navians. It is probable that the Danes and Norwegians, who made their first descents on the western isles about A.D. 800, and finally surrendered the government of them to the crown of Scotland, in A. D. 1263, after the defeat of Haco, at the battle of Largs, established no colonies in those islands. The only traces of their sway, which appears to have been mild, and has drawn forth the panegyric of Mr. Tytler, in the opening of his History of Scotland, are such as might have been expected from a maritime people, to whom the headlands and principal landmarks were of more importance than to the natives. Several of these spots have received their designation from them. It is calculated that the names of places in the Hebrides are in equal proportions of Gaelic and of Scandinavian extraction. Some of the families, Macleods and others, were originally North men. HARBOUR OF STORNAWAY; THE MINSH; CAPE WRATH; SCRABSTER ROADS; COD-FISHERY; THURSO A MERCHANT vessel of Stornaway, in which I had engaged my passage to Thurso, was, happily, prevented sailing on the day at first proposed, by the increasing symptoms of a gale, which raged violently during the following Sunday. The harbour, which had been for some time receiving a continual accession of vessels, became now completely choked up; and several brigs and sloops, the latter principally laden with fish, were aground opposite the houses of the town. Vessels came in successively much damaged. Such an assemblage of vessels, chiefly engaged in the Baltic trade, several of them Russian and Norwegian, afforded a display of bustle and opulence, strangely contrasting with the generally desolate appearance of the Hebrides. The minister of Stornaway alluded in his sermon to the prevailing tempest; and availed himself of other circumstances of recent occurrence, to preach impressively on the duty of preparation for a future state. The style of address was more familiar than that which we are accustomed to in England; the minister directing his exhortations pointedly to the clergymen, whom the funeral already mentioned had brought to the island, and indicating with his finger particular seats, whilst he exclaimed, "You that sit below, you that sit in the galleries, and you, and you, and you females," addressing himself to a seat which contained only auditors of that sex, "you must all appear before the judgment-seat." The loss of his other vessel, a ship of 250 tons, had increased the reluctance of the master of the vessel in which I had taken my passage to sail. It had been lately wrecked on the coast of Orkney. The safety of himself and his crew were owing, under Providence, to the resolution of a boy of eighteen years of age, son of the innkeeper at Stornaway, who grasping a rope, sprung overboard, and climbing the face of a rock apparently precipitous, secured it, and enabled them to escape. His conduct deserved a compliment from the Humane Society. On the 12th there was promise of more moderate weather, and we put to sea as soon as we could disengage ourselves from the shipping in the harbour, an undertaking which, as not a vessel had yet quitted its moorings, we should never have accomplished, but for the civility of the commander of a Revenue Cutter, who came on board, and took charge of the vessel till we got to sea. A brig of war belonging to the Revenue Service, perceiving our intention, instantly, with a rapidity magical when compared with the tardy operations of a half-manned merchantman, hoisted sail, and was soon out of sight. We stood across the Minsh, now turbulent from the effects of the late gale, before a strong and favourable breeze, to the opposite coast, a few miles to the northward of the Storr Head, a bold and far-projecting promontory of Assynt, a mountainous district, distinguished by its sugarloaf peaks, and steered along it to the northward. The coast is not very lofty, but is backed by a long and noble range of picturesque mountains. It diminishes progressively to the Cape, and hence arises the great danger of wrecks. Vessels steering from the southward to the Cape, with a westerly wind, are apt to suppose, when the weather is hazy, that they have rounded the point as soon as they have passed the rocky harbours of Lochs Laxford and Inchard, shape their course accordingly, and do not discover their error till they approach too near to recover their lee-way. To persons acquainted with the coast, the excellent harbour of Loch Inchard might, under these circumstances, afford a refuge; but to foreigners, by whom it is sometimes little known, the entrance pre sents the appearance of a rough and inaccessible coast, and they see no alternative before them but going ashore. The want of a lighthouse on the Cape is another main cause of danger; the deficiency will soon be supplied, as one is in progress. We reached this far-famned nortn-western headland of the mainland of Great Britain, Cape Wrath or Rath, soon after sunset: and could just descry through mist and spray its dusky form, the terror of seamen, emerging from a sea now violently agitated by the contest of the south-west wind with the ebb-tide, which, passing rapidly from east to west along the northern, and descending along the western coast of Scotland, meets at the angle its adversary, the