his own particular ear-mark, which, when the Country Acts were in force, had to be registered with the bailie of the parish. Towards the end of May, or later, according to the season, the sheep- owners collect together, and, with aid of dogs, kaa^ or drive, the sheep into the criis^ or rough stone sheepfolds, scattered here and there throughout the scatholds. Each man then selects his own sheep, and, instead of shearing them as in the south, proceeds to roo, or ])luck, them. A fore-leg is tied to a hind-leg, and, commencing at the shoulder, the wool is pulled off till one side of the animal is finished, when the same process is gone through on the other, and the wool made up into a hard ball. The finest wool is obtained from ^ Shirreft's .5'^f//a«(/, p. 64. - Dixon's Field and Fern, p. 8. SHE TLAND L 'NDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 155 the neck and shoulders, and an average fleece will weigh about two pounds. The process of rooing is said not to be so cruel as it would seem, the wool, when the sheep is ripe for the operation, coming away very easily. Few more picturesque scenes can be imagined than the kaaing the sheep in the granitic-boulder- strewn scatholds of Northmaven, either for the annual rooing or later in the season for the lamb marking. The number of sheep kept, or rather owned, by each crofter A"aries very much, some having it\x, if any, and others large numbers. Thus in Delting some years ago one crofter is said to have rooed over two tons yearly, which he disposed of to " the merchant " of the district. A Shetlander does not take kindly to shepherding, and on the big sheep-farms the shepherds have to be imported, like the cheviots and blackfaces, which generally compose the stock. Blindness is not uncommon amongst the sheep, and is said to have been imported with a ram from Montrose about the year 1770; and, a few years later, scab, likewise introduced from Scotland, nearly exterminated all the flocks south of Mavis Grind. The Shetland sheep-dog, like the sheep, is of a small, diminutive breed, and appears to be far inferior in intel- hgence to the collie of the Mainland, and on the big slieep- farms the shepherds bring their own dogs with them from the south. Like the cattle and sheep, the "horses," as the Shetlanders, somewhat magniloquently, term their ponies, are Scandinavian in origin, and are believed to have become dwarfed from centuries of neglect and starvation. Living out on the hills all the year round, in the winter time they must be on the \erge of starvation, and, were it not that nature provides them with coats of extra thickness, they could hardly live through the winter months. As it is, a considerable number are said to perish yearly from exposure and want of food. Averaging about ten hands in height, the ponies show, like the sheep, a great variety in colours— black, dark-bay, and iron-grey being 156 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. considered the best. Owing to their being entirely grass-fed, their round, distended beUies, to a certain extent, detract from their otherwise thoroughbred appearance, in which they far surpass their Icelandic, Fiiroese, and Norwegian cousins, to whom they are inferior in size. Wonderfully docile and free from vice, the only breaking-in they get is being employed to bring home the peats from the hills. Large numbers are shipped south every year, the greater bulk for underground work in the collieries, for which purpose entire ponies are pre- ferred. One result of the demand for entire ponies is, that mares can generally be purchased for about half the price, that would have to be given for stallions. As has been shown to have been the case in the Orkneys, any one found riding his neighbour's horse was liable to a fine proportionate in amount to the distance at which he was caught from the owner's parish ; and cutting the mane or tail of another man's horse rendered the offender liable, in the first instance, to a fine of ;£\o Scots, and if caught again to be treated as a thief. The horsehair was stolen for making fishing-lines, and the rancelnian had to see that every householder could account for all lines and tomes, i.e. snoodings, of horsehair found in his posses- sion. Glanders has never been known, but, at the general election in 1874, mange was brought into the islands with a horse from the south, and large numbers of ponies were destroyed by it. Shetland swine are not by any means showyard pigs, being short in the back, long in the legs, and covered more or less with long bristly hair, from which in ancient days the ropes used by the fowlers on the " banks " were made. Owing to their running more or less wild over the country, the injury done by them in the cultivated grounds was in former years very great, especially in sandy districts like Dunrossness. Geese are kept in considerable numbers, and during the summer and autumn months are driverj on to the hills to keep them clear of the cultivated grounds, out of which, when the crops are coming up, they are kept with some difficulty. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 157 A good many young birds are exported every autumn to the Orkneys, to be fed up there on the stubbles, for the Christmas dinner-tables of pock-pudding Southrons. Every crofter, or rather his wife, keeps poultry, and the quantity of eggs sent south every year is very little, if at all, short of that exported I'rom the Orkneys. Having endeavoured to bring before the reader some idea of the life of the crofter as a tiller of the ground and stock raiser, let us now try to show how he is housed and fed. In former years the crofter's cottage was a miserable, clay- floored, windowless, chimneyless cabin, to reach which you had to pass through the byre, which in winter time was used as the family cloaca., and was separated from the human habitation only by the box-beds in which the higher animals took their rest. Though some of these miserable hovels — rather than habita- tion for human beings — are said still to exist, a great improve- ment has of late years taken place in this respect. The byre is separated from the cottage, which, as a rule, consists of a but and a beri, above Avhich are a couple of rude cock- lofts. The ben is generally floored, and possesses fireplace and chimney ; the but, however, has nothing but the bare earth, and the fireplace is in the centre of the apartment, from which the peat smoke has to find its way out as best it can. A few deal chairs and stools, a " resting chair " in the but, something like a wooden sofa, with a back to it of open bars, and in the ben an arm-chair for the "gudeman," comprise the furniture, whilst the inevitable box-beds make up the sleeping accom- modation. Amongst the crofters a wrtr/, as an ox or cow slaughtered at Martinmas and salted down for the winter consumption is called, is rarely if ever killed ; mutton, either smoked in their houses or dried in skios., as small huts built of rough stones without mortar, and through which in con- sequence all the winds of heaven blow freely, are called ; and ham, cured from the native pork, and anything but a " dainty dish to set before a king," are the only flesh meat they ever get, and not much of that. Mutton dried in the skios is termed 158 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. vivda. Fish, however, is the staple article of diet, either in the fresh or cured state. The coal fish (inerlangus carhofiarius) is the chief mainstay, either in the sillock, piltock, or saith stage. The sillocks and piltocks, when not eaten fresh, are, like the cods' heads, which, when the cod is cured for the market, are cut off and kept by the fishermen themselves, dried on boards, or in the skios. The saith, haddock, halibut, and skate, of which the two latter are never cured for the market, are salted down. In addition, both meat and fish are sometimes exposed till they become nearly putrid, in which state they are said to be blawn, and are considered a great delicacy. The Northmaven people are known as Liver- Muggies, from their special tit-bit, which consists of the stomach of a cod stuffed with fish-livers and boiled, whilst the natives of Delting rejoice in the name of Spar/s, from their particular weakness — a sort of sausage made of lean and fat meat, choped up and dried with salt in a sheep's intestine. In the pamphlet on " The Great White Herring Fishery," published in the middle of last century, and before re- ferred to, a curious practice is mentioned that puts one in mind of Abyssinian Bruce's peripatetic rump-steak story, so long used as an argument to discredit that great traveller's narrative. " They bleed their cows here once or twice a year, and they take the blood and boil it, thickening it with a little Oatmeal ; then they pour it into Vessels and eat it, with a little Milk. This was Food I did not admire, though Curiosity induced me to taste it." The Country Act, which forbade persons to " blood, hurt, or mutilate their neighbours' nolt, sheep, or horses " probably referred to this practice. Oatmeal is, of course, largely used, but not so much as formerly, in the shape of porridge — the most wholesome form in which it can be taken. Loaf-bread and biscuit are nowadays consumed to a much greater extent than would be imagined, SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 159 and Btirstin brums'^ take the place of crumpets and tea-cakes in a cockney household, and are made as follows : — Bere or oats are dried or roasted in a tripod pot over a fire, then ground, sifted, mixed with water and fat or butter, and baked into cakes. Tea, one of the curses of Shetland, as it might almost be termed, is taken four times a day, and is boiled by the pot being put on the fire. A great deal, if not all, of the dys- pepsia and derangement of the digestive organs, so common in the islands, may be traced to the constant use of the cup that, as its admirers and fanatical devotees tell you, cheers but does not inebriate. Even when Scott was in the islands nearly seventy years ago he was told that '• tea was used by all ranks and porridge quite exploded." - A few hundred tons of kelp are still made every year, prin- cipally, if not entirely, on the shores of Unst, Yell, and such parts of the Mainland as abut on Yell Sound. The kelp shores in Shetland, however, are not, as in the Orkneys, worked by the proprietors themselves, but are let on royalties to the fish- curers of the districts, who employ the women to collect and burn the seaweed. At the commencement of the present century, and for some years afterwards, a certain amount of straw plaiting was carried on in the islands, but never to any- thing like the same extent to what it was in the Orkneys. Hosiery, strictly so called, has been for centuries a speciality of the Shetland women, and how great a trade it had become at the commencement of the present century may be judged from the fact that Edmondston speaks of ^^i 7,000 ^ worth of stockings having been exported in a single year, ranging in price from 30.?. to <^d. a pair.-' When the Country Acts were in force all coarse stockings for sale had to be " made of double yarn sufficiently walked." In addition to stockings ^ Compare Dr. Mitchell, in The Past in the Present, p. 46, on the origin of burstin, or, as it is called in the Hebrides, graddan, and Elia's Essay on Roast Pig. '^ Scoti's Li/<; vol. iii. p. 146. •^ Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. i. p. 224. * Ibidem, vol. ii. p. I. i6o I'HE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. gloves began to be knitted somewhat early in the present century, but it was not till about 1840 that the fine Shetland shawls, now so well known, were sent into the market, to be followed a few years afterwards by veils and neckties, which latter articles are now knitted in silk as well as worsted. The finest Shetland wool, which is very scarce, and every year be- coming scarcer, is reserved for the very finest shawls and veils. Each district has its own speciality in the hosiery line. Thus Northmaven produces soft underclothing ; Nesting, stockings ; Walls and Sandsting, socks and haps, as the small woollen shawls thrown round their shoulders by the women are termed ; Whiteness and Weisdale, fancy coloured gloves; Lerwick, shawls and veils, &c Shetland tweed, or. claith as it is termed, is still manu- factured by "websters " residing in Northmaven, Delting, and Lunnasting, for export, as well as home wear, and a beautifully warm though light substance it is. Till quite recent years almost every article of clothing worn by a crofter's household was of home manufacture ; and in addition to the claith, a species of flannel was made, which served both for under-garments and for dresses for the womenkind. Nowadays a good deal of the money made by the sale of hosiery is said to go in finery, and cheap prints and calicoes have taken the place of the warm woollen dresses, the bright colours of which are said to have rendered them wonderfully picturesque. In the place of shoes, rivlins, as a kind of sandals made from untanned cowhide are called, are still worn, though in frost, or when dry snow is on the ground, smocks, or smuicks, a kind of slipper made of cloth, and cross-sewn on the soles to prevent slipping, take the place of the rivlins. Sheepskin coats untanned were formerly worn by the men at the fishing, but, at the present day, are succeeded by waterproofs made of painted cotton or prepared with boiled oil. One peculiarity a visitor from south is always struck with, both in the Orkneys and Shetland, is the way the men wrap up their throats with woollen comforters, although no other extra clothing may be worn. QUERN FKO.M NORTH VELL CHAPTER XIII. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE — {cO?ltinned). General Characteristics of the Sheiianders, Folklore, ^c. " Arthur Knight, He rade a' night, Wi' open swird An' candle light. He sought da mare ; He fan' da mare ; He bund da mare ; Wi" her ain hair. An' made da mare Ta swear : 'At she should never Bide a' night, Whar ever she heard O' Arthur Knight." Shetland incantation to keep off nightmare, from Karl Blind's " Dis- covery of Odinic Songs in Shetland," Nineteenth Century, 1881. A FINER race, from a physical point of view, to all outward appearances, than the Shetlanders would be hard to find. One can almost fancy, when standing at one of the haaf stations, amongst the tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed fishermen, that the crews which manned the long ships of the Viking fleets, have somehow come to life again, so little has the old Norse type been altered, as far as the peasantry are concerned, by the M i62 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. influx of Scottish settlers, who from time to time have taken ujj their abode in the islands. Good looking, handsome even at times, as are the men-kind, you occasionally see amongst the women faces of the most beautifully refined cast, such as are to be found rarely, if ever, elsewhere, amongst people of the same rank of life, in the British Isles. Hospitable, soft-spoken, and outwardly courteous, you are at first charmed with them, and it is not, till after a time, you find, that there is another side to the picture, far dif- ferent from what your first impressions have led you to expect. With a potentiality of brain-power as good, if not better in some things, as that of the hard-headed peasantry of the east coast of Scotland, you too often find a reserve, not to put it stronger, far exceeding any Scotch canniness. How far the old Norse blood, of which Brand quotes,^ that it was " seeming Fair but really False and superlatively Proud," is to blame would be hard to say, but there is little doubt that centuries of oppression, combined with a system of social economy, calcu- lated of itself to produce duplicity and hypocrisy, without an\' other aiding causes, are mainly accountable.- In a court ^ heldat Burra Voe on the 17th of November, 1725, petitions were presented to Thomas Gififord of Busta, then deputy steward of the islands, which set forth the sins of the people as follows : " That amongst many the gross sins and immoralities which abound in Zetland, that of servants unfaith- fulness, negligence, and disobedience to their masters, is none the least common ; together with Sabbath-breaking, cursing, swearing, ignorance, irreligion, stealing, lying, adultery, fornica- tion, malice, envy, covetousness, drunkenness, disobedience to parents, and that abominable fewds betwixt husband and wife, turning even to sinful seperation with some, &c." Gifford, having carefully considered the petitions, came to the ^ Brand's Orkney and Zdland, p. 67. - See Edniondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 57. ^ Clifford's Zetland, p. 84. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 163 conclusion, that the elders, rancelmen,^ and masters of families were not doing their duty, and that the remedy lay in a strict enforcement of the Old Country Acts, and of the espionage system of the rancelmen. He also founded societies " for regulation of servants and re- formation of manners," and a copy of the commission and in- structions issued to each such society is given in Appendix I. A finer piece of grandmotherly legislation would be hard to find, or one more calculated to set families by the ears and to produce a plentiful crop of canting hypocrites. According to Hibbert,- when these societies became defunct, the Kirk took the matter in hand, and from what Edmondston ^ says, only made matters worse. At the present day the morality of the islands is alleged to be up to the standard of the most moral parts of Scotland, although a custom, similar to what is known as " bundling " in Wales, has long been preva- lent. Those who want further information as to this, and as to the effect on the general vioralc of the islands, of the relations between the fishermen and the curers, will find them discussed very fully in the evidence given by the late Dr. Robert Cowie of Lerwick, himself a Shetlander, before the Truck Commission in 1872. At the present day, in addition to those who are members of the Church of Scotland, and its latest offshoot the Free Church, large numbers belong to the Congregational and Wesleyan bodies, and some few to the United Presbyterians and the Baptists, and so far from the Shetlanders being a Sabbath-breaking, irreligious race, it might be said of them as Punch's shepherd said of himself, that they are " awfu' fond o' the preachin'." So marked in fact is the religious element, that the writer was told, when in Fair Isle, that works on divinity and religious subjects were in much greater demand than works on history, travel, or lighter literature, and the same remark would probably apply to the whole group. ^ See note, p. 94. ^ Hibbert's Shetland Isles, p. 535. ^ Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 63. M 2 i64 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Utterly " Priestgone " as Elspeth Reoch's " farie man " would consider the state of Shetland to be, hardly a summer passes without Revivalist apostles of the Gospel, of what Charles Kingsley called "other worldliness," visiting the islands. History has a knack of repeating herself, and it is very questionable, how far these " starring " missionaries do good amongst a race with the special characteristics of the Shetlanders. Edmondston, himself a medical man, spoke of hypochon- driasis,^ traceable chiefly to dyspepsia, as of frequent occurrence amongst all classes, and, referring to the comnthion fits^ as they were commonly termed, so prevalent at the end of the last century, said : " Epilepsy ^ was at one time very common in Zetland among the women ; and it appeared to be commu- nicated from one person to another, on some occasions, as if by sympathy. Numbers were seized with fits, almost at the same time, in the church during divine service, especially if the w^eather was warm, the minister a pathetic preacher, or the patient desirous of being thought possessed of a more than ordinary share of feeling. The individuals thus affected cried aloud, beat themselves against the seats of the church, to the great annoyance of the more sedate part of the congregation." A very rough-and-ready mode of cure was found most efficacious, thus described : ^ " The cure is attributed to a rough fellow of a kirk officer, who tossed a woman in that state, with whom he was often plagued, into a ditch full of water. She was never known to have it afterwards ; and others dreaded the like treatment." Even when Hibbert was in the islands in i8i7,he saw, on leaving the kirk at Balliasta in Unst, several females * " writhing and tossing about their arms on the green grass, who durst not, from fear of a censure from the pulpit, exhibit themselves after this fashion within the sacred walls of the 1 Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. pp. 93, 95, 2 Ibidem, vol. ii. pp. 93, 95. 3 First Statistical Account, vol. xii. p. 363. * Hibbert's Shetland Isles, p. 401. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 165 kirk." Most of the writers on Shetland of the last century refer to the excessive drinking that went on, owing no doubt in a great measure to the smuggling that was so long pre- valent. Low, who was charmed with the people, and spoke in the highest terms of the hospitality he had received from all classes, described the fishermen ^ " as abstemious when at sea, but lazy when they have an oj^portunity of being so ; " and he also said, " Some are a good deal addicted to dram-drinking ; as must be the case in fishing countries. The common drink at table (instead of small beer) is grog, a liquor composed of brandy and water, made to the taste of the drinker, but very disagreeable to a stranger." At the present day there does not seem to be much drinking in the country places, though whether this is owing to an improvement in the habits of the people, or to the greater difficulty experienced in getting " the materials," is another question. Probably to a general improve- ment, as one reason assigned for the success of the Orcadians and Shetlanders, in the mercantile marine is said to be their temperate, if not teetotal, habits. At the end of the seventeenth century, young and old, men and women, were much given to " the Snuffing and Smoaking of Tobacco," ^ and even as late as fifty years ago hand-mills, miniature querns in fact, were in con- stant use for grinding down the tobacco.^ Shetland in former years was celebrated for the superstitions and beliefs of its inhabitants. Many of these beliefs were identical with those which have already been referred to in connection with the folk- lore of the Orkneys. Owing, however, to the Shetlanders being still fishermen rather than farmers, many beliefs and customs have survived amongst them, which, if they ever existed in the Orkneys, have now become obsolete there. Even at the present day Shetland would be a perfect mine to the collector of folklore, if it could be only worked ; but in addition to the shame-facedness of a transition period, there seems to be also a floating idea that spells, charms, and customs ^ Low's Tour, p. 194. - Sibbald's Z=//a«(^i', p. 15. 3 Mitchell's The Past hi the Present, p. 237. 166 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. once exposed to the vulgar, incredulous, outside public would lose their efficacy. One old dame, to whom a friend of Karl Blind was putting some questions, answered " Giide triith ! gin I wid tell you onything, ye wid shiine hae it in print, an' da gude o' it ta me wid be diine."^ To take the beliefs in connection with the fisheries and sea- faring matters first, and many of which are identical with those noticed by Gregor on the Banffshire coast. Fishermen fore- told, from the knots in the bottom boards of a boat, whether she would be lucky at the fishing or not ; be upset under sail, or be cast away ; and Edmondston ^ stated that he had known boats to be rejected and torn up in consequence of such a prophecy. When on their way to their boats fishermen were careful to avoid meeting any one who was supposed to be unlucky, and especially, a minister. If a man trod on the tongs {clivi/i), or was asked where he was going to, it was considered useless for him to go to the fishing that day. Once afloat they were careful not to turn the boat withershins^ that is, against the course of the sun. When setting their lines they avoided, and do still, mentioning certain objects, except by certain special words or phrases. Thus a knife is called skunie, or tjillie ; a church, biianhoos, or banehoos ; a minister, upstanda, hoydeen, or prestingolva ; the devil, da Auld Chield, da Sorrow, da ill-healt (health), or da black tiff ; a cat, kirser, fitting, vengla, ox foodinj^ Mr. Arthur Laurenson,^ is of opinion, that the objection to the minister or church being mentioned arose from some lingering, half-pagan notion, that the sea-god would be jealous of any reference to the new faith. If when hauhng the lines a stone should be brought up on a hook, it is carefully taken ashore, as it would be unlucky to throw it back into the sea. Saturday is looked upon as a lucky day for the smacks to ^ Blind's Sheilandic IVato- Tales. ^ Edmondston's Zelland Islands, vol. ii. p. 73. ^ See note, p. 99. * See Giegor's Folk Lore, p. 199. ' Froc. Scot. Anf. vol. x. p. "jii et seq. SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 167 sail for the Faroe fishing, though an irreUgious Enghshman might fancy that the crews chose that day, to escape kirk on the following one. It was long considered unlucky to rescue people from drowning. Scott,^ mentions that when the crew of a wrecked vessel were warping themselves ashore in Unst by a hawser, a native cut the rope, lest they should consume their winter stock of provisions. Mr. Laurenson gives three instances as having occurred within forty years before he wrote. In the first instance a fisherman not only refused to attempt to save a drowning man, but even took the oars out of his own boat to prevent others doing so. In the second, three men looked calmly on at a neighbour drown- ing, and then walked home. In the third, a man pulled past a floating woman, and took no heed of her. Mr. Laurenson's theory is that there is an idea that the sea must have its victims, and, if defrauded, will avenge itself on the person who intervenes. It is only fair to add here, that some very gallant rescues have been made of shipwrecked crews, especially of late years, by the Fair Islanders. The Foula men too, only last December, took off four of the crew of a German barque, the Henrietta., which had struck on the Hav de Grind reef, though a fearful sea was running. That when a boat was followed by a grampus, the crew were in the habit of throwing some small coin to stop the animal's importunities, has already been mentioned. Mr. George Sinclair, a correspondent of Karl Blind, informed him that -' " sea monsters are for the most part called Finns in Shetland. They have the power to take any shape of any marine animal, as also of human beings. They were wont to pursue boats at sea, and it was dangerous in the extreme to say anything against them. I have heard that silver money 7vas thrown overboard to them to j)revent their doing any damage to the boat. In the seal-form they came ashore every ninth night to dance on the sands. They would then cast off their skins, and act Just like men and women. ' Scott's Life, vol. iii. p. 156. - Blind's Shetlandic Water Tales. i68 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. They could not, however, return to the sea without their skins — they were simply human beings, as an old song says : — " ' I am a man npo' the land ; I am a selkie i' da sea ; An' whin I'm far fa every strand, My dwelling is in Shool Skerry.' " One of the poyntis of dittay ^ against Marion Peebles, alias Pardone, spouse to Swene in Hildiswick, who, through the instrumentality of the Kirk Session, was burnt as a witch in 1644, was that "in the lyknes of an pellack quhaill " she had " on ane fair morning " upset a four-oared boat returning from the fishing, "and drowned and devoirit thame in ye sey, right at the shore, when there wis na danger utherwayis, nor hazard to have cassin thame away, it being sik fair widder, as said is." That Marion was guilty as alleged there could be no doubt, as, on the bodies of Edward Halcro and another of the crew being washed ashore, she was sent for to lay her hands on them, whereupon the said " umquill Edward bled at the collir bain, or craig bane, and the said in the hand and fingers, gushing out bluid thereat to the great admiration of the beholders and revelation of the judgment of the Almytie." Another point was that she had held conversation with the devil who, " in the lyknes of twa corbies, ane on every side of you, clos at your sides, going and happing alongis the way with you to Hildiswick." Ravens seem long to have been considered as being, to the Shetland witches, what black cats were to their southern sisters ; and Edmondston - relates how about 1803 a man had entered a prosecution in the Sheriff Court at Lerwick against an old woman for having, in the guise of a raven, not only interfered with the profit of his milk, but also slain his cows. Of the Finn women, who were captured, when for a time ^ Hibbert's Shetland Isles, p. 593 et seq. - Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 74. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 169 at a distance from their seal-skin dress, assuming which was necessary to enable them to take to water, were wedded, and bare children to their captors, innumerable stories are told. There are even said to be, according to one of Karl Blind's correspondents, people who pride themselves on descent from a Finn ancestress. In addition to the more strictly speaking marine monsters, a semi-aquatic monster known as the JVnggle^ or Shoopiltee^ is found haunting burns and lochs. The nuggle,^ who has the outward form of a Shetland pony, except that instead of a tail he has some sort of wheel appendage, which, however, is carefully concealed from the observer, has a knack of entrap- ing passers-by to take a ride on him. No sooner, however, is he mounted than he rushes into the nearest loch and endeavours to drown his rider. He is also given to stopping mills when at work, and can only be put to flight by dropping a lighted brand down the shaft-hole. The freemasons have long, both in the Orkneys and Shetland, been supposed to have a power of de- tecting theft,- and, in the year 181 5, some shirts and other things having been stolen in the parish of Aithsting, a notice was issued by four members of the Lodge Morton, at Lerwick, stating that, though cruelty formed no part of masonry, unless the stolen articles were returned before the next Masonic meeting, or within fifteen days at the furthest, "a calamity of a severe nature may fall on all in that parish, in which the present crop may be blasted by storm, and the person or persons guilty shall be publickly led throw the parishes on daylight, and that by evil spirits not seen by others. This paper to be intimated at the kirk door, that none may plead ignorance. Given under our hands at Lerwick, under the authority of iNIorton Lodge." The trows are still supposed to be dangerous, and steel ^ is always kept in the byre to prevent their injuring the cattle. If a cow is off her feed, or a calf does not take kindly to chewing ^ Blind's Shetlandic Water Tales. ^ Second Statistical Account, Shetland, p. 143. ' See Gregor's Folk Lore, p. 190. I70 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the cud, some wise woman is sent for, who works up a dough ball of oatmeal, and after placing it in a dog's mouth, compels the cow or calf to swallow it. A bible placed between the animal's horns, or a leaf of one, is supposed to help the spell. Touching for the cnielles or king's-evil, is still practised, and, as owing to the erratic working of the vis viedicatrix nafurce, the most wonderful cures occasionally apparetitly result, the belief is likely to die hard. Strictly speaking the operating party should be a seventh ^ son or daughter, and the touch-piece a half-crown of Charles 11. A medical friend of the writer told him of a case, where a girl with a badly diseased elbow-joint, whom he had recommended should be sent to the Edinburgh Infirmary for excision of the diseased portion, was " touched," and is now as hale, to all outward appearance, as any other woman in the islands. Another curious belief is that a man, who has passed his hand all over a bear, will have special success in difficult cases of midwifery ; and the same medical man was once asked in a rather critical labour case whether he had not better have a consultation with a gentleman who had graduated at Berne. " Cutting abijn da breath " seems still to be believed in, and, it is not three years since a woman brought a man and some other women before the sheriff for threatening her with the process, and also for throwing burning peats over her, because they fancied she had taken away the profit of their milk. Charms are said to be still in use, one for the toothache was sent to Karl Blind : - " A Finn came ow'r fra Norraway, Fir ta pit toth-ache away — Oot o' da flesh an' oot o' da bane ; Oot o' da sinew an' oot o' da skane ; Oot o' da skane an' into da stane ; An' dare may do remain ! An' dare may do remain ! An' dare may do remain ! " ^ See Mitchell's The Past in the Present, p. i6o. 2 Shetlandic Water Tales. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 171 Where ^ any one had sprained a joint or sinew, the Wrestin Thread was cast. The operator first of all took a thread of black worsted, on which nine knots had been made, then tied it round the sprained limb, and whilst so doing muttered to him or herself : " The Lord rade And the foal slade ; Pie lighted, And he righted. Set joint to joint. Bone to bone, Heal in the Holy Ghost's name ! " Burns appear to have been supposed to be due to the malevolence of dead persons, and to cure them the wise man or woman consulted first of all repeated the following charm : " Here come I to cure a burnt sore, If the dead knew what the living endure, The burnt sore would burn no more ; " and then blew his or her breath three times on the burnt part. Any one afflicted with ringworm took for three successive mornings, before having broken his or her fast, a little ashes between the thumb and forefinger and held them to the part affected, saying : " Ring^vorm, ringworm red, Never maye.st thou either spread or speed. But aye grow less and less. And die away among the ase ; " at the same time throwing some of the ashes into the fire. The beadle of the kirk was supposed to have had the power of " telling away " the sparrows so that they would not return. On Papa Stour ^ the sparrow beadle is said to have been living ' Second Statistical Account, Shctlatid, pp. 41-2. - Reid's Art Rambles, p. 25. 172 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. quite recently, who, in former years, on payment of a fee, would go round a field crying — " Coosh-sh-sh, Hoosh-sh-sh ; awa fra dis toon, An' never come again." Many people in the islands still believe, that the hai7'-cel {Gordius aquaticus), is generated from horsehair, and are quite indignant, if you venture to state what it really is. As is the case with the Isles of Eynhallow and Damisay in the Orkneys, three Isles, Havera, Hascosea, and Uya, are supposed to possess some magic charm about their soil which prevents their ever being infested with mice. Soil from these islands is even occasionally taken to houses at a distance. No cat, according to Brand,^ could exist in the Isle of Vaila. When Edmondston ^ wrote, a belief in the efficacy of almsgiving was generally prevalent. If a man were in danger he would make a vow to give alms to some old woman, and was scrupulous in performing his vow. Like the Orkneys, Shetland is studded with the remains of small chapels, of which at the present day, in most cases, few traces remain except the grass-grown foundations. Many of these must have been chapels of pilgrimage. That three of them were so we know for certain. Cross Kirk near Stenness, Northmaven, was levelled with the ground under the direction of the parish minister somewhere in the seventeenth century, and according to Brand ^ numerous votive offerings in silver, representing parts of the human frame, were found behind the altar and under the pulpit. Our Lady's Chapel* on the shores of Weisdale Voe was much frequented by females in search of husbands, and, even when Edmondston ^ wrote, seems to have been held in special veneration by the fishermen, who believed, that many boats had arrived safe to land in consequence of vows made in the time of danger. ' Brand's Orkney a^id Zetland, p. iio. 2 Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 75. ^ Brand's Orkney atid Zetland, p. 95. ■* Ibidem, p. 92. ^ Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 75. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 173 Cross Kirk,^ Haroldswick, in the island of Unst, was a place of pilgrimage not much more than forty years ago. Counting the number of sheep, of cattle, of horses, of fish, or of any of a man's chattel?, whether animate or inanimate, has always been considered as productive of bad luck. There is also said to have been an idea prevalent at one time, that an outbreak of small-pox always followed the census being taken. The ravages of small-pox before inoculation was introduced were terrible, so much so, that it was known as the mortal pox. Fair Isle was once nearly depopulated, and in Foula in 1720 there were scarcely enough people left to bury the dead. Brand - was told that on every visitation a third of the population were swept away, and a Mr. Bruce of Urie,^ about the time inoculation was introduced, estimated the number at a sixth. To John Williamson, known as J^ohnny Notions., a common fisherman of Hamna Voe, Northmaven, and who was probably the mechanical genius mentioned by Low,'* is due the credit of making inocu- lation general. He dried the matter in peat smoke, then buried it for seven or eight years covered with a layer of camphor. In applying it, he raised a little of the skin of the arm with a knife of his own make, and that so gently that no blood escaped. Under the skin thus raised he inserted a very small quantity of the matter, and, replacing the skin, covered it with a bit of cabbage-leaf. This was the whole of his treat- ment, as he administered no medicine. According to the Rev. Mr. Dishington, out of se\'eral thousand patients treated by Williamson, not one was lost, nor was there one case where infection did not show at tlie usual time. Edmondston,^ himself, as has been before said, a medical practitioner, re- marks on Williamson's treatment : " The most extraordinary part of the proceeding is, the purification of the matter, which, under his management, seems to resist the influence of ^ Second Statistical Account, Shetland, p. 40. ^ Brand's Orkney and Zetland, p. 72. ' Low's Tour, p, 175, * Ibidem, i>. 141. ® Edmondston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 89. 174 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. powers which destroy the very contagion itself. Had every practitioner been as uniformly successful as he was, the small- pox might have been banished from the face of the earth, without injuring the system, or leaving any doubt as to the fact." Vaccination was introduced in 1804, and to the credit of the Shetlanders, almost at once, became general. In Unst, when Low ^ wrote, on a funeral procession passing, the by-standers threw three clods one by one after the corpse. Can this have been a survival from Roman Catholic days of throwing earth on the coffin at the conclusion of the service ? In Aithsting at the same date people would neither eat nor drink on Sunday till after service."-' At the present day, when the coffin is brought out of the house in country districts, it is, previously to being lashed on to the spokes or bearer, laid on chairs or some other things for the lashing to be done, and, as soon as the procession moves off, the chairs, or whatever else the coffin has been laid on, are carefully upset, as otherwise there will be another death in the house within a week.^ Another * curious funeral custom was, and perhaps still is, in vogue. The moment the funeral procession had started, the straw on which the corpse had been laid was burnt, and the ashes narrowly examined, to see if any footmarks could be seen amongst them. If any were found, they were supposed to be those of the next person who would die in the house. As in other parts, in former days, a funeral was more a merry-making, after a douce, unsober fashion, than a grave, solemn, affecting ceremony, and the kirks were as often as not used as the places in which to consume " the funeral baked meats." The writer was told by a minister of a ludi- crous case of haggling, as to the amount of whisky necessary at a funeral, when at last the matter was clenched by the emphatic assertion — ■" Deil a bane o' her gangs ow'r Sandness Hill under four gallons." ^ Low's Tour, p. 162. ^ Ibidem, p. 81. ^ See Gregor's Folk Lore, p. 212. ■* Second Statistical Account, Shetland, p. 141. SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH Ri I.E. 1 75 Of the extent to which the old festivities during the winter were carried on in olden time, we can get some idea wlien we ti'nd one of the Old Country Acts ordaining " that none repair to feasts uncalled, under the pain of 40 shillings Scots." Marriages, which as a rule are still more common in the winter months than at other periods of the year, were in former years conducted on a very large scale. Hibbert ^ mentions, that the party assembled the night before the wedding, when the bridegroom's feet - were washed by his men in water, though, where the people were well-to-do, wine was substituted. Into the tub, in which the washing had been performed, a ring was thrown, which was scrambled for by those present, the finder being the first to be married. On the night before the ceremony the bride and bridegroom could not sleep under the same roof; a superfluous excess of modesty when the manner, in which a good deal of the previous courting had been conducted, is considered. On the wedding night the bridegroom's men tried to steal the bride, whilst the bridesmaids made a similar raid on the bridegroom. When the happy pair were bedded,^ the bride threw the stocking of her right foot over her left shoulder, and the person on whom it fell was the first, like him of the ring, to be married. The wedding festivities were often carried on for days, and a band of mummers, got up in fantastic array, and called Guizards, were started to keep the fun going. The master of the revels was the wittiest and best dressed of the band, and was termed the Skudler, a name taken, according to Hibbert, from the pilot of a twelve-oared boat {tolfceringr). As the numbers were always in excess of the accommodation, clean straw was spread in the barn, on which they all turned in when worn out with merry-making. Shetlanders have always been fond of music, and are said to give to all music a character of their own. Edmondston "• said that one out of 1 Hibbert's Shetland Isles, p. 554. - See Gregor's Eolk Lore, p. 90. ^ Ilndem, p. 96. * Edmoudston's Zetland Islands, vol. ii. p. 61. 176 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. every ten amongst the peasantry could play the violin, and to the present day a knowledge of the fiddle is far from un- common. Before violins came in, a two-stringed instrument, played like a violoncello, and called a Gue} was in use, and which was said to be identical with the Icelandic FvSla. The " Day-Dawn," and the " Foula Reel," the music of both of which tunes is given in Appendix S, are said to be Scandinavian airs. The old sword-dance, described by Scott in the Pirate., and which, according to Hibbert,^ is a Scotticised version of that described by Olaus Magnus, can still, it is said, be seen in Papa Stour — for a cotjsideration. Up to within a year or so Yule was always kept on Old Christmas Day, and in referring to the different feast-days, from each of which some operation of farming or fishing is regulated, the Old Style is still always meant. In winding up this somewhat lengthy description of a race, who, even at the present day, are utterly different from the natives of every other part of the British Isles, the intense love the Shetlanders have for The Old Hock, as they endearingly style their native land, must not be left out of sight. To such an extent is this feeling carried, that, in the case of girls in service in the south, it often brings on a disease known to the faculty as Morbus Islandicus. There is no other symptom than a gradual dwindling away, and the patient herself is often unaware of the cause of her illness, the only remedy for which is immediate return to the dearly beloved Old Rock. The disaster of the 20th July 1881 led to numerous sugges- tions in the Scottish press, not only for the prevention of similar occurrences in the future, by the adoption of larger and decked boats, but also for the general improvement of the condition of the Shetland peasantry, whom many good people in the south evidently consider an interesting half- starved race, always in urgent need of meal and missionaries. That such is not the case the writer has endeavoured, in the foregoing pages to show, the real fact being, that the Shet- landers have too long only been considered from one of two 1 Query, Icelandic Gigja. - Hibbert's Shetland Isles, p. 555 j SHETLAND UNDER SCOTTISH AND BRITISH RULE. 1 77 extreme points of view. One, perhaps the worst in tlie true interests of the people themselves, has been that of the reli- gious, sentimental, would-be philanthropist ; the other has been that of a hard-headed utilitarian, who, from seeing the women engaged, in the absence of the men, in agricultural work, from the want of cleanliness too often to be noticed, and, perhaps, from having been overreached in the matter of boat-hire, has come to the conclusion, that they are wholly and solely a shiftless, thriftless, deceitful race, with hardly a single redeeming I)oint. Many a Shetland crofter, however, whom, from the ap- I)earance of his dwelling, you would fancy to be on the verge of starvation, has a good snug sum of money in the bank ; but the elements of suspicion and distrust are so ingrafted in his nature, that he is afraid, if the fact were generally known, his laird, the tacksman, or the merchant, would somehow or another get the better of him. That with a great many there is a good deal of improvidence, and that, from the time they start as beach-boys till they are carried to their graves, they are never off the merchant's books, is only too true. The fault, how- over, is not so much in the nature of the people themselves, as in the utterly rotten social system, which has existed for cen- turies, and which was intensified, when the lairds, in the middle of the last century, imagined they had found a Golconda in the fishing trade. For the faults of this system it would, how- ever, be equally unfair to blame either the present proprietors or fish-curers. They found the system in existence, and were not the creators of it, and, though matters are every year changing for the better, the opponents of improvement have, as often as not, been found amongst the fishermen themselves, who, like Mrs. MacClarty, " canna be fashed." Amongst all the remedies suggested last summer and autumn no one ventured to strike at the real root of all tlie mischief Big boats alone will not suffice. So long as the present crofter- fisherman system continues, so long will the evils exposed by the Truck Commission, although they may have been lessened since 1872, continue. N 178 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. With the best intentions in the world, so long as farm produce, stock, and fish appear on one side of the account, whilst rent and goods sold and delivered are on the other, a state of things that is inevitable, so long as fishing and farming are combined, there will always be an idea, erroneous though it may be, that a lesser price is paid for what is sold, and a larger for what is purchased, than should be the case. Again, at the present time not only are the men, as often as not, compelled to be at their farms, when they might to greater advantage be prosecuting the fishing, but the land itself does not receive that development which it is capable of To render anything like permanent improvement possible, not only in the cultiva- tion of the land, but also in the condition and morale of the people, the writer believes the following changes to be necessary : — ist. — The separation of farming from fishing, and the prose- cution of each industry by men who devote their whole energies to whichever pursuit they take up. 2nd. — This of course would necessitate larger holdings than exist at present. 