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SKETCHES OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND.

PART THE SEVENTH.

man.

ORKNEY; SANDWICK; EDUCATION.

(A. D. 1827. SEPT.)

I FOUND at the inn at Stromness the captain of a trading vessel, which had just arrived from Quebec,-an intelligent He complained bitterly of a grievance, under which he was yet smarting; a ride to the custom-house at Kirkwall, and back again, on a rough pony, which had proved torture to him, as he was very corpulent, and unused to this sort of exercise. The custom-house is fixed at Kirkwall, in virtue of its ancient privilege, to the infinite inconvenience of the trade, since Stromness, which was formerly a village, has become the principal place of commercial resort. The want of a dry dock in the harbour of Stromness is also a great drawback to its numerous advantages, and is little compensated for by the consequent exemption from dues.

The shores of the Sound of Hoy, on either side, are covered with extensive corn-fields, now ripening for the harvest. The neatly-trimmed hedge-rows of England are wanting, and the enclosures are merely high stone walls. But the uncemented masonry of Orkney, whether in the cottages, farm-houses, or these walls, cannot be surpassed. The manse of the parish of Sandwick stands near the sea, about a mile from Stromness; and not far from it is the cemetery, enclosed by a stone wall, and containing a ruined chapel. It is the invariable custom, here, to bury drowned persons on the side of the chapel farthest from the sea: no reason is assigned for it.

My guide was a very intelligent little fellow, who had learned to read before he went to sea; and had just returned from his first fishing-expedition off the coast of Caithness. He spoke of his crossing the wells of Swona, and his boat having been turned twice round; whilst he added that that which contained his brother had been whirled five times about: observing that "there was no danger only when the sea was very wroth." He recounted several anecdotes of the adventures of his father and other boatmen, in a plain but nervous and even eloquent style, which surprised me much in an infant of his age. Every traveller who converses with the children in Scotland, or attends the schools in which the higher branches of education are taught, will be astonished at the vigour and accuracy of their understanding even at a very early age. The English spoken in Orkney is very pure, and free from provincial corruptions. Education has become almost universal amongst the people, as might be fully inferred from the following statement in the report of the Inverness Society, founded on an investigation which took place in 1822. "In the Hebrides, and other western parts of Inverness and Ross, 70 in the 100 cannot read. In the remaining parts of Inverness and Ross, in Nairn, the Highlands of Moray, Cromarty, Sutherland, and the inland parts of Caithness, 40 in the 100. In Argyle and the Highlands of Perth, 30 in the 100. In Orkney and Shetland, 12 in the 100." Since the above-mentioned period, the comparatively trifling deficiency in the number of persons unable to read in Orkney, has been partly supplied.

On Sunday, I accompanied my landlord to the kirk. The streets were quite thronged with people, passing to it and to the Secession chapel. The church is large. The Seceders are said to be nearly as numerous here, as the members of the Established Church. Their progress has been rapid, for at the close of the last century there were no Dissenters, according to the Statistical Survey. It contrasts strikingly with the extreme rarity of Dissenters in the neighbouring shire of Sutherland and the Western Isles, and corroborates the conclusion stated in a former part of these Sketches. Two services were performed in a stentorian tone of voice, by the assistant minister, who labours notwithstanding under an impediment of speech, occasioned by breaking his jaw. The congregations were remarkably attentive, and deviated from the usual practice in Scotland, by standing up when they sung. The natives, fishermen, and merchants, abstain rigidly from fishing and sailing on Sundays; and as strangers, who frequent the port, too frequently make no distinction of days, their stedfastness in resisting the influence of bad example, and in refusing participation in the usual profits resulting from it, reflects

credit on the religion which they profess. The parish of Sandwick is very extensive and populous. The minister is incapacitated by old age for the discharge of any of his duties,which are delegated to an assistant, and to his son, who volunteers his aid. The parish will be divided, on the death of the actual incumbent, into two distinct parishes,-Sandwick and Stromness: the town of Stromness alone containing at present 2400 inhabitants.

ORKNEY; HOY; DWARFIE STANE; EAGLES. A GENTLEMAN of Stromness kindly conveyed me to Hoy, in a large and capital boat, crossing the Sound to westward of Gremsa. A heavy swell was rolling upon this island; and the Sound exhibited to seaward, at no considerable distance, a foaming surface of boiling eddies and formidable breakers. The pilots amuse themselves with the practice of frightening strangers, by directing their course directly to the whirlpool, and then turning aside at the moment at which the unfortunate landsman apprehends certain destruction. Our course lay away from the breakers. A vast and closely-compacted assemblage of cormorants, forming a complete circle, rearing their long necks aloft, appeared floating in undisturbed array upon the boisterous waves. These birds usually fish in this manner.