tyrant of the Minsh. The convulsive motions of our good ship afforded palpable indications of the fury of the encounter. Darkness concealed from view the formidable northern coast of Scotland. We reached Thurso Bay at sunrise, having performed a distance of 140 miles, notwithstanding the temporary opposition of a strong tide, in about eighteen hours. The anchorage at Scrabster Roads, under high cliffs in the western corner, is good and sufficiently screened from westerly winds. The bay is protected on the eastern side by Dunnet Head, and on the western by Holburn Head, two of the boldest headlands of the Pentland Frith. The town of Thurso lies on the eastern shore at the mouth of a small river of the same name, and on a bank opposite appears Thurso Castle, the residence of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster. At Thurso there is a respectable and comfortable inn, the first which I had seen since leaving Glasgow. My next object was a visit to the Orkneys. The only regular communication between Caithness-shire and the Orkneys is by means of the mail-boat, which passes three times a week, when the weather permits, across the narrowest part of the Pentland Frith, where the channel does not exceed twelve miles in breadth. The men employed in this navigation are so well acquainted with the tides, that, availing themselves of the favourable moment for starting, they shoot across with little risk; and it is remarkable, that there is but one instance of the loss of a mail-boat having occurred during seventy years, so completely has skill converted that chief source of danger in the Frith, the rapidity of the currents, to its own advantage; and, such is the steady bearing of the little bark, that, ...The waves bound beneath her as a horse That knows his rider. The fishing-smacks, however, promised the best and safest conveyance from Thurso, and meeting the skipper of one of these vessels, which lay in the roads, walking in the town, I made him an offer which I thought would satisfy him. He was a true John Bull, from Greenwich, fat and rosy, strutting along in supreme independence, with his hands in his waistcoat-pockets, gruff, and speaking the purest Cockney. His temper had been probably soured by the long continuance of the S.W. winds, which had prevented the usual despatch of cargoes of live fish to the London market; and, on receiving my proposition for a cast to Orkney, either to Kirkwall or Stromness, he talked very sullenly of the possibility of detention aud the waste of time. Tempted, however, by the price offered, he at length consented, but afterwards broke his engagement as sulkily as he had entered into it. The cod-smacks are capital sailing vessels, well manned, and well appointed; they vary in size, from 50 to 60 tons, and are rigged as sloops, and the crew are well accommodated on board. Each vessel contains a well for the reception of live fish, of which the cargo sometimes amounts to 90 score. To secure a current of water for the preservation of the fish, the vessel keeps the sea as much as possible, and even when in harbour, is usually under sail, the large Lochs of Eribol and Laxford affording ample room for cruising. The character of the skippers of these smacks, as seamen, stands very high in the estimation of the coasters. They are said to be better acquainted with the headlands and landmarks than any other navigators, and yield to none in skill and intrepidity. They are universally respected, as their conduct is good. They sometimes indemnify themselves by excess on shore for the total abstinence from spirits required of them whilst on board, but in this respect they have improved; some of them abstain from fishing on Sundays, and attend Divine Service. Their crews, also, are much less ignorant and disorderly than formerly. The number of their hands contributes as much as the superiority of their vessels to their reputation as seamen, amounting to eleven, men and boys; the latter are very useful in the fishing. Their costume is picturesque, consisting of a white flannel dress with pearl buttons, slouch hat, and jack-boots. The fish in the well, notwithstanding all the care employed in the preservation of them, die in great numbers until the cold weather sets in: as soon as they are observed to sicken, they are taken out, crimped, and salted. As several smacks belong to the same company, one of them is despatched, as soon as a cargo of live fish is completed, to the London market. The line is always used in fishing, and the fishing commences with the flood-tide. majestically bounding the horizon. The red sand-stone, of PENTLAND FRITH; ORKNEYS; SOUND OF HOY. It is owing to the enterprising spirit of the Thames Company, no less than to the advantages already stated, that the cod-fishing on this coast is principally in their hands. Stornaway furnishes a single vessel, and Thurso another. It is somewhat remarkable, that Leith takes little share in the trade. The white fish, cod, ling, and tusk, abound on the banks of the northern coast of Scot-cusing his not having done so before, as a gale had been land, the Orkney and Shetland Isles, and principally etween those two groups of islands. The Dutch engage in it. The Hollanders, according to Edmonstone, did not fish for cod