3rd. — The abolition of the present yearly tenancy, with its forty days' notice to quit, and the substitution of leases of sufficient length to protect the cultivator against loss, and to make it worth his while to cultivate his land on somewhat better agricultural principles than he does at present. 4th. — The abolition of the scathold system, or, if it is retained by each proprietor, after his own scathold has been marked off from that belonging to adjacent owners, so far as his own tenants are concerned, the stmting the number of stock kept by each tenant. That many will say the foregoing propositions are impossible in Shetland, the writer is prepared for. Long-line fishing with large boats was said to be impossible in 1876, and in 1877 there were only eleven boats larger than sixareens registered in Shetland, last year there were 117. We have seen the enormous strides that have been made in the Orkneys in the SHE TLAND UNDER SCO TTISH AND BRITISH R UI.E. 1 79 last forty years, and once matters are put on a straight and satisfactory footing in Shetland, there is no reason why a similar improvement in the condition of the district and its inhabitants should not take place, and that too, without either depopulating the islands or converting them into huge sheep farms. KSOCKIM STANE AND MELI,, FliO.VI NOIJTH YELL. N 2 CHAPTER XI Y. THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. BY B. N. Peach, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., AND John Horne, F.R.S.E., F.G.S., Of the Geological Surrey of Scotland. The Orkneys are specially interesting to the geologist on account of the remarkable development of the Old Red Sand- stone formation, and the abundance of ichthyolites found in the flagstones. If we except a small area in tlie neighbourhood of Stromness and a part of the island of Graemsay, the whole of the Orkneys is made up of this formation. The excellent coast-sections afford admirable opportunities for studying the characters and relations of the strata. Indeed, the evidence is so clearly displayed that it is not difficult to unravel the geological structure of the islands. Beginning with the crystalline rocks, which are of older date than the Old Red Sandstone, we find them occupying a small strip of ground on the Mainland between Stromness and Inganess. This strip is about four miles long and about a mile broad. They also occur in Graemsay to the south of Stromness. These rocks consist of fine-grained granite, and fine-grained micaceous gneiss shading in places into foliated si X Ills' s% s c "^^ IS THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. iSi granite ; the whole series-" being traversed by veins of pink felsite. They are flanked on both sides by a thni band of conglomerate of Lower Old Red Sandstone age, which is made up of rounded pebbles of the underlying gneiss and granite. In the island of Hoy there are representatives of both the Upper and Lower Old Red Sandstone, but in all the other islands the beds belong to the lower division. Following the chrono- logical order, we shall first describe the strata of Lower Old Red Sandstone age and their physical relations. Throughout the islands there is a remarkable uniformity in the beds of the lower division. For the most part they consist of hard, blue, and grey flagstones, which, on weathered surfaces, assume a yellow, or rusty brown colour. Occasionally they are intcr- bedded with thin flaggy sandstones and seams of limestone, but on the whole they bear a close resemblance to the typical flagstone series of Caithness. The Orcadian flagstone series, however, graduates upwards into a group of strata of widely different lithological characters. The latter consist of red and yellow sandstones, which, at certain localities, are conglomeratic, containing rounded pebbles of various crystalline rocks, and with these are associated friable red clays. Where the flag- stones merge into the overlying arenaceous series, there is a regular alternation of the two sets of strata, clearly showing that the succession is cjuite conformable. Such being the characteristic features of the lower division, we shall now indicate the general arrangement of the strata. Through the centre of the islands runs a well-marked trough, extending from Scapa Flow northward, by Scapa, Inganess, and Shapinsay, to the island of Eday. The members of the arenaceous series occupy the centre of this synclinal fold, while the flagstones rise from underneath them on both sides. Owing to two great faults on the Mainland, the natural order of succession between the flagstones and overlying sandstones is disturbed ; but in Eday, South Ronaldsay, Fara, and Flotta, the gradual passage between the two is admirably defined. Ty means of gentle undulations the flagstone series is repeated i82 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. over wide areas, indeed it covers the greater part of the Main- land and nearly the whole of the northern islands with the exception of Eday. The monotonous character of much of the Orcadian scenery is owing to the wide distribution of the flagstone series. As the order of succession is clearly displayed in the northern islands, it will be advisable to describe first of all the relations of the strata in Westray, Eday, and Sanday. An anticlinal axis crosses Westray from Tuquoy Bay towards the hamlet of Cleat, being continued northwards along the sound separating that island from Papa Westray. To the west of this axial line the flagstones are gently inclined to the W. and W.N.W., forming the terraced hills overlooking Pierowall and Cleat. This terraced appearance, which is also characteristic of many of the conical hills in the Mainland and Rousay, is due to the denudation of the softer bands of the nearly horizontal flagstone series. On the east side of the anticline the flagstones dip to the E. and E.S.E., and this easterly dip continues with some gentle undulations to the south-east promontory of Weather Ness. At this locality they are highly inclined. On the islets of Fara Holm and Fara the same high angle is observable with a similar easterly dip ; and there can be little doubt that the grey flags in these islets are higher in the series than those at Weather Ness. The flagstones exposed on the western shore of Eday between Fara's Ness and Seal Skerry are merely the southern prolongations of those in Fara and Fara Holm. On the whole, then, there is a regular ascending series from the south-eastern part of Westray through Fara Holm and Fara to Fara's Ness in Eday. The structure of the island of Eday is comparatively simple. The strata form a well-marked syncline, the centre of which is occupied by a series of red and yellow sandstones resting conformably on the flagstones just described. The shore sections on the east and west sides of the island are so clear and convincing, that no one can possibly dispute the gradual passage from the one series into the other. So strongly do the THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. 183 sandstones of Eday resemble the Upper Old Red Sandstones of Hoy, that Sir Roderick Murchison placed them on the same horizon. But we shall point out presently that the massive sandstones of Hoy rest ^//-conformably on the flagstones, and are therefore separated from them by a vast interval of time. A traverse along the western shore of Eday from Fara's Ness to the sandy bay about a mile to the east shows the alternation of the sandstones and flags at the base of the arenaceous series. At the promontory the grey flagstones are seen dipping to the east at an angle of 30° ; but not far to the east they are interstratified with bands of flaggy sandstone. These beds are overlaid by false bedded yellow sandstones, containing numerous brecciated bands made up of angular fragments of crystalline rocks. These false bedded sandstones likewise contain two thin zones of grey flagstones, resembhng in every respect those at Fara's Ness. It is evident, therefore, that the change of physical conditions indicated by the respective groups of s.tra,ta must have been gradual. Owing to the synclinal fold, the beds just described, which ]jlunge underneath the arenaceous series forming the backbone of Eday, are brought to the surface again at the Kirk of Skail, on the east side of the island. From that point they are prolonged southwards to War Ness. At both localities the same alternation of sandstones, flagstones, and shales is observable near the junction of the two types of strata. Moreover, as we ascend in the series the sandstones become more massive and conglomeratic, with abundant false bedding. The included pebbles consist of quartzite, mica schist, gneiss, granite, and other metamorphic rocks all stained of a red- dish colour. The occurrence of these pebbles seems to indicate, that the members of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in the Orkneys, were laid down on a very uneven surface of the older crystalline rocks, for the latter must have been exposed to denudation at no great distance when the Eday sandstones were deposited. These red and yellow sandstones form the whole of the northern part of Eday and the Calf of Eday; i84 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. being well st'en on the cliffs on both sides of Calf Sound. In the south-east corner of Eday, on the Ve Ness promontory, a s-mall patch of these sandstones has been repeated by a fault with a downthrow to the east. Crossing the Sound of Eday to the adjoining island of Sanday, the flagstones are met with between Spur Ness and Stranquoy, dipping steadily to the west at angles varying from 40 to 50 degrees. Here they are interbedded with red and grey sandstones and conglomeratic bands exposed on the shore to the north of S})ur Ness. This strip of flagstones is bounded on the east by a fault which is admirably displayed in Stran- quoy Bay. On the east side of the fault the chocolate-coloured sandstones and shales are seen dipping in a south-westerly direction, while to the west of the fault the flags are bent round in the form of an arch. This fault has a downthrow to the east, and by means of it the Eday sandstones are again repeated with an inclination to the west. Hence, as we follow the coast section from Spur Ness to Quoy Ness there is a regular descending series of the sandstones till they merge into the flagstones. Indeed, the succession is merely the counterpart of that already described on both sides of Eday. From this point northwards to the Burness peninsula the flagstones are met with ; being repeated at intervals by gentle undulations. The flagstone series covers the whole of the island of Shapin- say, save the south-eastern portion, where the members of the arenaceous series are thrown in by a small fault between Haco's Ness and Kirkton. It is highly probable that this fault may be the prolongation of the great dislocation which forms the north-west boundary of the arenaceous series on the Mainland- From the character of the strata it may be inferred that their position is not far from the base of the arenaceous series. The sandstones alternate with the flagstones in a manner closely resembling the succession in Eday. An interesting feature connected with these beds is the occurrence of contemporaneous volcanic rocks, pointing to volcanic activity during the deposition of the sedimentary strata. They THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. 185 occupy the coast-line for about half a mile between Haco's Ness and the Foot. They are conformably overlaid by the flagstones, which are not altered in the least along the line of junction ; thus plainly showing that the lava flow had consoli- dated prior to the deposition of the overlying beds. .'J'his ancient lava flow consists of a dark green diabase which has undergone much alteration. Some of the specimens contain much calcite, filling elongated vesicles indicating the flow ot the mohen lava. Though this exposure of interbedded volcanic rocks is very limited, it is of considerable importance as being the only relic of volcanic activity in Lower Old Red Sandstone times in the Orkneys. The strata represented in Rousay and the north-western portion of the Mainland are evidently the southern prolonga- tions of the flaggy series whicli we have already described as occurring in Westray. Their lithological characters are pre- cisely similar, and in Rousay they form the characteristic terraced-shaped hills. Of. special interest are the flagstones which occur in the neighbourhood of the axis of crystalline rocks at Stromness. From these beds Hugh Miller disinterred the fragment of Astei-olepis so well known through his descrip- tion in The Footprints of the Creator. Various localities in the vicinity of Stromness, since his time, have yielded splendid specimens of fossil fishes, among which may be mentioned Skail Bay and Ramna Geo, north of Yeskenabae, and Breck- ness Bay, north of Hoy Sound. We have already referred to the band of conglomerate encircling the crystalline rocks, which, however, disappears within a short distance of the gneiss and is rapidly succeeded by the flagstones yielding ichthyolites. It is highly probable that this fringe of con- glomerate merely represents a local base and not the true base of the Orcadian flagstone series. On the north coast of Hoy the flagstones which are unconformably overlaid by the Upper Old Red Sandstone, dip to the north and north-west, which would lead one to infer that they occupy a lower position than the fossiliferous beds north of Stromness. A similar local base i86 THE OKKXEYS AXD SHETLAND. is beautifully seen at Dirlot Castle, in Caithness, where a boss of the old crystalline rocks protrudes through a thin layer of conglomerate, which is in turn capped by the flagstones. The true base of the series occurs nearly four miles to the west of Dirlot Castle. Such a phenomenon indicates ver}- plainly that the sea-bottom on which these sedimentary strata were deposited must have been very uneven. Here and there islets projected above the water, which, as the land slowly sank, were eventually buried beneath the accumulating sediment. By means of gentle undulations the flagstones spread over the country between Stromness and Kirkwall ; the foldings of the strata and consequent changes of dip being well seen on the shore between Ireland Bay and Houton Head. In the centre of the Mainland, however, the natural order of succes- sion is completely disturbed by two powerful faults, which ever\"vvhere bring the Eday sandstones and marls into conjunc- tion with the flagstone series. A glance at the geological map of Orkney (Plate 2) will show the trend of these great disruptions of the strata. The north-west bounding fault, which has a downthrow to the south-east, is traceable from Orphir Kirk north-eastwards by Scapa to the bay west of Inganess Head. Along this Une the effects of the dislocation are admirably seen at various localities : but perhaps one of the most interesting is on the west shore of Scapa Bay. The flagstones in the quarr}' dip to the west of north at an angle of g**. On the cliff to the south of the quany a minor fault throws down the flagstones with a south-east inclination at an angle of 65° : while a few yards farther south the main fault occurs, bringing in the red and yellow sandstones with a north-west inclination. The fault bounding the sandstones on the east side is traceable from a point in Inganess Bay, west of Birston Head, south-westwards to the east shore of the bay of Scapa. From thence it skirts the shore to Howquoy Head near St. Mary's Holm. To the east of this dislocation the flagstones reappear and stretch eastwards to Rerwick Head and Deerness. THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. 187 In the southern islands, viz., Cava, Fara, Flotta, South Ronaldsay, and Burray, the strata consist of red and yellow sandstones and marls, with occasional zones of flagstones ; the whole series passing conformably downwards into the flag- stones. In Cava and Fara the beds are inclined to the north-east ; in Flotta, to the north ; in Burray and the northern part of South Ronaldsay to the north-west. It is evident, therefore, that Scapa Flow forms the centre of a geological basin, towards which the strata dip on almost every side, and round the shores of which the highest members of the Lower Old Red Sandstone of the Orkneys are to be found. A com- parison of the Orcadian succession with that in Caithness renders it probable that the former represents the higher sub- divisions of the Caithness series. It is important to note the gradual development of the arenaceous type of the Lower Old Red Sandstone as we proceed northwards from the Caithness coast ; for when we come to discuss the representatives of this division in Shetland it will be seen that the arenaceous type attains a remarkable development in that region, while the typical flagstones have almost wholly disappeared. The organic remains embedded in the Orcadian flagstone series comprise ichthyolites, crustaceans, and plants. As yet no fossils have been disinterred from the sandstones and marls which conformably overlie them. The fishes are usually pre- served in dark highly bituminous flagstones and shales, and when freshly exhumed have a jet-black enamelled appearance of great beauty. They belong chiefly to the order of the Ganoid fishes, one of whose characteristic features is the presence of scales in the form of bony plates with an ena- melled surface. The following genera are represented in Orkney, viz., Dipterus, Diplopterus, Coccoste.us, Asterolepis, Fterichthys, Osfeolepis, Cheirolepis, Glyptolepis, Cheiracanthiis, and Diplacanthus} The Kirkwall flagstones have yielded specimens of the crustacean Estheria membranacea, while * Dipterns was a dipnous fish nearly allied to the recent Ceratodus, wh le the affinities of Cheiracanthus and Di/lacanthus are with the sharks. iSS THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. tVoui the neighbourhood of Stromness Dr. Woodward has identified a fragment as the basal joint of a limb of Pterygohis. The plant-remains include specimens of Psilophyton princeps, Lepidodendron, and Lycopodites. We must now proceed to refer to the representatives of the Upper Old Red Sandstone which are so grandly developed in Hoy. The physical features as well as the geological structure of Hoy are somewhat different from those which obtain in the other islands. Instead of a low undulating table land, terminating seawards in a bluff cliff, or sloping down- wards to a sandy beach, this island forms a prominent table-land trenched by deep narrow valleys which are occasionally flanked by conical hills upwards of 1400 feet high. These narrow valleys have been carved out of a great succession of red and yellow sandstones which cover the greater part of the island, and which are magnificently displayed in the noble cliff facing the Atlantic. Though these beds have hitherto yielded no organic remains, they are classed with the Upper Old Red strata of Caithness and the Moray Firth basin, partly on lithological grounds, and partly on account of the marked unconformity which separates them from the flagstone series. This vast pile of massive sandstones rests on a platform of interbedded volcanic rocks, which were ejected at the surface and regularly intercalated with the sandstones. These igneous rocks consist of aniyg- daloidal lavas and ashes, which crop out from underneath the sandstones in the north-west of the island. They form a well-marked ledge or terrace-shaped feature skirting the northern slopes of the Hoy and Cuilags Hills, which can be traced northwards to the Kaim of Hoy. In that neighbour- hood there are three separate lava flows with stratified volcanic ashes, but as they are followed southwards along the clift from the Kaim of Hoy they gradually thin out, till at the base of the Old Man only one band of lava occurs. Here the slaggy surface of the lava flow is admirably displayed, the vesicles being filled with various zeolites. From the THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS 189 general appearances presented by these ancient lavas there can be no doubt that they were ejected from volcanic cones. Fortunately, however, there are still indications of the vents from which the igneous materials were discharged. In the north-east of Hoy, in the strip of low ground occupied by the flagstones between the Kaim of Hoy and Quoy Bay, there are several " necks " filled with volcanic agglomerates representing the old volcanic orifices. This platform of interbedded volcanic rocks, which forms the base of the Upper Old Red Sandstones, rests unconforma- bly on the flagstone series of Lower Old Red age. The latter occupy the low ground in the north-east of Hoy between the shore and the hill slopes. They are well seen on the sea cliffs betw^een Quoy Bay and the Kaim of Hoy, and also along the base of the grand cliff from the Kaim of Hoy as far as the Old Man. They are inclined at a higher angle than the strata of Upper Old Red age. and hence, as we follow the coast section southwards to the Old Man, the dark lava and overlying sand- stones gradually steal across the edges of the flagstones. No- where, is the unconformable relation between the upper and lower divisions better displayed, than at the base of the Old Man. The groundwork of that wonderful column is composed of flagstones and shales, and across their denuded edges tliere stretches the band of amygdaloidal lava which is capped by the red sandstones to a height of 450 feet. It is evident that the Old Man must at one time have formed part of the cliff, as the various layers in the lofty column correspond Avith those on the shore. His isolation bespeaks the power of the denuding agencies. The sandstones are traversed by innumerable vertical joints, which form lines of weakness in the masonry, and w^hich are ceaselessly assailed by the sea and the ordinary atmospheric agents of waste. By these means huge slices are gradually removed and the sea cliff slowly recedes. Occasionally it happens, as in the case of the Old Man, that portions of the cliff are isolated in the process which for a lapse of time remain as memorials of the I90 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. receding cliff, but the same forces which bring about their isolation, will eventually lead to their total destruction. We may now briefly summarise the sequence of physical changes indicated by the great development of the Old Red Sandstone in the Orkneys. Towards the close of the Silurian period, the marine conditions which prevailed throughout Europe gave place in the north-western area to inland seas or lakes with prominent land barriers, in which the Old Red Sandstone strata were deposited. The suggestion has been made by Professor A. Geikie, that the members of the Lower Old Red Sandstone in the Orkneys were probably laid down in the same basin with the strata of the same age in Shetland, in Caithness, and round the borders of the Moray Firth, To this great sheet of water he has assigned the name of Lake Orcadie. The southern margin of this ancient lake is still well defined by means of the basement conglomerate on the south side of the Moray Firth. The axis of ancient crystalline rocks at Stromness formed an islet which, for a time, projected above the surface of the water; the thin band of conglomerate representing the old shore gravel. The great succession of flagstones points to the deposition of fine silt and mud on the bed of the lake through a long lapse of time. In this fine sediment were entombed the remains of the numerous genera of Ganoid fishes which flourished at that early period. The plants associated with them help us to realise the nature of the vegetation which grew on the old land-surface. At length there was a feeble outburst of volcanic activity, when a small sheet of molten lava was ejected, which is now represented by the diabase in the south- east of Shapinsay. This was succeeded by a marked change in the nature of the sediment, which consisted chiefly of coarse sand with seams of marly clay, while at intervals, pebbles of various metamorphic rocks were commingled with the coarse sediment betokening the proximity of land. These accumu- lations are now represented by the Eday sandstones and marls, and the beds which encircle Scapa Flow. At the close THE GEOLOGY OF THE ORKNEYS. 191 of the Lower Old Red Sandstone period, the bottom of the lake was elevated so as to form a land-surface, and the flagstones as well as the arenaceous series were subjected to considerable denudation. We have no means of determining the length of time during which this denudation continued, but this we do know, that when the land-surface was again depressed beneath the sea-level, volcanic action burst forth anew. From the vents in the north-east of Hoy, sheets of lava and showers of ashes were thrown out and distributed over the denuded edges of the flagstones, and this was followed by the deposition of a vast thickness of sandy sediment which now forms the Upper Old Red Sandstones of Hoy. Only a passing allusion can be made to the dykes of basalt which intersect the Old Red Sandstone strata. They are of frequent occurrence on the west coast of the Mainland between Breck Ness and Skail. There are no very reliable data by means of which the age of these dykes can be fixed. They have been referred, however, with some probability, to the Tertiary period to which the great series of basalt dykes in the midland counties of Scotland belong. The glacial phenomena of Orkney completely establish a double system of glaciation. There is satisfactory evidence for maintaining that during the primary glaciation, the Orcadian group must have been overridden by an ice-sheet which moved from the North Sea to the Atlantic ; but towards the close of the Glacial period when the great mer de glace had retreated, local glaciers must have lingered for a time in the valleys of Hoy, and in some of the more elevated parts of the Mainland. Though the flagstones are not very well adapted for preserving the ice markings, still, numerous instances are to be found where a fresh surface is exposed by removing the boulder-clay. On referring to the geological map of Orkney (Plate 2), it will be seen that the general trend of the striae throughout the islands, during the primary glaciation, varies from W.N.W. to N.N.W. Here and there, where local causes interfered with the general movement, slight 192 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. deflections are met with. On the Island of Wcstray, striated surfaces are beautifully seen on the top of the cliff at Noup Head, and on the hill-slopes west of Pierowall. In Eday, the sandstones have successfully preserved the effects of the ice chisel, of which there are two excellent examples ; one on the east slope of Stennie Hill, pointing W, 20'-25°N., and the other in the bay east of Fara's Ness, where a small stream enters the sea. At this point the trend varies from N. 2 7°W. to W. 38° N. In Kirkwall Bay, a short distance to the east of the pier, beautifully striated flagstones may be seen where the boulder clay has been recently removed by the action of the sea, running from N.N.W. to N. 6°W. Even on the cliff tops of Hoy, striated surfaces have been observed. A careful examination of the numerous striated surfaces led us to the conclusion that the ice during the primary glaciation must have crossed the islands from the North Sea to tlie Atlantic. Indeed, when we consider the persistent north-westerly trend in connection with the physical features of the group, we cannot resist the conclusion that the ice movement must have originated beyond the limits of the Orkneys. Fortunately, the dispersal of the stones in the boulder clay confirms this conclusion, while the presence of Scotch rocks in that deposit enables us to demonstrate that the ice which crossed this group of islands must have radiated from Scotland. The boulder clay is distributed mainly round the bays, where it frequently attains a considerable depth, while the inland districts are mostly covered with a thin clayey soil due to the decomposition of the underlying flagstones. It will be sufficient for our present purpose if we describe the general character of the deposit ; indicating at the same time one or two localities where it is best developed. It consists of a tough red or yellow clay, packed with smooth and striated stones scattered irregularly through the deposit. The stones are usually striated along the major axis and are mainly com- posed of the underlying flagstones or sandstones. But in addition to these blocks of local origin, there are others THE GEOLOGY OF THE OKKWEYS. 193 imbedded in the clay vvliich are foreign to the Orkneys These consist of pink porphyritic felsite, dark Hmestone with abundant plant-remains of Calciferous Sandstone age, oolitic limestone, oolitic calcareous breccia, fossil wood (probably oolitic), chalk, and chalk flints. Equally miportant is the presence of numerous fragments of marine shells which are found in many of the sections. Many of the fragments are smoothed and striated precisely like the stones in the boulder clay, and there can be little doubt that they are due to the same cause in both cases. Various species of foraminifera also occur in the stony clay. One of the best localities in the Orkneys for studying this deposit occurs in Odin Ba}-, on the east side of Stronsay, where it forms a continuous cliff for nearly half a mile, and varies from twenty to thirty feet in depth. Both tlie foreign blocks and the shell fragments are })lentiful in this section. Other excellent exposures are to be met with along the west coast of Shapinsay (Gait Ness deriving its name from the boulder-clay cliff exposed there), in Fara's Ness Bay on the west side of Eday, and in Kirkwall Bay to the east of the pier. The dispersal of the local stones in the boulder clay indicates an ice movement towards the north-west, inasmuch as blocks of the Eday sandstones have been carried westward to the island of Westray, and fragments of the amygdaloidal lava at Haco's Ness in Shapinsay occur in the sections in the north- west of that island. And so also in Pomona, or the Mainland, the red and yellow sandstones which cross the centre of the island are represented in the moraine profonde on the shore between Houton Head and the Loch of Stenncss. Apart from this evidence, we are led to the same conclusion by the occur- rence of blocks in the boulder clay which must have come from Scotland. The dark grey limestone boulders of Calciferous Sandstone age yielding Lepidosirobus were derived in all likeli- hood, from the county of Fife, as that is the nearest tract to the Orkneys where similar rocks occur in situ. Some of the specimens of oolitic calcareous breccia closely resemble parts of the upper oolites on the east coast of Sutherland, and the o 194 THE ORKXEYS AND SHETLAND. specimens of oolitic limestone possibly came from the same locality, while the chalk and chalk-flints resemble some of the secondary rocks of Scotland. It is evident, therefore, that during the primary glaciation, the Orkneys must have been glaciated by Scotch ice moving from the North Sea towards the Atlantic. Hovv the Scotch ice which entered the North Sea was deflected towards the Atlantic will be discussed in chapter xxx., w^ien we have described the glacial phenomena of Shetland. Traces of local glaciers mainly exist in Hoy. In the valleys draining the conical group of hills, moraines are to be found of great size. A remarkable example occurs in the valley to the east of Hoy Hill, where a moraine mound, nearly half a mile long, and from fifty to sixty feet high, runs across the mouth of the glen. It would seem that the later glacier did not succeed in scooping out the moraine profo7idehe\or\gu\g to the primary glaciation, as the moraine matter rests on stiff sandy boulder clay. In the hollow below Cuilags Hill con- centric heaps extend across the valley indicating pauses in the retreat of the glacier. Again, in the Mainland, the moory ground between Finstown and Maes Howe is dotted all over with conical moraine heaps deposited by glaciers, which moved off the northern slopes of the Orphir Hills. Erratics do not abound in the Orkneys, but there is one which is worthy of special mention. It occurs in the island of Sanday, and is termed the Savil boulder. Above ground it measures 6^ X 6 X 2^ feet, but its base is buried underneath the surface. It consists of hornblendic gneiss, containing beautiful crystals of striated oligoclase felspar, dark green hornblende, with some mica. Professor Heddle, who has minutely examined this rock, suggests that it may possibly be of Scandinavian origin. In the Orkneys there is no trace of raised beaches, nor of those widespread sheets of gravel belonging to the Kaim series in Scotland. CHAPTER XV. THE ORKNEYS. Tipyn o Bob Peth. " Land of the whirlpool — torrent — foam, Where oceans meet in maddening shock ; The beetling cliff — the shelving holm — The dark insidious rock : Land of the bleak, the treeless moor— The sterile mountain, sered and riven ; The shapeles'; cairn, the ruined tower, Scattered by the bolts of heaven : The yawning gulf — the treacherous sand — I love thee still, my native land." David Vedder. Lying between 58° 41' and 59° 24' North Latitude, and between 2° 22' and 4° 25' West Longitude, the Orkneys are said to comprise some fifty-six islands and holms, or islets. Of these Pomona, or the Mainland, is the largest and principal island, which for descriptive purposes may be divided into two districts, Kirkwall and the East Mainland, and Stromness and the West Mainland. With the East Mainland may. be combined the thriving island of Shapinsay and the smaller isle of Copinsay. All the islands lying to the south of ^the Mainland are known as the South Isles, of which Burray, South Ronaldsay, Hoy and Walls, Flotta, and Gracmsay arc the o 2 196 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. principal ones. Lying off the eastern and northern sides of the Western Mainland are Gairsay, Veira or Wyre, Egilsay, and Rousay, which, for distinction's sake, may be termed the Western Isles. All to the north of the Westray and Stronsay Firths are known as the North Isles, and comprise Stronsay, Sanday, North Ronaldsay, Eday, Westray, and Papa Westray. Although Copinsay, South Ronaldsay, Ueerness, and the southern end of Stronsay present some fair cliffs to meet the waves of the German Ocean, all the finest coast scenery is to be found on the western coasts. Hoy is the only island to which the term mountainous can be applied ; and even there the highest altitude, that of the W'ard Hill, is not more than 1,564 feet in height. There is a wild moorland district between Kirkwall and the Loch of Stenness, of which the Ward Hill of Orphir, 880 feet, is the highest point ; and the island of Rousay, with its three hills, Blotchinfield, Knitchenfield, and Kierfea, has a certain wild beauty of its own, which impels patriotic natives at times to call it the Orcadian Highlands. No other portions of the islands can be dignitied with any other appellation than hilly, and some of the North Isles are very flat. Apart from the really grand scenery of Hoy the Orkneys have, however, a charm of their own, in the wonderfully brilliant colour effects, which alternate light and shade produce, and which seem intensified at times in the weird twilight of a northern summer. The fierce tideways which sweep through the sounds and firths have probably something to do with the wonderful varying tints you sometimes notice in the colour of that sea, that is so rarely at rest around the storm-swept Orcades. Sweeping down from the north-west, the tidal wave, the strength of which is comparatively slight a short distance from the coast, increases in velocity, as it forces its way through the islands, attaining a rapidity in many places of from six to seven knots an hour, and in the Pentland Firth at the Great Lother Skerry, off the southern end of South Ronaldsay, rushing at the rate of ten, and being perceptibly higher by one or two feet on the stream side. With such tide- THE ORKNEYS. 197 ways the slightest inequahly in the bottom produces a ripple on the surface, increasing in places to the dangerous whirlpools called rosts or roosts, which have in the case of the Pentland Firth so long given it a bad name amongst mariners. What these rosts are, especially when a flood spring is met dead on end by a gale from the opposite quarter, only those who have seen them or similar tidal-races can realise. Of the Swelkie off the north-western corner of Stroma, in which one of King Hakon's ships was lost on his return from Largs, a curious legend is narrated.^ A certain King Frodi possessed a magical quern or hand-mill called "Grotti," which had been found in Denmark, and was the largest quern ever known. Grotti, which ground gold or peace for King Frodi as he willed, was stolen by a sea king called Mysing, who set it to grind white salt for his ships. Whether Mysing, like many another purloiner of magic-working implements, had only learned the spell to set it going and did not know how to stop it, is not stated. Anyhow, his ships became so full of salt that they sank, and Grotti with them. Hence the Swelkie. As the water falls through the eye of the quern, the sea roars, and the quern goes on grinding the salt, which gives its saltness to the ocean. In August, 1858,- three fishermen named Hercus, whilst saith fishing, were sucked into the Bore of Papa, as a dangerous roost to the north of Papa Westray is called, and drowned, and probably many instances could be cited of similar accidents, though, owing to the Orcadians being compelled to study the run and set of the tides, not so many as might be expected. Some few years back when the Channel Fleet were in the north, they attempted to pass to the westward through Westray Firth, in the teeth of a strong spring flood, but all the Queen's horse-power and all the Queen's men could not do it, and they had to turn tail. The Orcadians have a weather proverb that expresses a good deal in a few words. " When he blaws and she wets, it makes ' Ork. Sa^., note, p. 107. * Maidment Co lit c lions. 198 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. a dirty firth." Captain F. W. L. Thomas/ R.N., from whose survey the present chart of the island was compiled, thus describes Orcadian gales : — " In the terrific gales which usually occur four or five times in every year, all distinction between air and water is lost, the nearest objects are obscured by spray, and everything seems enveloped in a thick smoke ; upon the open coast the sea rises at once, and striking upon the rocky shores, rises in foam for several hundred feet, and spreads over the whole country. The sea, however, is not so heavy in the violent gales of short continuance as when an ordinary gale has been blowing for many days ; the whole force of the Atlantic is then beating against the Orcadian shores ; rocks of many tons in weight are lifted from their beds, and the roar of the surge may be heard for twenty miles ; the breakers rise to the height of sixty feet, and on the North Shoal, which lies eight miles N.W. of Costa Head, the broken sea is visible even at Skail and Birsay." In most years, however, botli the Orkneys and Shetland are, during the summer and early autumn months, more troubled with fogs than gales. Some few years back the St. Magnus, owing to fog, was sixty hours between Lerwick and Kirkwall, a passage she usually makes in eight to nine hours. A propos of fogs, a good story is told of the late Captain Parrot of the Prince Consort. In a dense fog he had run his vessel against Noss Head, just north of Wick Bay ; luckily with comparatively slight damage. Some short time after observing a steerage passenger, at one of his ports of call, coming on board with a lot of furniture, he asked, in his usual stentorian tone, was he going to start a second- hand furniture shop ? " Na, na Captain," was the reply, " I am just taking them south to pad Noss Head 'gin the next time you come by." Skipper subsided. In both groups too the few thunder-storms they are visited with occur in the winter months. Owing, probably, to the influence of the Gulf Stream, a much more equable temperature is maintained ^ Tides of the Orkneys. THE ORKNEYS. iy(J all through the year than is the case in Scotland or Eng- land, and, though anything like extreme heat is rarely felt in summer, the intense piercing cold, that cuts to the very marrow on the east coast of Scotland, is likewise unknown. Mr. Scott, of the Meteorological Office, has pointed out to the writer that the special characteristic of the Orcadian climate is the limited range of its temperature throughout the year, only amounting to i4""5 ; in which respect it resembles the' south- west of Ireland and the Scilly Isles, where the range is re- spectively i4"'5 at Valentia, and i5^'5 at the Scilly Isles, though in both of these latter stations the average yearly temperature is five or six degrees higher. Mr. Scott has also called the writer's attention to the somewhat remarkable fact that, m both the Orkneys and Shetland, the coldest month in the year is March, instead of January, as in other parts of the United Kingdom. In this respect, the Orkneys and Shetland are affected by the temperature of the sea, which washes their shores, and which reaches its lowest point in March. Nothing shows the comparative mildness of the Orcadian climate better than the hedges of fuchsias, that are to be found in many gardens, and its antiseptic nature was noticed by Shirreff, who ^ wrote, that turnips, which have been partly bitten by rabbits, skin over, as it were, in the Orkneys, whilst in any other part of Britain they would at once rot. He also referred to the well-known mummies of Osmundwall and Stroma, as proving the same thing. Neither cattle-plague nor rabies ^ have ever been known in the group. The tables taken from the third volume of the new series of the Scottish Meteorological Society's y^oiirjial, given at length in Ajjpendix J i (p. 6 id), will enable the reader to form some idea of the climate of the Orkneys and Shetland, so far as temperature and rainfall are concerned. Up to the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 the Orkneys had a county member all to themselves, and the royal burgh ^ ShirrefTs Orkney, pp. 19, 20. 2 As to rabus see First Statistical Account, vol. xv. p. 310. 200 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. had a share in another member in conjunction with Wick, Dornoch, Tain, and Dingwall ; whilst the poor Shetlanders, though paying their due quota of cess or land-tax, were left utterly unrepresented. Now, the proud Orcadians have to share their county member with their poor cousins in the north ; and, whenever there is a redistribution of seats, Lerwick will probably be added to the list of Northern Burghs. In former days there does not seem to have been such a run on the Scottish Parliament as there now is to be elected a member of " the most comfortable club in London," and in 1628 we tind ^ the gentry of Orkney pleading that they were " hot meane gentilmen and fermoraris," and none of them rich enough to be able to serve. Even if financing, com- pany-floating, and guinea-pigging were not invented, both the British Solomon and his unlucky son of pious memory were not supposed to be above jobs, and there were mono- })olies, though probably the fattest of these were provided in England. At an election in 1836 the conveyance of the polling books, from Orkney alone, is said to have cost ^1,400, and in those steamerless days canvassing the storm-swept Orcades and the wilds of Ultima Thule must at times have been the reverse of pleasant ; though, by the way, the seat was long considered the private property of the Dundas family. Even at the present day, people who have tried, say canvassing the Isles, especially when the equinoctials are on, is apt to be more exciting than pleasant. Now the Orcadians look down on the Shetlanders, but, ever since the days of Summerdale, they have positively hated the Caithness people. Their feelings may be imagined therefore, when one sheriff- depute was con- sidered an ample supply of appellate wisdom, not only for their own isles and Shetland, but also for the hated Caithness. Amongst other good men who have been sheriff-deputes of Orkney and Zetland, are conspicuous, rollicking, racy Lord Neaves, to spend a night with whom was said to be a treat far beyond any afforded by the Nodes A/>ibrosiaricB,—Sind Bon * Acts and Statutes of the La~uling, p. 57. THE ORKNEYS. 201 Gaidtier Aytoun. Neaves was hardly " the man for Galway " in one sense, however he may have been fitted in others, at least, if we may judge from his Sheriff's Life at Sea, one verse of which, says : — " So the Sheriff" here must needs resign, For his inside 's fairly gone, boys : And he calls for a glass of brandy-wine, And to bed with his gaiters on, boys, {bis.) Lying here, Dying there Drearily, wearily, Groaningly, moaiiingly. Prostrate laid by fate's decrees Seems the Sheriff now at sea, my boys." The man who wrote The Massacre of the Macpherson was more at home in the far north ; a keen angler, several lochs are said to have been favourite haunts of his, especially loon- frequented Funds Water, with its shores strewn w^ith pink boulders, a liking that speaks volumes for his artistic sympa- thies to any one who knows the loch. In addition to the Aluckle Shirra, who, like Jove from Olympus, steps down " On the Ultima Thulian world," each group has a Peerie Shirra of its own, whose life is so easy-going and monotonous amongst the blameless Norsemen, that, it is believed, they both would welcome a rising of the Scandinavian sympathisers by way of variety. On the abolition of episcopacy, the Orkneys formed one Presbytery in the Synod of Caithness, but, in 1725, they were divided by the General Assembly into the three Presbyteries that now exist, of Kirkwall, Cairston, and the North Isles, which together form the Synod of Orkney. In 1S61 the population for the whole group was 32,395, whilst by the census of 1881 it wns 32,037, showing a falling off of 358 in the twenty years. ^ If, however, the total po})ulation shows a ^ See Appendix K, p. 612. 