separately, with the exception of those caught during the summer-season with long lines, and as an article of daily food, until 1811; since that time small vessels, carrying about eight men, have been occupied annually, during the summer-months, in fishing cod on different neighbouring banks. The alternative of crossing the Frith in an open boat was fortunately prevented by the arrival of a small merchant vessel, formerly a yacht, the master of which agreed to convey me, and I passed the evening with a gentleman residing near Thurso. The mouth of the Thurso river is accessible only to small vessels. The river is celebrated for its salmonfishery, which is valued at £1000 per annum; it had just terminated. The house of my host commanded an extensive view of the treeless surface of Caithness-shire; and northward of the windings of the river flowing between high banks, the town of Thurso, the bay, the opposite headlands, and the lofty precipices of Hoy, one of the Orkney Islands, In 1736, 2560 salmon were taken in the course of a day, upon one pool of this river.-Statistical Survey. blowing. Such are the sudden changes of weather in this climate. The weather had moderated, but it was still blowing hard. The hue of the sky was inky black, and threatened squalls, and the Frith was boiling and foaming beneath the dark horizon. An old seaman who came on board advised me, in a whisper, not to sail, predicting that a gale would infallibly spring up; but as he was evidently groggy, his admonition was unheeded, and at half-past four we bounded forth with the rapidity of an arrow, for the vessel was light, unballasted, and an excellent sailer. The crew consisted of the skipper, formerly in the king's service, who had fought at Camperdown, another man, and a wretched half-clad urchin, the son of a weaver of Inverness, thirteen years of age, who was making his first voyage, having spent just three weeks at sea. Heavy waves rolled before a strong western breeze into the bays of Thurso and Dunnet, which are separated by a narrow ridge, scaling and dashing against the bold headland of Dunnet, which well merits the significant appellation of Windy Knap, bestowed on it by seamen; we passed it at daybreak, and bent our course across the Frith to Cantick Head. The shorter and more direct passage to Stromness is by the Head and Sound of Hoy, and was now rendered impracticable to our vessel by the sea setting upon that island. The perils of the Pentland Frith are allowed by the most experienced mariners to be formidable, though much exaggerated. The length of the passage from Dunnet Head, on the west, to Pentland Skerries, on the east, may amount to about fifteen miles. The tide varies in rate between nine and three miles in the hour, according to the spring or neap: the spring-tide rises eight feet, on extraordinary occasions fourteen; the neap is from 3 to 6. The flood flows from west to east, proceeding northwards along the western coast of Scotland, directing its course through the Frith, and then southward along the eastern coast. But some degree of intricacy, and of consequent difficulty to navigators, arises from the counter-currents, which are as rapid as the tide itself; by the strong eddies produced by the intervention of headlands, islands, rocks and shoals, and by the whirlpools, sometimes formed by the confluence of currents, occasioned by such obstacles, which, when raised by gales, are dangerous even to large vessels. The stream flows along the coasts of the Frith, in a direction opposite to that of the central and main current, and the change of tide is perceptible between two and three hours later on the shores than in the mid-channel. The encounter of such rapid tides with violent gales occasions tremendous conflicts: the awful magnificence of the sea, when the ebb-tide is met by a storm from the north-west, baffles all description. The greatest danger apprehended in the navigation of the Frith arises from calms, especially during a thick fog. Vessels piloted by foreigners, or persons unacquainted with the tides, have been known to drift along at the rapid rate of nine miles in the hour, while those on board supposed the vessel to be stationary, and did not discover their error till on the point of striking on the coast,-a disaster, under such circumstances, apparently inevitable, but often warded off by some friendly counter-current which suddenly diverts their course, and hurries them away into the mid-channel. A different result must happen when vessels are drifted into bays, which afford no anchorage, or driven upon sandy beaches. In this manner a large ship entered Dunnet Bay lately, during a mist, and was wrecked, whilst the crew supposed themselves becalmed in the Frith. The back-current, seconded by the breeze, which gradually increased, bore us rapidly along, till the ebb-tide, now flowing at the rate of seven miles in the hour, became apparent by the great increase of the swell. We steered towards the small island of Stroma. The coast of Caithness-shire, to the eastward of Dunnet Head, is low. Near the shore stands Mey Castle, the seat of the Earl of Caithness, in the midst of some rising plantations; whilst beyond Stroma appears Duncansby Head, the N.E. promontory of Scotland. The principal headlands of Hoy, in Orkney, the farthest of which is the Head, rose in fine perspective on our left. The waves were majestically high, and seemed to form a wall, traversing the Frith from coast to coast. Excepting a fishing-smack, off Dunnet Head, making for the harbour, and a large three-masted merchant vessel, beating up the Frith to windward, which passed close to us as she lay on one of her tacks, we saw no sail. The waving of the corn-fields and green pastures of the coast of Hoy, between Red Head and Cantick Head, form a cheerful contrast to the lofty and dreaded precipices of the western face of the island. Swona, a small island, famed for the whirlpool produced by the agitation of the conflicting currents which surround it, called the Wells of Swona, appeared in sight*. This island contains seventy inhabitants, who live by smuggling and illicit distillation, -persons of desperate character, whom the Excisemen dare not molest. We reached Cantick Head, well pleased to enter smoother water, as the skipper confessed afterwards, that he observed, with no little anxiety, the continual increase of the swell and rise of the waves, for the breeze had matured into a gale. The southern approach to the main land of Orkney, the island of Pomona, is by a channel, several miles in breadth, interspersed with small islands, dividing Hoy from South Ronaldsha, two principal islands of the Orkney group. The southern coast of Pomona is indented by two bays, one of which supplies an excellent roadstead for large vessels, and contains the harbour of Stromness, one of the safest in the British isles. On the left of the channel opens, in its full extent, the * Dr. Barry denies the existence of the Wells of Swona, meaning, I presume, (for there can be no doubt of the existence of the whirlpool formed in the manner stated,) that, according to the literal inter. pretation of the word well, its depth and perils are much exaggerated, long and deep harbour of Long Hope, affording secure anchorage for any number of vessels of the largest size,the best in the Orkneys, being superior in one respect to Stromness, as large vessels can clear out of it more easily. The navigation between the bold and precipitous coast of Hoy, and the many islands which obstruct the passage, is intricate. The ebb-tide, rapid as a torrent, hurried us along; and as the water was comparatively smooth, we sailed as along a broad, majestic river. But violent squalls now burst upon our unballasted vessel through the gullies and inlets of the coast of Hoy, the severest of which befell us as passing under the highest mountain of this island, called the Wart, or Ward Hill of Hoy, we entered the Sound which separates that island from Pomona, a channel several miles in length, noted for the turbulence of its waters, which even in calm weather is agitated at its western entrance, as if by a storm, by the mere conflict of the currents. The skipper, fearing lest the vessel should be laid on its beam-ends, ran from the helm which he left in my charge, and lowered the fore-sail, whilst his helpmate was employed in taking in a second reef in the main-sail. Having thus provided for our safety, he lost no time in ordering the unfortunate boy to come on deck and hold to a rope, not that he could be in any degree useful, but that he might be accustomed to dangers to which his life was doomed. The little half-naked wretch obeyed; and after standing, shivering, and drenched with spray for a few minutes, slunk back into his hole. Rapidly crossing the Sound, between the small island of Gremsa and the mainland of Orkney, we approached every moment its formidable lee-shore, lying level beneath a heavy surf. The skipper, perceiving that our present sail was perfectly incapable of making head against the gale, and that wreck was in evitable unless every rag was spread, ordered the fore-sail to be unfurled, the main-sail to be loosed, and put about, having no alternative but to face the tremendous swell of the Sound, and to beat up against it, making several tacks, whilst the vessel lay almost on her beam-ends, and the waves rolled over her. At length, we were cheered with the sight of the masts of the vessels lying in Stromness Roads, and soon reached the harbour, which was filled by merchantmen detained by adverse winds, very thankful to Providence for our preservation, after a passage of about 35 miles. 'A very coarse day, Sir," was the first greeting which reached my ear, as I stepped on shore, drenched with rain and spray; an expression to which it was impossible to refuse a hearty assent. 