202 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. slight decline in the twenty years, the rental of the islands has during the same period risen from ;^'"44,2i4 14^. in 1861, to ^79,539 I3J-. 3^. in 1 881, giving the enormous increase of ;^"'35,324 I9J-. 3^/. Of the landed proj^rietors, except amongst the peerie lairds of Harray, the representatives of the old Norse families have, with the exception of Dr. Baikie, of Tankerness, become extinct in the direct male line. Mr. Heddle, of Melsetter, through his grandmother, represents the Moodies of Breck Ness, who are said to have been descended from Harald Maddad's son. There are plenty of Moodies, however, still to the fore, out of the isles, at the Cape and in Canada. Mr. Balfour, of Balfour and Trenabie, is said to represent Queen Mary's Master of the Horse through a collateral line. Mr. Traill, of Holland, in Papa Westray, is the head of all the Orcadian and Caithness Traills, the original forebear of whom came, like so many others of the founders of Orcadian families, from Fife, in the train of the Stewarts. Bishop Graham is represented by Mr. Sutherland Graeme, of Graemeshall, and Mr. Graham Watt, of Breck Ness and Skail, though through the female line in each case. Earl Patrick, according to Burke,^ left an only child, ]\Iary, who married Stewart, of Graemsay, and whose only daughter, Mary, married Andrew Honeyman, Bishop of Orkney, whose great- great-grandson, William Honeyman, titular Lord Armadale, as one of the lords of session, was created a baronet in 1804,'' and was the grandfather of the late well-known commercial lawyer and judge. Sir George Honyman. The present head of the family is the Reverend Sir William Macdonald Hony- man, of Coton Hall, Salop, wlio, however, owns no property in the Orkneys. According to the Fasti, vol. v. p. 459, Lord Armadale was descended from Robert Honeyman, son of the bishop by his Jirst marriage witli Eupham, daughter of a Mr. Cunningham, minister of Ferry-port-on-Craig ; though tho Fasti goes on to say that there was another son, Robert, by thei marriage with Mary Stewart, which last son inherited Graemsay. ^ See Burke's Peerage under " Honyman." THE ORKNEYS. 203 Mrs. M. E. Bruce,! ^g-iin, says Earl Patrick died without male issue, but left a daughter who married the first Bruce of Sumburgh in Shetland. Bishop Mackenzie is represented by the Rev. J. H. Pollexfen, of Cairston. If, amongst the Commissioners of Supply, the representatives of the old Norse families are almost entirely absent, amongst the Harray lairds and the voters for burgh and county a large number of the old Norse names still survive. Many of the Harray lairds, it is said, like the statesmen of Westmoreland and Cumberland, hold the same lands their ancestors did [centuries back. And, though the old Odal succession has long given way to the ordinary rule of inheritance common over the whole kingdom, except where gavelkind or other special tenures survive, they still hold their lands by prescriptive right, and depend in no way on charter or deed as the root of title. Harray was the last stronghold of the old Norse tongue in the islands, where it is said to have survived as late as 1757.- Although the Norse patronymics are still to be found in considerable numbers throughout the population, and the names of places ^ remain almost unchanged from the days of the old Jarls, the influx of Scottish settlers from time to time has, to a considerably greater degree than in Shetland, influenced both the dialect and the very appearance of the people. The Orcadian dialect is harsher and more Doric, if the phrase may be used, than that of the northern group, which grates far less on English ears, and Scott,* during the short time he spent in the two groups, was struck by the difference in appearance between the Shetlanders and the Orcadians, saying in one place, " the Fair Isle inhabitants are a good-looking race, more like Zetlanders than Orkney men." The very gait of the two populations differs, the ^ Bruces and Cummings, p. 337. 2 Barry's Orkney, jx 230. ^ Those interested in the old Norse place-names of the Orkneys and Shetland should read the two papers (both in EngHsh) by the late Professor Munch on the subject, in the Menioins de la Sociclc Royale dcs Antiqttaires dii Nord (vols. 1844-49, 1850-60). ■* Scott's Life, vol. iii. p. 176. 204 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Orcadians, fine, powerful men as many of them are, walking with the deliberate, plodding step, common to all agricultural districts, whilst the Shetlanders swing along with the elastic, springing stride of a race that would as soon walk barefoot as not, and, if they must protect their feet with some sort of covering, prefer the soft, easy feel of rivlins, to the rigid, unyielding boot of so-called civilisation. Each district in the islands has its own Tee-name, or nickname. Tradition says, that many of these names date from the building of the cathedral, and were given from the provisions the several detachments brought with them. Thus the Papa Westray folk are known as Dundies (poor cod), the Westray people as Auks (the Common Guillemot), and the inhabitants of Walls as Lyres (Manx Shearwater). That many of these names are of respectable antiquity is shown by Jo Ben, who wrote in 1529, saying of the Walls folk, "Wais, Pomonienses vocant Incolas" (the Lyars of Wais). Some of the names, however, seem to have altered since his day, as of the Harray people, who are now known as Crabs, he states, " Hara alia parochia, ubi ignavissimi fuci sunt, ideoque dicuntur " (the Sheep of Harray). Sheep is nowadays applied to the in- habitants of Shapinsay. A list of these tee-names is given in. Appendix L. A complete Fauna Orcadensis has yet to be written. Low's, considering his time and opportunities, was very good, but is far from complete, and wrong in many instances. The Historia Naturalis Orcadensis, compiled by the late Dr. Baikie, the African explorer, and the late Mr. Robert Heddle, a brother of the well-known Professor of Chemistry at St. Andrew's, only reached the first volume, comprising the mammalia and birds up to that date (1848) observed in or around the islands. Of the ichthyology and other branches very little has as yet, if at all, appeared in a collected book form, except by Low. Only some of the more special points relating to the fauna on the islands can be dwelt on here, and the reader, who wishes fuller (so far as it can be got) informa- THE ORKNEYS. 205 tion, is referred to the pages of Baikie and Heddle, fiom which the writer has compiled the greater part of the following notes. That deer existed, in prehistoric times, in the Orkneys is clear from the immense number of antlers that have, from time time, been found amongst the animal remains in the brochs, eirde houses, and scattered everywhere here and there in the peat throughout the islands ; but that they had become extinct by the Norse times is almost certain from there being no mention of them in the islands in the Saga^ though we read of Jarls Rognvald and Harald going over to Caithness to hunt the red and the reindeer. The late Mr. Heddle of Melsetter introduced red-deer some years back into Hoy, but, as they could not be kept out of the cultivated ground and were con- stantly swimming off to other islands, the present proprietor has had to shoot them down. One stag in particular is said to have swum down as far as Skail, and after spending a fortnight or so in the old hunting-grounds of the Jarls, thence called Birgisherar^, now Birsay, took soil again for Hoy. He is also said to have once landed on Flotta and so frightened the inhabitants, that some of them took boat at once for Scapa, and rushed into Kirkwall to announce the arrival on their island of the devil, horns and all. Reindeer were also tried some years back, but, according to the late Mr. Heddle, died off the first winter from the climate not agreeing with them. Hares we know to have existed in Norse days, as Jarl Harald is said, in one place in the Saga,^ to have been away from home on one of the islands hunting them ; and according to Mackaile, either the common or the mountain hares were still to be found in Hoy about the com- mencement of the seventeenth century. The common hare, after an unsuccessful attempt by Malcolm Laing the historian, was introduced on the Mainland by his brother, the translator of the Heiviskringla, and the late Mr. Baikie of Tankerness, about 1830, and since then has multiplied amazingly, not 1 Ork. Sag. p. 173. 2o6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. only on the Mainland but also in Hoy, Shapinsay, Rousay, Eday, and Papa Westray. So quickly did they increase, that Mr. Fortescue of Swanbister started, about 1848, a pack of harriers, by drafts from the Huxwall, Eainont, and Holker, and kept it up for many years, as narrated by " Druid." ^ The mountain, or white hare, was introduced on the isle of Gairsay a few years back, and is said to be doing well there. Ground vermin of the weasel and stoat kind are un- known in Orkney. Rats, however, are abundant, and some years ago, the old black rat {Mus rattiis) was still to be found in South Ronaldsay, but at the present day it is said to be extinct even there. Baikie and Heddle mention, that the common rat, which had been very numerous in Rousay, sud- denly disappeared some twelve years before they wrote, and that they did not think they could have escaped by sea on account of the strong tides. This, however, is not so certain if the statement which follows is correct. A friend of the writer was told last year by a gentleman, that in his youth he was standing with his father on the shores of Shapinsay, when they suddenly became aware of vast bodies of rats moving through the grass to the shore, when they deliberately entered into the String to swim over to the Mainland. Both the common and the field mouse are said to abound, and in May, 1 85 7) 3)41° were killed at Housebay in Stronsay, when the stacks were being threshed out. According to tradition, neither rat nor mouse can exist on the islets of Eynhallow and Damisay, and Baikie and Heddle say they never had been known there. Jo Ben said of North Ronaldsay, " nee ran^e, glires nee bufones hie colunt ; et si navis hie adduxerit glires cito pereunt quasi veneno." The hamster is reported to exist in South Ronaldsay, and with the short-tailed field-mouse, the common shrew and the water-shrew, and the rabbit, comprise, with the exception of the domesticated animals, the more terrestrial of the Orcadian mammals. The otter is very common ; several were killed ^ Dixon's Field and Fern, p. 34. THE ORKNEYS. 207 within the last year in Kirkwall itself, having come up into the Peerie Sea. A walrus was killed in Eday in 1825, another seen in Hoy Sound in 1827, and Professor Heddle ^ informed Mr. Harvie Brown that he had seen one, accompanied by a cub, on the coast of Walls in 1849 or 1850. Seals, as might be expected from the nature of the seaboard, are fairly plentiful around the Orkneys, and are said to be on the increase again, having probably got over their original dread of the steamboats, that are nowadays so constantly churning up the waters of the various sounds and friths. Low - speaks of a murrain having attacked the seals four years before he wrote, and says they came ashore in quantities on the coasts of the Orkneys and Caitlmess, very much swelled though nothing but skin and bone, and that the Orcadians of his day used every year to make trips to Suli Skerry for the purpose of clubbing the seals there. This skerry, and the stack close to it, on which Soland geese breed, though lying off Cape Wrath, and some forty miles or so from Hoy Sound, are part of the county of Orkney, and belong to Mr. Heddle of Melsetter. According to Baikie and Heddle, the Phoca Barbata, great bearded seal, or Haaf-Fish as the Shetlanders term it, is a con • stant inhabitant of the Orkneys ; and they speak of the grey seal, Halichcerus Griseiis, or Gryphus^ as if rare. Southwell ^ quotes Dr. Brown as saying, "The grey seal has no doubt been frequently confounded with other species, particularly Phoca Barbata and P/ioca GrcKnlandica. Such has been undoubtedly the case, and a specimen in the British Museum, long regarded as Phoca Barbata, has been referred to this species. There is, I believe, no sufficient evidence that Phoca Barbata has ever occurred on the British coast." That the grey seal must be fairly abundant in the Orkneys the writer had ocular evidence in May 1881, when, for upwards of an hour, in company with Dr. ^ Soutliwell's Seals and Whales of British Seas, p. 35. ^ Low's Fauna, p. 17. ^ South\\eirs Seals and Whales of British Seas, p. 2S. 2oS THE OA'K'.YEYS AND SHETLAND. Traill, he watched a herd of some eight or more, within less than forty yards, on Seals Skerry, North Ronaldsay. Seal remains from the broch of Burrian in that island have been identified by Professor Turner as those of Halichcerus Griseus, or Gryphjis, and the head of a seal shot at Seals Skerry was pronounced by Sir Walter Elliot, a skilled comparative anatomist, as that of the grey seal. According to Baikie and Heddle, specimens of Phoca Hispida, the rough seal, have been obtained in the islands, also one of the Greenland seal, the cranium of which had been figured by Sir Everard Home. They also state that specimens of the crested seal had been killed at Rousay and Papa Westray. The Cetacea are largely represented in Orcadian seas, from the true whales down to the porpoise. Baikie and Heddle say that Balccna Mysticetits, or the Greenland whale, is occasionally seen around the islands, and that specimens, generally diseased, have been driven ashore at times. According to Southwell,^ this is probably a mistake for BalcBiia Biscayensts^ a shorter and more active animal than the other, and one which is always infested with barnacles, from which the Greenland whale is free. Specimens of the High-Finned Cachalot, Physeter Tursio ; of the Great- Headed Cachalot, or Spermaceti Whale, Physeter Microps ; of the Sharp-Lipped Whale, Balcenoptcra Boops, and of the Tooth- less Whale, Aodon Dalei, have, according to Baikie and Heddle, been obtained in the islands. The Finner, as it is always called in the north, or the Round-Lipped Whale, Balceiioptera Musculus, is the most common of the larger cetacea amongst the Orkneys. Very large whales have been from time to time reported in the press as being driven on shore, but owing, probably, to there being no one capable of identifying to what species they belong, it is rarely stated what kind of whale they were. Thus in 18582 a whale seventy-five feet long was found dead off Shapinsay and sold for ;^'2o. Occasionally some curious incidents occur ; thus somewhere about 1860^ d. firmer, ^ Southwell's Seals and Whales, p. 61 et s'q. ' Maidment Collections. 3 Ibidem. THE ORKNEYS. 209 got Stranded amongst the Pentland Skerries, and, as the spot it was aground on was not convenient for flinching, the would-be flinchers proceeded to tow it off, when the whale, who had been playing possum, immediately gave them fin-bail. An almost identical case occurred at Longhope on the 24th of August 1 88 1, when a whale, said to have been about sixty feet in length, got ashore at the head of the bay on Salt Ness close under Melsetter. The whale was supposed to have been slain, and a " fit-each " driven to the hilt in its forehead. A rope was then made fast to the tail, and they proceeded to tow it off, when, after cutting across the bay once or twice, it went away at a good eight knots an hour out of the sound. As there was a danger of the boat being towed under they had to cut, and master whale went away with the " fit-each " still planted in him. Another, and this time successful, attempt to capture a Ca'ing Whale or Bottle Nose, of which species more hereafter, was made at Herston, in Widewall Bay, South Ronald- say, early last December. Mr. Linklater, the innkeeper there, observing a bottle-nose aground under his house, to make sure of it, cut with a knife a large hole it its head, in which he fixed the fluke of an anchor, made fast to the shore by an iron chain ; and as the whale seemed likely in its flurries to break away, he let go another anchor in its blow-hole. The papers were full some years back of the fight between threshers and swordfish versus whale, witnessed by the Marquis of Lome from one of the Allan steamers on his road home. A similar incident was, in September, i860, witnessed by Gavin Mowat ' and his crew, when fishing some six miles east of the Noup Head of Westray. The whale, one of the kind locally called herring hogs, on being attacked by the swordfish, which struck "its lethal weapon into the whale's body just behind the large fin," leaped six feet out of the water. The thresher kept striking the whale on both sides in the middle. The DelphifiidcB are very common in Orcadian waters, though probably not to so great an extent as on the Shetland coast. ^ Maid til en t Collections. P 2IC THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. The Common Porpoise, Delphinus F/ioc(zna, may often be seen turning over like a London Arab doing a Catharine wheel ; and the Grampus, or Killer, Delphinus Orea, the most ferocious of all cetacea, is not uncommon, and is dreaded by the fishermen. If the grampus of the Atlantic is at all like Killer of the western coasts of North America the fishermen have some reason to dread them. Scammon ^ speaks of the Pacific Killer, — N.B., this is not a goak — attacking the largest baleen whales in packs of three or four, and of their having actually taken a large whale, which had been slain, from its captors. He also says that one has been known to swallow four porpoises running; that another was killed that, although it was only 1 6 feet in length, had thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals inside it. Heavens, what a swallow ! The White-Sided Dolphin, Del- phinus Acutus, is, according to the late Dr. Duguid,^ often seen, but rarely secured, though twenty were landed at Kirkwall on 2 1 St August, 1858. The Cetacean of the Orkneys and Shetland, however, par excellence, is the Ca'ing Whale, the Delphinus Dediictor of Scoresby, and the Grind Whale of the Faroes. The name " ca'ing " is applied from the driving or herding process used in its capture, and is the same word as "kaing," which is applied in Shetland to driving the sheep into the era for rovin or mark- ing. The name Delphinus Dediictor, the best of all the technical names applied to these marine sheep, is given from the habit of the herd to follow the old bull as sheep do a bell wether. Large numbers have been killed at a grind, as a whale-hunt is termed in the Faroes. In 1861, sixty, from eighteen to twenty feet in length, were slain at Sourin, in Rousay, which realised ;^2 6o. Seven hundred escaped in Pierowall Bay in 1865, and three hundred were captured in Linga Sound, Stronsay, a few years back. They, if possible, always run up wind, and, if only the leader is once ashore, the rest follow as a matter of course. ^ Scammon's Mamtiialia, 6^c., p. 91. * Southwell's Sea's, &=c., p. 125. THE ORKNEYS. 211 An acquaintance of the writer was "in at the death " of 430 ca'ing whales in Thorshaven Harbour on September the 7th, 1879, and wrote a very graphic description of the whole grind, which appeared in 77;^ ^/V/^ of December 20th the same year. Southwell remarks that these Cetaceans are easily killed with a rifle bullet in the throat. An instance in proof of this occurred in Linga Sound, Stronsay, in May, 1881, when Mr. Sinclair, of Ariegarth, shot one from a boat ; another was shot on the iSth of February, 1879, by Mr. Heddle, of Lerwick, whilst strolling, with his rifle, round the Ness of Sound, when, after being shot, the whale was good enough to run itself ashore, which saved retrieving. If the list of Orcadian MammaHa, excluding the Seals, the Walruses, and the Cetaceans, is a very restricted one, the orni- thology of the islands is very varied, embracing according to Dr. Clouston no less than 236 species. All the Falconidcp. included by Macgillivray in his Rapacious Birds of Britain, with the exception of the Rough-Legged Buzzard, the Bee Hawk, and the Orange-legged Falcon, have been killed or observed in the islands. The Golden Eagle was at one time by no means uncommon. Wallace tells a story of one John Hay who, as a child, was carried away by one of these birds. Both the Golden Eagle and the White-Tailed Sea-Eagle, thanks to the egg-collecting mania, no longer breed in the Orkneys. Fifty years ago the Erne, as the White-tailed Eagle is called in the Orkneys and Shetland, bred on the Red Head of Eday, Costa Head in Birsay — White Breast, Dwarfie Hamars, the Old Man, Berry Head, and Braebrough in Hoy ; and in South Ronaldsay. The Golden Eagle appears to have bred only at the Sneug, some other rock to the west of it, the Meadow of the Kaim, and the Dwarfie Hamars, in Hoy. How numerous the eagles must have been in the Orkneys in former times is shown by the numerous references to them in the Old Country Acts. Mr. Forbes, formerly parochial schoolmaster at St. Margaret's Hope, and who is still alive, supplied Macgillivray with a good p 2 212 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. many of his data and facts concerning the eagles in the Orkneys. Amongst other incidents, he mentioned ^ that a liawk (probably a Goshawk), had suddenly launched out from the Black Craig near Strom ness, and struck an eagle, when both birds fell in the sea and were picked up by some people who were fishing in a boat close by. A clergyman ^ in Hoy saw an eagle flying away with a young grunter four weeks old. Sucking ^ pig seems to have been a special weakness of master Erne, as one flying over Harray with a hen in its talons, dropped the hen to make a grab at one of a litter of pigs it espied. The sow, however, beat off" the Erne, which after all had to fly home empty-clawed, as the hen in the meantime had escaped into the house. At that time (before 1836), pig- styes were made on the hills in a conical beehive form of turf, with a hole on the top. A pig"* had by some means been left to die from hunger in one of these styes, when an eagle flying overhead, espying the carcass, immediately went for it, and gorged himself to such an extent that he was caught red-clawed. Of the other Fako?iidce, Baikie and Heddle mention the Peregrine, the Merlin, the Sparrow Hawk, and the Hen Harrier as common, especially the three last named. According to Low,^ Copinsay supplied, in his day, the King's Falconer with Peregrines for which he paid five shillings a nest. In the Register of the Privy Council for Scotland, vol. ii. p. 611, is an entry of the 15th of May, 1577, which shows that the royal falconer was looked upon at that day, as the Dog-Tax Man was a few years back in Foula. It runs " Anent Halkis," and after reciting that His Majesty's Falconer had been evil handled in Orkney and Shetland, it was ordered that no one in those isles should reserve the hawks, but provide entertainment for and show every assistance to the King's Falconer. 1 Macgjillivray's Rapacious Birds of Britain, pp. 72, 73. - Ibidem, p. 73. 3 Ibidem. * Ibidem, p. 74. 5 Low's Toitr, p. 45. THE ORKNEYS. 213 Of the Strigida ; the Eagle Owl, Biiho Maxii/ms, the Long-eared Owl, Otiis Vulgaris, the Short-eared Owl, Otus Brachyotus, the Barn Owl, Strix Flanimea, the Tawny Owl, Uhda Stridula, the Snowy Owl, Syrnia Nydea, and the Little Owl, Nodiia Passerina, have all, it is said, been seen in Orkney. The short-eared owl is the commonest, the eagle owl, white or barn owl, and the tawny owl, were all, when Baikie and Heddle wrote, supposed to breed in the islands, but were far from common. The others have only been noticed as rare visitors. Of the Corvidx ; in former years, only the Raven and Royston Crow were at all numerous ; and the Rook, when Baikie and Heddle wrote, was only an occasional visitor. Within the last few years the rooks, having been evicted in Caithness, have started three large colonies in Orkney, at Muddisdale, in the gardens in Kirkwall, and at Tankerness Hall. To such an extent did they swarm in Kirkwall last year, that they became a perfect nuisance, because of their everlasting cawing and their dropping propensities. Jackdaws though not numerous are said to be on the increase. The Orcadian bird, however, is the Starling, which simply swarms, occasionally taking posses- sion of pigeon cots to the exclusion of the lawful owners. The number said to have been killed in a pigeon-house at Holland, in Papa Westray, at one time is something almost fabulous. Several Rose-coloured Pastors, Pastor Roseus, have from time to time, been seen in the islands. The improvement in agricul- ture, the number of small plantations that are springing up here and there, and the increased care bestowed upon the gardens have not only modified the habits of many species, but have also increased the number of many species formerly only of rare occurrence. Of the Meriiiidce ; the Common Thrush is the most numerous ; the Blackbird is said to be much more common than it was; the Fieldfare a regular winter visitant in large numbers ; the Redwing chiefly in autumn ; the Ring- Ouzel and Missel Thrush very rare. Of the Silviadce ; the 214 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Golden-Crested Regulus numerous in winter ; the Robin Red- breast not very numerous. The Wheatears fairly numerous in summer ; Hedge Accentor or Hedge Sparrow, Redstart, Black Redstart, Stonechat, Black-Cap, Willow Warbler, and Lesser Petty Chaps occasional, or very rare. Of the ParidcB ; only one specimen of the Blue Tit has been observed. Of the MotacilUdm ; the Pied Wagtail numerous; the Grey Wagtail and the Yellow Wagtail rare. Of the Anthidce. ; Rock Pipit abundant ; Meadow Pipit common ; Tree Pipit occasional. Of the AlaudidcE. ; only the Skylark, which is very numerous. Of the Emberizidce ; the Common Bunting and the Snow Bunting very plentiful, though the latter bird only in winter ; the Black-headed Bunting and Yellow Bunting rare. Of the FrhigilHdcc ; House Sparrow, Lesser Redpole, and Mountain Linnet very common all the year round ; Chaffinch, Green Finch, and Common Linnet autumn and winter visitants. The Mountain Finch, Baikie and Heddle thought might be a frequent winter visitor though it had only once been noted when they wrote ; Common Crossbills occasionally frequent in winter ; Bullfinch, only one specimen had been obtained. Of the PicidcE ; the Green Woodpecker, the Great Spotted Wood- pecker, the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Wryneck have all been observed but very rare. Of the Certhiadce; the Common Wren is common ; Common Creeper occasional ; and of the beautiful Hoopoe several specimens have been obtained. Of the Ciiculidce ; only the Cuckoo, and only apparently in certain localities. Of the Meropidce ; several specimens of the beauti- ful Roller have been got. Of the Hirundinidce ; the Common Swallow, the House Martin, and the Sand Martin regular visitors but apparently confined to particular localities ; the Common Swift occasional. Of the Caprimulgidce ; a few Nightjars have been obtained. Of the Coliimbidce ; the Rock Pigeon or Blue Rock is very abundant all along the rocky coast-line, and shooting them from a boat as they come like greased lightning out of the caves is a very different thing to THE ORKNEYS. 215 potting them from a trap ; the Ring Dove or Wood Pigeon formerly rare now breeds regularly at Muddisdale and in Shapinsay ; one Turtle Dove is recorded by Baikie and Heddle to have been seen when they wrote, and one is said to have been since observed. The Red Grouse are the only repre- sentatives of the TetraofiidLZ in Orkney at the present day, and, as they did in former years in Caithness, lie well to dogs in October and November. Grouse disease has never been known in Orkney, and the birds, which are lighter in colour than on the Mainland, are said to weigh more than, or as much as, any grouse in Scotland. Ptarmigan existed in Hoy till about the year 1825, and are said to have been exterminated by the officers engaged on the Trigonometrical Survey. Partridges, which are abundant in Caithness, have been introduced over and over again, from before Low's time down to the present day, but though they sometimes seem to thrive for a time, they always die off in the end. Whether it is the want of hedges and cover generally that prevents their taking to the soil, or whether some subtle climate influence is the obstacle no one seems able to tell. To all outward appearances many of the farms look the perfection of partridge ground. Two Quail are reported to have been killed in Orkney, one in Sanday in 1833, and one at Papdale in 1854, and about 1876 a Great Bustard was shot in Stronsay. Of the Charadriidce. ; Golden Plover are very abundant in winter, and a few remain to breed, though not in the numbers they do in Shetland. Dotterel Plover, that invaluable bird to the fly-dresser, seems not uncommon at times in the Orkneys, though only one specimen has been obtained in Shetland. The Ringed Plover or Sand Lark and the Oyster Catcher or Sceolder are very common, the Turnstone is a regular winter visitor, and the Grey Plover and Sanderling are occasionally seen in winter. Of the Grnidcc ; the Common Heron is very abundant all the year round amongst the Southern Isles, and may be seen at times in very large flocks on the island of Hunda and on the Lochs of 2i6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Stenness and Harray ; and specimens of the Little Bittern, the White Stork, and the White Spoonbill have been obtained. Of the ScolopacidcB ; Snipe, formerly very abundant, are said to have been decreasing of late years. Jack snipe are said to be fairly abundant in winter. Woodcock are found chiefly in Rousay and Hoy, though they are spread more sparsely all over the islands. The Curlew or Whmip, is common all the year round, the Whimbrel during the breeding season. The Redshank and Dunlin are indigenous. The Common Sand- piper, the Greenshank, the Black-tailed Godwit, and the Purple Sandpiper are more or less rare winter visitors. The Knot, that puzzle to the naturalist as to where it does breed, is occasionally seen in large flocks, and the beautiful Ruff is at times very abundant for so rare a bird. Of the Rallida; ; Land Rails, Water Rails, and Water Hens are all more or less numerous throughout the islands. Of the Lobipedidce ; the Common Coot breeds in several places, and both the Grey Phalarope and the Red-necked Phalarope, are said to breed in the islands. As might be expected, the Orkneys are rich in water fowl. Of the AnafidcB ; the Grey Lag Goose, the Bean Goose, the White-fronted Goose, the Bernicle Goose, and the Brent Goose, are all visitors, of which the first and the last two are the most abundant. The old superstition was that the Bernicle was hatched out of barnacle shells. Mackaile says that the -islands abounded with wildfowl, " geise of several sorts, and particularly ' clock ' (another name for the Bernicle) geise, which come thither in the end of harvest, and go away immediately before the spring ; yet Monteith of Egilshay informed me, that one year they did hatch their eggs in his Holme, which confirmed me in my unbelieving that these geise are generate out of trees." Butler, in Hiidibras, has a rather muddled reference to the barnacle shell theory, — " As barnacles turn soland geese In th' i lauds of the Orcades." THE ORKNEYS. 217 The Hooper, or Whistling Swan, is very common some winters, several were shot in Rousay and other parts during the winter of 1881-82, and a flock remained all the winter through on a small loch in North Ronaldsay, owing their immunity from lead to Dr. Traill forbidding their being disturbed. Amongst the Ducks ; the Shieldrake or Burrow Duck, the Mallard, and the Teal, all breed in the islands, whilst the Pin- tail and Wigeon are common in winter, and the Common Shoveller, the Gadwall, the Garganey, are rare visitors. Of the Scaup Ducks ; the Eider or Dunter is common, and breeds in the islands, the three Scoters, the two Scaup Ducks, the Long- tailed Ice Duck, and the Golden Eye are regular winter visitors. Of the Mergansers ; the Red-Breasted Merganser remains all the year through, and the Goosander is only seen in the winter. Colytnbidcz ; of the Grebes, the Little Grebe is indigenous, as also the Sclavonian Grebe, whilst the Red-necked Grebe is a winter visitor. Of the Loons ; the Red-throated Diver or Rain-Goose is common, and breeds; the Great Northern Diver is common, but whether it breeds is uncertain, and the Black- throated Diver not uncommon. Many small tarns or lochs up in the hills in both the Orkneys and Shetland are known as Loomie Shims, from being the breeding-places of the Red- throated Diver. Of the Alcadce ; the Common Guillemot, the Black Guillemot or Tystie, and the Razor Bill breed and remain all the year, the Puffin, or Tammy Norie, breeds, but leaves for the winter, and the Little Auk is only seen in the winter. Of the Felkatiidce ; the Soland Goose breeds on the Stack near Suli Skerry, and is generally to be seen in the sounds and firths, and both Cormorants are common. Laridce ; of the Terns the Common, the Arctic, and the Little Tern are all visitors, and of the Gulls the Small Black-headed or Lams Ridibundus, the Kittiwake, the Common or Lants Caniis, the Lesser Black-backed or Lams Fuscus, the Herring or Larus Argenta/us, and the Great Black-backed or Lams Marimis, are all more or less common, and specimens of 2i8 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the Ivory, Iceland, and Glaucous Gulls have been killed in the islands. Richardson's Skua breeds in Walls and Eday, and, it may be, other places, and does a deal of harm to the young broods of grouse. The Manx Shearwater or Lyre breeds in Walls, Westray, and Papa Westray, and the pretty little Mother Carey's Chicken or Stormy Petrel nests in several places. CHAPTER XVI. NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE ORKNEYS. BY WILLIAM IRVINE FORTESCUE. The Flora of the Orkneys, though particularly mteresting in several respects, is by no means rich, and offers small attrac- tions to any one save the botanist, being deficient in ferns, and other popular plants. There are sixteen different species of ferns in the islands, besides varieties, and one or two more reported, and possibly but with one exception, namely, a variety of adder's tongue, none are rare in other parts of Scotland. Among the least common may be mentioned N. yEmiiluvi, with its crisp curling fronds and hay-like scent, nestling among rocks and heather, in sheltered nooks by the sea-shore ; also H. Unilaterale (Filmy fern), in Hoy. A. Marinum (Sea spleenwort) is found wherever sea- cliffs or caves suit its taste. It is to be regretted that the fern extermination mania — that is the insane desire to dig up every rare fern as soon as found — is extending to the Orkneys. The Orkneys, however, can boast of one or two plants as yet found hardly anywhere else in the British Islands. O. Vtdgafian, var. Ambiguani, was for many years known only in the Orkneys, but has lately been discovered in Wales ; and Z. Polycarpa (Horned pond-weed) was for some time confined to the Loch of Kirbuster, but has recently been found in Ireland. Carex Ftilva, var. Sierilis, (a Sedge) is now only found 220 rnE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. in Orphir, though formerly reported from Yorkshire. The only Scotch locality for Ruppia Spiralis, is the Loch of Stenness, while a new variety of Ruppia Rostellata (var. na)ia) was found, in 1880, in the Oyce, Firth, by Dr. Boswell. The scarcity of trees in the Orkneys being well known, it is worthy of remark that Birch, Hazel, Mountain Ash, and Quaking Poplar, are found indigenous in several glens in Hoy, while the Poplar, along with Honeysuckle, occurs on the Hobbister cliffs, and several other localities. It is evident that at one time the islands were more or less wooded, at any rate in the more sheltered situations, Hazel-nuts, and remains of trees, being frequently found in the peat. At present about 385 species of flowering-plants and ferns are known in the Orkneys (not including varieties), which are either indigenous or thoroughly naturalised, and a i&y^ more are reported but require confirmation. Several species common in Scotland and extending to the Orkneys, are extremely scarce, occurring, perhaps, in only one or two localities. As a complete " Florula Orcadensis " would not be par- ticularly interesting to the majority of readers, in the following list only the rarer British plants will be mentioned ; and to avoid error, only those plants vvill be given which have been verified by Dr. J. T. Boswell, the editor of the third edition of E?iglish Botany, who has thoroughly investigated the flora of the islands : — Thalictrum Alpinum .... Hills of Hoy ; Orphir; Evie ; Rousay. Draba Incana Hoy Hill. Silene Acaulis Hoy Hill ; Fitly Hill; JVestray. Spergularia Marginata . . . JVauk Mill Bay, Orphir, Dryas Octopetala Hoy Hill. Circoea Alpina Orphir ; Hoy ; Evie. Saxifraga Oppositifolia . . . Hoy Hill. Myriophyllum Spicatum . . Bridge of Bro gar. Ligusticum Scoticum . . . • Sea cliffs. NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE ORKNEYS. Galium Sylvestre . Saussurea Alpina . Hieracium Anglicum „ Iricum . „ Strictum . Lobelia Dortmanna . Jasione INIontana . . Vaccinium Uliginosum Arctostaphylos Alpina „ Uva Ursi Loiseleuria Procumbens Pyrola Rotundifolia . . Stachys Ambigua . . . Ajuga Pyramidalis . . . Mertensia Maritima . . Primula Officinalis Primula Scotica „ ,, var. Acaulis Oxyria Reneformis Salix Phylicifolia „ Nigricans . Salix ambigua Habenaria Viridis Juniperus Nana . Sparganium Affine Potamogelon Nitens „ Pectinatus „ Filiformis Zannichellia Polycarpa . Ruppia Spiralis .... Hoy Hill. Hoy Hill. Hoy Hill ; Scapa. Ditto ; ditto ; afid Pegal, Walls. Hohbister ; Pegal Burn. ] Vails ; Rousay. Eday ; North Ronaldsay. Walls ; Hoy Hill. Summits of hills, Hoy ; 1 Vails ; Rousay. Hoy. Hoy Hill. Rousay. Cultivated fields. Hoy ; and Orphir. Sandy shores, Scapa ; South Ronaldsay. Hoy ; and Evie only. Stroimiess ; Orphir ; Sanday ; Rousay; Westray ; Shapin- say ; Walls, &^c. Stones of Stenness. Hoy. Sides of streams and lochs. Ditto, but scarce. Grassy banks, 7vith S. Repens. Mainland ; Rousay. Hoy. Hoy ; Mainland. Loch of Stenness. Ditto ; and Loch of Kir- buster. Bridge of B?'Ogar. Loch of Kirbuster. Loch of Stenness. 222 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Ruppia Rostellata Orphir. „ „ var. Nana . Oyce Firth. Scilla Verna Grassy banks by streams, arid by the sea-shore. Blysmus Rufus Wauk Mill Bay, Orphir. Carex Fulva, var. Sterilis • . Swanbister ; Naversdale. Triticum Acutum Scapa ; Hoxa links ; &=€. Elymus Arenarius Hoxa links ; Holm ; Scapa ; Hoy. Aspidium Lonchitis .... Hoy. Ophioglossum Vulgatum, var. Orphir; Calf of Flotta ; Rysa Ambiguam . . • .... Little ; Hunda ; &-'C. Lycopodium Annotinum . . Hoy Hill. CHAPTER XVII. THE ORKNEYS. — KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND. " Then, from his seat, with lofty air. Rose Harold, bard of brave St. Clair ; St. Clair, who, feasting high at Home, Had with that lord to battle come. Harold was born where restless seas Howl round the storm-swept Orcades ; Where erst St. Clairs bore princely sway O'er isle and islet, strait and bay ; — Still nods their palace to its fall. Thy pride and sorrow, fair Kirkwall ! — Thence oft he mark'd fierce Pentland rave. As if grim Odin rode her wave ; And watch'd, the whilst, with visage pale. And throbbing heart, the struggling sail ; For all of wonderful and wild Had rapture for the lonely child. ■ And much of wild and wonderful In these rude isles might fancy cull ; For thither came, in times afar. Stern Lochlin's sons of roving war ; The Norsemen, train'd to spoil and blood, Skill'd to prepare the raven's food ; Kings of the main their leaders brave, Their barks the dragons of the wave. 224 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. And there, in many a stormy vale, The Scald had told his wondrous tale ; And many a Runic column high Had witnessed grim idolatry." Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto VI. There are three routes by which the traveller from the modern Babylon can reach the Orkneys, and Saga in hand wander over the ground rich in the memories of Sigurd the Stout, the Great Jarl Thorfinn, the Sainted Magnus, Rognvald the Rhymer, Swein the Viking, and William the Old, first Bishop of the Orkneys. By the first he can take the train for Liverpool, then embark on one of Messrs. Langlands' steamers, and, after calling on his way at Oban, and Stornoway, over which latter place hangs the glamour of Sheila the Artless, the child of nature, reach Stromness, having spent two nights and the better part of three days on the voyage. By the second he can, during the summer months, leaving London by the Scotch night-mail for Thurso, reach Kirkwall shortly after midnight on the following day. The sail from Scrabster, the harbour of Thurso, to Scapa, in anything like fine weather, and in the weird twilight of a June or July night, is a very beautiful one, but the railway journey is nearly twenty-four hours in length. The third, and most comfortable one of the three in anything like decent weather, is by rail to Leith or 'Aberdeen, and thence by the steamers which, from the ist of May to the ist of October, convey the mails three times a week from Aberdeen to Shetland. The ^Monday's boat, after leaving Aberdeen, proceeds to Stromness, thence to Scalloway, and from that place once a fortnight or weekly up the west side of Shetland. This trip, for those who can only afford the time to run up to Shetland and back, is much the best of the three, as it enables them to see all, or nearly all, of the finest coast scenery of both the Orkneys and Shetland. The Wednesday's boat from Aberdeen proceeds direct to THE ORKNEYS. 225 Kirkwall, thence to Lerwick. The Friday's steamer, on her way to Lerwick, calls at Wick as well as at Kirkwall. Leaving Leith early in the morning, you are in the Orkneys, either at Stromness or Kirkwall, the next morning, and in Scalloway or Lerwick the following evening, or afternoon it may be, under favourable conditions. Here it may be as well to suggest, to the intending traveller to the Orkneys and Shetland, the advisableness of taking good warm underclothing and a good thick ulster or pea-jacket for steamer and boat work, as northern sea breezes, if bracing, are occasionally very keen, even in the height of summer, especially after sundown. This suggestion may seem absurd, but the writer has seen many tourists shivering in thin serge suits and overcoats, that might be all very well on a dusty day driving to Epsom, but which as a protection against cold were a farce. Without impressing you with that weird, northern region sort of feeling, that Lerwick somehow seems to leave upon the minds of most visitors to it for the first time — the more so if they should arrive there when a midsummer night, which is no night, only a subdued day, intensifies the charm in a way that cannot be described, only be felt — the view of Kirk- wall as you round Thieves' Holm, and steer down the bay for the grand old cathedral on a bright summer or autumn morn- ing, when sunlight and shadow are alternately rippling over the purple coloured slopes of Wideford Hill, is one that only the most hypercritical of travellers would attempt to decry. But, before landing, it may be as well to glance at the civic history of the royal burgh or city as, strictly speaking, Kirkwall is entitled to be called. By its first charter,^ granted by James in. on the 31st of March, i486, Kirkwall was created a royal burgh with a right of holding courts, and full power of pit and gallows, of infangthief and outfangthief, with two weekly markets on Tuesday and Friday, and with three annual fairs each of three days in length, the first commencing on Palm Sunday, the second, called the Lambmas Fair, on the ist day ^ Maidweitt Collections. Q 226 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. of August, and tlie third, called St. Martin's Fair, on the nth of November. Not only were all market, customs, shore, and anchorage dues granted to the Corporation, but strange to say, "As also, all and haill the kirk called St. Magnus Kirk, and other kirks, &c." " And all and sundry prebendaries, teinds, and other rights yrto belonging, and particularly all and haill the prebendary of St. John, and all and sundry lands, houses, farms, teind and teind sheaves thereof, with full power to the said Provost, Baillies, and Council of the said burgh and their successors, to intromit, uplift, and receive the same duties of the said lands, and to sell and raise the same in all tyme coming, and that for to be always employed and bestowed upon repairing and upholding the said kirk called St. Magnus Kirk : and farder to call an able and qualified man to be schoolmaster of our said school in our said burgh," &:c. Amongst the long list of lands granted to the Corporation appears Thieves' Holm, " which was of old the place where all the malefactors and thieves were execute." The charter of James III. was confirmed by another granted by his grandson James V., which bears date the 8th of February, 1536. Both charters, however, if they ever were acted upon, appear to have become nullities some time during the sway of Earls Robert and Patrick, as we find Bishop Law ^ on the 30th July, 1612, choosing four of the inhabitants to act as bailies. During the Commonwealth the inhabitants seem to have got some sort of charter from Cromwell ; and on the Restoration, by a novodamus'^ dated the 15th of May, 1661, their old charters were confirmed, the rights of the bishopric, which had been included in the first charter being, however, expressly excepted. Nevertheless, owing to the disputes between the inhabitants and the Morton family, an act was passed on the nth of June, 1662, by which the inhabitants were forbidden ^ Ads and Statutes of the Lawting, T^ 21. - Peterkiu's Rentals, Appendix pi\ 42, 43. THE ORKNEYS. 227 to exercise any of the powers belonging to a royal burgh, till the process between them and Lord Morton was decided. After the grants to the Morton family had been quashed in the year 1669, a new ratification ^ of the charters was made by an act of Parliament, passed the 22nd of August, 1670, from which, however, as from the tiovodai/iiis, all rights belonging to the bishopric were expressly exempted. At the present day the only remnant of the Corporation property granted by the charter of James III. is Wideford Hill, and of the three annual fairs only the Lammas one survives. The town of Kirkwall may be described as consisting of' one long street, at the foot of a hill, running from N.N.E. •to S.S.W., out of which several short streets and lanes branch off. To the southward of the harbour is an oyse^ as lagoons are termed in the Orkneys, separated from the sea by an ayre, or shingle beach, which has been formed in bygone ages by the erosive action of the sea, under the influence of the gales, which from the N. to N.E. cause a nasty sea in Kirkwall Bay. This oyse, generally called " the Peerie Sea," into which the tide pours like a mill race, was in ancient days the harbour of Kirkwall. On landing from the steamer, you pass up Bridge Street, which communicates v\'ith the northern end of the long street before mentioned. On your left-hand side, as you walk up Bridge Street, you come to the Kirkwall Hotel, formerly the townhouse of the Traills of Woodwick, having an open court in front. A little higher up, on the same side of the street, you pass Poorhouse Close, or Lane, at the end of which is to be found the church of St. Ola, erected by Bishop Reid somewhere be- tween 1540 and 1558. The original church, from which Kirkwall took its name, in all probability occupied the same site, and was erected, Anderson conjectures,- by Rognvald, Brusi's son, to the memory of his foster father. King Olaf the Holy, who perished in 1030 at the battle of Stikelstad. King ^ Peterkin's Rentals, Appendix, pp. 44 and 45. - Ork. Sag. Intioiuction, p. Ixxxix. Q 2 228 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Olaf, who by the way must not be confounded with his predecessor and namesake, Olaf Tryggvi's son, who imposed Christianity on Sigurd the Stout in the bay of Osmundwall in the year 995, is thus described by Baring Gould : ^^" If he was diligent in observance of the fasts of the Church, he was unscrupulous in passing the bounds of temperance on all other days. He rigidly observed the sanctity of the Sunday, but his moral life was far from pure. His successor, Magnus, was not his son by his Queen Astrid. If he was ferociously cruel, he was severely just. He inherited all his pagan ancestors' vices, but they were united to a chivalrous, zealous enthusiasm for the Christian faith. A saint he can only be termed by stretching that aj^pellation to its extremest limits." In 10 14 he sailed into the Thames and assisted Ethelred the Unready for a couple of years against the Danes. He threw down London Bridge by a very clever expedient and thus enabled Ethelred to ascend the throne. This exploit was thus sung by one of the scalds : — " London Bridge is broken down, — Gold is won, and bright renown, Shields resounding, War-horns sounding, Hildur shouting in the din ! Arrows singing, Mail-coats ringing — Odin makes our Olaf win ! " The original church was burnt down, according to Jo Ben, in a raid made by a marauding party of Englishmen, probably the one under the leadership of one John Elder Miles. The raiders were afterwards defeated, on the 13th August, 1502, by the Orcadians under one Edward Sinclair, and in attempting to escape to their vessels many were drowned, amongst them Elder. After that, Jo Ben says, the site was used as the burial- place for malefactors. That Bishop Reid rebuilt the church we have not only the authority of Wallace,^ but also the fact that in ^ Barino:-Gould's Lives of the Saints, vol. vii. p. 636. - Wallace's Orkney, p. 97. THE ORKNEYS. 229 1855 ^ a stone was found, close to the church, having sculptured on it a shield under a mitre, and below the mitre " Robertus ..." The church consisted of a parallelogram 35 ft. by 18 ft. inside. "The original entrance is on the S., 17 ft. from the exterior W. angle. It is 3 ft. 5 ins. wide, with a semicircular head, and continuous mouldings of a hollow ornamented with four leaved flowers and a filleted roll, like many of the mouldings in the Cathedral, except as to the flowers." None of the original windows remain. " Pro- bably there was a step at 10 ft. or 11 ft. from the E. end, and perhaps a screen. A few feet E. of the entrance inside was a stoup or piscina." When the church was planned in 1855 ^ couple of ambries still remained, thus described by Dryden : " In the N. wall near the E. angle remains an ambry i ft. 4I ins. wide, 2 ft. i in. high, and 1 ft. 3i ins. recessed. The head is an ogee arch under a hood moulding, and it is flanked by buttresses with finials. The bottom of this ambry is 5 ft. i in. above what appears to have been the original level of the floor. The moulding of this resembles that of the entrance except in having no flowers. " In the E. wall near the S. angle is a smaller ambry, also ogee headed, and less ornate, the bottom of which is 2 ft. 6 ins. above the floor. The use of the ogee is very rare in Scotland. The only curves of that kind in St. INIagnus are in fragments of Bishop TuUoch's tomb." One, if not both of these ambries, has within the last few years been removed to the Scottish Episcopal Church, also dedicated to St. Ola. The building has been so knocked about that it is hard to believe that it was ever used as a place of worship. After the Reformation one John Sadlare- was appointed Reader in 1561, but that appears to be the last notice of the building as a place of worship.^ In the last century it is said to have been the ^ Dryden's Ruined Churches. - Fasti, vol. v. p. 380. * See Appendix M. (pp. 616-619) as to Characteristics, ^c, of the early churches in the Orkneys and Shetland. 230 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. poorhoiise, then it became a carpenter's workshop, and now it is occupied as a dweUing-house. The one long street before referred to is divided into three portions, eacli known l)y a different name. The northern part is Albert Street ; the central, opposite the cathedral, Broad Street ; and the southern Victoria Street. Many of the houses were erected in the last century by the lairds, when they found kelp-making a profitable business, as mansions in which to spend the winter months. The general plan of these houses is three sides of a square with a connecting wall between the gable ends, which made an inclosed court of the open space. The gable ends are almost always surmounted by high-pitched, crow-stepped roofs. Several of the houses, however, date much further back than the eighteenth century. At the north-western corner of Broad Street stands the ('astle Hotel, built on part of the site of the old castle, erected by Henry St. Clair in the latter part of the fourteenth century, and the last reHcs of which were swept away, when the new approach to the harbour was made in 1865. A little further on you come to the best specimen of the typical laird's town house, now known as Tankerness House, and belonging to the Baikies of that ilk, though erected pro- bably in 1574 by Archdeacon Fulsie, whose arms and those of his wife are over the gateway. Close here, opposite that four-storied monstrosity of a shop, utterly out of keeping with the surrounding buildings, which has been recently erected. Captain James Moodie of Melsetter was killed on the 26th of October, 1725. Moodie,^ who was a distinguished naval ofificer, had become obnoxious to Sir James Stewart of Burray and his brother, Alexander Stewart. According to one account 2 the Stewarts, when shooting on the Melsetter estates, had been deprived of their firearms by the servants of the Moodie family, and, though apologies had been tendered, had never forgiven the insult. ^ See Nisbet's Hcraldrv, vol ii., Appendix, p. 24. - Vedder's Toems and Sketches, p. 311. THE ORKNEYS. 231 According to another version/ Alexander Stewart, having been too marked in his attentions to Mrs. Moodie, had been forbidden the house by lier husband, and ha\ ing been caught at Melsetter afterwards by Moodie was by his directions flogged on the bare breech with a piece of tang or sea-weed. For this de- grading treatment Alexander Stewart is said to have in vain demanded satisfaction from Moodie, who, however, refused to go out, perhaps thinking his character for courage stood sufficiently high for him to do so. At last, stung to madness by the schoolboy's discipline he had been forced to submit to, Alexander Stewart determined to have his revenge. How he took it is described in a draft letter from the sheriff depute to the magistrates of Kirk- wall, discovered, some few years ago, amongst the county papers.^ The sheriff, Robert Honeyman,^ the sheriff-clerk, or, as he was then termed, the steward-clerk, and Captain Moodie were on their way to hold a Justice of Peace Court, when Sir James Stewart of Burray and his brother, Alexander, accompanied by their servants came "out of the said Baillie fifea his gate." Alexander then proceeded to thrash Moodie with a stick. A general melee seems to have ensued, in the course of which Oliver Irving, Alexander's servant, fired two jDistol-shots. One of them mortally wounded Moodie, " the oy' lighted on my third son, Peter, cutt the Rim of his Belly," and finally lodged in the arm of Moodie's servant, x^s Captain Moodie ^ is said, when shot, to have been between seventy and eighty years of age, can the whole business have been the usual result of uniting May to December? The Stewarts escaped to the Continent, where Alexander died in exile. Sir James returned privately to England in 1729, and through the intercession of James Stewart of Torrance, was on the 12th May, 1731, ^ Dennison's Orcadian Sketch Book, p. 20. 2 Notes and Queries, January 17, 1863, p. 52. ' By the way, he spelt his name Honeyvtane. * first Stat. Ace. vol. xvii., p. 324. 232 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. pardoned for his sliare in the affray. ' Sir James, who in "'45 " was aiding the Jacobite cause in secret, was after CuUoden captured by a son of Captain Moodie, and conveyed to London, where he died shortly after in Southwark gaol. In order to induce Stewart of Torrance to obtain his pardon in 1729, Sir James gave his bond for ;^2oo, which in 1750 became the subject of litigation, to which the then Earl of Galloway was a party. Mrs. Moodie, or, as she was generally called, Lady Melsetter, appears to have been a woman of strong passions, and, if Dennison's story of TJie - Heald- Horn Rumpis is correct, played Mrs. Potiphar to the minister of Evie's 'yoseph. Up to about the year 1742^ all that open space opposite the west end of the cathedral and of the north and south churchyards, and at the south-western corner of which stands the town-hall, was portion of the churchyard, which, up to that date, had completely encircled the cathedral. James 1 6th Earl of Morton had just then obtained the first of the series of tacks of the bishopric estates, which, though nominally in the name of Andrew Ross, his chamberlain, were really granted to himself, and had not as yet received that nice little sum of ;^7,i47 sterling, which was to be paid to him on the aboUtion of heritable jurisdiction. When therefore the corporation proposed erecting a town-hall, my lord, in con- sideration of himself and his successors being allowed to use the Great Hall for the purpose of holding courts, not only made a donation of ;^2oo towards the expenses of building, and permitted the corporation to avail themselves of the ruins of the King's Castle, as a quarry from which to get their build- ing materials, but even allowed his precious chamberlain to unroof the Earl's Palace to provide the slates needed. The ^ Tlie Stewarts of Burray were through the female line descended from Robert Duke of Albany, second son of Robert the Second, and through the direct male line from the Stewarts of Garlics, Lord Galloway's f.imily. - Dennisou's Orcadian Sketch Book, p. 72. ^ Maidmcni Colkctions.. 2 ~ "3 r. j: ^ 3 v; :^ rt Fi •o <, THE ORKNEYS. 233 bill for this last piece of vandalism, which tarred both vendor and purchasers alike, is as follows : — "ACCOMrX OF SCLATES TAKEN OFF MY LORI) OF MORTON'S House in Kirkwall. ^ 1745, March. To 3400 Sclate at ;i^8 per thous. is Scots £11 4 To 103 foot rigging at 3/- per foot ... 15 9 /42 13 "Kirkwall, istjune, 1745. — Received payment of the aliove forty- two pounds, thirteen shillings Scots, from Dr. Hugh Sutherland. — Andw. Ross." So for ;^42 13.?. Scots = ^3 yj-. \d. sterling this grasping Scots lord and his canny, gripping chamberlain deliberately stole, there is no other phrase for it, a portion of the roof of a building, of which they were only tenants. Other houses in the town are said to have been unroofed in a similar fashion. The ;^2oo is said to have been part of a fine imposed by the Justiciary Court of Scotland on Sir James Stewart of Burray for pursuing and firing into a boat in which Lord Morton was crossing Holm Sound. The lower portions of the town-hall, formerly used as a gaol and lock-up, are now utilised as a storehouse for the fire-brigade, but the great hall is still used for corporation purposes. In this room the as- semblies were held where cards and dancing were the order of the evening, and where the great w:i.x\w^Qov\0i'!, Lives of the Saitits, vol. iv. p. 213. 252 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. time of the Reformation, removed in case of accidents, part to Aix la Chapelle, and part to the shrine of St. Vitus at Prague. Neale,^ however, says that what are now at Prague were translated there as far back as 1372. If Baring Gould is right, the remains in pillar d cannot be those of the saint. That they are so, is, however, compatible with Neale's version. According to some old records, Robert the Bruce ordered, that five pounds sterling should be paid yearly out of the customs of Aberdeen to St. Magnus Kirk. Can any of the relics of the saint have been borne before the Scottish army at Bannockburn, as we know was the case with other relics ? We have seen how Adam Bothwell at a distance from his diocese feued away the property of the See, and the clergy on the spot were not slow in following my lord bishop's example. Colville,''^ Parson of Orphir, was even unblushing enough to " sett the teinds grit and small to his wyff and bairnes, with the consent of the Bischope and chapter " ; and William Mwdy,'"^ who was presented to the parish of Walls and Flotta in 1585, " sett the personage teindis in long takis to Adam Mudie, his son, with the consent of the Bishop, Dean, and Chapter." All the Orcadian ministers in the latter half of the sixteenth century seem to have considered themselves, not merely life tenants, but owners in almost fee simi)le, of their benefices, as at the General Assembly held in 1597 — "It was reportit that the Ministrie of Orknay had delapidat their benefices be setting of tackis of the rent of the same."^ In 1580 the General Assembly declared the ofifice of bisho]) unlawful, and called upon all those who held it to resign, a recommendation which, as Adam Bothwell was non-resident, and had assigned his temporalities to Lord Robert Stewart, cannot have affected the Orkneys very much ; though, at the General Assembly held in 1598 at Dundee, the Ministers ^ of 1 Neale's Ecdesiological Notes, p. 84. " Fasti, vol. V. p. 399. 3 Ji)id,tn, p. 403. * Acts of General Assemblies, 1 560-1618, vol. iii. p. 948. ^ Fasti, vol. V. p. 590. THE ORKNEYS. 253 Caithness and the Orkneys voted for the proposition that it was " necessary and expedient for the weale of the kirk that the ministrie as the third estate of the realm in the name of the kirk have a vote in Parliament," in plain English for the restoration of episcopacy. Gilbert Body, minister of Holm Saint Mary, who led the affirmatives, and, by a majority often, carried the day, was for so voting styled by an opponent " a drunken Orkney Asse." Fifty-one years have passed away, since the King of the Commons was present when high mass was being celebrated, with all the pomp of the Romish ritual, in the most northern cathedral in his dominions, and we see one of his many natural children, Robert, Earl of Orkney, being interred with ^ such service as the rampant Calvinism of the day permits. (1614) Nearly a quarter of a century after his father's death, Earl Patrick, himself a prisoner at Dumbarton, despatches his natural son Robert to stir up a revolt in those northern regions he, Patrick, is never to see again. The insurrection is quelled, and Robert Stewart, thanks to Halcro's treachery, is a prisoner in the hands of the Earl of Caithness, who, to satisfy the spite his family have entertained for everything Orcadian since the bloody rout of Summerdale, is proceed- ing to demolish the cathedral, till stopped by Bishop Law. Some of the ruder work at the west end is supposed to have been inserted to repair the mischief done by this vandal descendant of the builder of Roslin Chapel. (16 1 8) Bishop Law has been translated to Glasgow, and is succeeded in the Orcadian See by George Graham, formerly Bishop of Dunblane, and in this, the third year of his Orcadian episcopate, the cathedral register commences,- the first entry in which is " anent i-m/^/V, bairdis, slanderers," &c., who are to "sit in the cockstuillis the space of four houris," &c. In 1620 we find from an entry, that the good people of Kirkwall used the building as a timber-yard, having probably much the same utilitarian feeling about it, as the Wick fish-curer, who, a year ^ See Appendix N, p. 619. - Feterkin's Rentals, appendix, p. 41. 254 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. or so ago is reported to have said to a companion, on seeing the building for the first time, " Eh, Lowrie, what a .... of a kirk; what a store for herring-barrels it would make." A great number of the entries relate, as might be expected, to " the bigging of seats," and the disputes that ensued thereon. One in particular shows the toadyism both of Bishop Graham and the Kirk-Session. James Baikie, of Tankerness, applies in March, 163 1, for leave "to big a seate for his wife before his owne seate," in the aisle in which Earl Robert had been buried, and which, in consequence, was known as the Stewarts' Aisle. Bishop and Session assent to the application, if it does not interfere with the service of the church or the administra- tion of the Communion. The seat appears to have been "bigged," and was probably completed before May, when Edward Stewart, of Burgh, applies to the Session, on behalf of his brother, John Stewart, third son of Earl Robert, whom Charles had on the 14th of the previous December created Earl of Carrick, to have all seats in the aisle in question belonging to any persons, who were not members of the Stewart family, removed. My Lord Bishop not being present, the matter is adjourned till he has considered the whole business under its new aspect. The bishop, having taken the question to avizandum, is evidently of opinion that it will be as well not to offend his lordship of Carrick, and " the remanent worthie name of Stewart," and accordingly, at a meeting of the Kirk Session held on the nth of September, he asks Baikie "Why was he not more carefull and foreseeing to prevent the danger in tyme, and not to incur the indignation of such noblemen as the Earl of Carrick and others of the worthie name of Stewart pretending right and title to that yle ; for it would come to his Majestie's eares how such persone did sit there and trample upon his hienes' graund-uncle's bellie, being his buriall place, as the said noble Erie had written to my L. Bishop himself in a particular letter." Baikie express- ing his willingness to remove the obnoxious seat, on being repaid the expenses he had been put to, is told that, unless THE ORKNEYS. 255 he does so at once, the bishop himself will clear the aisle and make what use he likes of the materials. Verily Earls Robert and Patrick had established a healthy funk in the Ocadian mind. In the following month (October, 163 1) Sir James Stewart, another son of Earl Robert, applies, on behalf of his brother, to have another seat removed, and threatens in case of refusal that it shall be forcibly removed without with your leave or by your leave. The brethren having considered the " inconveniences that may aryse upon the standing of that seate, for keiping peace., quietness, and good ordour both in kirk and coimirie" order the stumbHng-block to be removed "upon Monanday next to cum, be ten hours in the day." In the January following, Edward Stewart, of Brugh, applies for leave " to big a seate for his wife or a friend, with a foot gang before the same to his daughters to sit upon," in an empty place " under the Stewart's loft," and is told that nothing can be done in that aisle without the special consent of the Earl of Carrick "had thairto be writt." Even in 1649, when Lord Morton was the man they all fell down before, we find an entry ordering a seat to be removed out of the Stewarts' aisle. (1643) ^^y Lord Bishop has some years back renounced "all Episcopal power and jurisdiction, with the whole corruptions thereof," and retired into private life to save his pickings, and we find the Session forbidding any "wyding in the water openlie upon the Sabbath day ; and in case men and women, lads and lasses, be found promiscuously wyding together after a lascivious manner, either Sunday or week-day, whether by day or by night, they shall be severallie censured and condignly punished, for terrification of others, by making their public repentance upon the qnhite stean., and paying 4oj-. in pios usus, toties quoties, &c." (December 17th, 1643) Although a certain Walter Stewart had, as Commissioner from the Presbytery of Orkney, attended that General Assembly at Glasgow, when the ministers of Scotland worried their bishops, much in the same manner that packs of hounds have been known to serve their huntsmen, it 256 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. was not till this date, that the Solemn League and Covenant was sworn to and subscribed in Kirkwall. Probably the epidemic had lost some of its virulence on its way to the far north. Whether under an episcopal or presbyterian form of church government, the members of the Session seem equally to have dearly loved a lord, and, in 1649, we find my Lord Morton applying to the Session for leave to up- lift "some stones of marble in the floore of the kirk of Kirkwall, commonly called St. Magnus Kirk," as he thought they would be " very suitable " for the erection of " ane tomb upon the corp of his umquhile father." By all means, say the Session, providing the places from which the marble is taken are filled up with ordinary hewn gravestones. It was, of course, a matter of perfect indifference to them whether the marble stones in question marked the resting- places of jarl or bishop. A live dog was better than a dead lion. Hardly a year or so has passed away, and the complai- sant and accommodating ministers have been sent to the right- about by the General Assembly, and the iron heel of the Cromwellian despotism is making itself felt all over the length and breadth of bonny Scotland, and, as they have done else- where, so in the far north, his saints are amusing themselves after their fashion. Bishop TuUoch's tomb, according to Principal Gordon,^ was, for long after the Reformation, made the special place at which money borrowed was used to be repaid, and was generally held in veneration by the Orcadians. Probably this veneration gave an extra zest to Barebones and his friends, when, as Principal Gordon says, they robbed the tomb " as a shred of the whore of Babylon.^' By the way the Englishes, as the Cromwellian troops were called, were, for long enough, nearly as useful as scape-goats in Kirkwall, as the cat is in lodging-houses. Even at the present day, there are good people, who would have you believe, that all the acts of vandalism, committed some few years back, were done be the Englishes. ^ Aixh. Scot. vol. i. p. 261. THE ORKNEYS. 257 (1664.) The Commonwealth has come to an end; the king enjoys his own again ; and another change rounds has taken ■ place amongst the Orcadian clergy. Andrew Honeyman is Bishop designate, but has not yet been consecrated ; and Douglas of Spynie for over a year has been engaged, as Factor and Cham- berlain to my Lord of Grandison, in stressing the Odallers of Orkney and Shetland, and extirpating, so far as he can, what still remains of Odal tenure. As can well be imagined, he is probably anything but a popular character, and we are there- fore not astonished when a street brawl ^ arises between William Mudy, the younger, of Melsetter, George Sinclair of Gyre, and Alexander Douglas, the younger, of Spynie. Sinclair and Douglas are bound over to keep the peace by Patrick Blair of Little Blair, then sheriff, but Mudy refuses to be bound, and on the Saturday, assembling some eighteen'or twenty men, armed, like Billee Taylor, with swords and pistols, " breake out and ruffled all that day throw the streets," intending, no doubt, to make it lively for Master Douglas if they had caught him. On the Sunday, Mudy and his tail, armed as before, occupy the cathedral, and prevent the entry of Douglas senior and family through the south transept door. My lords of the Privy Council are written to on the matter, but how it all ends does not appear ; perhaps Bishop Honeyman, when he appeared in his diocese, acted the peacemaker. (1669.) A new volume of the cathedral register - commences this year, and from a minute of the 27th of October we learn that the Sacrament had only once been administered in the space of twenty-two years. This does not speak well for presbyter or bishop. In the Fasti we are told that Bishop Honeyman assisted at the Sacrament on the 23rd of August, 1674, taking himself six tables out of the fourteen, which looks as if the Sacrament was administered in those days, even under an episcopal form of church government, only once or twice a year at the outside. 1 Justices of his Alalles, Peace Book oj Records, No. i. 2 Peterkin's Rentals, Appendix, p. 61. S 25S THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. The burning of the steeple, and the saving of the bells have already been noticed. From an entry dated March 15th, 1671, we gather that the steward and other judges were in the habit of • holding courts in a portion of the cathedral known as the Wai/-hous, probably one of the transeptal chapels. During the rest of the century none of the entries are of any interest to the general reader, and it is not till we reach the eighteenth century that anything worth noting appears. (1701, August 8.) The new presbyterian brooms are now at work, and we find the Presbytery complaining of the conduct of the town-guard, which, at the time of the Lammas Fair, was stationed in the building. Verily all reverence seems to have departed, and the account reads more as if a mob of Gordon rioters, headed by Hugh, held possession of the town, instead of a douce, sober burgher-guard embodied to keep law and order. The state of things is thus described : " shutting of guns, burning great fyres on the graves of the dead, drinking, fidling, pipeing, swearing, and cursing night and day within the church, by which means religion is scandalised, and the Presbytery most miser- ably abused ; particularly, that when they are at exercise in the said church, neither can the preacher open his mouth nor the hearers conveniently attend for smoke ; yea, some of the members of the Presbytery have been stopped in their outgoing and incoming to their meetings, and most rudely pursued by the souldiers with their musquets and halberts, all of which are most grievous to the Presbytery, and to any that have any sense of godliness." Lyon's Atiswer, &c. has been already referred to {ante, p. 83). In it he gives a short notice of a brawl in the cathedral. The Rev. Thomas Baikie, the minister of the First Charge, had apparently been unwell for some time, with a complaint, that Lyon can only, from motives of delicacy, hint at. In his absence, i\Ir. Wilson, one of the ejected parish ministers, seems to have convened his own congregation to the cathedral, and to have been in the act of preaching, when Baikie, with his nightcap on, and assisted by his loving spouse. THE ORKNEYS. 259 appears on the scene, and, with the aid of said spouse, ejects Mr. Wilson from the pulpit. (1756 or 1757.) Somewhere about this time the Kirk Session ^ granted a lease or tack of " the Great Church-yard," as all the burial-ground lying to the east and north of the cathedral was termed, to one Thomas Loutit, who " in order," to use his own language, " to bring it to a good sward," proceeded to delve it and sow it with grass and corn. A very pretty shindy seems to have ensued thereon, in which Ross the Chamberlain figures, strange to say, as the guardian of decency. All through the eighteenth century we find applications being made to the Crown, as holder of the Bishopric lands, for aid to keep up the fabric of the building. What had becom.e of the lands, &c. granted by James III. to the Corporation, for supplying the funds for repairs does not appear, and as far as one can see, neither my Lords Morton or Dundas, nor the heritors, seem to have put their hands in their pockets, nor do any of the good people in the islands appear to have thought it necessary to spend anything on the preservation of the most priceless monument they possessed. How different the state of the building was from what Robert Reid had left it in the days of Papal superstition, can be gauged by the fact that, in a memorial - presented to the Barons of the Exchequer in 1770, it was stated that, out of one hundred windows, only twenty-eight were open, all the rest were built up. No wonder Principal Gordon,^ who is supposed to have visited the islands some ten years later, should have written : — " It would seem by the darkness into which this and some other old churches have been reformed, that the first apostles of protestantism in Scotland were much afraid of outward light, considering it no doubt a great enemy to inward light. But this apprehension with the no less ill-judged oiie^ of cleanliness, has made the house of God in Kirkwall such a house as no ^ Maidment Collections. - Peterkin's Rentals, Appendix, p. 49. ' Arch. Scot. vol. i. p. 259. * So in original, can it be a printer's error for want? S 2 26o THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. man would choose to receive a friend in, much less take up his own habitation. The loca senta situ of Virgil may with great justice be applied to most of such places in Scotland." In the year 1805 Mr. Gilbert Meason,^ a connection of Malcolm Laing the historian, and an Orcadian, whose name deserves to be recorded in letters of gold, mortified, as the Scotch law-phrase has it, that is gave to trustees the sum of 1,000/., the interest of which was to be yearly applied in keeping the cathedral in repair, and, as to any surplus that might be over, it might be applied in opening all such windows as had been closed, and in beautifying and restoring the fabric to its original state. As trustees he named the two ministers and kirk treasurer, the provost, and eldest bailie of the borough of Kirkwall, and the convener of the county, all of whom were to be ex-officio trustees, and " a residing freeholder of the county of Orkney, to be chosen annually by the heritors, freeholders, and commissioners of supply," &c. How the choir appeared at that date we can get some idea from ShirrefTs account.- "The choir contains the stalls of the canons, (S:c., curiously carved with different figures, alluding to scrij^tural passages. In the centre, between two of the pillars which support the steeple, is the original loft, where the organ was formerly placed, and is now used as a church-seat by the grammar school boys. People of rank are buried in the church, a custom which is justly reprobated, on account of its pernicious tendency. There is a great variety of monuments and sepulchral stones, inscribed to the memory of several persons unknown to the present generation. Facing the pulpit is a seat for the provost and magistrates, town council, &c. There is also a large loft for the pilots, or other seafaring people, decorated with paintings of sundry devices, especially a ship under sail, as a badge of their profession." 1 Peterkin's Rentals, Appendix, p. 82. - Shirreft's Orkney, Appendix, p. 24. THE ORKNEYS. 261 Neale ^ described the reredos as having been very simple and consisting of three arches, from semi-octagonal shafts, and similar capitals ; the bases were concealed by the rising of the floor. In the spandrels were a foliated cross and a shield. On the south side of the altar stood the episcopal throne, erected by Bishop Graham and repaired in Bishop Honeyman's episcopate. The lower portion seems to have been used as the throne, and the arabesque gallery above as the seat for the bishop's family. West again of this stood a very handsome carved oak throne, generally called the Earl's Pew, but which, it has been conjectured, was the original episcopal throne of Roman Catholic days, which in Earl Robert's time may have been occupied by him. The canopy, a rich piece of flamboyant work, Neale supposed had been taken from the rood loft. Billings (vol. iii.) cited the Wood Tracery Panels of the Canopy of the Earl's Pew, and of which he gives illustrations, as verifying the system of squares as the Geometric foundation of Tracery. Such was the condition of the Cathedral Church of St. Magnus, when the government of the day, believing the building to be national property, made, in the year 1845, the congregation turn out, and proceeded to put the building into a thorough state of repair, and to purge it of the hideous excrescences which the "bigging of seats" and galleries had, during three centuries of architectural darkness, inflicted on it. In the course of these repairs the tombs of Bishop William the Old and of the Great Bishop Tulloch were opened. In the cist, containing the remains of the first-mentioned prelate, were found an ivory article with an iron pin through it, conjectured to have been part of a walking-stick, and a leaden plate, of which more hereafter ; and, in the tomb of Bishop Tulloch, imitations in wax of a chalice and of a paten, and a very rude oak pastoral staff It will hardly be credited, that these articles were taken away by some sacrilegious antiquarian ghoul, and were pre- sented in 1S64 by the Queen's Remembrancer to the National ^ Neale's Ecclcsiologkal Notes, p. 96. 262 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Museum at Edinburgh, where ihey can be seen at the present day. There could have been no justification for this gratuitous act of vandaUsm, as no possible good could arise from it to archaeology, ethnology, or any other ology. The whole thing smacks of Madame Tussaud's Bazaar. The government having put the place into thorough repair, the congregation in the meanwhile having used a building since pulled down, it struck some of the heritors that they might as well return to the building. It is said they were afraid of its faUing into the hands of the Scottish Episcopal Church. The government of the day either took the opinion of their law officers and found it against them, or else gave in, sooner than fight the point, as they had their hands full in the East at that time. Anyhow, they gave in. Some of the heritors are said to have wished the building to remain in the hands of the crown as a national monument, but the others, anxious to show how exquisitely endowed with architectural taste, and how imbued with the genius loci they were, carried their point. Before going into the details of the work of the modern Goths, so superior to poor benighted Kol, and Bishop Reid, it may be as well to give an extract from Sketches of Orcadian History., written by the late Mr. Petrie, the well- known Orcadian antiquary, and which appeared in the Orcadian newspaper of the 9th of January, 1855. "This William, who was the first Bishop of Orkney, filled the see from at least 11 12 to 1168. The Icelandic annal, formerly referred to, narrates that 'in this year (i 168) died William the Old, first Bishop of Orkney.' A circumstance occurred in 1848, while the Cathedral was being repaired, v'hich was not only interesting in itself, but also corroborates the statement in the annal, and shows the historical value of the Northern Chronicles. A cist, or grave, similar to those found in the barrows or tumuli, was discovered between the first and second pillars at the east end of the north side of the choir ; a skeleton lay doubled up in the cist, and beneath the chin there was stuck a flat piece of lead, on which was rudely THE ORKNEYS. 253 scratched or incised, ' Hie requiescit Willialmus senex, felicis memorie,' and on the obverse ' Pmus Epis.' The Annal and the inscription are thus found to agree in thus caUing him ' Senex, or, The Old ' on account of the great age which he had attained, and in describing him as ' Primus Episcopus ' or the first bishop (of Orkney)." In the Orkneyinga and Magnus Hclga Sagas Bishop WiUiam is stated to have been bishop of the Orkneys for sixty-six years, incredible as such a statement may seem. Having got possession of the building, the heritors had to fit it up again for worship after Presbyterian forms. The government had preserved everything worth preserving ; and, as a matter of course, the choir was, in its then purified state, too beautiful for a place in which prayer and praise were once more to be offered up to Him, who made the universe. It had to be made smug and ugly in accordance with modern notions of the fitness of things. The bishop's throne and earl's pew, which even Cromwell's saints had spared, had to be broken up. Of the earl's pew, some of the panels, richly carved with armorial bearings, are now in private hands. Of course, both throne and pew, if space were the only thing required, might have been placed in the transepts or nave. But then there would have been no delicious feeling of sacrilegious vandalism about the trans- action. The galleries went up again in the aisles, and the beautiful, tawdry screen was erected to shut off the choir from the nave. The pillars were naked ; and naked pillars, as all right-thinking people of course feel, are horribly indecent, and should be clothed. And clothed they have been with white- wash, pink-wash, or yellow ochre. The sanctuary, i.e. all to the east of the three steps, was lowered, if not completely removed ; and whilst this was being done, sometime in the summer of 1855, the cist containing the remains of William the Old, which had been replaced in 1848, was again uncovered ; and — it being of course no one's business to look after such trifles — was, with its contents 264 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. carted away with the rubbish. Sir Henry Dryden w^is at Kirkwall at the time, and vouches for the fact. One might have thought, that ministers and others concerned would, especially after the appearance in the previous January of Mr. Petrie's paper in the Orcadiafi, have taken special care that, if the remains of the first minister, who had offered up prayer and praise in the fane, had to be moved from their resting- place under the high altar, they should be reverently re-interred in some other portion of the building. It is true he was one of the most contemptible creatures, a bishop ; and it may be an open question with some people, whether a bishop can be considered a minister of the Gospel. But then he was no greedy, gripping, Scotch prelate, with an insatiable earth-hunger, but a kindly, genial Norseman, and one of the central figures of that Orkneyinga Saga, which, to the Orcadians and Shet- landers, is what the Nihelungenlicd is to the more stolid dwellers in the Teutonic Fatherland. What makes the apathy of all concerned so remarkable is, not only that the Orcadians are proud of their pure (according to them) Norse descent, but that, probably, nowhere in the British Isles is the standard of culture and education so high amongst the trading classes as it is in the Orkneys and Shetland. The Rev. William Spark, who since 1843 has been minister of the second or first charges, even thinks, that there was something laudable about the transaction ; and in a letter to the Scotsman of the 15th of August last year, on the subject of the Cathedral, wrote : — " At the same time, there can be no doubt that those who discovered the fore-mentioned remains in the Cathedral, and had them removed, deserved, in so far as this particular point is concerned, the thanks of the Avhole community. "The choir of St. Magnus is not a cemetery." As the thanks of the whole community are, according to Mr. Si^ark, due to all concerned, perhaps he will adopt the following suggestion : Let a brass plate, it need not be or- namental, or be carved by Lecomte of Rouen, or any one else, be affixed to the column or pillar nearest the spot where THE ORKNEYS. 265 the cist was found, and let such plate bear the following inscription :^ STAY, TRAVELLER! Not far from this pillar was found, in t/ic year of Our Lord 1 848, a cist containing the fnortal remains of William the Old, First Bishop of the Orkneys. Lie was a ^^ Parisian scholar,'' and for 66 years Bishop. LLe knew St. Magnus. JLe toas the friend of St. Rogtivald, with 7vhom he made the celebrated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. After St. Rogtivald's death in the year 1158, //// his own in 1 1 68, he superintended the building of this Cathedral. Ln the year of Our Lord 1855, and in the igth year of the reign of ILer Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria — as the choir of this Church is not a cemetery — the bones of the said Bishop, which had rested in this building for nearly seven centuries, were carted away ivith the rubbish, — no man ktiows whither. THE CHl'RCH ON EGILSAV, NOW DEDICATED TO SAINT MAGNUS, AND NEAR WHICH UK WAS MURDERED. From a water-colour drawing by Sir H. Dryden. CHAPTER XX. THE ORKNEYS. KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND — {coiit'mued). The BisJwfs a?id the EarVs Palaces. In a direct line with the south transept of the cathedral lie, at a distance of about -X)!) yards, such remains of the Bishop's Palace as the Goths of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have left to us, consisting of the walls, more or less demolished, of the main building, at the north-western corner of which stands the shell of the round tower erected by Bishop Reid. The principal building, which runs from N. by W. to S. by E., and forms a parallelogram 112 ft. 5 in. by 27 ft. 2 in. outside measurements, must, according to Dryden, have consisted, in the lower story, of vaulted crypts, or cellars, above which came the grand tier, which was divided into three rooms — a great hall 46 ft. 5 in. in length, and two smaller apartments, respec- tively 20 ft. 2 in. and 13 ft. 3 in., the smallest room abutting on the tower. Above the grand tier came the sleeping apart- ments, and above them the attics. Whether any portion of this building was part of the original palace in which King Hdkon breathed his last is doubtful ; but the round tower was undoubtedly erected by Bishop Reid, as his armorial bearings are still to be seen on a panel near the top, and above the arms a mitre and the letters R. R. Facing the road, and about halfway up, is a small recessed THE ORKNEYS. z^-j arch in which stands a somewhat mutilated figure 3 ft. 4 in. high, generally supposed to represent Bishop Reid, but which, from the fact of its being draped in a short tunic and having long hair, Dryden considers cannot have been meant for that prelate. At the bottom of the tower, which has an exterior diameter of 28 ft., is a five-sided vaulted cellar, the proper entrance into which was from the cellars of the main building. Above the cellar were four irregular quadrangular apartments, access to the lowest one being from the north room of the grand tier of the main building. The staircase of the tower still remains, though, owing to steps having given way in places, it is dangerous climbing, except for very agile people. Eastward of the north-eastern angle of the main building, till quite recent years, stood the ruined gateway, which, on the road being made to the new County Buildings, was taken down and built up again in a gap in the east wall of the main building. East again of the gateway formerly stood a square tower, known as the Mense or Mass Tower, and, not far from it, a smaller square tower, said to have been erected by Bishop Reid, and which, from the " Perspective view of Kirkwall," given in the introduction to Low's Tour, page xlvi., must have stood due south of the gateway. The most picturesque view of the ruins is to be got from the garden on the west side, over which still project three hanging balconies. Local tradition asserts that the building, of which only the ruins still remain, joining on to the southern end of the Palace, was erected by Earl Patrick, as an office from which his clerk of the works could superintend the erection of the building known as the Earl's Palace. The Bishop's Palace long served as a quarry from which Goths of the Andrew Ross class got their building materials ; and Hugh INIiller ^ narrates how he "was scarce sufficiently ^ Cruise of the Betsy, ^c., p. 402. 268 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. distressed to learn, that on almost the last occasion on which it had been wrought for this purpose, one of the two men engaged in the employment suffered a stone, which he had loosed out of the wall, to drop on the head of his companion who stood watching for it below, and killed him on the spot." The Earl's Palace. This building, originally known as the Newark of the Yards, to distinguish it from the Bishop's Palace, which was called the Place of the Yards, consists of two sides of a quadrangle. The southern side is 80 ft. in length, and the eastern 88 ft At the N.W. angle of the eastern block a tower, about 26 ft. 6 in. square, is joined on to the main building. Originally the building consisted of four stories, except over the southern part of the eastern block, where a high-pitched roof covered the great or banqueting hall. At the N.W. and S.W. angles of the tower, on the first floor, are corbelled turrets ; and, according to Low's sketch of the building as it existed in his day, similar turrets, though not so deep, seem to have hung at the angles of the second floor of the south-western gable. The grand entrance is on the south side, 'though there is a smaller door on the north side of the southern block, close at the junction with the eastern one. Entering through the grand entrance you descend some steps into a passage, which runs east and west. Turning to the west you come to the kitchen, 18 ft. by 15 ft., with one of those huge open fireplaces in vogue in those days. Turning east you come to the well, in the south-eastern angle, to which the water was brought in pipes from the high ground to the eastward. From here a passage runs along the western side of the eastern block to the tower. Opening into this passage are four vaulted chambers, re- spectively 15 ft. 10 in. by 12 ft. 4 in. ; 16 ft. by 12 ft. 4 in. ; 16 ft. by 12 ft. 4 in. ; and 22 ft. by 12 ft. 3 in. The room in the tower is twenty feet S(juare. THE ORKNEYS. 