66 ORKNEY; STROMNESS; STONES OF STENNIS; KIRKWALL; HISTORY. THE harbour of Stromness forms part of an extensive bay; it is long and narrow, lying north and south, sheltered from the west by a high ridge, along the sloping sides of which the town is built, and guarded at its entrance by a low mound, called the Holms, outside of which the larger vessels ride to avoid the difficult task of clearing the harbour. Two large three-masted ships, bound for Liverpool from Russian ports, now lay at anchor in these roads, and there were about thirty merchantmen westward-bound in the harbour. Stromness, originally a small village, has gradually become enlarged by the resort of vessels and trade; but its streets, of which one bisects its whole length, are still wretched lanes, and the pavement is so rough that a horse can scarcely pass over it in safety. Carts, according to the Statistical Survey, were first used in this parish less than a century ago. Few English sea-ports can boast of an inn more agreeably situated, or better accommodated for the reception of guests, than that which stands on the side of the harbour. A hearty breakfast, well-earned by the voyage, prepared me for a ride to Kirkwall. The landlord hired two capital ponies, and provided a guide, who, though much more respectable than persons of this class usually are, had unfortunately scarcely ever mounted a horse before, and was for a long time securing his seat. The road to Kirkwall is very good. It crosses a dreary moor of great extent, passing, by a bridge, a narrow stream communicating between the bay and a large salt-water Loch. A natural embankment separates this Loch from Loch Stennis, a broad sheet of water. It is the site of the well-known Stone Circles. Their situation, so similar to that of the Circles of Calernish in Lewis, was probably chosen with reference to the vicinity of the water, necessary, perhaps, to the ceremonies or the safety of the people by whom they were erected. Their number is also the same. Of one of them there are four stones remaining, of which three are standing. They are about 18 or 20 feet in length; they would have been all long ago shivered into fragments by a neighbouring farmer, who was beginning to employ the materials in building his house, had not the sheriff's interposition put a stop to the sacrilege. The principal Circle is very large; its diameter, extending to the outside of the fosse is 360 feet; and it is surrounded by a fosse 20 feet broad and 12 feet deep: the stones of which it is composed are from 12 to 14 feet in height. There are several tumuli in the neighbourhood of the circles, and detached stones of the same description are found in all the Orkney Islands. The banks of Loch Stennis are well cultivated, and the dreary prospect of moor and water is diversified by considerable tracts of arable land. We met on the road the Royal Mail carried by a bare-legged boy, who was trotting along to Stromness. At length, as we descended a steep hill to the flat shore of Scarpa Bay, we perceived the tower of the Cathedral of Kirkwall, surrounded by the houses of the town on the northern side of the isthmus, which is about three miles in breadth. A town so extensive on the northern shore of Orkney is an object of much interest; and there is something peculiarly striking and imposing on such a spot, in the appearance of the massy pile and lofty towers of a Cathedral, and the more so when it is viewed as almost the only unimpaired specimen of those stately monuments of ecclesiastical grandeur which adorned Scotland previous to the Reformation. On one side of the Cathedral rise the venerable ruins of the ancient castle of the Earls of Orkney, and on the other those of the palace of the bishops; whilst the masts of the vessels clustered together in the harbour, indicate the present commercial importance of Kirkwall. The metropolis of the northern isles is situated, like that of Corinth, between two seas. Its tranquil dignity exhibits a striking contrast to the turbulence of the waves, which beat the northern and the southern shores of the isthmus on which it stands. The principal street of Kirkwall is a narrow ill-paved lane of about a mile in length. A square, containing the Cathedral and other of the chief buildings, opens into it. There is a respectable show of shops, and two inns afford fair accommodation. I was amused by a characteristic trait of national curiosity: a child of five years of age, who was standing at the door of a house as we entered the town, asked, with all imaginable gravity, whence we came and whither we were going. The guide, though we were trotting along, thought proper to reply to the best of his knowledge to both these questions. It will be necessary, previously to giving some description of Kirkwall, to take a brief view of the principal events in the history of Orkney. The ancient inhabitants were the Picts, to whom are ascribed the conical towers found on various parts of the coast of Scotland, one of which exists near Kirkwall. In the ninth century, the Norwegians, led by Harold Harfager, reduced the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles, and in 920, resigned these possessions to his brother Sigund the Elder, who became the first Earl of Orkney. Sigund and his successors extended their sway over the neighbouring counties of Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross-shire, but were occasionally defeated and deprived of a portion of their conquests by the Kings of Scotland, and sometimes deposed by the Kings of Norway, of whom they held their possessions on the terms of feudal homage. The succession to the earldom was at length contested by two cousins, Hacon and Magnus. Hacon finally determined their dispute by murdering his rival, A. D. 1110. This deed was perpetrated in the Isle of Eagleshay: the body of Magnus was removed to Christ's Church in Birsa, where it irradiated celestial light and wrought divers miracles, in virtue of the canonization which