269 As you ascend the grand staircase, and in fact the only one from the ground to the first floor, you pass a square opening through which the dishes were handed from the kitchen. At the top of the stairs is a door leading into a room over the kitchen, and of similar dimensions. Then between it and the entrance to the great hall on the south side is a small chapel, 9 ft. by 7 ft. 6 in., in which a piscina still remains. Opposite the chapel is a small pantry. The great hall is, however, the feature of the whole building, 55 ft. i in. by 20 ft. 4 in. The side walls from which the high-pitched roof sprang are 15 ft. high, and the total height from floor to the ridge of the 'Toof must have been 34 ft. There are two fireplaces, one on the west side, and the other at the north end of the room. The principal one is that on^ the west side, which is a very fine one, measuring 14 ft. 4 in. in width and having a stone cross-bar extending from side to side. On each of the pillars at the side are still to be seen, though much worn, a coronet, and, on a band below, P.E.O. (Patrick, Earl of Orkney). The room must have been splendidly lighted. At the south end a window consisting of three pointed lights each 13 ft. by 3 ft. 2 in., and above this window a small one, 4 ft. by 3 ft. 6 in. On the east side were two large bay windows, and one on the west side. At the north end of the room a gallery seems to have stretched from side to side, probably in- tended for musicians. At the south-west corner is a staircase, which probably led to rooms over chapel and pantry. On the north side of the great hall is another very fine room 22 ft. by 19 ft. with a fine bay window on the west side. From this room you enter the one in the tower, 19 ft. by 16 ft., having small circular dressing-rooms at the angles. Completed by Earl Patrick in 1600, the building was in 1606 or 1607 handed over to Bishop Law in pursuance of an arrangement between them. On the final settlement of the bishopric and earldom estates in 1614 the Newark of the Yards was assigned as the episcopal palace, subject, however, to the right of 270 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the king's justiciar to hold his courts in it. Bishop Mac- kenzie is said to have been the last person who inhabited it, after which it was handed over to the tender mercies of the cultured Rosses and Mortons. Some few years back it was proposed to restore the building for county purposes, and jNIessrs. D. and J. Bryce of Edinburgh for that purpose pre- j)ared plans, and to them the writer is indebted for the measurements given. Lord Sherbrooke, who was then Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, refused, however, to aid the Com- missioners of Supply with a grant out of the public purse, and so the restoration scheme had to be abandoned, and the present block of county buildings erected. Before leaving the building let us try and recall to mind some of the scenes that have been witnessed in the " magna aula." (1602.) It is for the Orkneys a hot sweltering day in August, all the windows are open, and the great fireplace is filled with such flowers as these northern regions produce. Attendants, each with my lord's cognisance embroidered on the sleeve of his left arm, are hurrying to and fro, spreading the table for the banquet, which will shortly take place. Here is one bearing a dish of heath-fowl which my lord's hawks struck down last week on the moors above the Loch of Birsay ; another is carrying a platter full of ptarmigan slain with hail shot from an arquebus on the Hill of Hoy ; or it may be hares which my lord and his friends have coursed in the valley under the Dwarfie Hamars with those handsome rough deerhounds, which are lying in the corner out of the heat. At the top of the board smokes a noble haunch of venison from the forests of Sutherland, and, close beside it, stands my lord's master-cook waiting to carve. Below the salt are standing guests, merchants and others from the borough, who, not being of gentle birth, are awaiting the entrance of my lord and his distinguished visitors. Presently a flourish of trumpets from the trumpeters in the gallery announces the entry of the gentles from the private apartments in the north end. Here comes the Earl of Sutherland, accompanied by Sir THE ORKNEYS. 271 Robert Gordon, the Laird ot" Assynt and the rest of his suite ; after them follows Earl Patrick, now in the prime of life, leading a fair-haired boy, who, in spite of being the bastard grandson of one, like himself, born out of wedlock, looks royal Stewart on every line of his countenance. Bringing up the rear come David Kennedy, my lord's poor cousin and hench- man, the crafty Dischington, and the rest of the gentlemen of my lord's household. The guests have all taken their places, and my lord's chap- Iain, successor to the unfortunate Parson of Orphir, has said grace, when another flourish of trumpets announces to the crowd outside in the courtyard that the banquet has com- menced. (161 6.) Fourteen years have nearly passed away, and, once again, we are standing, in the spirit, on the same spot from which we witnessed the noble entertainment given to the Earl of Sutherland. It is not much more than a year since, worn out with five years of imprisonment and trial upon trial, Earl Patrick was executed at the Market Cross of Edinburgh under his royal cousin's warrant, not so much for the oppression and crimes he had undoubtedly committed, as because Somerset, the Steenie of the hour, was looking forward to a grant of his escheated property. His son, too, whom we saw a fair-haired laddie, met with a still more ignoble death by the cord some six weeks before his father.^ It is the same banqueting hall, but how changed is everything ! The rich hangings of damask and tapestry have all vanished, all the handsome ornaments are gone, and the whole aspect of the room conveys the im- pression of one devoted to stern business, instead of revelry and feasting. Not only is the appearance of the room changed, but it is also a different time of year. Now a March equinoc- tial gale is whistling down the chimneys, and making doors and windows rattle again. It is getting late in the evening, and the attendants are bringing in lamps and candles. In the chair of state under the gallery sits Henry Stewart of Carlogy, ^ See Appendix O i, pp. 630-1. 272 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. his Majesty's Justice and Sheriff Depute; a handsome-looking man, with a keen, intellectual face, he is now ill at ease. In advance of his age, he does not believe that there is such a crime as witchcraft, but, as a judge, he has to put his own feelings on one side. Close to the big central fireplace, on which is glowing a huge fire, partly of sea-borne coal, and partly of peats, stands BaiUe Chalmers, whom, nearly four years ago my Lord Archbishop of Glasgow, then Bishop of Orkney, did elect with others "to govern and beir rewU " in the town of Kirkwall, and to whom the procurator fiscal, certain of his verdict, is talking about the affairs of the borough. Seated round the table are the ministers and elders, who have been the chief promoters of the drama, the first act of which is now being played, and who, a few days hence, will look on at the horrible scene at the Lon Head with much the same feelings with which the officials of the Spanish Holy Office contemplate the auto da fe of one who has been wicked enough to worship the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, as his forefathers did. Who is this woman, whose dark hair, complexion, and accent betray her Celtic origin? It is the "rank wiche," Elspeth Reoch,^ " dochter to umquhill Donald Reoch, sumtyme pyper to the Erie of Cathnes." Her very guards stand away from her, as if fearing contamination from the accursed creature. And yet, she is no hideous old hag, but, as you see when she pushes the dark hair away which constantly keeps falling in clusters over her face, a young woman, still in the prime of life, and with a certain weird, melancholy beauty of her own, in spite of the unsettled look of those dark eyes, which indi- cates a certain lack of mental power. She has no fear of the horrible doom that awaits her. When she can collect her poor wandering faculties sufficiently to think at all, she feels sorry she will see Lochaber no more, and that never again will she hear the sound of the pipes, now swelling up, now dying away, in some well-remembered haunt of her youth ; and occasionally she wonders whether any one will play one of those mournful 1 See ante, p. 97. THE ORKNEYS. 273 laments, that have such a pathetic wail about them even to southern ears, when they hear of the horrible death the Sas- senachs have made her suffer, chiefly because — unhappy woman that she is — she has inherited from her Highland forefathers the fatal gift of second sight. All at once every voice becomes silent, and a solemn stillness falls on the whole assembly, as the gentlemen of the assize or jury, sixteen in number, and headed by their chancellor or foreman — that William Bannatyn of Gairsay, who four years back buried in St. Magnus Kirk, hard by, his " godlie and virtous spous, Isbel Calcri " — walk slowly into their places. The Sheriff now rises, and asks the jury what is their verdict ; to which Bannatyn replies, " Guilty, my lord, on all points of the dittay.'' His lordship then signs to a repulsive-looking man, from whom the audience seem to shrink away even in a more marked manner than they do from the prisoner. He is the dempster, and proceeds to deliver in a harsh, strident voice the terrible sentence, that on a certain day, she shall be taken by the lock- man to the Lon Head, and there be strangled at the stake, and that afterwards, lest her poor frail tenement of clay shall con- taminate the earth, her body shall be burnt in ashes, and scattered to the four winds of heaven. CHAPTER XXI. THE ORKNEYS. — KIRKWALL AND THE EAST MAINLAND — {continued). Deerness. " Once, off Dyrness, to the eastward, Came King Kali in a mail-coat Famous for its strength and brightness ; But the land was not defenceless, For, with five ships, nothing daunted, Scorning flight in warlike temper, Valiantly the Prince went forward 'Gainst the King's eleven vessels. " Then the ships vi^ere lashed together — Know ye how the men were falling ? All the swords and boards were swimming In the life-blood of the Scotsmen ; Hearts were sinking — bowstrings screaming, Darts were flying — spear-shafts bending ; Swords were biting, blood flowed freely, And the Prince's heart was merry. " Never was a battle shorter ; Soon with spears it was decided. Though my lord had fewer numbers, Yet he chased them all before him ; Hoarsely croaked the battle-gull, when, Thick fell the wounded king's-men ; South of Sandwich swords were reddened." Arnor Jarlarskald, Ork?icyiiii^a Saga. This peninsula, to any one who is not pressed for time, is well worth a visit, both on account of its Gloup and of the THE ORKNEYS. 275 Brough of Deerness, whereon are still to be seen the remains of, we have every reason to believe, the chapel and bee-hive- roofed huts of an early Celtic monastic settlement. The little wayside public-house at Smiddy Banks is exactly ten miles from Kirkwall, and a pedestrian, who does not mind plain fare, might put up for the night there, and do the sights of the district at his leisure on the following day. As you ascend the hill to the south-east of the cathedral you come to the junction of the Clay Loan, or Lane, with the road, just above which the road to Holm St. Mary branches off. This is the Lon Head of the trials for witchcraft, where so many poor devils were " brunt in asses," having first been strangled to death. When the road to Holm was being made some years back, the stump of the gallows was brought to light. This may have been the original gallows from which on the 15th of November, 1683, James Loutitt,^ a son of a bailie of the royal borough, was hung for sheep-stealing. As you ascend the hill you see on your left Papdale House, wherein lived Malcolm Laing, the historian, and close to which must have been the scene of the defeat of the English marauding party under John Elder Miles on the 13th of August, 1502, before referred to. Till you reach the crest of the hill you have most beautiful views looking northward. The moment, however, you commence the descent your eye is no longer strained by an overplus of beautiful scenery, and the road is uninteresting enough till you reach the ayre or isthmus of Dingyshow which connects Ueerness with the Main- land, and on the western side of which are the grass-covered remains of the broch of Dingyshow. As you ascend the hill from the ayre looking westward you see the hills of Hoy, and looking eastward Copinsay and its attendant Horse. Of the latter islet there is a proverb that it will fatten one sheep, feed two, and starve three. Copinsay itself looks very smooth and verdant from the west, but on the east it presents a nearly unbroken wall of rock 211 feet in ^ Thomas Brown's Note Book. 276 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. height, which is the principal breeding-place for the sea-fowl on the eastern side of the group. On Corn Holm, which lies between Copinsay and the shore, Low ^ found the remains of a small chapel 17 ft. by 15 ft., with walls 5 ft. thick, but low, and the doorway so low as to compel him to stoop on entering. Close to the chapel was a well with stairs leading down to it, and all around seem to have been scattered the remains of small buildings, similar probably to those mentioned hereafter on the Brough of Durness. Copinsay and Corn Holm would be well worth a visit about the end of May or beginning of June. Before coming to Smiddy Banks you see close to the shores of a beautiful sandy bay the house of Newark, the original building of which was erected by John Earl of Carrick. About two miles beyond Smiddy Banks you come to the church, one of the usual typical Presbyterian places of worship, which has been erected in the place of the two-towered church seen by Low, and thus described by him : - "The Church of Deerness is very remarkable, and part of it looks to be pretty ancient : the east end consists of a vault which crosses the breadth of the inside, and at each side of this is erected a small steeple. Thro' the vault or quire one enters the steeple on his right hand, and by a turnpike stair goes to a small apartment or vestry built between the steeples. From this last apartment he enters the second, which, or both probably, have had bells ; these are now gone, said to have been carried away by Cromwell's soldiers. Tradition is not clear (and there are no records) who was the builder of this Church. The steeples are said to be monumental, and placed over a Lady's two sons buried there, but whether this is so or not is hard to determine." In Thomas Brown's note-book is a curious entry relative to this church. "1690, Feb. ist, Wm. Craigie of Gairsay was married to Emma Grahame, Relict of John Buchanan of Sandyside, at the Kirk of St. Androi's, and the brydal olden at the same houss, and in respect it is observed be tradition no ^ Low's Tour, p. 47. - IhUcvi, p. 53. THE ORKNEYS. 277 persones that is married in the Kirk of Deirnes hath any good success or thryving, and thairfor they went and was marrid by Mr. Jon. PhiUips, minister at the said United Kirk." The original church, which was dedicated to St. Peter, was " by a jury of tradesmen, on oath, declared in 1789 too small, ruinous, and irreparable." ^ The foundations were removed some twenty years ago, to enlarge the burial ground. There is a curious triangular-shaped stone in the churchyard, one side of which is cut in facets like those on the drops of a chandelier. There is another similar stone in Rendale, known as the Queen of Morocco's gravestone. The road ends at the church, and to visit the Gloup and Brough you must trust to your legs. Half-a-mile's walk across the links brings you to Sandside, where the ruins of the old house of the Buchanans, who were people of position in the islands in the seventeenth century, are still to be seen. On the chimney-piece of one of the rooms was the following lively Calvinistic sentiment, calculated to aid digestion, " Who '^ can dwell with everlasting burnings ? " Just off this part of the coast was fought the memorable sea-fight between the Great Jarl Thorfinn and that Karl Hundason mentioned in the Saga^ whose identity with any known Scottish monarch has been such a puzzle to his- torical inquirers. About three-quarters of a mile beyond Sandside you come to the Gloup of Deerness. This consists of a vast chasm some 70 yds. long by perhaps 40 yds. in breadth at the widest part. The sides are perpendicular and about 80 ft. in height. From the eastern end a tunnel or arch some 60 yds. long com- municates with the sea, through which with an easterly gale the surf must be driven in grand style. Standing at the western end of the gloup, where a small burn flows over the cliff, you get a glimpse of the sea outside through the arch. There is said to be a cave directly under this burn, to which, in calm weather, access can be had by a boat. ^ Eirst Statistical Account, vol. xx. p, 266. ' Low's Tour, p. 53. 278 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Anotlier tliree-quarters of a mile or so beyond the Gloup brings you to the Brough of Deerness. This is a stack or rock nearly insulated at high tide. You first have to descend to the beach and then clamber over some large boulders till you reach the western side of the stack, which is from 80 to 100 ft. above sea-level. A very narrow and dangerous path, except to people with very steady heads, leads to the summit, which con- sists of a plateau, oval in shape, and about 400 ft. by 240 ft. On the land side are the remains of a stone cashel or wall. In the centre, or nearly so, of the plateau are the remains of the old chapel of pilgrimage,^ measuring externally 24 ft. 5 in. by 17 ft. 4 in., and internally 17 ft. 4 in. by 10 ft. 2 in. The door is at the west end, and tliere appears to have been only one window at the eastern end, and that, like the door, is mutilated. In the north wall is an ambry or recess. Scattered all over the plateau are the remains of cells, eighteen in number, built of uncemented stones ; the largest of which measures externally 24 ft. by 12 ft., and internally 18 ft. by 6 ft. On the landward side is a wall. Anderson - is of opinion that both chapel and cells go back to the days of the monastic phase of the early Celtic Church. It is not impossible, therefore, that these rude buildings may have l)een erected by Cormac or some of his followers, and be nearly thirteen hundred years old. When Jo Ben wrote, in 1529, the chapel was known as "the Bairns of Burgh," and he narrates how persons of all ages and classes from the different islands made pilgrimages to the place, and how bare-footed, on hands and knees, they climbed with difficulty to the top by a jmth that only admitted one at a time to ascend. Once at the top, with bent knees and hands clasped, they proceeded three times round the chapel appealing to the Bairns of Burgh, and every now and then throwing stones and water behind their backs. Even at that ^ lOryden's Ruined Churches. '^ AniX^TYOxif. Sco.'land in Early Christian Times, Fir. 106. 286 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. 8 ft. 7 in. ; 9 ft. 9 in., 4 ft. 4 in., 8 ft. i in. ; and 8 ft. 11 in., 3 ft, 6 in., 6 ft. 8 in. According to Barry's plan each apartment formed a perfect parallelogram. All had bee-hive roofs. In one of the apartments a perfect human skeleton was found, in addition to the bones of men, birds, and some domestic animals. A little further on the road, on the way to Kirkwall, is the farm of Saveroch, close to which, on the sea shore, another Pictish dwelling-house ^ or store-house was excavated by Captain Thomas, R.N., in 1848, when engaged in the coast survey. This, however, is very different from the other two, being excavated out of the natural surface of the ground. The passage, the main line of which is from a little to the north of west to a little to the south of east, is 47 ft. in length, and, where perfect, is 2 ft. 7 in. in height and width. Close to the entrance is a ruined chamber, and shortly before you come to the principal chamber is another passage, running at right angles to the main passage on the north side, 12 ft. in length, and ending abruptly. The principal chamber is 9 ft, below the surface, and forms an irregular pentagonal figure roughly stated to be 9 ft. in diameter. " The height of the inclosing walls varies from 3 ft. to 4 ft. 6 in. The space within the chamber is very much re- duced by the method taken to form the roof, which is by placing stone blocks or pillars, five in number, 2^ or 3 ft. high, and I ft, square) from 6 to 18 in. from the walls. Triangular flags are then laid with one angle resting on the pillars, other flags projected a little forwards rest upon these, and so on, till by continued overlapping a rude conical-shaped roof is formed, which at the centre would be 5 or 6 ft, in height. " A large lintel fire-place, 5 ft. in length and 18 in, square, rests upon two pillars at the entrance of the chamber." The animal and other remains found in this eirde-house have been before mentioned (page 15). ^ Archccologia, vol. xxxiv. THE ORKNEYS. 287 Both the mounds on the side of VVideford Hill and at Quanterness, and this eirde-house just described are now more or less filled up with earth and sand. Orphir. A drive or walk of about nine miles or so will enable the ecclesiologist to visit the remains of the round church at Orphir, one of the most interesting ecclesiastical relics, from the early days of the Norse Christianity, in the islands. Just at the end of the town you pass on your right the old road to Stromness, a short distance up which, on the southern slopes of Wideford Hill, is held the annual Lammas Fair, the scenes attending which, in its palmy days. Sir Walter has depicted in the Fii-ate. Like fairs in most other parts of Britain the Lammas Fair is now only the shadowy representation of the great annual Orcadian saturnalia it formerly was, when business and pleasure went hand in hand ; when the burgher guard mustered in the nave of St. Magnus ; and all the ferries to Caithness were for the time stopped, so as to prevent the escape of any gentleman troubled with indistinct notions as to the laws of meum and tuum. It is still, however, a great merry-making, when boat- loads throng in from the outlying islands for the great Orcadian carnival. Malcolm ^ gives a sketch of the scene as it was in his days, which is suggestive of a good deal that is said to result from the " mops," or hiring fairs, of the north of England, as after describing how the Lammas sister " stood drinks " to her beau, he goes on to say " and for so doing permits, and doubtless expects, something more than mere brotherly love." Just outside the town, a short distance up this old road on the left-hand side, is the farm of Corse, which Patrick Ncill suggests may have obtained its name from a cross having stood ^ Malcolm'.s Tales of Flood and Field, &c., p. 297. 288 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. there, at which pilgrims from the west knelt on first sighting St. Magnus. Or can it have obtained its name from an old memorial cross having stood there to mark the resting-place of the procession, which brought the remains of the saint from Birsay, before making their triumphal entry into the village ? A little to the west of Corse, at a place called Caldale,^ were found in 1764 some two feet under ground two horns, close to which were lying several fibulm or crescent-shaped ornaments of silver, in various designs. In the horns were upwards of 300 coins, of which, unfortunately, the greater part were lost. Enough, however, remained to show that the find contained forty-two varieties, coined in different places in England during the reign of Canute the Great. A very low-lying valley, which could be easily canalised if it were worth doing, separates the waters of Kirkwall Bay from those of Scapa Flow. Shortly after turning down the road to Orphir you pass the farm of Lingrow, on which were, in 1870, disinterred from the soil, which had accumulated over them, the remains of a broch, which in the perfect net-work of build- ings on its eastern, southern, and south-western sides, affords one of the best specimens, in connection with these structures, of secondary occupation. This broch too, and its circumjacent remains, probably afforded one of the richest collections of objects of interest for determining the age of these buildings and the mode of life of their inhabitants. Three Roman coins were found here, one of the reign of Vespasian, and the other two of Antoninus. As you get to the crest of the hill on the eastern side of the loch of Kirbuster, and about the fourth or fifth milestone, you get some very pretty views of Hoy. The loch of Kirbuster contains any amount of trout, running about five to the pound ; and Waukmill Bay, into which the stream from the loch flows, is said to be very good for sea- trout in the autumn. You turn off from the main road about the eighth milestone, just under Midland Hill, and half a mile ^ Barry'.s Orkney, p. 233. THE ORKNEYS. 289 or so brings you to the parish church, erected in 1829, and of the usual barn type of edifice, the highest ideal for many centuries of the Scottish ecclesiastical builders' mind. GROUND PLAN OF THE BROCH OF LINGKOW. At the eastern end of this building are the remains of the old circular church, which, we have every ground for believing, was erected by Jarl Hdkon on his return from Jorsalafaring, and it may be in expiation for his cousin's murder. u 290 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. The design is supposed to have been taken from that of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.^ From the curva- ture of the remaining portion; it must have had a diameter of 1 8 to 19 ft. The arched semicircular chancel is 7 ft. 2 in. wide, and 7 ft. 9 in. deep, and at the east end there is a small window, 2 ft. 5 in. by 10 in. The side walls of the nave, Dryden conjectures, may have been 15 ft. or perhaps more in height, and that on them rested a conical roof There are five churclies, all of the twelfth century, still standing in England, all of which were built on the model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Cambridge, consecrated 1 1 01 ; Northampton, about 1115 ; Maplestead, 1118 ; the well- known Temple Church, 1185 ; and the chapel in Ludlow Castle. Standing by the little chancel, what memories come back to us of the Jorsalafaring Jarl and his descendants: here Paul, Hakon's son, was worshipping at evensong, when Swein was murdering his namesake in the skdli^ which, as it is said in the Saga you had to descend from it to the church, must have stood on the rising ground to the westward, and not as it is usually supposed, on the north side of the church where the present farm-buildings are. When these buildings were being built more than a hundred jaw-bones of dogs and cats v/ere found. Were the Norsemen given, like the Marlow bargees, to puppy and kitten pies ? ' Drydcn's Ruined Churches. CHAPTER XXII. THE ORKNEYS. — STROMNESS AND THE V.'EST MAINL.ANB. " For leagues along the watery way, Through gulf and stream my course has been ; The billows know my Runic lay, And smooth their crests to silent green. " The billows know my Runic lay, — The gulf grows smooth, the stream is still ; But human hearts, more wild than they, Know but the rule of wayward will." — Scott. There are two roads to Stromness from Kirkwall ; one through Orphir, the other through the village of Finstown. The first, which is very hilly, is eighteen miles in length ; the second, which is very level, is fourteen and three-quarters. There are, generally, during summer and early autumn, con- veyances running daily from the two principal hotels in Kirk- wall ; which, starting in the morning, return from Stromness the same afternoon or evening. These conveyances always take the Finstown road, which, after passing along the northern slopes of Wideford Hill, skirts the shores of the Bay of Firth, celebrated even in Jo Ben's day for its oysters, of which Patrick Neill ^ said, that they were larger than the well known Pandores of Prcstonpans. The bay of Firth was, in the old Norse days, known as Aurndafior'^Sr (Salmon-trout Firth) ; and there are said to be three places on its shores that are fairly good sea-trout 1 Neill's Tour, p. i8. U 2 292 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. spots in the season : at Renebuster ; at Finstown ; and at Isbister. A few miles beyond Isbister is the Bay of Woodwick, also said to be worth a trial. In the Bay of Firth is the small level island of Damsay, supposed to have been called after Saint Adamnan. On this island was the castle which gave shelter to Swein the night he murdered Jarl Paul's " forecastleman " at Orphir, and liere Jarl Erlend was slain, when so drunk with his Yule-tide wassailing as to be unable to escape. According to Jo Ben — there was a chapel on the isle dedicated to the Virgin, to which great ladies were wont to make pilgrimages ; neither frogs nor toads nor any other earthly evils were to be found there ; the women were all barren, and, if any happened to become with child, they never got through their confine- ments. Monteith ^ speaks of there having been a nunnery on the island. Can this have been what Jo Ben was referring to? Neale said the chapel dedicated to Saint Mary had all but disappeared when he was there in 1848. On reaching Finstown the road takes a southerly direction, and about the eighth milestone you pass on your left-hand side the scene of the battle of Summerdale. According to local tradition - tlie Caithness men when they landed determined to slay the first person they encountered, somewhat on the principle of "first blood." This was in consequence of a witch, who had met them on landing, walk- ing before them unwinding two balls of thread, one of blue and the other of red, and the thread of the latter having first become exhausted, she told the Earl of Caithness, that the side on which the first blood was shed would be defeated. Seeing a short time afterwards a boy herding cattle the Earl at once slew him, and had hardly done so, when to his horror, the victim was recognised as a native of Caithness. This is supposed to have depressed the Caithness men before the fight. Nevertheless they are said to have fought stoutly, till they were assailed by the Orcadians with stones, which were supposed ' Sibbald'.s Orkney, p. 5. ^ Calder's History of Caithness, p. 95. THE ORKNEYS. 293 to have been sui)plied by some miraculous interposition, as the ground, whereon the battle was fought, was on the previous day said to have been singularly free from stones. When these missiles commenced to fly about, a sudden panic seized the Caithness men, who, throwing their arms into the Loch of Ltimmagem^ fled, and, the Orcadians having destroyed their boats were slaughtered in detail. Barry - states, that dead bodies had been found at the end of the last century in a marsh, through which the vanquished had fled, with the clothes still entire owing to the antiseptic nature of the soil. The Earl of Caithness himself is said to have taken refuge in a farmhouse near Orphir, and to have been betrayed by the woman of the house to his pursuers, by whom he was immediately slain. His body was afterwards interred on the field of battle, where, when Jo Ben wrote, a stone, afterwards removed by some farmer, marked his grave. One tradition says his head was severed from his body, and sent to Caithness pour en- courager. The Orcadians are stated to have lost only one man, who, having attired himself in the clothes of one of the slaughtered Caithness men, was returning home at night, and was slain by mistake by his own mother with a stone in the foot of one of his own stockings. Shortly after passing the road to Birsay you come to the farmhouse Turmiston, close to which is the now far-famed Maes Howe, and, about three miles further on, you reach the Bridge of Waith, which crosses the gut, through which the tide flows into the Loch of Stenness. Close to the bridge the road from Orphir joins the main road. This route from Kirkwall is far more picturesque than the one through Finstown, and the views of the Hoy Hills, especially after reaching the summit of Midland Hill, are very beautiful. The old road from the bridge to Stromness passes to the east of the hill of Cairston, and is about two ' This must be I.oomie Shun, see ant/', p. 217. - Barry's Orkney, p. 245. 294 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. miles in length ; the new road winds round the hill on the western side, and is a mile longer. If utterly Avanting in the halo of historic memories which cluster so thickly round every nook and corner of Kirkwall, Stromness, which, in the early part of the eighteenth century, was a village, and nothing more, is far ahead of its eastern rival in the beauty of its situation and surroundings. A long narrow street, nearly a mile in length, and, flanked on both sides by houses, whose gable ends abut on it, runs from north to south in a curve along the side of a small bay, which two small holms cut off from Cairston Roads. Each house, on the seaward side of the street, has, either to itself, or in con- junction with its neighbour, a pier or jetty. On the landward side again several steep lanes branch off from the main street up the hill, at the foot of which the town lies. The best view of the town is looking down from the highest part of the old Cairston Road. When Jo Ben wrote French and Spanish vessels were in the habit of resorting for shelter to the harbour, but, for a long time, the place appears to have been nothing more than a hamlet. Probably the Hudson's Bay Company gave it its first stimulus, as for a long time Stromness was always the port from which their vessels took their final leave of British shores. When the First Statistical Account was written, it v/as com- puted that 312 vessels annually called in at the port, of which the greater bulk were Scotch, half as many English, the rest Irish, with a few foreign craft, and this was a much smaller number than had been the case earlier in the century. From this port most of the Arctic expeditions set sail Here too, during a portion of the autumn of 17S0, lay the D.iscovery and Resolution, on their return from that circumnavigation of the globe, in the course of which James Cook, not the least on the long bead-roll of English seamen who have fought their way upwards from the ranks, lost his life. Up to the year 1754 the borough of Kirkwall was in the habit of assessing the village of Stromness for its own muni- THE ORKNEYS, 295 cipal ^ purposes. In that year, however, the Stromnessians refused to pay any longer, a course which was justified hy a judgment of the Supreme Court, and afterwards, on appeal, in ^758) by the House of Lords. This decision set free not only Stromness, but many other places in Scotland, from the ex- actions the royal boroughs in their vicinity had been in the habit of enforcing. The animus engendered by the litiga- tion is not yet extinct, and Kirkwall pretends to look down on Stromness, whilst Stromness hates Kirkwall for giving itself airs. Short lived as Stromness is, it is not utterly devoid of historical associations. Near the House of Claistron, on the other side of Cairston Roads, was born John Gow, the pirate, whose career suggested to Sir Walter Scott that novel in which he has embodied so many of the incidents of his northern cruise, short as it was. His father, a merchant in Stromness, purchased- a piece of waste ground on the east of the town, on which he erected a house, and in July, 17 16, a seizin of the whole was executed in favour of himself, his wife Margaret Calder, and their eldest son, John, who, after leaving school, proceeded to sea. In January, 1725, Gow turned up at Stromness with a vessel called the Revenge^ of 200 tons burden, and mounting twenty-four large guns, and six small ones. Whilst lying off Stromness he fell in love with a Miss Gordon, who, according to tradition, pledged her troth to him at the stone of Odin, in the manner described in the next chapter. So binding did she consider this engagement, that, in order to be released from it, she considered it necessary to journey all the way to London to shake his hand after his execution in 1729. At that period Robert Honeyman, who, the same year, was present when Captain Moodie was killed, resided at Claistron, and, as at that time banks were totally unknown in the far north, had to keep under his own care such portions of his rents, as ' Pdrie Papers. 296 THE ORk'NEYS AND SHETLAND. were jjaid in coin of the realm, till he had a chance of sending it south, or till it was expended for current purposes. (jOw having heard that Honeyman had received a large sum, de- termined to look him u]), and make him hand over. Honeyman, however, saw the looting party landing, and knowing that he •had not time to remove his cash elsewhere, by the advice of his wife, who seems to have been a ready-witted woman, placed it on the floor of an oi)en garret, and then, ripping up a couple of feather-beds, completely covered the cash-box with the feathers. After searching all the rest of the house Gow looked into the garret, and seeing nothing but a huge heap of feathers, called out to his party : " Come away, my lads ! it is useless for you to spoil your cloaths with feathers by rummaging tliis d d old cock-loft." For this incident, as for other infor- mation relating to old Orcadian families, the writer has to thank Mrs. Hiddleston, of Stromness, a lineal descendant of Sheriff Honeyman. Mr. Petrie,^ on the other hand, made out, that all the violence and looting was committed by the crew under the leadership of the boatswain, and against Gow's wishes, and that what finally compelled him to put to sea was the boatswain having plundered Honeyman's house on Graemsay, and carried away four females. Both goods and females were, according to Petrie, at once re-landed on Graem- say; and knowing this exploit would make the neighbourhood of Stromness too hot for him, Gow put to sea the same evening, fearing that if he loitered in such a land-locked anchorage he might be cauglit like a rat in a trap. Here we will leave Gow for the present, and turn our attention to another Stromnessian of a very different stamp, George Stewart, the unfortunate midshipman of the Boimty. He was descended from Walter Stewart, who, in 1636, was presented by Cliarles I. to the living of South Ronaldsay and Burray, and who was tlie ancestor of the Stewarts of Massetter, in South Ronaldsay, of whom Alexander Stewart, ' Pttrie Papers. See also Appendix T, pp. 633-7. THE OR AWE VS. 297 the father of George, was the last male rejjresentative, having survived all his sons. Poor George's horrible death in irons in the Pandora's box, due to the fiendish cruelty of Captain luhvards, and the mournful death of Peggy Stewart, his beautiful Otaheitan wife from a broken heart, are too well known to need further notice here. The whole story fur- nished Byron with the materials for his poem T/'ie Island. A child of Stewart and Peggy was living up to nearly the middle of the jiresent century, and probably left children, who now, if it is admitted that George Stewart was married to Peggy, and the marriage was quite as good as many that are recognised as such north of the Tweed, represent the old minister of South Ronaldsay and Burray, who himself came of " well kent folk," being one of the Stewarts or Steuarts of GrandtuUy, in Perthshire. Another character, in the Pirate, that of Noma, was suggested to Scott when the lighthouse yacht was lying in Cairston Roads. Bessy Millie, who lived to upwards of ninety years of age, in 18 14 resided at the top of one of the steep lanes in a house which is still pointed out, and did a big business amongst wind-bound skippers by selling favourable winds. In Claistron House, too. Sir Walter was entertained by Mrs. Rae, the mother of the well-known Arctic ex])lorer, who was born in the house Govv, alias Gow Smith, intended looting. There is a museum in the town, which is said to possess a very good mineralogical collection. i\mongst the fossils is the original Asterolepis discovered by Plugh Miller under the Black Craig. There appears, however, to be a sad want of energy amongst the committee, and the whole collection seems to want looking after. A very pretty walk may be taken along the coast-line passing Breck Ness, where are still to be seen the remains of the old mansion-house erected by Bishop Graham, that indefatigable house-builder. Close to the Black Craig is the quarry in which many fossil fish have been found, as well as the Asterolepis. .■\t the foot of the cliff, which is 363 feet in height, is a cave, generally known as Charlie's Hole, from the fact of 298 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the only survivor of a Dundee schooner, wrecked here in 1834, having been washed into it with a portion of the wreck. About a mile or so beyond the Black Craig is a stack known as North Gaulton Castle, which the action of the waves has worn somewhat peculiarly, being smaller in the centre than either at the base or summit. CHAPTER XXIII. THE ORKNEYS. — STROMNESS AND THE WEST MAINLAND — {continued). De risciBus, Alois, et reeus Vetustis. The Lochs of Ste/itiess and Harray ; Maes Howe ; The Rin^^'s of Stenness and Brogar ; and The JVeeni of Skara Brae. Nowhere else on British soil are to be found so many relics of that prehistoric past, about which we have no written records at all, as in the six or seven miles of Orcadian soil, which commence with the chambered mound of Maes Howe, and end with the Weem or group of primitive dwellings at Skara Brae, on the shores of the Bay of Skail. It is an excursion replete with interest, not only to the archaeologist and professed student of prehistoric lore, but to any one, whether antiquarian or not, who is not utterly devoid of that sympathy with the past, which culture in its highest sense must inevitably impart. Not only is the excursion interesting from an antiquarian point of view, but, in fine weather, the varied scenery you see in the course of it is of itself almost enough to repay you. A good pedestrian, who was willing to devote a long summer's day to it, might accomplish the whole round in a little over twenty miles. Those, who do not care for so big a walk, can drive out to the farmhouse of Turmiston, about six miles or so from 310 TJIE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. vStromness, and, sending their conveyance to await their arrival at Skail, walk across themselves. Before entering the Maiden's Mound, as Professor Barclay has translated Maes Howe, we may as well say a few words about the two lochs of Stenness and Harray, which some enthusiastic natives Iiave dubbed the Orcadian Windermere. If not up to the Queen of the English Lake District, these lochs have, like everything else in these northern regions, a quaint, weird charm of their own, more especially in the case of the upper loch, that of Ilarray, when the hills of Hoy are lighted up by the setting sun, and the stones of the Ring of Brogar look something uncanny, as their shadows lengthen out. The lower loch, that of Stenness, is an irregular-shaped piece of water some four miles or so long, and a little over two miles broad at the lower end. The lake is brackish, if not perfectly saline, and is connected with the Bay of Ireland by a channel about three-quarters of a mile in length. The lower portion of this next the sea, about six hundred yards long, is known as The Bush., though why so called no one can explain. This stretch of water is a favourite resting-place for sea-trout before running into the lochs, and, under favourable conditions, ought to afford splendid sport. It is just like fishing a very rapid river, and the best time of tide is from half ebb round to half flood. A westerly wind and lots of it accompanied by rain is said to suit it best. The loch of Stenness at times swarms with fish. Not only are the coal-fish {Merlangus Carbonarius) caught there, but also skate, cod, and very large flounders, and in winter time herrings find their way in. In addition to sea-trout, and the ordinary loch-trout, a special variety of Salmonidce is found, to which Dr. Glinther has given the name of Salino Orcadensis. Most of the wild fowl, too, which visit the Orkneys in winter are to be found on this loch and the adjoining one of Harray : and from the Bridge of Waith down to the sea is a favourite spot for gunners at flight time. If the Fauna of the lochs is a very varied one, the Flora is no less so. Close to the Bridge of Waith you have seaweeds alone, a TIJE ORKNEYS. 301 little further on seaweeds mixed with fresh-water plants, and in the loch of Harray fresh-water j)lants alone. The upper loch, which is four and a-half miles long, three-quarters of a mile broad for the greater part of its length, and a mile and a-half at the northern end, is the best for brown trout, and a portage of little over forty yards enables you to take your boat from the one loch to the other. For years nets, set lines, and the infernal poaching machine, the otter, have been used to such an extent, that it is a wonder any trout have been left, but, now the Orkneys have been formed into a salmon lishery district, set lines and otters become illegal, and netting can no longer be carried on with the herring-net mesh, and in the reckless manner hitherto in vogue. In fact, if only the fish can be protected in the spawning season, these two lochs should for angling be second to none in Scotland. There is a small loch called Rango, connected with the north-western end of the Loch of Stenness, belonging to Mr. Graham Watt, of Skail, which is said to hold very large trout. Whilst on the subject of angling, it may be as well to mention that splendid sport is said to be got in Hoy Sound during summer and early autumn, spinning a natural or artificial sand eel for Whiting Pollack, or, as they are termed in Scotland, Lythe [Merlangus PoUachius) the gamest of all sea-fish, for which eighty (o one hundred yards of trolling line and the stoutest of salmon gut traces are wanted. To return to our antic^uarian muttons. Maes Howe or the Maiden's Mound is a truncated cone 92 ft. in diameter, 36 ft. high, and measuring about 300 ft. in circumference at the base. The mound stands in the centre of a circular platform, 270 ft. in diameter, which is surrounded by a trench 40 ft. wide, and varying in depth from 4 to 8 ft, A long passage 54 ft. in length leads to the central chamber. The axis of this passage, which is perfectly straight, is from N.E. to S.W., or nearly so, the entrance being at the S.W. end. The passage, for the first 22 A ft., is 2 ft. 4 in. wide, and originally must have been the same in height. For the next 26 ft. it is 3 ft. 3 in. x 4 ft. 4 in. ; it is then narrowed by 302 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. two upright stone slabs to 2 ft. 5 in. Immediately beyond these slabs the passage extends 2 ft. 10 in., and is 3 ft. 4 in. wide by 4 ft. 8 in. high. On the north-western side of the passage, just where it begins to widen out, at 22 ft. 6 in. from the entrance, is a triangular recess, 2 ft. deep, and 3 ft. 6 in. in height and width, opposite to which, in the passage, a stone, of such dimensions that it would fit into the recess, was found, and which was probably used to block up the passage. From this recess the roof, sides, and floor were formed of four immense slabs of stone, of Avhich only one is now anything like entire, and it is cracked. The central chamber is 15 ft. square on the floor and 13 ft. in height, so far as the walls still remain. The roof is formed by the stones, at the height of six feet from the floor, gradually overlapping, as in the case of the chambers in the brochs and the other chambered mounds, a peculiarity in construction that makes Anderson ^ beheve it must have been erected in Pictish or Celtic times. At each angle of the chamber are huge buttresses of stone from 8 to 10 ft. in height, and about 3 ft. square at the base. Immediately opposite the passage, 3 ft. above the floor, is an opening 2 ft. wide, 2 ft. 6 in. high, and i ft. 10^ in. long, leading to a cell having a raised floor 5 ft. 8 in. long, 4 ft. 6 in. wide, and 3 ft. 6 in. high. On the south-eastern and north-western sides are similar openings and cells. The opening on the south-eastern side is 2 ft. 6 in. wide, 2 ft. 9 in. high, and i ft. 8 in. long. The cell on this side is 6 ft. 10 in. long, 4 ft. 7 in. wide, and 3 ft. 6 in. high, and, like the first one, has a raised flagged floor. The opening on the north-western side is 2 ft. 3 in. wide, 2 ft. 6 in. high, and i ft. 9 in. long. The cell is 5 ft. 7 in. long, 4 ft. 8 in. wide, and 3 ft. 4 in. high. This cell has no raised floor. The roofs, floors, and back walls of each cell are, in each case, formed by single slabs, and stones, which, from their dimensions, look as if they had been used to fill in the openings, were found ^ Ork. Sa^'. Intro., p. cii. THE ORKNEYS. 