the holy martyr had received. Hacon, seized by compunctions, endeavoured to atone for his guilt by making a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem, and by washing himself in the river Jordan. About this period the Bishops of Orkney, who probably exercised a spiritual jurisdiction in these islands long previous, are authentically mentioned. Ronald, nephew of St. Magnus, became Earl of Orkney, and in fulfilment of a vow built the Cathedral of Kirkwall, in honour of the saint, and removed his bones to this sacred asylum. The present edifice, with some additions made to it by the bishops, is the same which was then erected. The earldom became vacant A.D. 1379, and was granted, on hard conditions, by the King of Norway to | Henry Sinclair (or St. Clair,) and continued in his family till a period subsequent to the transfer of Orkney to the King of Scotland. This remarkable event in the history of Orkney occurred A.D. 1468. The Western Isles had been for some time subject to the Scottish sway; and in this year Christian the First, King of Denmark, who governed Sweden, Norway, and Holstein, mortgaged the Isles of Orkney and Shetland to the King of Scotland, in pledge for the payment of a considerable debt. The claim to these possessions may be deemed virtually, though not formally, abandoned by the Danish monarch. The Kings of Scotland did not retain peaceable possession of this remote province of their empire. In the year 1470, the second subsequently to the transfer, Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, resigned his earldom to the King of Scotland. His son by a first marriage became Lord Sinclair, whilst his son by a second was created Earl of Caithness, the ancestor of the present earl. During the minority of James the Fifth of Scotland, the two brothers, deeming the opportunity for recovering the surrendered inheritance favourable, invaded Orkney: they were supported by Sinclair, governor of Kirkwall, a natural son of their family, and were defeated in a pitched battle near the Stones of Stennis; the earl was killed and Lord Sinclair made prisoner. The feuds and troubles which continued to disturb the islands, were allayed by the arrival of James the Fifth in person, who resided as guest to the bishop in his palace, A.D. 1536, and settled his government. Grants of the earldom were several times made and revoked; the dukedom was constituted and conferred by Mary on her favourite Bothwell. During this period of uncertain rule, the bishops are described as having exercised a mild and beneficent jurisdiction in spiritual matters. Robert Reid enjoyed the mitre A.D. 1540: he filled the high office of President of the Court of Session at Edinburgh, and negotiated and celebrated the marriage between Mary and the Dauphin of France. He enlarged and adorned the cathedral; his effigy with his name subjoined is represented in relief on the tower of the bishops' palace. The earldom was granted to the Stewarts, Robert and his son Patrick, A. D. 1600; to these personages Orkney and Shetland are indebted for the principal remaining monuments of former grandeur., Robert enlarged and embellished the palace of Birsa, which had been inhabited, if not built by the Earl Sinclair his son Patrick erected the present palace of Kirkwall. But to defray the expense of these structures, and of the magnificence which they indulged, the Stewarts levied arbitrary and oppressive taxes, and at length produced by their tyrannical conduct a revocation of the Royal Grant. The government of the islands was intrusted to the bishop., On the abolition of the prelacy, the leases of the episcopal lands were granted to the city of Edinburgh. These, together with the earldom of Orkney and the lordship of, Shetland, were, A. D. 1642, conferred in virtue of former. grants on the Earl of Morton by King Charles the First. During the usurpation, Cromwell's soldiers were quartered in the island. In 1669, the earldom was annexed to the crown, and erected into a stewardry. In 1669, the bishopric, having been temporarily restored, was finally abolished. The Earl of Morton having mismanaged his property, oppressed by the vexation which it occasioned him, sold it in 1766 to Lord Dundas, whose representative, the present lord, receives the feu duties. The church lands reverted to the crown, and are subject to the control of the Exchequer*. The Cathedral, standing in an open square, is freed from those encumbrances which too frequently not only obstruct the view, but deface the fronts of several of the English Minsters: its architecture is a respectable specimen of the style of the twelfth century, and the plan on which it is constructed is uniform, as with the exception of the eastern window and some other minor parts, it was the work of one period. The small size of the windows and heavy character of the building are characteristic of the age in which it was built. The length of the Cathedral from east to west is 236 feet; its breadth 56: the arms of the cross or transept are 30 feet in breadth; the height of the roof is 71 feet, that of the steeple 140. The roof of the nave is vaulted by Gothic arches, supported on each side by a triple row of columns; the lowest tier consists of fourteen, each measuring fifteen feet in