303 on the floor. These stones, Farrer conjectured, were used to seal up the vaults, for which purpose he fancied these chambers had been intended. There is a finish and a thoroughness about the workmanship of the chamber, that shows, that, were the builders Picts or were they Norsemen, they were not accustomed to scamp their work ; and the enormous size of the stones used in the passage speaks volumes for the engineering capacity of the people who can have transported such huge masses from the place where they were quarried. Till it was opened by Mr. Farrer in July, 1861, the mound was known in the district as the abode of "the Hog boy." No one could tell why ; though, as Anderson ^ shows, the word is simply the Norse Hai/g-bid, the tenant of the haug or tomb,; that is, a hoy-laid man, or the goblin that guards the treasure. How customs survive, or crop up, sometimes long after they appear to have been forgotten ! When the buccaneers, the Vikings of the seventeenth century, hid treasure in the many sandy keys in the West Indies, they are said to have slain a negro to keep ward and watch over it. When the principal chamber was being cleared, an immense quantity of rimes were found inscribed on the walls. Runes, as the Scandinavian characters used in ancient days are termed, are divided into two classes, the early Gothic, and the later or Norwegian division of the Scandinavian runes. No runic inscriptions at all had, strange to say, been previously found in the Orkneys, otherwise so rich in relics of the Norsemen. Most of the runes in Maes Howe belong to the Norwegian division. Many of them are mere scribbles, such as an idle man might cut from sheer want of something to do. Some twenty-six were submitted to Professors Stephens, Munch, and Rafn, of Copenhagen, who have, on the whole, not differed so much in their translations as scientists are wont to do on such occasions. Altogether, we gather, from the runes, that the mound was known to the Norsemen as Ofkahaz/g, or the Mighty ^ Ork. Saj. Intro., p. ci. 304 TIIE ORh'NEYS AND SHETLAND. Mound ; that treasure was supposed to have been hidden in it, in search of which the Jorsalafarars, probably some of those who accompanied Jarl Rognvald to the Holy Land, had broken into it ; and that the Norsemen were ignorant of the origin of the mound. On the buttress, on the left-hand side on entering, is cut a cross, which must have been carved by one, who either was on his road to Jerusalem, or had been there. On another of the buttresses a dragon is most beautifully incised, which, from its similarity to one found at Hanestad in Scania, Rafn assigns to heathen times. Another nondescript sort of carving Stephens calls a worm knot, and Rafn says is a symbol found on runic stones at the end of the heathen and commencement of the Christian periods. Many of the names inscribed are the same as those of persons mentioned in the Saga as relations and friends of Jarl Rognvald. One inscription is translated by Munch as : " Ingigerthr is of women the most beautiful," much as if a love-sick schoolboy enamoured of his tutor's daughter should write : "Edith is a stunning girl." Now Jarl Rognvald had a daughter called Ingirid (p. 164 of the Saga) and Ingigerd (p. 188), who was married to Eirik Slagbrellir shortly after her father's return to the Orkneys. Can Eirik in a spoony fit have cut this tribute to his young woman's good looks ? The only mention in the Saga of the mound, supposing it to be the same Orkahatig, is when Jarl Harald, on his way to surprise Jarl Erlend at Yule-tide, turned in to have carouse by the way at Orkahaug. The drinking was probably heavy, as the Saga states that their journey was delayed owing to two of the party having been seized with madness, or, to speak plainly, having an attack of delirium tremens. Those anxious for further information as to Maes Howe and its runic inscriptions are referred to Y^xxox'?, Maes Howe ; to W^\\.q\-\^\X?> Mesehoive ; to a paper by Dr. John Stuart in volume v. of The Proceedings of the Society of A7iiiquaries of Scotland ; to a notice by Dr. Charlton in volume vi. of Archcsologia ^Eliana ; and to The Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England^ by Professor THE ORKNEYS. 305 George Stephens, Copenhagen, 1866-68. From Maes Howe you get a most beautiful view of both lochs, of the Rings of Stenness and Brogar, and of the hills running up on the western side of the Loch of Stenness to Skail, which are overtopped at their southern end by the hills of Hoy. To the Ring of Stenness from Maes Howe is, according to Farrer, a mile and a half, though the writer would not have thought it so much. Stenness, the Steinsness of the Saga of Olaf Tryggvi's son, is generally applied to the jutting points on both sides of the Bridge of Brogar, but, in all probability, it is only strictly applicable to the southern one, on which, some little distance from the bridge, is the Ring of Stenness. This consists of a circular mound, which, on the eastern side, has been completely obliterated, 104 ft. in diameter. Outside of the mound came a broad ditch, around which again was a circumscribing mound. The diameter of the whole must from outer edge to outer edge have been 234 ft. ; the circular mound and embankment being both 3 ft. above the natural level of the ground. At the southern corner of the circular platform still stand two upright stones, measuring respectively 17 ft. 4 in, x 6 ft. X 8 in., and 15 ft. 2 in. X 4 ft. x i ft. 3 in. A little to the west again is a stone lying prostrate, which measures 19 ft. X 5 ft. X i ft. 8 in., and is supposed to weigh 1071 tons. On the western side of the circle are the re- mains of a cromlech, one of the legs of which, 2 ft. high, remains m situ., and another has fallen outwards. The capstone, or covering stone, remains, and measures 9 ft. X 6 ft. X 6 in. About 150 yards to the north of the Ring of Stenness, stood, till the year 18 14, a stone somewhat similar to the ones still erect, but having a hole through it a little on one side of the centre, and at a height of 5 ft. from the ground, according to Captain Thomas's informant, and 3 ft. according to Dr. Henry. To the east of the ring and stone last men- tioned, which was known as the stone of Woden or Odin, X 3o6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. was the old church of Slenness, at the west end of which was a circular tower. North-west of the Ring, close to tlie 15ridge of Brogar, is a solitary standing stone, known as the Watchstone, i6 ft. X 5 ft. 3 in. X I ft. 4 in. On the other side of the bridge, about half to three-quarters of a mile further on, is the Ring of Brogar, which most people call, though incorrectly, the Stones of Stenness. Betbre arriving at this ring you pass two small standing stones, one of which is broken, and a small tumulus, on which are the stumps of two stones. Brogar means the bridge of the inclosure, from the Scandinavian bro or bni^ a bridge, and .^f^'v/, an inclo- sure. The Ring of Brogar consists of a circular piece of ground of a diameter of 340 ft., surrounded by a broad fosse or ditch of an average depth of 6 ft. The diameter of the whole, from outer edge of fosse on one side, to outer edge on the other, is 424 ft. 4 in. This fosse is crossed at the W.N.W. and E.S.E. sides by causeways 1 7 ft. 8 in. broad. Originally the circle must have, according to Captain Thomas, consisted of some sixty stones, each standing 13 ft. 2 in. from the inner edge of the fosse, and 17 ft. 8 in. from its neighbours. Thirteen stones are still standing ; ten are lying prostrate ; and the stumps of thirteen are still visible. The highest pillar is 13 ft. 9 in., and the average height 9 ft. above surface. These stones are all flagstones of Old Red Sandstone formation, and are supposed to have been quarried some miles off at Sandwick. Lichen covered, they look, as they are, hoary monuments of ages long passed away. North-west of the Ring of Brogar, about a mile further on, is the Ring of Bukan, consisting of an internal area having a diameter of 136 ft, surrounded by a trench with sloping sides 44 ft. wide at bottom, and averaging about 6 ft. in depth. On the circular internal space were, when Captain Thomas wrote, traces of five or six tangential circles, about 6 ft. each in diameter, and several stones were lying about, which he THE ORKNEYS. 307 conceived might have been the remains of small cromlechs. Scattered all about the neighboiirliood are numerous tumuli, many of which have been opened from time to time. In one that was opened by Mr. Farrer on the 17th of July, 1854, was found a cist 2 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft., in which was contained an urn i ft. 9 in. in diameter, 1 ft. 6 in. deep, anil 5 ft. 10 in. in circumference, the outer rim being i^ in. in width. This urn, which was formed out of some micaceous stone not to be met with in the Orkneys, contained burnt bones and ashes. Now we know from the Saga of Olaf Tryggvi's son, that Havard Arsjeli ^ was slain by his nephew Einar Kilning at Sfeinsness^ and that the spot where he fell was afterwards called Havard's teigr — teigr meaning an individual's share of the tun-land. Havard's teigr is the name by which the promontory is still known by the natives, so that it is not impossible the urn in question may have contained the ashes of Ragnhild's second victim. Now Havard is supposed to have been slain somewhere about 970, when the district was known as Steinsness, which looks as if the Norsemen had found the stones, &c., standing on their arrival. And, as we have every reason to believe their immediate Pictish predecessors were Christian, we must go back, to before the middle of the sixth century, for the date of the erection of these circles and cromlechs. Both Worsae and Munch unhesitatingly speak of the circles as Celtic. It is not impossible, however, that the Norsemen finding the stones in position, may have utilised them for some of their own pagan rites, and that a tradition of such pagan rites may have come down to quite modern times. We know that the Ring of Brogar was called the Temple of the Sun,2 and that of Stenness the Temple of the Moon, till (juite recent years ; and, from a paper communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1784 by Dr. Henry, then minister of Greyfriars, we learn some of the customs, that had, within twenty or thirty years, prior to that ^ See ante, p. 25. ^ Low's Tour, Intro., p. xxii. 3o8 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. date, subsisted amongst the people of the district. It appears that, on the first day of the new year, they were in the habit of assembhng at the Kirk of Stenness, having provisions with tliem for several days. As long as these lasted thty feasted and danced away in the Kirk. As the young people had, owing to this custom, a greater opportunity of meeting than they otherwise would have had, many marriages resulted. When therefore a couple had made up their minds on the subject, they were in the habit of stealing away from their companions and repairing to the Temple of the Moon, where the woman in the presence of the man knelt down and prayed to Woden, or Odin, to help her to be faithful to the man ; then they adjourned to the Temple of the Sun, where the man went through a similar ceremony ; and finally returned to the Stone of Odin, where, one standing on one side and the other on the other, they shook hands through the hole in the stone, and swore to be faithful to each other. This ceremony was considered so sacred, that it was thought to be infamous to break it. Principal Gordon,^ in fact, was told that the way it came to light was, that a man, having seduced a girl under promise of marriage, was being rebuked with such severity by the Kirk elders, that the minister was led to ask how they were so very hard on the culprit, and was told that the man had broken the promise of Odin. The worthy elders no doubt looked upon a little seduction as a very minor offence, but breaking the promise of Odin was a very serious matter. The Stone of Odin, in fact, was the place where the knot matrimonial was tied ; and when a couple thought they were too much married, and wanted to slip the knot, they went into the Kirk, and the one going out by the south door and the other by the north was considered to have legally dissolved the marriage tie, and left them both free for a second venture. The process certainly was as simple and inexpensive as could be desired ; and the idea of looking upon a church as a sort of inanimate Sir James Hannen was charming ! ' Arch. Scot, vol. i. p. 2C3. THE ORKNEYS. 309 Captain Thomas was informed that, if an infant was passed through the hole of Odin, it would never, when grown up, shake w'ith palsy ; ^ and that, up to the time of its destruction, it was customary to leave some votive offering, even if it were only a stone. The Stone of Odin was destroyed, and the prostrate one in the Ring of Stenness thrown down, and, according to Peterkin,^ three others destroyed in December, 1814, by a Highland Goth of a farmer, then tenant of Barn- house, for the purpose of making byres, or cow-houses. This man, who, as he is said to have served as an officer in Egypt, in Abercrombie's expedition, ought to have know^n better, was only prevented from committing further vandalism by Malcolm Laing, with two other gentlemen, obtaining an interdict from the Sheriff's Court. That was not all, as the natives Boycotted the Ferry Loiiper against whom they had the additional grudge that some small tenants had been removed to make his farm, to such an extent, that he was at last compelled to leave the country. Some four miles or less from the Ring of Bukan, and about half a mile south of the manse of Sandwick, is an overthrown cromlech, called The Stones of Via.^ The stones consist of four short square pillars about 3 ft. high, on which was supported a square slab, 5 ft. 10 in. by 4 ft. 9 in. by i ft. Close, too, lies a smaller slab, which has either been placed on the top of the larger one, or else has ibrmed part of a small supplemental cromlech. On a hill called Vestrafiold, but which should be Vestrafjeld, is a large irregular inclosure, originally fenced all round by large flags and measuring about 800 yards in circumference. A watercourse runs through the centre and there are indications of smaller inclosures. This inclosure, which lies north of the bay. of Skail, Captain Thomas considered of very great anti- quity, but was unable to form any idea of what it had been intended for. Persons anxious for further information concerning tliis ' See also Neill's Tour, p. 18. - Peterkin's Notes, p. 20. ^ ArchcEologia, vol. xxxiv. 3IO THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. district, are referred to the paper by Captain F. W. L. Thomas, R.N., in volume xxxiv. of the Archceologia of the Society of Antiquaries (London), of which the writer has hirgely availed himself. About a mile or so from the manse of Sandwick, and on the south-eastern corner of the Bay of Skail, lie the remains of the Weem of Skara Brae, one of the most remarkable series of primitive dwellings known, and which were excavated by the late Mr. Watt about twenty years ago. They may be described as a series of chambers and cells arranged on either side of an irregular passage, the general trend of which is from north- east to south-west. The passage is from 2 to 3 ft. wide, and, it is supposed, was from 5 to 6 ft. in height. One of the chambers, speaking roughly, is 21 ft. 6 in. by II ft.; another 21 ft. by 19 ft. or 20 ft. In neither case could the height be ascertained. The whole place is such a labyrinth of passages, compartments, and cells, that to attempt to describe it at all clearly would take up far too much space. The reader, therefore, anxious for fuller details is referred to Mr. Petrie's paper in volume vii. of the Proceedings of tJie Scottish Antiquaries. An enormous quantity of bone and stone implements were found. Amongst the animal remains were horns and bones of deer, horns of Bos longifrons and Bos primigeniits., the tooth of a walrus, and vertebrae of a whale. From the marks on a human bone it is supposed the inhabitants were, like the New Zealanders till recent years, given occasionally to "long pig." Several urns, containing ashes, were found in the chambers, which shows that the inhabitants must have paid a certain amount of respect to their departed. In the old house at Skail, erected by Bishop Graham, Mr. Watt has a collection of implements, &c., found in the Weem, which he is very kind in showing to strangers. On the shores of the Bay of Skail a hoard of silver was, in March 1858, discovered by some boys. The find, which weighed 16 lbs. altogether, consisted of torques and massive mantle brooches, all very similar in pattern, also of silver bars THE ORKXEYS. 31 r or ingots, and a number of silver coins. One of the coins was a Khalif al Motadhed, struck at Al Thash (a town of Trans- oxiana) in the 283rd year of the Hegira, i.e. a.d. 896. Two EngHsh coins, one a Peter's Penny, coined at York early in the loth century, the other of ^thelstan " Rex totius Britan- nioe," 925 — 941. The whole is supposed to have been loot ac- quired by some Viking in foreign parts and to have formed part of the stock of some silversmith whose shop had been sacked.^ At the southern corner of the Bay of Skail is a curious arch, or hole, supposed to have been formed by a vein of trap-rock giving way. This arch is known as the Hole of Row. First you have a long narrow geo some fifteen or twenty yards broad ; then a square hole some height above water level, which runs right through to the sea on the other side a distance of some fifty yards. A mile or so south of the Hole of Row is the Beacon Hill, from the top of which you get one of the finest views of Hoy that can be obtained from the Mainland. Not only do you see the Meadow of the Kaim and the cliff's of Hoy as far as the Old Man, but also the Caithness and Sutherland coast-line as far as Whitten Head. On the clifi"s close to the Beacon Hill may be seen a curious example of the weathering effect of the atmosphere on the rocks, all sorts of curious quasi-geometrical patterns being cut on them. About a mile or so beyond this you come to the Castle of Yeskenabce, a detached stack somewhat similar to that of North Gaulton. The distance from Skail to Stromness along the cliffs must be about eight miles, and the walk, on a summer's evening, when a setting sun is bringing out the rich red colouring of the cliffs of Hoy, must be a very enjoyable one. ' See Mitchell's Mesehowe, plate and description. See also Cosmo lunes's Scotland in the Middle Ages, p. 31 1. CHAPTER XXIV. THE ORKNEYS. — STROMNESS AND THE WEST MAINLAND — {cojifiniicd). Birsay. " This way went the Prince a-fowling ; Skilful are his men with arrows. Now is many a heathcock meeting Death beside the verdant hillocks, Where the elmbow of the hunter, Keenly bent, as if by magic, Makes the moorfowl quickly perish." Orkiieyinga Saga. Birsay, the BirgishcrarS, or hunting-ground of the Jarls, is the north-western parish of the Mainland. In Low's time, and till quite recent years, Harray and Birsay made one parish, but, at the present day, the two districts have been severed, and Birsay has been formed into a quoad sacra parish by itself. The palace of Birsay is fourteen miles from Stromness, and eighteen from Kirkwall. From Stromness you pass through Skail to get there, and driving from Kirkwall your road takes you through the country of the Harray lairds, of whom Jo Ben wrote that ignavissimi fiici sunt., a charge certainly that, from all accounts, could not be brought against them at the present day. In Harray too, he mentions, was situated a great church dedicated to the Virgin, much frequented by people from all the islands, and of which many fables were told. THE ORKNEYS. 313 The palace of Birsay is situated on the shores of a sandy bay bounded on the north by the Brough of Birsay, and on the south by Marwick Head. The palace originally consisted of a range of buildings forming four sides of a court which measured 104 ft. 3 in., N. and S., by 59 ft. g in. E. and W. The external measure- ments are 172 ft. 2 in. N. and S., by 120 ft. 10 in. E. and W. At the S.E., N.E.,and S.W. angles are square projecting towers, and the main entrance was in the south wall. At the N. is a portion of an older building. A modern wall has been built connecting the two flanking towers at the S. end, inside of which can still be seen the traces of the old wall. The whole building is now the remains of a shell, and the best portion is the older part, which has been attributed to the St. Clairs. In 1858 a large portion of the vv'estern side was blown down. We know that Jarl Thorfinn in his latter years made this place his head-quarters, and probably built some sort of dwelling house, though the chances are that, like an Icelandic Skdli^ it would be composed partly of wood and partly of stone. Jo Ben says there was " palatium excellens," in Birsay in his day, about which he has the following wonderful myth, that a king of Orkney reigned there named Gavus. But when Julius Caesar became master of the whole world, Orkney became subject to the Romans, a fact to which the inscription on a stone bore witness. That Earl Robert built the new portion of the building we know as an historical fact. Over the gateway stood the stone, the inscription on which, " Dominus Robartus Stewartus Filius Jacobi Quinti Rex Scotorum hoc opus instruxit," was held to be proof of treasonable designs, instead, as it ought to have been, of ignorance of grammar. The stone, on which this inscription was carved, is said to have been carried away by the vandal Earl of Morton, who sold the Earldom estates to the Dundasses. Inside the building, over Lord Robert's arms, was the motto, "Sic fuit, est, et erit." The building, which was three storied, was, according to Ijrand,'^ on ' Braiul's Orkney and Zcllandy p. 31. 314 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. the first floor decorated on the ceilings with Scriptural subjects, such as on Noah's Flood, and Our Saviour riding into Jerusalem, a fact which, when we consider the manner of man Earl Robert was, is, to say the least, somewhat strange. Brand said the building had been occupied within twenty years of the time when he wrote (1700), but was fast falling into decay. Sheep-stealing Sand's examination, by Captain Moodie and James Gordon of Cairston, was, however, held in the building, and in the sketch of the place given in the introduction to Low's Tour^ and supposed to have been drawn in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the palace, though roofless, seems otherwise entire. From this sketch it appears, that the garden was on the east side of the building, and that, south of the garden, was a walled-in paddock. Close to the palace is the churchyard, in the centre of which stands the parish church. Into the southern wall of the church a stone is built, on which, is the word " Bellus," about which all sorts of theories have been started. The western gable is supposed to have been a portion of an older building, and the east window. Sir George Dasent was of opinion, had been removed from another building. To the E. of the church are the traces of another one. Jarl Thorfinn, as we know, on his return from Rome, built Christ Kirk at Birsay ; and Bishop William resided there till St. Magnus was built. The older church, of which traces still survive, may therefore have been the original church erected by Thorfinn. Close to the old school-house are the remains of old buildings, which, local tradition says, formed the old episcopal palace. The churchyard at Birsay, when the writer was there in 1880, was in a shamefully neglected state, and the same remark may be applied to most of the graveyards in both the Orkneys and Shetland. The real fact is, that most of them should either be closed or enlarged, as in many cases so crowded are they, that the coffins are hardly below the surface. The Brough of 1 Low's Tour, p. iv. THE ORKNEYS. 315 Birsay is an islet containing about 40 acres, and separated from the shore by a channel nearly 400 yards broad, of which about 150 yards has a rocky seaweedy bottom, not the pleasantest of walking. At spring-tides this channel is dry for about three hours, but the intending visitor to the brough should get a guide from the village who knows the tide times, and should be careful not to linger too long, as when the tide does begin to flow through the channel, it does so like a mill-race. The remains of the old church^ are on the N.E. side of the brough, and close to the shore. The chapel consisted of nave, chancel, and apse. The nave is 28 ft. 3 in. by 15 ft. 6 in. inside, and was entered by a doorway 3 ft. 2 in. wide, at the W. end. In the N.E. and S.E. corners of the nave are circular spaces 5 ft. 6 in., in the S. one of which are the remains of a staircase, and it is probable that there was a staircase in the N. one as well. Dryden conjectures that these stairs led to either turrets or priests' rooms over the chancel, as he does not think there can have been a rood loft. Anderson is of opinion the church, like many other Norse churches, was twin- towered. A stone seat i ft. 2 in. high and i ft. 2 in. broad in all probability ran round the nave. The entrance to the chancel is 4 ft. 3 in. wide, and was, probably, surmounted by a semi-circular arch. In the N. wall of the chancel is a window 3 ft. by 10 in., and below it, to the E., a square archway 3 ft. high by 2 ft. 8 in. wide, i ft. 11 in. in recess, and i ft. deep, which, Dryden conjectures, may have been an Easter sepulchre. The altar was at the chord of the apse, and is supposed to have been 4 ft. i in. by 2 ft. 7 in. In later times the apse was blocked ofif by a reredos. Both nave and chancel are supposed to have had tie-beam roofs. The apse,, which is horse-shoe shaped, is supposed to have been similar to that at Orphir, and therefore vaulted. Dryden puts the date of its erection at about the year iioo, and supposes it to have been built by Erlend Thorfmn's son. Barry states it was dedicated to St. Peter, but, in the sketch given in the Introduction to Low's Tour^ ' Dryden's Ruined Churches, 3i6 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. it is called St. Colme's Church. It was inclosed by a wall, traces of which can still be seen, 2)Z yds. by 27 yds., and for a long time was used as a cru^ or sheepfold. There are some very pretty views of the coast-line to be obtained from the top of the brough, which is about 90 ft. in height on the western side, and there is said to be, on that side, a cave worth exploring in a boat. To the south of the palace, along the sand-hills, and not far from where you commence the ascent of Marwick Head, is the Knowe of Saverough, opened by Mr. Farrer in 1862.^ In this knowe were found a number of stone cists containing the remains of jjeople of all ages. Some of the skulls which were Kumhe-Kephalic^ or boat-shaped, were of a very low type, others again, and those the ones in the best preservation, were of a much higher class. Dr. Thurnam, one of the authors of the Crania Britatinica, had no hesitation in stating that the remains were those of the ancient Celtic inhabitants. A clay jar of peculiar formation, now in the Museum at Edinburgh, was found near one of the cists, and, not far from the jar, the remains of a building, in which were several bone implements, one of them being a comb, very similar in form to those used to clean the heads of dirty children. Close to the building was discovered a cist containing the bell mentioned at page 7, which, Anderson ^ conjectured, may have been buried to prc' serve it from profanation by the pagan Vikings, somewhere in the ninth century. It is therefore not improbable, that the Norse church on the Brough of Birsay was preceded by an earlier Celtic one, to which the bell lately resuscitated may have belonged. The legend of the Norse church having been dedicated to St, Colme, or St. Columba, points to this. Birsay may now be described as the tiiansiest parish in Scotland, as to the S.E. of the church is the " old manse " of the sketch before referred to. Close to the church is the "Minister's House," also shown, in which Low spent the last twenty years of his ' Proc. Scot. Ant. vol. ii. p. 10. - Anderson's Scotland m Early Christian Times, vol. i. p. 169. THE ORKNEYS. 317 life, and, to the N.E. of the church, the new manse erected a year or so ago. An explorer, desirous of spending a few days in these parts, could get a very comfortable sitting-room and bed-room at the old school-house. Perhaps, too, the manse, which has just been given up, may be converted into a lodging-house for tourists during the summer and autumn months. Okstro Broch from which the great antiquity of the brochs has been proved, lies a little to the east of Saverough.^ There is a very pretty walk along the cliffs to Costa Head, 478 ft. high, from which a very fair panorama all around can be obtained. The sea-face of the head is very fine, presenting a perpendicular face of red sandstone to the waves of the Atlantic 400 ft. in height. On the western side of the head is a very picturesque isolated stack known as Gull Castle. Marwick Head, on the southern side of the Bay of Birsay, is a very fine bold headland 263 ft. in height. Between it and Skail, the life-buoy which Mr. Sands despatched from St. Kilda, and to which he attached a message announcing the shipwreck of the Austrian vessel, was picked up in 1877. It was sent adrift from the island on the 30th of January, and, on the 8th of February, the message was being telegraphed south to the Admiralty, and on the 22nd H. M.S. Jackal took off both the Austrians and Mr. Sands from their island prison.^ It was very wonderful that the life-buoy should have traversed the 185 nautical miles between St. Kilda and the Orkneys in so short a lime. The loch of Birsay is a good-sized sheet of water holding very fair trout averaging half a pound apiece. It, like the lochs of Stenness and Harray, has been raked to death with the otter, but, if that can only be stopped, it ought to become a very fair angling water. East of the loch of Birsay, or Boardhouse as it is sometimes called, is the loch of Hundland, in which, how- ever, the trout are small, averaging about four or five to the ^ Arch. Scot. vol. v. p. 76. ^ Sands's Out of the World ; or. Life in St. Kilda. 3i8 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Ijound. East of Hundland is the loch of Swannay, said to be a very good angling water, the property of Mr. Brotchie of Swannay. From Swannay, round the east side of the West Mainland to Finstown, there is nothing to interest the tourist either in the way of scenery or antiquities. "^ CHAPTER XXV. THE ORKNEYS. THE SOUTH ISLES. Hoy and IVaJh. " See Hoy's Old Man ! whose summit bare Pierces the dark blue fields of air ; Based in the sea, his fearful form ■ Glooms like the spirit of the storm ; An ocean Babel, rent and worn By time and tide, — all wild and lorn ; A giant that hath warred with heaven. Whose ruined scalp seems thunder-riven ; Whose form the misty spray doth shroud. Whose head the dark and hovering cloud Around his dread and louring mass. In sailing swarms the sea-fowl pass ; But when the night-cloud o'er the sea Hangs like a sable canopy. And when the flying storm doth scourge. Around his base the rushing surge, Swift to his airy clefts they soar, And sleep amidst the tempest's roar, Or with its howling round his peak, Mingle their drear and dreamy shriek." — Malcolm. Hoy, the Haey (High Island) of the Sagas, well deserves the name given to it by the old Vikings of the Western Haf, and the contrast between the scenery of this, from a painter's point of view, the gem of the Orcadian group, and that of the rest of the islands is very marked. Strictly speaking, only 320 HIE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. that portion of the island lying to the north of a line drawn from the Green Head to the mouth of the Summer Burn is Hoy, all south of that, as far as Long Hope, is North Walls, and the southern peninsula, or island as it becomes at high water with high spring-tides, is South Walls, the Vagaland of the Sagas. For descriptive purposes, however, all north of Long Hope may be considered as Hoy. Allowing this to be the case, Hoy measures some eleven miles from the Kaim to Melsetter, and varies in breadth from three and a-half to five miles. The whole of the interior of Hoy is one continuous suc- cession of rugged, torrent-worn hills, alternating with glens of the wildest Highland type and cliff-surrounded meadows. The coast-line, on the western side, is one of the finest stretches of rock scenery in the British Isles — glorious not only from the vast height of its precipices, but also from the wonderfully beautiful colouring of some of its rocks. Till the route of the mail steamer was altered in the summer of 1880, passengers, on their way between Thurso and Stromness, were enabled to see the whole of this magnificent panorama from the steamer, but, with the new route, unless the steamer, to cheat the tide, should make for the Berry Head, only a very distant view is obtained. To see the portion between the Kaim and the Old Man, a boat must be chartered from Stromness, and, in fine weather, few more enjoyable boating excursions can be made. A south-easterly wind is best, as it is not only a sojer'' s wind to and fro, but also insures smooth water — no slight con- sideration to most people on such an exposed coast. As a rule, the boatmen like to leave with the last of the flood, so as to have the young flood to help them through Hoy Sound on their return. The smaller boats in the South Isles are all sprit-rigged, and are built very much on the same lines as the same class of boats in the south ; in the North Isles the boats approximate more to the Shetland yawl, and are generally smack or cutter rigged, the worst rig of all for an open boat, as you, very often, have a difiiculty in taking sail off at a THE ORKNEYS. 321 moment's notice, that is to say, when going free. When Scott ^ was in the isles, he seems to have been of opinion, that the Orkney- men were inferior to the Shetlanders in the management of boats under sail. Whatever it may have been then, it certainly is not the case at the present day amongst the regular boatmen. When in Shetland, to cross a dirty bit of firth, you require, or are told you require, a big boat and six men ; in the southern group, where the tideways are much stronger, two men will serve your turn as well. A Shetlander almost always cuts a string of tide under oars, an Orcadian under canvas. Leaving behind you the harbour and Cairston Roads, rich in memories of Ross, Parry, Franklin, and other Arctic voyagers, you skirt along the green isle of Graemsay, Pharos-surmounted at each end, and, after opening up the glen between the Ward and Cuilags Hills, come to the Geos of Selwick and Selwick Little, where in very fine weather you can land to explore tlie Meadow of the Kaim, of which more hereafter. Then round the Kaim itself, which, unlike its nearly perpendicular Foulaese namesake, slopes down to the sea. Here you come in sight of Sir Walter's likeness, carved by Dame Nature herself on the cliffs between the Kaim and Braebrough. Up to Brae- brough you have a precipitous rock slope, here interspersed with grassy patches, here seamed with gullies, down which, in wet weather, foaming torrents rush to the sea. All along this face sheep and their shepherdesses can wander more or less, though occasionally, tempted by some promising bit of herbage, sheep have been known to reach places from which there was no return, and have been com- pelled to remain, till they either fell over the banks, or were starved to death. Braebrough, or St. John's Head, the highest point of the whole cliff-line (1,140 feet high), stands out like a projecting buttress. From here to the Old Man the cliffs gradu- ally decrease in height. In the early part of this century the Old Man (450 feet) stood, so to speak, on two legs, an arch piercing through the lower portion of the stack. Towering, as it still ^ ScoWs Life, vol. iii. p. 144. Y 322 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. does, over the cliff-line in the immediate vicinity, and a prominent landmark even from the Caithness coast, the Old Man ^ is now on his last leg, and sooner or later must succumb to the pounding blows of the Atlantic, so rarely in perfect rest in these latitudes. Here in very fine weather you can land, eat your lunch, and stretch your legs, which last, after an hour or so's cramped boat-work, you will not be sorry to do. You can even climb to the top of the cliffs in the immediate neighbourhood, but it is a stae brae. When you can get tides to suit, the best time to view this coast-line is, when a declining sun brings out the full beauty of the colouring, which at other times is to a great extent lost. Peterkin - narrates how the good ship Albion., of Blyth, was, in November, 1815, driven ashore at a place called the Stower, between the Old Man and Roray Head (337 feet). Only two of the crew were left on the ill-fated craft, all the rest had been washed overboard. Of the two survivors one was lashed to the rigging, the other was lying insensible on the deck. Such was the state of things, when some fishermen from Rackwick, clambering down through a cleft in the rocks, boarded the vessel and proceeded, as was the custom in those days, to plunder the cargo. Having done so, they carried the man who had been lying on the deck, ashore, and left him on a shelf of the cliff, still alive, " all night — a night of November, when the earth was buried in deep snow, when an intense frost prevailed, and when a piercing sea-wind would have chilled to death, on the rocks of Hoy, the most vigorous human being, if exposed in a state of inaction to its power." That these savages could easily have removed the man to the summit of the cliffs, and thence to shelter, was proved by their dragging up a companion, who had got drunk on the rum they had found on board. The next day the unfortunate seaman was found dead, as also his messmate who had been made fast to the rigging, and whom the wreckers, in their liurry to plunder, had overlooked. Peterkin states both of these ^ See ante, p. 189. - Peterkin's Notes, p. 9. THE ORKNEYS 323 unfortunates were buried on the spot ; he was there in 1818 ; but there is a curious tradition that the Reverend Gavin Hamihon, then minister of Hoy, had seen the whole trans- action in a dream ; and that, afterwards, on attending the funeral of the two unfortunate mariners, he taxed the two Rackwickians with their inhumanity, who were utterly at a loss how the minister came to know anything about the matter. To see the far-famed Dwarfie Stone and ascend Hoy Hill, you have to take a boat to Links Ness, opposite the south- western point of Graemsay. It depends on the state of the tide whether you go east or west about round that island. It is as well on landing to get a guide, not only to show you the easiest ascent and descent of Hoy Hill, but also, as a precautionary measure, in case of being caught in fog or mist on the top. About a mile, or less, from the landing-place is the Manse, situated in a garden, that, in summer, with its trees, small though they be, and hedges of fuchsias, affords a charming contrast to the wild heather-covered district around it. From here to the Dwarfie Stone is about two miles or so, the road, or path, following the eastern and south-eastern slopes of the Ward Hill. Lying at the foot of a vast amphitheatre of cliffs, called sometimes the Dwarfie, sometimes the Craw Hamars, the stone is a huge mass of sandstone, that has in all probability fallen from the chffs above in some long-past age. It measures in length from north to south about 28 ft., and varies in breadth from 14 ft. 6 in. to 11 ft. At the southern end it is about 6| ft. high, and at the northern about 2 ft. On the western side is a hole, about 3 ft. wide, just high enough to permit your crawling through, which leads to a couple of sleeping bunks, the southern and largest of which is furnished with a stone pillow. In this bunk is cut " H. Roflfs, 1735"; and even Hugh Miller was not above the school-boy weakness of chiseling his name.^ 1 "The rain still pattered heavily overhead, and with my geological hammer I did, to begiiile the time, what I very rarely do— added my name y 2 324 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. The hole on the top, whether originally intended for a smoke-hole, or formed by the weathering effect of the atmosphere, is every year being made larger by the curiosity- collecting cads chipping off portions to carry away. Hov/ long it is since this anything but desirable residence was carved out of the solid is unknown. Jo Ben (1529) says the myth in his day was, that it had been carved out by a giant and his wife, and that the larger apartment was occupied by the giantess, when in an interesting condition. If so, they must have been Pictish, or Pechtish giants, as there is not room in either apartment for any large-sized mortal. An antiquarian friend of Dr. Clouston ^ was of opinion, that it had originally been a heathen altar, and afterwards converted into a cell by some Christian anchorite ; and Dr. Clouston considers this opinion to have been corroborated, by the fact, that, in former days, the natives were in the habit of depositing offerings on it. There is said to be a very fine echo under the Dwarfie Hamars. From close to the Dwarfie Stone the carbuncle was said to have been visible on the more scarped portion of the pre- cipitous amphitheatre, which surrounds what is known as the Meadow of the Ward Hill. This carbuncle, which Scott refers to in the Ph'ate, is said not to have been visible of late years. Perhaps the Brownies or Good People hating the materialism of this prosaic, un-sentimental age have spirited it away. If not pressed for time the best way to ascend the Ward Hill would be to follow up the valley and make the ascent from the north-western side, where the slope is easier than anywhere else. Your guide, however, will be able to put you right as to this. The writer ascended on the eastern side of the Meadow of the Ward Hill, and a fearfully steep climb he found it, to the others, in characters which, if both they and the Dwarfie Stone get but fair play, will be distinctly legible two centuries hence." — Cruise of the Betsy, &-C., p. 475. 1 Clouston's Guide to the Orkney Isles, p. 53. THE ORKNEYS. 325 as hands as well as feet have to be used in places. However, once up, you are more than repaid for your toil. The summit of the hill (1,564 feet) is a stony plateau, at the eastern and western ends of which are erected cairns of loose stones. Near the western cairn is a spring of deliciously cool water. There are mountains and mountains, but few even very much loftier ones, give you such a glorious panorama of land and sea scape, as does this the highest hill of the Orcadian group. On a really clear day the view must be simply magnificent. Southwards, all the Caithness and Sutherland coast-line, from Duncansbay Head to Cape Wrath, over which, showing blue in the far distance, you have Morven, Skeriben, and all the Sutherlandshire Bens as far as Ben Hope. Eastward and north- ward all the Orkneys set in a blue network of sound and firth j and on a very clear day even Fair Isle is visible. North of west again, some thirty miles out in the Atlantic, lie the Stack and Skerry, the former of which is the most northern British breeding-place of the Solan Goose. Having had your fill of this glorious panorama, you can descend by the northern slopes to the Green of Gair, and then follow the road from Rackwick to Links Ness. There is, by the way, said to be a very fine oak pulpit in Hoy Church, which, according to tradition, is composed of oak obtained from the wreck of a Spanish man-of-war. For the following description of the walk round to the Meadow of the Kaim, along the cliffs to Rackwick, and thence to Links Ness, the writer is indebted to Mr. Fortescue the Younger, of Kingcausie and Swanbister. The writer had hoped to have been able last summer to have made the round himself, but was prevented from so doing by ill health. An hour's walk from Links Ness, round the northern slopes of the Cuilags Hill (1,420 feet), will bring you to the Meadow of the Kaim, a semi-circular plot of ground 200 to 300 yards in breadth, and bounded on the south by precipitous cliffs not far from 300 feet in height, and on its eastern and western sides by steep slopes covered with short heather. There is said to be a 326 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND very fine echo here, but to bring it out to perfection you require a perfectly still calm day. The ascent of the Kaim is best made from this point on account of the aid given you in climbing by the short heather. If you ascend from the more northern end, you have first to skirt round the head of a geo, the sides of which are from 200 to 300 feet in height, and then have "a fearful climb up a steep grassy slope," rendered all the more unpleasant for the nerves by the knowledge that, if you slip and commence to roll, there will probably be no halting till you reach the bottom of the aforesaid geo. About two- thirds up the Kaim is an indentation in the serrated edge of the cliff, from which you can with comfort and safety get the best view of the cliffs between that point and Braebrough, as along the rest of the cUff-line it is impossible either to see the bottom or to realise the height at which you are standing. From the summit of the Kaim to Braebrough is comparatively easy walking, and about half way between these points is the gully down which sheep are driven by their shepherdesses to browse on the pasture afforded by the precipitous grassy slopes. Dogs are rarely, if ever, used for fear of driving the sheep over the banks, or into places from which they would be unable to return. Somewhere close to this gully a friend of Mr. Fortescue discovered the common cowslip, the only place where it has been found in the islands. Braebrough, which Mr. Fortescue thinks is about three- quarters of the way between the Kaim and the Old Man, is, as it were, an incipient Old Man, a geo on the south- west side nearly severing it from the Mainland. The top of it is rectangular, about half an acre in area, and covered with short heather and reindeer moss. To reach this you have to descend some thirty feet or so into a narrow chasm, and then ascend a narrow path fenced on the geo side by some rude mason-work put up to protect the sheep. From Braebrough a short tramp along the cliffs brings you to the brow of the hill, from which you get your first view of the Old Man, which, owing to the elevation at which you are standing, looks THE ORKNEYS. 