circumference. The tower is supported by four, measuring each twenty-four feet in circumference. The effect of the massy and * The above sketch of the history of Orkney is abridged chiefly from Dr. Barry's work, regularly-formed columns is imposing: the nave is covered with monumental inscriptions, commemorating magistrates and other principal inhabitants of Orkney, and a few stone coffins are scattered about. The partial gleams of day admitted through the small discoloured windows which line the aisles, half choked with grass, augment the sepulchral appearance of this portion of the Cathedral. The original design of its builder, pushed beyond its scope by the culpable negligence of its present guardians, would incur the censure of those who object to the usual gloomy character of Gothic Minsters, designating them rather as mausoleums of dead men than as temples of the living God. But if we regard the nave as the vestibule of the choir, through which we pass from the restless scenes of this world to the peaceful sanctuary of another, assuredly the records of human mortality, and "the scrolls which teach us to live and to die," are by no means inappropriate appendages of its hallowed architecture, nor has the epithet religious" been ill applied to the "dim light" by which we peruse them. 66 The choir, the only remnant of choral architecture which has survived the Reformation in Scotland, is kept with much care. It is furnished with stalls, and adorned by a very elegant east window. The service of the Kirk is regularly performed in it every Sunday. The expenses of the repairs of the Cathedral are defrayed partly by the Exchequer, and partly by a bequest of a pious individual for that particular purpose, called in Scotland a mortification. The present state of the Cathedral at Kirkwall confirms the well-authenticated fact, that the tide of devastation which overthrew the ancient establishments of Scotland at the Reformation, spent its fury ere it had reached Orkney; and the prejudice against episcopacy is said to be less violent here than in other parts of Scotland. The palace of the earls is pleasantly situated at a short distance from the Cathedral: the carvings underneath the windows are well executed; and there remains, besides several apartments and vaults, a hall measuring 58 feet in length by 20 in breadth. The building is in a ruinous and disgustingly filthy state. It was erected, as has been already mentioned, by Patrick Stewart. It is an interesting incident in its history that Montrose took refuge within its walls, and here mustered his last band of followers. The episcopal palace adjoins that of the earls; it consists at present of a few ruined apartments: a statue of Bishop Reid is sculptured on the exterior of the tower. Near these ancient structures is a modern row of schoolhouses, a secession chapel, and another dissenting place of worship. The residents of Kirkwall form a pleasant society, and are hospitable to strangers. They hold meetings for the encouragement of agriculture and other purposes of general usefulness. The assizes are held here, and there is a small gaol, in which the prisoners were singing aloud to relieve the tediousness of their weary hours. A few diminutive trees grow in Kirkwall, the only ones of which Orkney can boast, although its peat-mosses discover vestiges of ancient forests. The harbour is not altogether safe, being much exposed to the north wind. My guide was very communicative as we returned to Stromness, though his colloquial exertions were in no small degree embarrassed by the wind, and he found neither his saddle "a sit easy," nor his bridle "a guide the beast," the expressive terms by which those articles are designated in Orkney. The accounts of the arctic excursions which he had collected amongst the whalefishers were very amusing. The scenery and habits of the northern regions are perfectly well known to the people of Orkney Isles, as they furnish annually a considerable number of men for the fisheries. The three stones of Stennis dimly seen through a spreading haze just before night fall, presented, as we passed, a very singular appearance. The imagination might have supposed them to be the three giants holding conference; one of them, being slightly bent, seemed to assume the attitude of deliberation, and the illusion was corroborated by the apparent change in their relative position, produced by our progress along the windings of the road. The resemblance explains partly the old notion of such stones being enchanted men. A better and intentional deception occurred near Stromness: a colossal human figure, attired in a very grotesque manner, appeared stationed on the edge of a corn-field. It consisted of a column of stones erected in rude but tolerably exact imitation of the human form, surmounted by a piece of turf, carved in the shape of a three-cornered hat. A broad mantle of sea-weed covered the shoulders, and flowed loosely in the wind: by day it served to scare the cattle from the corn, by night it might have shaken the nerves and arrested the progress of a more rational traveller. P.S.Q. R. END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME LONDON. Published by JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND; and sold by all Booksellers. |