327 insignificant from this point. When, however, you have descended the slope of the hill and walked along the cliffs till you reach the nearest point in the cliff-line to the stack, you realise that you are still a considerable height above the sea, and that the summit of the Old Man is still higher. Look- ing back along the cliffs you have come you are able to appre- ciate how vast is the height of Braebrough. From here you make for Rackwick, and skirting under the side of the hill the climbing is nil. As the land falls away on your right towards Roray Head you have, on a clear day, a very good view of Dunnet Head, the south-western doorpost, so to speak, of the Pentland Firth, and a more distant view of Thurso and Scrabster. From the first cottage you come to at Rackwick, perched upon the edge of the cliff, you see the whole " town " dotted about on the hill-side and in the valley below, each cottage surrounded by its patch of cultivated ground. Across the mouth of the valley runs a shingly beach, through which the waters of the Rackwick Burn percolate into the sea. At the north-west corner of this ayre, or beach, are the nousts {naust — Icelandic and Old Norse for boat-house), as Orcadians term the places, where they haul their boats up out of reach of the breakers. The cliffs, on the southern side of Rackwick, down to the Berry Head are, Mr. Fortescue says, under a bright sunshine, of the most exquisite rose colour variegated here and there by rich warm yellows. On the left-hand side of the road, leading from Rackwick to Links Ness, is the burn of Berriedale. This, which, to the native Orcadian, is one of the wonders of the world, would be nothing in the western Highlands or Wales, but in this treeless country a very little foliage goes a long way. The valley or dale is formed by steep cliffs on each side, under which, on the north-eastern side of the burn, are dwarfed birch-trees, round which honeysuckle twines in wild luxuriance during the summer months. Down the centre the burn falls in a series of cascades that with a spate on must be very fine. The whirring of the grasshoppers, too, reminds one of the south. These insects 328 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. are only to be found in Hoy. Apropos of the birch-trees, Jo Ben was evidently very sceptical as to the possibility of trees growing in the Orkneys, as he says : " Si credere dignum, in hac insula, betulse crescunt, et non in aliis ; nam aliaj insulse absque arboribus sunt." The whole distance from Links Ness round by the Meadow of the Kaim, Braebrough, Old Man, Rackwick, and Burn of Berriedale, will probably be sixteen or seventeen miles, and, to do it in comfort, you ought to allow yourself eight to nine hours. Before quitting this portion of the island we may as well quote a Hoy yarn narrated by " Druid." ^ A Hoy "Hawk" went to his minister and said, " Oh ! sir, but the ways of Providence are wonderful ! I thocht I had met with a sair misfortune, when I lost baith my coo and my wife at aince over the cliff, twa months sin ; but I gaed over to Graimsay, and I hae gotten a far better coo and a far bonnier wife." During the summer months a smack brings the mails three times a week from Long Hope to Stromness, and, as soon as the south mail reaches Stromness. starts back. The passage is perfectly land-locked, and the greatest inconvenience a passen- ger is likely to suffer from will be either the absence of wind or presence of fog. It is a very pretty sail past the cliffs of The Brings (219 feet) and of White Breast, then in between Cava and Risa, and down Gutter Sound till, passing the Martello towers, you bring up just outside the narrow channel which connects the outer with the inner basin. On the north side of this channel, on the point which is known as the North Ness, is the little inn which is said to be very well conducted ; on the South Ness is the post-office, where very comfortable lodgings can be got. It would perhaps be as well, before leaving Stromness, to telegraph to Walls to ascertain whether you can get accommodation, as, during the shooting season, the inn is generally occupied by the tenant of the shootings on the east side of North Walls. South Walls, the Vagalaiid of the Sagas, is about three miles ^ Dixon's Field and Fcni, p. 39, THE ORKNEYS. 329 from east to west, and about two from north to south. It consists of comparatively low ground, and is bounded on the south side by a stretch of cliffs that, though not of any gTcat height, aftbrd some very pretty bits of rock scenery. Close to Aith Hope is Titley Geo, where the colouring of the rocks is very fine, owing in a measure to a vein of ironstone, which was once worked by a gallery driven along the face of the cliff. After leaving Titley Geo you pass several other geos before you come to Garth Head, along the face of which are said to be several caves, access to which is had by a narrow ledge running along the face of the cliff. These caves were used as Jiides for the smuggled spirits and tobacco, that, in former days, were so constantly being run on the coast, and may have been utilised quite recently for this purpose, as in September 1880 a cargo was run at Aith Hope, which however, on search being made, could not be discovered. East of Garth Head, and about south of Snelsetter, is a small arched stack, which has at one time, it is supposed, been connected with the land by a natural bridge long ago destroyed. On the stack can still be traced the remains of some sort of building, but whether these are the remains of a broch, or of some rude stone tbrtalice of a later era, is doubtful. Close to the stack are the Gloups of Snelsetter. The western one is about forty yards long, fifteen yards broad at the south end, nine yards at the north, forty feet deep, and coi«nected with the sea by an arch about eighteen yards long. At the southern end of the gloup is a cave. The eastern gloup is a very gruesome-looking hole connected with the sea by a tunnel about twenty-two yards in length. Snelsetter, the old mansion-house of the Moodie family, is probably " the place of strength " said to have been erected in Walls by Earl Robert. About a mile or so east of Snelsetter is the Bay of Osmond- wall, where Olaf Tryggvi's son converted Sigurd the Stout to Christianity, much in the same way that the Spaniards proselytised the Mexicans and Peruvians — i.e. "Become a 330 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND, Christian or die ! " On the shores of this bay is the mortuary house in which, till the end of last century, the defunct members of the Moodie family were placed on shelves at the sides, there to mummify under the antiseptic nature of the sea-breezes. This custom is said to have been discontinued in consequence of Miss Moodie, sister of the then Laird, having, in her brother's absence from home, had all her ancestors decently interred, a course of proceeding that greatly angered Mr. Moodie when he came to know of it. However, the spell was broken, and, after that time, the Moodies were buried like other Christians. A similar custom also prevailed for a long time in the island of Stroma, which, though lying in the full swirl of the Pentland Firth, appertains to Caithness and not to the Orkneys. The walk of the Walls district, however, is past Melsetter and Tur Ness, up the Berry Head, and home by Hoglins and Helliel Waters. Melsetter, which lies at the head of the inner basin, is sur- rounded by the most beautiful gardens in the Orkneys, with one exception, those of Westness in Rousay, and, embowered as it is in trees, one can hardly realise it is situated in " the storm-swept Orcades." In 1746 the house appears to have been twice sacked by parties of Jacobites^ from Caithness, the first of which, under the command of Mackenzie of Ardloch, seems to have gone about their work in a very thorough manner, having actually carried away with them the bed-ticking. A walk of about a mile and a-half, from Melsetter, past Tur Ness (Thor's Ness), brings you to the foot of Berry Head. Standing below the head is a magnificent stack known as the Needle, but which, from being overshadowed by the cliffs against which it rises, does not impress you with the same feeling of grandeur that the Old Man does. The cUffs about here are said to be a favourite breeding-place for the lyres {Manx Shearwaters) which gave their tee-name to the people of Walls. Some few years back Mr. Heddle's keeper took a man with him to take the young birds from the nests. The man is said to have had ■* Petrie Papers. THE ORKNEYS 331 a " tot " or so, or otherwise would probably not have attempted to do what he did, which was to climb to the summit of the Needle, into which he stuck his knife, which implement, if not corroded away, is there to the present day. The birds taken are those just on point of flying, at which stage they are very fat. They were, it is said, formerly collected at the Calf of Man for the Earls of Derby, when the head of the Stanleys was King of Man ; and Mr. Heddle has a letter wTitten by some Lord Mayor of London, or other civic dignitary, thanking him for some lyres which had been sent up from the Orkneys, and duly discussed" at some Mansion House or Guildhall banquet. Berry Head (595 feet) is probably the most beautiful cliff in the whole island. It is not only perfectly sheer, but the colouring — here a brilliant red, there a rich yellow — is very fine. The southern side is fissured by some five or six geos, one of which is called the Pedlar's Geo, from a tradition that a packman, on his way from Rackwick to Long Hope, being pursued by rob- bers, cleared it in his flight. If he did, it was one of the tallest jumps on record. The path to the summit winds round Pedlar's Geo, but any one, who is not perfectly certain of his head, had better climb up the steeper face to the eastward, where at the worst he can only roll ignominiously down hill. Close to the cairn on the 'summit, on the south side of North Watery Geo, is a curious tesselated sort of pavement caused by the weathering of the rock. It looks like sheets of gingerbread or toffee, which have been marked off into squares whilst still in a soft state. The view from Berry Head looking northwards, is the con- verse to that from above Rackwick, and is a very exquisite one. First you have a very prominent headland with a nearly per- pendicular face ; then a somewhat lower cliff, over which the Burn of Force (the Foss of the Norwegians) falls headlong into the sea ; then the very fine, though sloping, head of the Sneug ; and in the far distance Roray Head. Altogether such a panorama that it is hard to tear yourself away from it. From 332 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Berry Head you descend to Hoglins Water — said to be a fishless loch — and then skirt under a hill over some marshy ground, tenanted during the breeding season by Scoutie-allans {Richardson s Skua), which have an objectionable weakness for young grouse, till you reach Helliel Water, a long, narrow, and deep loch, tenanted only by char {Salmo Alpiiuis). From the eastern end of Helliel Water you had better make a bee-line for the road, leading -to the North Ness, whence, if staying on the south side, you can get ferried across. The whole round will be about twelve or thirteen miles, and some of it heavy walking, but on a fine day you are more than amjDly repaid by the lovely scenery. In the inner basin of Long Hope were formerly oyster scalps, which, according to Low,^ produced bivalves so large that they had to be cut into four before being eaten. In Earl Patrick's rental of 1595, Aith,^ inter alia, paid " 40 oistris for ilk \d. terrae ; " Manclett 80 ; and Brims 40. There is a considerable Celtic ^ element in the population of South Walls brought by some seventy-one Highlanders, who, evicted from Strathnaver to make room for sheep, settled in the parish between 1788 and 1795, and who have thrown in a dash of good looks not so common in other parts of the group. ^ Low's Tour, p. II, - Peterkin's Rentals, No. TL, p. 102. •* Fhst Stalislical Account, vol. xvii. p. 313. CHAPTER XXVI. THE ORKNEYS. THE SOUTH ISLES — (contiuued). Flotta. Flotta, the Flattey of the Norsemen, is, as its name imports, somewhat of the level order. There is nothing much to see, but a visitor staying at Long Hope might sail across to Kirkhope and spend a few hours on an island, that in the earlier years of the century seems to have been in nearly as primitive a state as North Ronaldsay, Fair Isle, or Foula then were. According to Jo Ben, the clergy of the islands used to meet here in convocation in a very long church surrounded by three crosses, of which only the foundations remained in his day. Barry stated, that all trace both of church and crosses had vanished when he wrote, but the Rev. James Russell, minister of Walls and Flotta, states that one of the crosses is still in ■existence, Jo Ben also says, that these crosses were thrown down by a mason in a fit of somnambulence, and that, after being troubled for some time with unpleasant dreams, he dug down and found in a mound, a hide, candlesticks, bracelets, " et alia mirabilia," &c. Can this have been another instance like those of Caldale and Skail of Viking hoards ? Flotta for a long time was entirely dependent on the mother parish, Walls for spiritual ministrations ; and though the 334 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. minister was supposed to hold service there every third Sunday, owing to weather, the Flotteyans were often for weeks without a pastor. Under these circumstances, if a couple were in a hurry to be married, the bridegroom, accompanied by his best man, proceeded to the session clerk on the Saturday night, the day when the engagements were generally made, to give directions for the proclamation of the banns. On the following day (Sunday) the clerk, sexton, and a friend proceeded to the kirk, where the clerk gave out the banns, a ceremony which was repeated, as elsewhere, on the two following Sundays. The wedding seems generally to have taken place on a Thursday, and at the wedding-feast a sort of loving-cup was handed round called "the bride's cog," or " leem." The cog was a sort of diminutive washing-tub with two handles, and held about four English quarts. The " marriage drink" consisted of ale and whisky mixed. What heads the company must have had next day if the cog circulated freely, it is something awful to contemplate ! The following day (Friday) known as "ranting day," after more eating and drinking, the company assembled at the kirk, when some one having been elected minister for the nonce, he proceeded to read a portion of Scripture and sing a verse or two of a psalm. This ceremony was considered to have a retrospective effect, and without it, the bride was looked upon as "unclean." If, before she was " kirkit," the bride had visited the houses of any of her neighbours she was considered to have defiled them, and rendered them liable to be overrun with moths. When the olive branches came, the mother on recovery, had to attend with her cummers and the " wise-woman," or mid- wife, at the kirk, where the " skilly-wife " read a verse of a psalm, and pronounced the quondam patient " clean." There is no service in the Scottish Church analogous to that in the Church of England for the churching of women after childbirth, and as far as the writer can make out, never has been since the Reformation. This last custom, therefore, must have survived from Roman Catholic times. THE ORKNEYS. 335 Flotta, for a long time, rejoiced in a Noma of its own, Annie Tiilloch or Mammie Scott, to name who, on Bessie Millie's decease, seems to have proceeded to Stromness and acquired the goodwill of that storm-ruler's business. One skipper, who was anxious to proceed to Leith, and had long been windbound in Long Hope, bought a fair wind at the remarkably cheap price of eighteenpence, from Mammie, who, however, stipulated that he was to go to sea with two reefs in his mainsail, and only shake one out on his voyage. All went well till he reached Firth of Forth, when the wind being still fair and the weather fine, he thought he could venture to shake out the remaining reef No sooner was this done, than a con- trary gale sprang up, by which he was blown back to Long Hope. However, for a " consideration," Mammie sold him a whole-sail breeze, which wafted him safely home. So7(i/i Rotialdsay. To reach this, the most fertile of all the Southern isles, the traveller from Kirkwall can either cross the ferry at Holm Sound, walk across Burray, and get ferried across Water Sound ; take boat direct from Holm to St. Margaret's Hope ; or take the mail steamer from Scapa and disembark at The Hope, as St. Margaret's Hope is always called by its inhabitants, on the return voyage. The island measures some seven miles from north to south, and about five and a-half from east to west at the north, between Grim Ness and Hoxa Head, and about two in the south. The Hope is a land-locked bay, opening into Water Sound, and having, at the lower end, a very large village or very small town. There is a small inn in the place, and probably lodgings might be got. On the narrow neck of land, about a mile and a-half from the village, whicli connects Hoxa Head with the island, are the remains of a broch, which was opened in 1848 by the late Mr. Petric. The interior diameter is 30 ft., and the thickness of the oulcr wall 13 ft. For about half the circumference 336 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. internally, on the western side, a secondary wall lo ft. high and I ft, thick had been erected. No less than fourteen flags, varying in height from 6 to 9 ft., and in breadth from 2 to 5, were set at right angles to the wall. At the sides of four of these flags were stone troughs, and by six of the others rude stone querns. The doorway is, on the eastern side, 3 ft. broad and 6 ft. high. Inside the bar-holes, on the north side, is a passage, 2 ft. high and i\ ft. broad, leading to a circular beehive-roofed chamber, 6 ft. in diameter and 10 ft. high ; a small aperture, 6 in. broad and i ft. high, opened from this guard cell in the main entrance outside the bar- holes. There are several other mounds about here, one of which probably contains the remains of Thorfinn Hausakliuf : as from the Saga of Olaf Tryggvi's son^we know he was "hoy- laid " in Hoxa heath. Some sort of confused tradition about Thorfinn's interment seems to have survived till towards the end of the last century, as Low^ states that the tradition was that a Danish king's son, who had been slain in a sea fight in Scapa Bay, had been interred here. The Saga^ however, distinctly states that Thorfinn died on a sick bed, as if such a thing was rather abnormal in that age. Close to the manse on the eastern side is a very fine standing stone some fifteen or sixteen feet high ; and not far from it a shaft, which is said at the present day to have been sunk for silver, but according to Low ^ in search of lead. A walk of about six miles from the Hope will take you to Burwick, and the latter portion of it gives you some very pretty views of the Pentland Firth. On your road you pass Tomison's Academy, a school founded at the end of the last century by a native of the island, who had made a fortune in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and, having himself felt the want of education, resolved to do his best for the inhabitants of his native island. The funded capital is about ;^8,ooo, which is managed by four trustees. In the south 1 Low's Toui-, p. 23. - Ork. Sag. p. 3. ^ Low's Tour, p. 11. THE ORKNEYS. 337 parish church at Burwick is to be seen a curious boat-shaped stone, some four feet long, two broad in the centre, and eight inches thick, on which are clearly impressed the marks of two naked feet. Low ^ suggests, that it was used as a stone, upon which delinquents were made to stand in Roman Catholic days ; but Jo Ben has a legend about it, that a certain Gallus, being banished from his own country, took refuge on board ship, and being in danger of shipwreck, did vow to build a church and dedicate it to the Virgin, if he reached the shore in safety, and that she thereupon sent a bcllna to his aid, on whose back he was borne safely to land. Being a man of his word, he proceeded to erect the church as promised, and " Bellua tandem mutata in lapidem ejusdem coloris ipse in ecclesiam illam coUocavit, ubi adhuc manet, ut supra dixi." The foundations of the original Lady-kirk are still to be seen on the banks of the little loch close by. This church at Burwick has generally been supposed to have been dedicated to the Virgin, but, in the report ^ made to Bishop Graham for the purpose of rating the teinds in 1627, it is called "Saint Colmis chappell at the loch of Bunvick " ; whilst the chapel at Halcro, about a mile off, is called "Our Ladie chappell at Halcro." This chapel, of which even the foundations have now gone, measured^ inside 21 ft. by 14 ft. The two chapels had evidently got jumbled together in the report. In addition to the two mentioned and the parish church at the north end of the island dedicated to St. Peter, were St. Andrew's at Windwick ; the Rood chapel in Sandwick ; St. Tola (Qy. Ola's) in Widewall ; St. Colme's in Hopay ; St. Margaret's in Howp ; St. Colme's at Grymncss ; and St. Ninian's in Stow. It is worthy of remark that, in this island alone, were no less than three chapels dedicated to St. Colm, or St. Columba, and one to St. Ninian. This makes the writer believe, that some of the original Pictish inhabitants must have survived through the heathen period which elapsed between the complete settlement ^ Low's Tour, p. 27. - Peterkin's Rentals, No. III. p. 86. ^ Dryden's Ruined Churches. Z 338 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. of the Norsemen about 872, and their nominal conversion 120 years afterwards ; and that if Pictish inhabitants survived, some of the ecclesiastical establishments may have done so as well ; as otherwise, there could have;; been preserved no recollection of dedications to St. Columba and St. Ninian— purely Celtic saints. Neale^ says that, in 1700, there were thirty-one churches and one hundred chapels in Pomona, or the Main- land, alone ; he does not, however, say wliether entire or not, though it would seem as if he meant entire. The rectorial tithes of South Ronaldsay and Eurray furnished the endowment for the Prebend of Holy Trinity, held by the Dean or Provost; and in the rental for \\\q provestrie for 1584, we are told how the tithes were collected. The collector had to collect the egg-teinds in Passion Week, and had " to ^ sycht the gryssis " (pigs), "and calwis " at the same time, which were to be handed over after " pasche." On St. Colm's day, June 9th, he had "to ryde and stent the lambes, to resaif the woUteynd according to their ayth at the first sychtting of the lambis." "To stentt the butting about the first Lady day, quhilk is XV. dayis efter Lambes," which had to be delivered "betuix and selhallowday." " To ryde & estimie the outbrek teyndis, quhen thai putt first huik in the cornes, or betuix the Lady dayis, quhilk outbrek teyndis suld be led to my Mans in Thurregar." To leave matters ecclesiastical and antiquarian, about a mile and a half or more from Burwick, on the east side near Halcro Head, is the Gloup of Halcro, by far the weirdest and most gruesome-looking hole of the kind in the group. It looks like an old disused mine shaft grass-grown at the sides, and judging from the cliffs close to, must be about 150 feet deep. The tunnel connecting it with the sea is about one hundred yards long, and it is said, a boat once penetrated through it to the Gloup, but that the roof was so low, that ^ Neale's Ecclesiological Notes, p. 117. 2 Rentale of the Provestrie of Orknay. THE ORKNEYS. 339 in places, the boatman had to He down to enable him to shove the boat along. Even in the calmest weather " the much resounding sea" sends a deep boom through the tunnel; and with an easterly gale, the roar of " Polly's the boy for the lasses," as the Irish student translated the well known words, must be a thing to recollect. There is some very fair cliff scenery between here and Stow's Head, and according to Low ^ there are several caves in Stow's Head abounding in stalactites. Burwick was the place from v/hich the mails were transported to Caithness. The Burwick boat met the Huna boat with the mails and passengers from the south in mid firth, where bags and passengers were exchanged. Fancy shifting from one small craft to another in the midstt of the hurlyburly of the worst firth or sound in Britain ! Yet it is said accidents were very rare. Burray. This, the Borgarey of the Norsemen, owes its name no doubt to the two brochs, the remains of which are still to be seen on the western and eastern shores of the northern portion of the island. The eastern broch^ has two guard-chambers, the entrances to which are outside the bar-holes in the entrance, a special feature, which as far as the writer can gather, does not exist in any other broch. Burray is totally devoid of scenic interest, being, with the exception of two small hills on the southern side of the island, flat, and having a sandy soil alternating v/ith peat. The last owner of Burray, of the name of Stewart, was that Sir James who died in prison whilst awaiting his trial for treason. Tlie family seem to have exacted from their tenants everything that Scottish feudal tenure (and it was tolerably comprehensive), permitted ; and even after the island became the property of the Dundas family, some of the tacksmen are said to have taken a leaf or two out of the Stewarts' ^ Low's lour, p. 215. Arch. Scot. vol. v. p. 72. 'I 2 340 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. book. The droit de seigneur, which gave rise to the tenure of Borough Enghsh, is said to have survived here till a very late date. The tenants were thirled ^ to the island-mill ; and, as there was very rarely water enough, they had the satisfaction of carrying their grain elsewhere to be ground and paying double multure, one where the grain was ground, and another where it could not be ground. Apropos of mills and thirhng, Mr. Petrie " found, in 1863, a decree made by David Traill of Sabay, as " Stewart Deput and Justiciar," on the nth of January 1699, which, for un- blushing grip, grip, gripping, and impudence banged Banagher all to nothing. It is so deliciously absurd in its coolness, that it may as well be quoted nearly in full. It commences by saying that the Stewart " Taking to his serious consideratione The hight of sin and iniquitie abounding in this Countrey, which hath provoked Almightie God to Deny us the wonted mercies of the earth These four last calamitous and backward harvests, Notwithstanding of which extream povertie The Com- monaltie have ane bad custome of grinding their cornes upon quernes,^ qrby, (whereby) mutch victuall perish and is lost by making biirstiiie'^ sua that the vassalls and Tenants come verie much short off that dewtie payable both to King and Master. And also considering ther be seall, (several) mylnes in the countrey sufficient to serve the haill Inhabitants, Thairfore and for remending such abuises for the future, The said Stewart and Justitiar, with the unanimous consent of the gentlemen of the countrey conveind for the tyme in the forsaid head court hes statute and ordained, and heirby statuts enacts and ordaines That the Baillies within the severall Illes and Paroches shall call in and make search for the haill quernes within their rexive (respective) bounds, and the same to break, and that betvvixt and the Twentie fyfth day of March next, and to report against the nixt head court, Hereby Dischargeing all and ^ First Statistical Account, vol. xiv. p. 302. - Pctrie Papers. ^ Hand mills. * Sec p. 159. THE ORKNEYS. 341 evTie ane to make use of the saids quernes after the said day under the pain of fourtie pounds Scots, &c." Wallace ^ has a curious statement about what he calls Fiiui Men. " Sometimes about this Country are to be seen these men they call Finn-inoi. In the year 1682, one was seen in his little Boat, at the South end of the Isle of Eda, most of the people of the Isle flock'd to see him, and when they adventur'd to put out a Boat with Men to see if they could apprehend him, he presently fled away most swiftly. And in the year 1684, another was seen from Wcstra ; I must acknow- ledge it seems a little unaccountable, how these Finn-Men should come on this coast, but they must probably be driven by Storms from home, and cannot tell when they are any way at Sea, how to make their way home again ; they have this advantage, that be the Seas never so boisterous their Boat being made of Fish Skins, are so contrived that he can never sink, but is like a Sea-gull swimming on the top of the Water, His shirt he has is so fastened to the Boat, that no Water can come into his Boat to do him damage, except when he pleases to unty it, which he never does but to ease nature, or when he comes ashore. A full account of these Finn-Men may be had En Ehistoire nah(relle et moralle des Antilles, Chap. 18. One of their Boats which was catched in Orkney was sent from thence to Edinburgh^ and is to be seen in the Physicians Hall, with the Oar and Dart he makes use of for killing Fish. There is another of their Boats in the Church oi Burra in Orkney.'' Brand,- who was in the Islands in the year 1700, mentions that one of these Finn Men had been seen within a year of his visit at Stronsay, and another at Westray within a few months. No tradition even survives in Eurray about the Finn Man's boat, said by Wallace to have been preserved in the church there. Dr. Anderson, the Curator of the National Museum, tells the writer, that the boat, &c., stated to have been presented 1 Wallace's Orkney, p. 6o„ - Brand's Orkney and Zetland, p. 50. 342 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. to the Physicians' Hall, were afterwards presented to the University Museum, since incorporated in the Museum of Science and Art, of which Professor Archer is Curator. What can these Finn Men have been ? Is it possible Eskimo can have been driven over from Greenland ? Or can there have been a substantial basis of actual fact for the traditional Shetland Finns that " came ow'r fra Norraway " ? The Burray and Stronsay instances all point to i the kayaks, or whatever they were, being driven from the east, and the ones seen off Eday and Westray may, with equal probability, have come from that quarter. Besides, Cape Farewell, the nearest point of Greenland to the Orkneys, is i,iSo nautical miles from the Noup Head of Westray, whilst the Norwegian coast, at the southern end of ; Finmarken, is 750, and at the nearest point only 240 miles. CHAPTER XXVII. THE ORKNEYS. — THE WESTERN ISLES. A SMALL Steamer, the Lizzie Burroughs, plies regularly between Rousay and Kirkwall, calling at Egilsay, Veira, Gairsay, and several places on the east side of the West Mainland. As, however, her head-quarters are in Rousay, she is, on her regular trips, of no service to the tourist who wishes to return to Kirkwall the same evening after visiting the three smaller islands. One day in every week she is generally off the passage and remains at either Sourin or Trumland, and persons anxious to visit Egilsay and the other two small islands, might arrange to hire her for the day. The only place, at present, in Rousay where lodgings can be obtained, is at Mr. Reid's, at Sourin. A sailing-boat however can always be got in Kirk- wall, and if tides suit Egilsay, Veira, and Gairsay might all be visited in the course of a long summer day. Gairsay. The chief object of interest in this island is the old mansion house of the Craigies, now turned into a farmhouse, situated on the western side of the island. It is said to have been erected by that William Craigie whose marriage to Mrs. Buchanan of Sandside in 1690 has already been referred to. 344 ^"-^^ ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. The house consists of buildings on the north, east, and south sides of a court with a rather ornate curtain wall, loop- holed for musketry, containing the entrance. Outside are the ruins of the chapel. No traces have as yet been found of the big drinking-hall said to have been erected by Swein. It was probably like the Icelandic skdlas, composed chiefly of wood. On the narrow isthmus which connects the promontory known as the Hen with the island, is a grass-grown tumulus, which may or may not cover the remains of a broch or later building. The situa- tion is an admirable one for a Viking station, as, in case of bad weather coming on, the boats had only to be taken from one side to the other round the Hen to ensure smooth water, and might even, if necessity compelled, be dragged across the isthmus. The name of Swine, applied to the holm on the east side of the island, is clearly a misnomer, and should be Swein. A very pretty view of the Northern Orcadian archi- pelago is to be got from the top of the little conical hill which constitutes the greater part of the island. Veira. Veira, Weir, or Wyre, the Vigr of Norse days, is a peculiarly shaped island, that from Rousay appears not unlike some huge cetacean lying on the water. The grass-grown mound, which is now all that remains of Kolbein Hruga's fortalice, locally called Cobbe Row's Castle, is about a quarter of a mile from the shore on the west side of the island, where the ferry crosses from close to the Established Church in Rousay. According to Wallace's description it must have been of no great size, as he says " It is Trenched about, of it nothing now remains, but the first Floor, It is a perfect Square the walls eight feet thick, strongly built, and cemented with Lime, the breadth or length within Walls not being above ten f oof, having a large Door or Slit for the Window." The fosse or ditch is still to be traced. About thirty yards THE ORKNEYS. 345 or so from the mound is the old church, now roofless, which, as Dryden ^ is of opinion that it was erected in the twelfth or thirteenth century, may have been built by Kolbein Hruga, or his son, Bishop Bjarni. It consists of nave and chancel, of which the nave measures 19 ft. 2 in. by 12 ft. 10 in. The door is at the west, and "is 2 ft. 6 in. wide at the bottom, with a semicircular head, the feet of which are set back at the impost 2 -J- in. at each side. This mode of fastening the arch on was probably done to give a support to the centre on which the arch was built. The jambs are parallel, 3 ft. 2 in. thick, and having no rebate for doors, nor any traces of there having been one. There is no cap. The impost is 4 ft. 11 in. above original stone sill." Such is the technical description. The semicircular head may be described, for the non-technical visitor, as being composed of a number of thin slaty stones set on edge, and radiating Uke the spokes of a wheel. An arch, with a like semicircular head, leads into the chancel, 7 ft. 10 in. by 7 ft. 2 in. All the windows are on the south side, two in the nave and one in the chancel. Only one of those in the nave is supposed to be original, and it is flat-headed, i ft. 10 in. by 8 in., and splays inwards to a width of 2 ft. 3 in. The one in the chancel, supposed to have been round- headed, is 2 ft. 7 in. by II in., and splays inwards to a width of 2 ft. There is no trace of ambry, altar, or altar place. In the-chartulary._2 of the Monastery of Munkalif, near Bergen, is preserved a deed, by which Bishop Bjarni gave to the monastery certain property known as Holand, near Dais- fiord, north of Bergen, in order to provide masses " for the souls of his father, his mother, his brother, his relations, and friends," a tolerably comprehensive list. According to Barry, the churchyard of Veira contains graves of an extraordinary length, but, when the writer was there, it was in the usual disgraceful state common to Orcadian " bone-yards," so much so, that even the boatman who had ferried him across commented on it. ^ Diydeii's Ruined Churches. - Ork. Sag. Intro, p. Ixxv. 346 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Egihay. Crossing over from Sourin, on the eastern side of Rousay, you land at Shelting, which is about a quarter of a mile from the church. On your road to the church you pass a green knoll on which local tradition says Jarl Magnus was executed. The church^ consists of chancel, nave and circular tower, access to which is from the nave. Internally the nave measures 29 ft. 9 in. by 15 ft. 6 in., entrance to which is by two doorways facing each other on the north and south sides, each having a round arched head, and being 2 ft. 6 in. in width. On the north and south sides are windows, each 3 ft. 3 in. high, and Z\ in. wide, splaying inwards to a width of 2 ft. 9 in. On the south side are also two other windows, not original. The chancel is 14 ft. 11 in. by 9 ft. 5A in., and is roofed with a plain barrel vault, of which the semicircular chancel arch forms part. There was no windov^^ at the east, and but one on the north, and another on the south sides, each semi- circular headed, i ft. 75 in. by 11 in., and splaying inwards to 2 ft. I in. Over the vault of the chancel is a chamber entered by a doorway semicircular headed, 6 ft. 4 in. by 2 ft. 2 in. above the chancel arch. This chamber is lighted by a flat-headed window in the east end, i ft. 6 in. in height, and is called by the natives the "grief-house," from some idea that it was used as a prison. Each gable was corbie stepped, and from the drawing in Hibbert, the roofs seem to have been formed either of stone slabs, or of very coarse slates. The feature of ^the building is, however, the round tower, 14 ft. \o\ in. in diameter, external measurement, at the ground, and 7 ft. 8 in. internally. The entrance is by a semicircular headed doorway from the nave 2 ft. 5 in. wide. At present the tower is 48 ft. in height, and 15 ft. is said to have been removed many years back. In ^ Dryden's Ruined Churches. \ THE ORKNEYS. 347 Hibbert's sketch it is surmounted by a conical cap. In its original condition the tower is supposed to have had four chambers, the fourth of wliich was lighted by four windows focing the cardinal points ; below these, on the east side, is a flat-headed opening, and below this again a semicircular headed opening 4 ft. i in. high by i ft. 9 in. wide. There are also small windows on the second and fourth stories looking north, and a modern one near the ground on the south side. In addition, above the door leading from the nave 16 ft. 3 in. from the floor, is an arched opening 5 ft. 4 in. high by 2 ft. 3 in. wide. All the windows and the north doorway have now, for preservation, been built up, and an iron gate has been placed in the south door, the key of which is kept at North Toft farmhouse. The churchyard is surrounded by a good modern wall, and is a marvel of neatness for the Orkneys. The church itself has been used for service within the present century. What is the date, at which this almost unique church was built, will probably be never satisfactorily settled. IMunch is of opinion that the Norsemen found a church here, and joining the Celtic or Gaelic word for a church, eaglais (derived from ecde- sid) to the Norse ey, an island, made Egilsey. Others, again, ]\Ir. Karl Blind amongst them, are of opinion, that the Egils is taken from the genitive of the Teutonic and Scandinavian name Egil. There is, by the way, an Egilsay in Shetland, in which, so far as the writer is aware, no trace of a church has ever been found. Assuming Munch to be correct, and that this is tlie original church, and not a second building erected on the site of the first, we should have to go back to the ninth century at least, if not earlier. The round tower has made many people assign it a Celtic origin, but, after weighing the pros and cons both for Celtic and Norse buildings, Dryden is of opinion that it was built after the Irish model shortly after the re-conversion of the islands to Christianity in 998. Be the date of its erection what it may, when standing by the old walls covered with the marks of a hoar antiquity in the grey and 348 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. yellow lichens which give such a variegated appearance to the whole building, and especially to the tower, you cannot help letting your thoughts go back to that i6th of April, 1115, when the bloody tragedy was being enacted on the green mound between here and the beach. You see Magnus, sur- rounded by his followers, watching Hakon's vessels crossing from Wyre Sound into Howa Sound ; then, the mass being celebrated in fear and trembling by the priests of the church ; the execution itself; and, finally, when the drink had begun to tell on Hakon, Thora, mother of the murdered one, imploring his murderer to allow her to give his victim Christian sepulture. .Rousay. This, the Hrolfsey of the Saga^ may be roughly described as a circular island, from five to six miles in diameter. On its eastern, southern, and south-western shores it slopes gently to the sea, whilst from Scabra Head round to Paraclett, or the Knee of Rousay, as it is called on the chart, with the exception of a small portion of the bay of Saviskail, the coast is more or less precipitous. On the south-east side a range of hills, of which Blotchinfield (811 feet) and Knitchenfield (732 feet) are the highest points, runs from a little to the west of Sourin to nearly above Westness ; north of this again a valley, of which Muckle Water (322 feet) is nearly the summit, runs across the island ; north of which is another hill range, of which the pointed peak of Kierfea (762 feet) is the highest point. One special peculiarity about the Rousay Hills is the terraced outline of their slopes. This is very marked above Westness and again on Kierfea. Following up the valley down which the Sourin Burn flows from Muckle Water, you come on the southern side of the burn to the Goukheads, a very rough bit of broken-up bog ground overgrown with heather, and fissured with numerous holes, which, to save a sprained ankle or worse, necessitate very careful walking. This is the habitat of the THE ORKNEYS. 349 Pyrola Rotiindifolia, and is said to be the only spot in the Orkneys where this flower, known in the island as the " Round- leaved Winter Green," is to be found. On a line between the eastern end of INIuckle Water and the top of Blotchinfield is a curious ridge called the Camp of Jupiter Fring, some 600 yards long by 40 or 50 broad, and having very steep scarped sides on its northern and southern sides. How it came by this name no one knows ; Wallace referred to it two hundred years ago, and seemed to think the name had been given by some dominie from Jupiter Feriens on account of its being frequented by Jove's bird. From the camp to the summit of Blotchinfield is a very short distance, and the view from the top, in clear weather, must be very fine. It is said that, not only Fair Isle, but even Foula has been seen at times from either Blotchinfield or Kierfea. From the top of Blotchinfield a course, a little to the south of west, will bring you to Westness, the gardens of which, planted almost entirel) by the late Dr. Traill of Woodwick, a former proprietor of the island, are the most beautiful thing of their kind in the group. Standing in them, on a warm summer's day, when a shower has brought out the full fragrance from tree and plant, when the wild bees are flitting from flower to flower, and the whole atmosphere full of the sounds of insect and bird life, and looking out on the rapid-flowing sound below you, it is hard to realise that you are not in the land of clotted cream and cider, and that you are on the north side of the Pentland Firth of evil repute. About a mile further west you come to the church of Swendro, till quite recent days the parish church of the island. It is a parallelogram, 1 52 ft. 11 in. by 14 ft. 5 in. inside. The doorway is on the south side, near the west end, and on the same side are three flat-headed windows splaying inwards and outwards. There are also windows at the west end, north side, and east end. Close to the door is a recess, probably for holy water. North-west of the church, and just outside the churchyard ^ Drydeu's Ruined Chunlies, 350 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. are the remains of mason-work, which local tradition says formed part of Sigurd of Westness' dwelling-house. West again of this are the grass-grown remains of one if not more brochs. To the east of the churchyard are some curious impressions on the rocks, as if made with naked feet. On the south side of the little islet of Eynhallow (the Eyi7i- Ilelga, Holy Isle of the Saga) were discovered some years back the remains of an old chapel, which, a gentleman informed the writer, have since been wantonly thrown down by a yacht full of gorillas. It is somewhat rough on the gorilla, and, one could hardly realise such a piece of gratuitous vandalism, had there not been the case of the Logan Rock in Cornwall. The chapel,^ so far as could be made out, consisted of a nave 20 ft. 7 in, by 12 ft. inside, at the luest end of which was a round arch, 4 ft. 3 in. wide, leading to a building 7 ft. 9 in. by 7 ft. 5 in., which Dryden is of opinion might have been a sacristy added at a later date, the doorway leading to it being the original entrance to the church, and the south doorway being opened when the chancel was added. There was a regular chancel at the east end, 1 2 ft. by 8 ft. 9 in. Outside the south door of the nave was a square addi- tion, 8 ft. I in. by 7 ft. 7 in. inside, with a radiating staircase. The building had long been occupied as a dwelling-house, and of course had been very much mutilated ; but summing up tlie probabilities, Dryden is of opinion that the nave and chancel were nth or 12th century work; that a new chancel arch v/as put up in the 14th century, at v/hich date the buildings at the west end and on the south side were added. Mr. Karl Blind is of opinion that the name Eyin Hclga meant " The Sanctuary {Heiligthwn in German) of the Isles," and that the islet held the same position to the rest of the group that Heligoland did to the Frisian Isles.^ On the north-western and south- ^ Drydeu's Ruined CJiurches, - Munch, in one of his papers on the Orcadian place-names, mentions a curious superstition in connection with Eynliallow, viz., that if corn is cut on it after sunset, blood flows from the straw. THE ORKNEYS. 351 western sides of Eynhallow are the Burger and Wheal Rostis, which, as the flood-tide, with springs, runs seven knots an hour, must be a sight to see, when a nor'-wester has for some days been piling the waters of the Atlantic on the Orcadian coast. A little west of Swendro Church is a geo, rejoicing in the significant name of Paradise, in which boats sometimes take shelter, till the tide turns. Somewhere about here Swein captured Jarl Paul, when hunting otters near Scabra Plead, and the name of the district, Swendro, appears to have some connection with that incident. A cave on Eynhallow Isle bears the name of "the Cave of Twenty Men," which may also have owed its name to the abduction of Paul. A short distance beyond Paradise Geo you come to a series of gloups, or blow-holes, known as the Sinions of Cutclaws. The first is about thirty yards from the sea, thirty yards long, and twenty-four broad ; the second a few yards beyond, circular, and about ten yards in diameter. Before, however, coming to the Sinions, and between them and Scabra Head, are some curiously formed arches, known as the Hole of the Horse, and Auk Hall ; and without being of any great height, the cliffs are very picturesque and bold. A "mile further you come to another sinion, known as the Kiln of Dusty. Here Bring Head commences, a very fine stretch of cliffs in places overhanging the water, the highest point of which, Plellia Spur, is probably about 300 feet. Close to Hellia Spur is the Stack of the Lobest, a long, narrow portion of rock which has slipped away from the cliff, from which it is now separated by a chasm not much over twenty feet in width. A little east of this is another similar stack in process of formation. From this point you get a very pretty view of Sacquoy Head, with Westray behind it. Close to Sacquoy Head are the Kilns of Brin Never, before coming to which is a gigantic edition of the well-known Grind of the Navir in Shetland, though not so accurately cut. The sea has seized hold of a weaker than usual spot in the stratification of the cliff hne, and 352 THE ORKNEYS AXD SHETLAND. has carved out a huge gateway, or embrasure, the stones from which lie piled in heaps to the rear. The Kilns are a series of three gloups, extending about 200 yards, from east to west. The western one is a gruesome abyss. Both of the eastern ones have arches opening seaward, through one of which you get an exquisite peep of the sea outside. All this coast line, to be properly appreciated, should be seen from a boat, and there are any amount of caves to be explored. Owing, however, to the strong tideways off the points, and the " lift " of the sea close to the rocks, the weather must be some- thing exceptional to render it worth a trial. Probably a week or so of light winds from east or south-east and tides at dead neap would be most favourable. From the Kilns of Erin Never it is best to make straight for Saviskail, as the rest of the coast-line is not wortli following round. The loch of Saviskail, or Wasbister, though not more than forty-five acres in area, is one of the best in the islands for fishing, as the trout average nearly three-quarters of a pound each. On a small holm in the loch, where quantities of wild duck breed, are said to be the remains of a small chapel, known as the Chapel of Burrian — a name which looks as if it had been built, like the chapel dedicated to St Tredwell in Papa Westray, on the site of an old broch. There must have been in ancient days a perfect nest of these small chapels around this loch, as at the north end, close to the old burial-ground, was one known as Corse, or Cross Kirk ; on Bretaness, a small promontory jutting out on the east side, was another; and N.N.E. of Langskail, close to the sea, and dedicated to St Colm, a fourth. Here you strike the carriage road again, a splendid instance of misplaced ingenuit}-, being carried over the shoulder of Kierfea Hill, instead of, as might have been done with very little trouble, round it From the highest point (411 feet above the sea), you get some good %-iews of Paraclett Head, in the face of which is said to be a very fine cave, access to which can, witli the aid of a rope, be had from land, by a steady head THE ORKNEYS. 35j and strong arms. The whole round from Sourin past Westness, if Blotchinfield and Jupiter Fring are not visited, will take some eight or nine hours. There ought to be very fair sea-trout fishing with wind off shore, and water slightly coloured by rainfall, at the mouth of the Sourin Burn ; but, as a portion of the shootings is let, and the proprietor, Lieut-General Burroughs, C.B., generally has a houseful of visitors staying at Trumland, the tourist must not expect to get any fishing. In the autumn of 1881 a cluster of grave moirnds, near the farm of Corquoy, in Sourin Valley, was opened, and in the largest, which was fifty feet in circumference, and raised five and a half feet above the level of the adjacent ground, a stone cist was discovered, in which was placed a cinerary urn of steatite, 7 in. in height, and pf in. and 8 in. across the mouth, which urn is now in the National Museum. The fact of the urn being made of stone, and especially of steatite, and not of clay, leads Dr. Anderson to suppose that these mounds formed a cemetery of the later Viking period, when interment after cremation was practised. URN OF STHATITi: , i KO.M CORQUOY, ROl'SAV. .V A CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ORKNEYS. THE NORTH ISLES. Sfronsay, Sanday, and Noiih Roiialdsay. ' ' When Albyn's men of mountain blood Rushed down, like their own torrent's flood, To place the Stuart upon that throne They warmly deem'd by right his own, E'en in these isles each nobler heart Burned in his cause to bear a part ; But when the cloud of war rolled bade. And, like December's storm-smote rack. Scourged darkly o'er its dreary sky, In scattered ruin far did fly ; When stretched revenge her gory hand. Against the bravest of the land, Then found they shelter in those caves, Where sung to them the wind and waves ; In safety from the hand of power. They passed away their darkening hour." Malcolm. Before steam communication with the North Lsles was started in 1864, what with cahns and fogs in summer, gales in winter, and strong tideways all the year round, the voyage to Westray must, often, have been a thing of days, instead of, as at present, hours, — days too of scant enough comfort, both as regards accommodation and victuals. One gentleman who, twenty years ago, had a good deal of work amongst the islands, in connection with his duties as a THE ORKNEYS. 355 drainage commissioner, being becalmed, befogged, or storm- stayed short of his destination, was awakened one morning, by the steward of the smack requesting him to get up, as the sheets he was lying in were wanted for the tablecloths ! Leech's waiter's dirty pocket-handkerchief was not a patch on that. From Kirkwall to Pierowall in Westray, along the western side of Eday, and through Weather Ness Sound is twenty-four miles, but, by the route the steamer takes, the round is about forty-two miles — a distance which, owing to stoppages at the different posts of call, she takes six hours, and sometimes longer, to accomplish. The Orcadia is a very good sea-boat, an absolute requisite, as, at times, owing to the innumerable rosts^ heavier or nastier seas would be hard to find anywhere. Unfortunately, though she has " good accommodation for man and beast," no refresh- ments, even of the class the soul of Sir Wilfrid Lawson loveth, are to be had on board ; so the intending traveller should see to the commissariat before starting, at least, if he is going through to Pierowall. In summer weather the sail is a very pleasant one for the traveller from the south, though, with the exception of Calf Sound, the scenery is not of a high order. When you have reached Gait Ness, the north-western point of Shapinsay,' you begin to realise what an Orcadian rost is, if, indeed, you have not already found it out before. Under certain conditions of tide, and certain airts of wind, the line of broken water extends right across the sound to War Ness in Eday, the sea off the latter point being the worst. Occasionally the steamer calls in at Backaland in Eday, otherwise she makes straight for Stj'onsay. This island, the Strionsay of the Sa^a, is so indented by the deep broad bays of Linga Sound, Rousholm Bay, and Odin Bay, that it looks not unlike the three legs on the Manx coinage. At the northern end of the island is the Bay of Whitehall, so sheltered by the little island of Papa Stronsay as to be practically land-locked. There is a good pier here, A A 2 356 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. and a considerable herring fishery has of late years been carried on from the sound. In the report ' made to Bishop Graham in 1627 it was stated the teinds of the dogger-boats had once been let to Earl Patrick, which looks as if the Dutch doggers had been in the habit of fishing from here. From the same report there seems to have been two churches on the island, one dedicated to St. Peter, the other to the Virgin ; and on the little isle of Papa Stronsay, the Papa Minni'- of the Saga, was a third, dedicated to St. Nicholas. According to Neale there was another chapel on this small island dedicated to St. Bride. On Papa Mhini Jarl Rognvald, Brusi's son, was murdered by Thorkel Fostri, who had been Thorfinn's foster-father. Curious coincidence that the second Rognvald should have been murdered by Thorbiorn Klerk, who had been Harald's foster-father. According to Barry, between the two chapels was the Earl's knoll, on which were some graves and ruins. One of the graves was opened, in which the bones appear to have been those of a man nearly eight feet in height. Can these have been the remains of Jarl Rognvald, as in the Saga he is described as " a man of large stature and great strength " ? There is a little lodging-house close to the pier ; an inn, or licensed shop, in the centre of the island ; and very good lodgings indeed can be obtained, it is said, at a Mr. Chalmers', a mile and a half on the south road. Close to Whitehall, on the shores of Odin Bay, is the Well of Kildinguie, consisting of three springs of chalybeate water of varying strength, formerly in high repute as a spa, to which patients are said to have come all the way from Norway and Denmark. Spring-tides flow into the well, but, if cleared of the brackish water, it fills again all right in a few minutes. On the south side of the well is a stone seat, said to have originally had arms to it ; and, in front, is an indentation on the rock, supposed to have been made by the feet of the officiating priest who sat there offering the water to the pilgrims. ^ Peterkin's Rentals, No. III. p. 95. - 'Htzle^s Ecclcsiological Notes, p. 113. THE ORKNEYS. 357 A similar seat is said to have been on the north side of the spring, which was destroyed by the masons when building the farmhouse of Hunton. On the bank above stood a chapel, the grass-grown foundations of which can still be traced. So great was the fame of the well that the virtues of its waters were celebrated in a proverb which says, "The well of Kildinguie, and the dulse (species of seaweed) of Geo Odin will cure all things except the Black Death." The island is the most fertile of all the group and cultivated as it deserves. The highest point of the whole island is close to Whitehall, St. John's Hill, 179 ft; but you nevertheless get some pretty views, as you walk down to Lamb Head, some six miles from Whitehall. On the head are the remains of a broch explored by Dr. Petrie many years back. This has a great number of cells in the walls, and one peculiarity about them, according to Captain Thomas,^ consisted in their having a raised bench at each end. Close to the broch are the remains of an ancient pier which Captain Thomas believed to be coeval with it. On the east side of the isthmus, on which the broch stands, is a wild stack-studded geo, rejoicing in the name of Hell's Mouth. From Hell's Mouth a walk of about two miles takes you to the Vat of Kirbister, passing on your road the Geo of Odin, where grows the miraculous, health-giving dulse. According to Neale ^ there was also a chapel here. The Vat consists of a basin not exactly round and not square. The diameter is about eighty yards ; height, perhaps eighty feet or so. On the eastern side is the finest rock arch in the Orkneys, to the south of which the ridge has partially fallen away, rendering it im- possible at the present day to walk round it, as was done not long ago. There are a couple of caves inside tenanted by flocks of pigeons, and the whole would be well worth exploring in a boat by any one who was making any stay on the island. The farm of Housebay, of which Lamb Head forms part, is the largest in the islands ; with it Mr. Learmouth, the tenant, ^ ArckcEologia, vol. xxxiv. - Ncale's Ecdesto/oi^'ca/ Nofes, p. 117. 358 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. holds Auskerry as a sheep farm. Of this islet Jo Ben said, " ubi sunt equi ferocissimi." He has also a wonderful account of a Trow, who in the shape of a pony, annoyed a married woman for over a year with his attentions. His description of the beast is identical with that given by the Shetlanders at the present day of the S/iou/piltee or Nuggle. Can the " equi ferocissimi " have been Shoiilpiltees ? Once or twice in Shetland the writer has been told by his gillies of the existence in out-of-the-way places of "wild horses," and, at the time, he thought nothing of the remark ; but, since he has read of the Nuggle theory, he is half inclined to think his guides referred to demon steeds, and not to the ordinary shelties of everyday life. Sanday. A little over half an hour's steaming takes you from the pier at Whitehall, across Sanday Sound, to the pier at Kettletoft, close to which is the lodging-house kept by Mrs. Sinclair, one of the best establishments of the kind in the Orkneys or Shetland. There is a public-house, also, at Castle Hill, about a mile or so from the pier. Sanday is a curiously shaped island, and has been compared to a lobster, and the comparison is not a bad one. The southern or tail portion forms the parish of the Holy Cross, to which has been added, since the Reforma- tion, the parish of St. Columba, or, as it is now called. Bur Ness, which comprises the shorter or western claw. In prelatical days the rectorial teinds of the parish of Saint Columba were attached to the office of the Sacristan of Saint Magnus. The eastern or larger claw forms Lady Parish, to which the island of North Ronaldsay was formerly attached, and from which it has been only severed quoad sacra of late years. A range of low hills runs from the Bay of Brough to the southern end of Cross Parish, the highest point of which, Stove Hill (249 feet), is at the extreme south. Both Bur Ness and Lady parishes are as flat nearly as a billiard table. The soil, in the northern parts of the island, is chiefly sand, from which the island is THE ORKNEYS. 359 said to take its name. The nature of the soil, combined with the numerous lagoons or oyces., as they are called in the Orkneys, the haunts in winter of numerous flocks of wild-fowl, has no doubt aided the ever hungry sea in the encroachments that are so constantly going on. That the deep bay called Otterswick was once te)-ra firma, is shown by the peat soil and numerous trunks of trees that a big ebb sometimes leaves exposed. Barry ^ even says that the shoal of Runabrake, some five miles north-w^est of Bur Ness, w*as once connected with the island, and that the inhabitants were wont to play football there. As the chart shows soundings of seventeen fathoms between the shoal and the island, Barry's version can hardly be correct. The northern portion of the island must in ancient days have been covered with brochs. Many of the existing houses are said to be built on the sites, or rather on the actual remains of those Pictish forts. Thus a year ago, when the Manse of Cross and Bur Ness was being rebuilt, the old house was found to have been erected over one. Mr. Dennison, the author of The Orcadiati Sketch Book, and the tenant of West Brugh, has a very fine collection of bone and other implements which have from time to time been found, amongst them one of those dice made of a sheep's shank-bone. An ancestor of Mr. Dennison helped to capture Gow the pirate, and, amongst other curios, he has a telescope said to have belonged to the Orcadian Captain Kidd. He has also, what is of more value, one of the old Orkney wooden ploughs. On the southern side of the Bay of Brough is the Cave of Helzie Geo, to visit which you must take a boat. The cave is in the face of a very low cliff, and the entrance is about thirty yards long, seventeen feet high at half tide, and not broad enough for oars to be used. The cave itself is about forty or fifty yards broad from west to east, is about thirty-five feet high, and is said to extend a considerable way south. To explore it properly requires torches, the more so as there are said to be numerous rocks just under water. Formerly it was, it is ^ Barry's Orkney, p. 58. 36o THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. said, festooned with stalactites, but very i^^ now remain, the curiosity-collecting cad having of course done his utmost to destroy what must have been the great charm of the place. The low range of hills running southward affords some pretty views here and there. At a place called Hecklabir is a huge mass of plum-pudding stone, which, for a long time, was supposed to have been volcanic in its origin.^ Just north of Laminess are a couple of circular basins, and into the one nearest the ness is an entrance from seaward. The ridge of stones which separates the one basin from the other is very like a pier, and the writer was told that stones had been found per- forated with holes, into which lead had been run. On the ness is a mound which looks as if it covered the remains of a broch. There also appeared to have been covered ways, one running out to the head of the ness, the other at right angles to the bay. Jo Ben has a curious tradition about this parish (Holy Cross), He says he was passing through the island, and being very much fatigued rested at the manse or church, and, in the graveyard, saw about a thousand skulls, three times as large as the crania of the men of his time, and that he extracted from the gums teeth like kernels. On asking how these remains came there, he was told that the Sanday people had, being of an unwarlike disposition, been subject to the people of Stronsay, to whom they paid a yearly tribute. That at last, taking heart of grace, they had, on the day when the annual tribute was payable, fallen on their oppressors, who, not suspecting anything, had been making a huge picnic of the day, having brought with them, not only their mothers and their sisters, but also their cousins and their aunts. Now what actual historical fact can have lain under this apparent myth ? By the way, Jo Ben also says that both the inhabitants of Sanday and North Ronaldsay, as Shakspeare said of the Lucys of Charlecott, " pediculosi sunt, ut nulla arte mederi possunt." A drive, of about twelve miles, from Kettletoft, will take you to the Start Lighthouse, at the north-eastern corner of the ^ As to the Savil boulder, see p. 194. THE ORKNEYS. 361 island. This lighthouse is, at high water, completely insulated, and the view from the gallery round the light is said to be worth seeing. On your road out you pass the house of Newark, built on the site of Brugh, which was burnt down by the Hanoverian troops after CuUoden. Close to Newark is a farm called Purgatory, and, a few years back, not far off was another known as Hell. At the north end is the plain of Fidge, which, in the last century, was the favourite golfing links of the Orcadian gentry. Sanday, as might be expected, from its very low coast-line, was in former years the cause of many wrecks. Jo Ben said, English and German vessels often perished at the Star of Lopeness, the very spot, where the lighthouse is now placed. When Scott ^ was here in 18 14, shortly after the light- house had been erected, Stevenson, the well-known builder of Skerryvore lighthouse, on observing to a farmer that the sails of his boat were in bad condition, was told, " If it had been His {i.e. God's) will, that you had na built sae many lighthouses hereabout, I would have had new sails last winter." What a Scotch ring there is about the story 1 A Sanday minister,^ too, is said to have prayed " Nevertheless, if it please Thee to cause helpless ships to be cast on the shore, oh ! dinna forget the poor island of Sanda ! " The Cornish parson, who is said to have stopped his congregation, who were flocking to a wreck, till he had taken his surplice off, in order that they might, himself included, all start fair, would have suited Sanday, in old days, admirably. Even with the lights on the Start, and on Dennis Head in North Ronaldsay, some sixteen vessels, at least, have gone ashore on Sanday since 1862, of which only three have been got off again. In two instances three lives were lost in each case, and in a third ten. Many of the Orcadian wrecks, however, are wilful. One scoundrel was seen, some years back, to deliberately beat his vessel up to windward to get her ashore, and, what is more, the insurance is said to have been paid. Another, who ^ Scott's Life, \o\. iii. p. 179. - Maidmmt Collections. 362 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND by mistake, ran his craft on sand or mud in Holm Sound, said, with tears of rage in his eyes, pointing to a reef of rocks, " D- n it, that is where I intended to have put her." The skipper of a German craft, that got ashore near Ellsness, on being told that it was a bad job, is reported to have smiled like the Heathen Chinee, and said, " No my friend, it is not bad, she is well insured." North Ronaldsay. For this island, the most northerly and easterly of the Orcadian group, a mail boat crosses once a week, weather permitting, with the bags from Black Rock, at the south- eastern corner of Otterswick Bay, a cheese-paring postal ad- ministration evidently being of the opinion, that the letters, papers, &c., for this northern Patmos, which arrive in Sanday on Saturday, ought not to be ferried across the sound before the following Wednesday. North Ronaldsay Sound is, as a glance at the map will show you, nearly as exposed a bit of water, for open boat work, as can be found in British seas, and all the worse for the numerous rosts, which are created by the rapid tides which pour through it. Finer boatmen, however, than the two men who man the boat would be hard to find, and, during all the inclement winter of 1 880-81, they never missed a week. Fancy open boat-work, on a pitch-dark winter's night, en- livened by driving showers of snow and sleet, amidst a ramping, raging, hurlyburly of water, having to dodge a rbst first to the right of you, then to the left of you, and finally to hit a coast- line, that, in daylight, almost requires a microscope to see it ; ugh, the very idea is enough to give you the shivers. There is no regular accommodation in the island, and any one, purposing visiting it, should ascertain in Sanday, whether there is any chance of his being put up any^vhere. There is not much to tempt the wanderer in search of the picturesque. Measuring some four miles or so long from Dennis Head in THE ORKNEYS. 363 the N.N.W. to Strom Ness in the S.S.E., by, perhaps, two miles in breadth at the outside, the island is very slightly elevated above the level of the Atlantic and German Oceans, whose surges are so constantly beating upon its tang-strewn shores, the highest point, on which stands Holland (the Houla?id — High Land — of Shetland) House, the residence of Dr. Traill, the proprietor, being only forty-seven feet above high-water mark. A dyke, or wall, runs round the island close to the sea, through grinds or gates in which access is had to the interior, the whole of which is under cultivation. Runrig still survives, at the north end, in about two hundred acres, but, elsewhere, each man's holding is marked off from that of his neighbour. Of the five hundred and forty-seven persons, who compose the population, all more or less live by their crofts, supplemented by the lobster-fishing and kelp-making. The tangle, or thick stalks of the Laminaria digitata, is driven ashore in winter, and carefully dried in heaps. The ware, or leaves of the same sea-weed, comes ashore in spring, the " ware break," as it is termed, generally occurring in April, and easterly or south-easterly winds send most ashore. Por collecting the tangle and ware, and for burning, the crofters get so much a " weigh," ten weighs going to the ton. From the middle of May, on every fine day, all through the summer the burning goes on in small circular pits, the smoke from which gives a peculiarly weird charm of its own to coast scenery. Cut-weed or ware, that is, weed cut from the rocks, is best for making glass, in which, however, it is now superseded by barilla. For the production of iodine, bromide of potassium, and chlorate of potassium, drift-weed is far the best, and care has to be taken to prevent the gatherers substituting cut for drift-weed. Outside the dyke, on what little herbage they can find, but mainly on sea-weed, live some two thousand of the old Orkney sheep. Except at lambing-time, when the ewes are taken inside and treated to a little more succulent food than they can find outside, their mainstay is sea-weed, which is said to 364 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. give the flesh a special venison sort of flavour. At the southern extremity of the island is the Broch of Burrian, which was excavated from the superincumbent rubbish by Dr. Traill in 1870, and in which was found the small Celtic ecclesiastical bell ; cross-incised and Ogham-marked stone ; stones with incised triangles; and ox-bone with incised ornament, which are such strong silent evidence of the early Christianity of the islands. In addition to the above, which are now in the museum at Edinburgh, an enormous number of bone and other implements were found. Amongst the bone implements were several combs, some rather artistically made, and so close in the teeth, as to suggest the idea, that the Pictish occupants of the broch were nearly as " pediculosi " as Jo Ben found the inhabitants of the two islands centuries afterwards. There are three curious ridges, or mounds, stretching across the island, which are said, according to local tradition, to have been made by three brothers to mark off their respective properties ; and mounds, Pictish and Norse, abound. Probably one of these is the one, in which the remains of Hdlfdan Halegg were hoy-laid after his slaughter by Torf Einar on Rinar's Hill. The little eminence on which Holland House stands was probably the Rinar's Hill. The Sail Fluke {Zeugopterus velivolans) is occasionally driven ashore on the island, and the Small Black- headed Gull {Larus Ridibundus), whose eggs are said to be as good as those of the green plover, breeds on one of the tiny lochs. The chief object of interest to the naturalist, however, is Seal Skerry, a vast expanse of channel-cut rock, due north from Dennis Head, and which is nearly covered at high spring tides. The water inside the skerry, and between it and the shore, is comparatively shallow, but the big channel, which runs nearly north and south, and which Dr. Traill fancies has been caused by volcanic agency, has a depth in places of thirty-six feet. This channel is a favourite haunt of the grey seal {Halichczrus Griseus or Gryphus). Quantities of seal remains were found in the Broch of Burrian, and were submitted to Professor Turner, who identified them THE ORKNEYS. 365 as those of HalichcErus Gryphus. Jo Ben describes, how they were captured by nets on the skerry, and mentions that he had seen sixty taken at one time. Before, and during the con- tinuance of, fine Aveather the seals make a pecuhar noise night and morning, locally termed " Bogling," and to which Jo Ben must refer when he speaks of their "mutuo inter sese murmu- rantes." From the abundance of the phocce on their shores, the North Ronaldsay folk have long been known as " Selkies." They are also sometimes called " Hides," from their wearing rivlins, a custom noticed by Jo Ben, who says : " Homines hie Laici habent Calceos ex belluorum pellibus ligulo con- tractos vernacule Rifflings vocatos." In Earl Patrick's Rental^ for 1595 we read: "Item, the Skerrie payit of auld half barrel olie, and now payis ane barrel of olie." North Ronaldsay was, in 1668, the place of banishment of the Rev. Alexander Smith. Prior to the Restoration, Smith had been minister of Colvend, in the Presbytery of Dumfries, and was one of those ejected on the passing of the Conformity Act of 1662. He then retired to Leith, and, in 1664, was summoned before the High Commission Court for keeping conventicles. Having, according to Wodrow,- whose testimony must always be re- ceived cum gra7w, given special offence to Archbishop Sharp, by addressing him as Sir, he was treated with extra rigour, and banished to Shetland, though it is not said to what part. After four years in the regions of Ultima Thide, he was summoned back to Leith, whence, having probably given fresh offence by his sturdy covenanting spirit, he was again sent northward, this time to North Ronaldsay. A few years back a calf-bound volume was found in the Town Hall of Kirkwall, headed yustices of his Maties Peace Book of Records, No. i., in which some documents relative to Smith were copied, which are set out in Appendix P (pp. 623-5). From his letter, Smith, although like most of the Puritane oties ^ Peterkin's Rentals, No. II. p. 77. - Wodrow's History, vol. i. p. 393, and vol. ii. p. 112. See also Row's Life of Robert Blair, p. 479. ;66 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. of the period given to Prcachce Prcac/iee in season and out of season, would seem to have been a thoroughly conscientious Christian, incapable of, like many other so-called religious people, acting in anything but a straightforward, above-board fashion. Before quitting this northernmost of the Orcadian Isles, exposed to all the Avinds that blow, the reader will be almost astonished to learn that Dr. Traill has succeeded in acclimatis- ing in the garden at Holland the Phormium ienax, or New Zealand flax, which, as an ornamental plant, seems to be a success, though whether it can be grown to pay has yet to be seen. IlliTilllpI COMBS, FROM THE BROCH OF BURRIAN. THE "GEiN'TLEMW S H\ ' WITH THE BROUGH OF BIRSAY IN THE DISIANCE From a sketch by Mr. Thomas S. Peace. CHAPTER XXIX. THE ORKNEYS. — THE NORTH ISLES — {contillUCil). Eday. From Kettletoft the steamer proceeds round Spur Ness into Eday Sound, and passing to the south of that Lashy Rost, which so stirred up Scott's bile, into Calf Sound, which, with a flood spring tide making through it, looks more like a majestic river than an arm of the sea, brings up off Carrick House. This house is said to have been erected by that John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, who was such an object of dread to Bishop Graham and his Kirk Session. Created Lord Kinclaven in 1607, he obtained, in 1616, charters "of the dominical lands 368 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. and mill of the Monastery of Crossregal, of the lands of Ballor- som, and of the lands of Knockronnal," ^ part of the ancient Earldom of Carrick ; this made him desirous of obtaining a grant of such title, and in 1628 he got a patent from Charles I. On this patent, hoAvever, being presented to the Privy Council on the 22nd of May in the same year, Sir John Hope, the Lord Advocate, objected, that the title of Earl of Carrick was one always borne by the heir-apparent to the Crown. After some delay, apparently caused by Lord Kinclaven changing his flank and stating, that it was the Orcadian and not the Ayrshire Carrick that was meant, the patent was finally confirmed on the 14th December, 1830. The Earl of Carrick was, whilst still merely entitled Master of Orkney, as being heir-presumptive to the Earldom of Orkney, tried at Edinburgh on the 24th June, 1596,^ for "consulting with vmq^ Margaret Balfour, ane Wich, for the distructioune of Patrik Erll of Orknay, be poysoning." The principal evidence against him was a declaration extracted from the said Margaret or Alyson Balfour (she is called " Alysoune " in the " Dittay " or indictment), when being tortured by the " caschie- lawis," a sort of iron frame-work which encircled the leg, and was then placed in a movable furnace, and in which Alyson " wes kepit be the space of fourtie-aucht houris." Torturing Alyson not being enough, her husband, "... . Tailliefeir," a man of " Ixxxxj yeiris of aige," her eldest son, and her daughter, were all put to the question at the same time ; " The fader beand in the lang Irnis of fiftie stane wecht ; the sone callit in the buitis with fiftie sewin straikis ; and the dochter being sewin yeir auld, put in the pinnywinkis." The boots, or hootikins^ " extended from the ankles to the knee, and at each stroke of a large hammer (which forced the wedges closer), the question was repeated. In many instances, the bones and flesh of the leg were crushed and lacerated in a shocking manner before confession was made." The ^ "pilnie- ^ Douglas's Peerage. - Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. p. l'jT,et seq. 2 Ibidem, p. 219. * Ibidem, p. 215. THE ORKNEYS. 369 winkis" or " pinniewinks " are supposed to have been similar to the thuml'iekins, or thumbscrews. Thomas Palpla (probably Paplay), a servant of the Master of Orkney, was so tortured to extract a confession from him, that at last " thay left nather flesch nor hyde vpoun him." At her execution on the i6th December, 1594, "Apud Kirk- wall vpoun the Heding-hill," when "Thomas Swyntoun Minister at Kirkwall, Johnne Stewart Reidar thair, Mr. Gyl- bert Body, Minister att Holm, Alexander Somerwall in Deirnes, Johnne McKenzie, Dauid Moncrief seruitour to my Lord Erll of Orknay, and Gylbert Pacock, with sindry vtheris," were present, Alyson withdrew her first confession, which she had made under promise of life to the " Persoun of Ropher " who must have been that Henry Colville, of whom we have heard before, and of whom we sliall hear again. On this second declaration of Alyson and on one made by John Paplay at his execution, the jury, of which " Laurence Bruce of Cultman-Lundie " was one, ' ffand the said Johnne Stewart Maister of Orknay to be Acquit, and innocent of the haill crymes and poyntis of Dittay particularlie above mention- at, quhairof he wes accusit." Earl Patrick seems to have been well-bred on both sides for oppression and cruelty, as Gilbert, fourth Earl of Cassillis, his uncle, was accused in 1568 of having " roasted " Alan Stewart, Commendator of Crossregal,^ because he refused to sign a feu- charter of the lands of the Abbey. This roasting the Abbot is thus quaintly described : - — " And quhane he fand him obstinatt, at last tuik him and band him to ane furme, and sett his bair legis to ane gritt fyr, and extreymly brunt him, that he was ewer thairefter onabill of his leggis." Earl Gilbert is also described in the Historic as " ane werry greidy manne, and cairitt nocht how he gatt land, sa that he culd cum be the samin ; and for that caus, he enterit in bloking with ane Abbot of Glenluse, concerning the ^ Douglas's Peerage, vol. i. p. 332. Pitcairn's IJistorie of t/te A'aiucdyis, pp. 9, 10. B B 370 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Abacie, to tak the samin in few ; hot, or he gatt the samin per- formitt, the Abbott deitt. And than he deltt with ane Monk off the samin Abacie, quha culd counterfitt the Abottis hand- writt, and all the haill Conventtis ; and gartt him counterfitt thair subscriptiones. And qiihane he had gottine the samin done, feiring that the Monk wald reweill itt, he caussit ane cairill, quliilk they callit Carnachaine, to stik (him) ; and thane, for feir tliat cairl had reweiUit, he garit his fader-broder, Hew of Bargany (Barquhouny) accuse this cairl 1 for thift, and hang him in Corsragell. And sa the Landis of GlenUise was conqueist." The Earl of Carrick, whilst still only Master of Orkney, married, in 1604, Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Earl of Nottingham, by whom he had only one child, a daughter Margaret, who married Sir John Murray. Of this marriage there was also an only daughter Margaret, who was married twice, the second time to Sir John Heath of Basted, Kent, by whom she had an only child Margaret, who married George Verney, fourth Baron Willoughby de Broke. Eday may be termed the Orcadian Yell, occupying much the same position towards the rest of the Orkneys that the nortliern island does to the rest of the Shetland group. Like Yell, Eday has immense peat beds, from which Stronsay, Sanday, and North Ronaldsay are supplied with fuel. The Yarpha peat of Eday is also said to be specially suitable for distilleries. Even in Jo Ben's day North Ronald- say was utterly destitute of fuel, as he says, " Carent igne, nisi algis marinis siccis, cespites vero arenaceos habent minime in ij^ne lucentes, luce vero qua hyeme fruuntur ex intestinis piscium est, vel ex abdomine : et ex stercoribus peccorum in muro sparsis et sole arefactis optimus focus est." A peat-abounding district is usually, more or less, devoid of scenic interest, and Eday is no exception to the rule. Calf Sound, however, is very i)icturesque, and the Red Head of Eday (211 feet) is very fine. Erom a quarry near this head a THE ORKNEYS. 371 good deal of tlie coloured sandstones used in St. Magnus was obtained. On ' the Calf of Eday is, or was, an Eirde house, or under- ground dwelling, explored many years ago by Mr. Petrie. A passage \(>\ ft. long led to a chamber 6 ft. 2 in. long, 2 ft. 6 in. wide, and 4 ft. 6 in. high, which you entered by a door- way I ft. 1 1 in. wide. At right angles to the first chamber, and on the left-hand side of the passage, was another 4 ft. long, I ft. 8 in. wide, and 3 ft. 8 in. high, with an entrance i ft. I in. wide. On the right-hand side were two chambers ; one 4 ft. 6 in. long, 2 ft. 6 in. wide, and 4 ft. high, with an entrance 2 ft. wide ; the other being 3 ft. 6 in, long, 2 ft. wide, and 3 ft. high. Petrie remarked what a very diminutive race must have dwelt in these chambers, but was of opinion that, in spite of their pigmy stature, they must have had very great physical strength to have moved the large masses of stone. On the Calf, also, were the remains of a rampart like the letter S i^ shape. There was a similar dyke, though smaller, on the main island, which seems at one time to have had an enormous number of standing stones in it, as Petrie found traces of them stretching in a straight line for four miles. Only one remains at all perfect, and that is about a mile due south of Carrick House. It is, however, a very fine one, if not the tinest in the islands, measuring 19 ft. in height, 7 ft. in width, and 16 in. thick. The chief interest attaching to the island, however, arises from the fact of Calf Sound having been the scene of the capture of Gow, the pirate, and his brother ruffians, by James Fea the younger of Clestrain, who at that day owned Carrick House, if not all the island. Fea, who seems to have been an active, energetic sort of man, had been laying plans for the capture of the Rrc'e?ige, whilst she lay at Stromness, and Gow appears to have heard of them and determined to pay him off for meddling. When, therefore, the Revenge left Stromness, in order to put Fea off his guard Gow sailed away north round ^ Proc. Scot. Anf. vol. ii. p. 155. H 15 2 372 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Papa Westray. Fea had, however, as the poHce say, got •' the office " and had a party assembled ready for all emergencies. In beating up Calf Sound on the 13th February, 1725, Gow ran his craft ashore off the Calf nearly opposite the land- ing place on the Carrick side, and, as he had only one boat with him, had the impudence to send over to Carrick for assistance to help liim to warp her off. To this request Fea sent an evasive answer, and, when Gow landed an armed party later on in the day, captured them by stratagem at the public- house, which probably occupied tlie site of the present lodging- house kept by Mr. Marwick. After several letters had been interchanged, Gow was captured on the Calf on the i6th by James Fea, of Whitehall, in Stronsay, the man who introduced kelp-making into the islands. The crew were then captured in detail, and on the 26th of February were handed over to Captain Robinson of the Weasle frigate, who afterwards carried the Revenge with her crew south. Gow and several of the principal culprits were found guilty of piracy, but do not appear to have been executed till the nth of August, 1729, more than four years afterwards ; a delay that seems extraordinary, even allowing that witnesses had to be fetched from the West Indies.^ Amongst the Gow corres- pondence given in Peterkin's Notes is one from Gow to Mrs. Fea, in which he tries to purchase her good offices with her husband by the present of a chinch gown. There is also a letter from a Miss Betty Moodie to Fea, and Fea's answer. (See Ap- pendix Q, pp. 626-8). It does not appear clear, whether Miss Moodie herself had been " carrying on '"' with Gow, whether she referred to Miss Gordon, who did not wish her name to aj^pear, or whether, woman-like, Miss Betty thought she might find out some nice charitable things about her dearest friends. Fea,- for the capture of Gow, is said to have received _;;^i,ioo from Government, ;^3oo for salvage, and ^400 from the merchants of London for relieving them of such a pest as the Orcadian Captain Kidd must have been. In spite, however, of this ^ See Appendix T. pp. 633-637. - Fea's Considerations, pt. i. p. 77. THE ORKNEYS. 373 very considerable amount of prize-money, wlien we consider the time, Fea is said to have been ruined through the numerous suits, which were trumped up against him in the courts for his share in Gow's capture. This may liave led to his throwing himself so warmly on to the Jacobite side in 1745, for his share in which rising his house, at Sound, in Shapinsay, which had passed into his possession by his marriage with Mrs. Buchanan, was burnt down by the Hanoverians, who seemed to have behaved with the grossest brutality to Mrs. Fea. John Fea,^ great grandson of John Fea of Clestron, and great grand nephew of James Fea, died at the age of ninety-fi\e years in January, 1862, after a chequered career, having fought at Trafalgar in the Indefatigable^ and afterwards deserted, spend- ing forty-eight years of his life in the employ of the Leith and Clyde Canal Company. Mr. Hebden, the present owner of Eday, has, in Carrick House, a bell said to have belonged to the Revenge, on which is cut "Deo Soli Gloria, 1640," and which bell was obtained, some years ago, in Stronsay. iVs, however, the motto is the same that Neill saw over the gateway of Stove in Sanday, a mansion that belonged originally to the Feas, the bell is more likely to have come from Whitehall. If the bell really was used on board the Revenge, the motto must have been curiously out of place. We stray. When a nor'-wester is blowing there is a sweet bit of sea just outside the Red Head, all the worse when the Orcadian proverb before-cpioted ^ is verified. You get some pretty views of the Rousay hills, as you stand over to Stanger Head, whence you make for the west side of Papa Westray, just under Holland, and then cross over to Pierowall, where the steamer remains for the night. There is a very comfortable little lodging-house kept by ^ Alaidmcnt Colhclions. - See ante, p. 197. 374 THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. Mrs. Rosie, the wife of the engineer of the Orcadia, close to the pier, and a licensed house at the head of the bay. That this island must have been a great haunt of the Norsemen in the Viking period is shown by the swords peculiar to that period, shield-bosses, tortoise brooches, and other relics that from time to time have been discovered in the mounds on the Links of Pierowall. In one of these grave-mounds were found the skeletons of a man and of his horse, a shield-boss, and ring of bronze. Many of these relics, of the period of Norse heathen- dom, are nov\' in the National Museum at Edinburgh. Pierowall is the Hofii of the Orkncyinga Saga, where Jarl Rognvald landed, after Uni had rendered the beacon on Fair Isle useless. And, somewhere in the neighbourhood, he was visited by the monks from Eller Holm, whose garb so tickled the fancy of the rhyming Jarl, that he improvised the following lines : " Sixteen have I seen together, With a small tuft on their foreheads ; Surely these are women coming, All without their golden trinkets. Now may we of this bear witness. In the west here all the maidens Wear their hair short — ^that isle Elon Lies out in the stormy ocean." Here, too, he chafted farmer Kugi, after generously releasing him from the fetters his followers had adorned him with, and told him in rhyme, that he must not hold any more " Moonlight " meetings. Westray in Roman Catholic days was divided into two parishes, of which the church of one, called Cross Kirk, was on the shores of the Bay of Skea, whilst the church of the other was dedicated to the Virgin and known as Lady Kirk, on the shores of Pierowall Bay. There was also a church on Papa Westray dedicated to Saint Boniface, and which was " ane pendicle to our Lady paroschine, as said is." In the reports ^ made to Bishop Graham in 1627, 1 Teterkiu's Reiitals, No. III. p. S2. THE ORKNEYS. 375 we find that the minister of the united parish received from the King's Chamberhiin ^200 in respect of Cross Kirk, and ^100 for serving Boniface. In addition to which endowment the inhabitants of Westray seem to have compounded for meat and boat tithes, with two chalders of bere, two barrels and a half of butter, six stone of wool, and thirty lambs, whilst the inhabitants of Papa paid ;^io in money. The money of course being Scots currency. Lady Church has only the roof off; and the walls and gables are still entire. Not far from the church is a Pict's house, or underground chamber described by Captain Thomas.^ It is now, however, nearly filled up by sand. There are one or two gloups out by Skail near Akerness, which, when a nor'-wester is blowing and forcing the water through the blow-holes, must be well worth seeing, and there are one or two picturesquely arched stacks, but the cliff- line between there and Rack Wick is of no great height, and, except when a gale is on, the visitor to the island, unless he wants " to kill time," may as well proceed straight to Noltland Castle. This consists of a building in the form of a parallelo- gram, measuring 86 ft. 10 in. E. and W., and 36 ft. 3 in. N. and S., and having, at the S. W and N.E. corners, rectangular towers. On the S. side was a courtyard, along the S. side of which were buildings, now destroyed. This courtyard and other buildings were not, however, according to Billings,^ part of the original building, as they would have masked the fire of the embrasures or port-holes which are so numerous, that, combined with the general "bulky" appearance of the building, Billings was almost of opinion that a sailor-architect must have been employed. AVhoever he was, according to tradition, his remains were im- mured in the walls of the great staircase, which occupies the south-western tower, and is the architectural feature of the building. Of it Billings says : " A good notion of its dimensions may be formed from the fact of the central column, or newel, being nearly one yard 1 ArchcEoloffia, vol. xxxiv. ^ ^\\\mg%'9, Baronial and Ecclesiastical Anli