The distance from Stromness to Hoy is four miles: we landed in a creek, and walked to the Manse, where we were received by the minister, Mr. Hamilton, an aged widower. He showed us his flower-garden and kitchen-garden, and a water-mill, and invited us to dine with him, on our return from our intended excursion. His two sons, young men destined for the church, offered to accompany us: one of them went with my Orcadian friend on a shooting excursion, and the other undertook to be my guide, and we fixed a place of rendezvous. We entered, after a walk of some distance, a sombre uninhabited valley, bounded by high heathery hills, and soon perceived the object of our search, an enormous fragment of free-stone, that celebrated Dwarfie Stane over which the great Magician of the North has waved with almost supernatural power the wand of his enchantments. Its dimensions are thirty-two feet in length, sixteen and a-half in breadth, and seven feet five inches in height. The interior is divided into three apartments, one of which was evidently designed for a dormitory, being excavated in the shape of a bed: and in the interval between this and another apartment, is an area, intended, perhaps, for a fireplace, as there is a hole cut in the roof, which might serve for the conveyance of smoke. The traditionary story respecting this singular stone is, that it was the habitation of a dwarf who had been married to a giant. It must be presumed that they lived in a state of separation, a thoro at least, if not a mensa. There can be no doubt that this singular dwelling was the work of a superstitious age, and the abode of a hermit. No one would have undertaken the labour which it cost for amusement; and a shepherd would not have been satisfied with so rude a habitation. Near this phenomenon is a spring, which working its way through resembling india rubber. As we walked onwards towards a vegetable substance, reduces it to a consistency exactly the Wart-Hill, a wild currant-bush was pointed out to me, the only shrub growing in the midst of this desert. It is found in different parts of Orkney.

exchanged for the waving corn-fields of the vale of Rackwick, The dreariness of the scenery was suddenly and agreeably and its village, inhabited by fishermen, on the beach, enclosed by two steep, rocky eminences, one of which forms the southern boundary of the Wart Hill. We pursued our route to the foot of the Wart Hill, climbed it by a steep ascent, and then descended across a desolate tract to the edge of a lofty overhanging precipice. Before us, at an interval of a few yards, and probably detached from the coast by the action of the impetuous sea upon the soft red sand-stone, of which the rocks are here composed, appeared the noble column called the Old Man of Hoy, rising to the height of 12 or 1500 feet. Four fine eagles hovered over its summit, on which a pair build annually: and as we approached, they slowly towered aloft, barking or shrilly shrieking as they rose.

There is a small bay to the south side of this rock,

which was a few years ago the scene of an affecting story. The circumstances form the subject of some pathetic lines by Mr. Peterkin, the sheriff of Orkney, author of a small volume, descriptive of part of the scenery of the island. It, no doubt, suggested to the great novelist one of the most striking incidents in the Pirate, the scene of which is laid in Orkney and in Shetland; for it is in part exactly described in the account of the drifting of the vessel containing his hero on Sumburgh Head. The following is the occurrence alluded to. A vessel was descried in a heavy gale from the north-west, drifting, water-logged, upon the Old Man of Hoy: and as she approached, two of the crew were perceived yet remaining on board of her, one of whom was lashed to the deck, and the other to the rigging. Having narrowly escaped collision with the rock, she was wrecked with violence in the cove. This event had been anxiously expected by two natives of the island, who immediately flew to the prey, brought ashore the unfortunate sailors, one of whom was found to be living; and, insensible to the call of humanity, laid him on the beach to perish, whilst they plundered the vessel. An old superstitious notion once prevailed in these islands, that a man, if saved from a watery grave, would inflict some serious mischief on his preserver. It is easy to conceive the origin of a doctrine so convenient to that class of persons called wreckers, when the sages who invented it, and the credulous people who believed it, were equally interested in its practical consequences. All Orkney was indignant at the flagrant breach of the laws of humanity and hospitality committed on this occasion; and the grave of the seamen is pointed out on a plot of turf on a ledge of a rock, elevated a few feet above the beach, near the spot on which the vessel struck.

The summit of the Wart-hill rises nearly 2000 feet in height to northward of the Old Man. The sea, which rushes upon this side of the island with a fury not surpassed in any part of the world, has wrought tremendous fissures in the coast, which presents a long broken line of stupendous precipices and awful chasms, exhibiting, in conjunction with the stately column of the Old Man, a scene of uncommon grandeur and sublimity. Though now much agitated by tempestuous winds, viewed from so great a height, it appeared a level mass of foam; and large vessels, hastening for refuge to the harbour of Stromness, seemed mere specks on the great deep. The gradual encroachments of the sea might almost induce an expectation of the final overthrow of the island; and if the duration of the world were sufficient for the completion of the work of devastation, the soft materials of which the island is composed would probably yield to its violence, like the land which once, it is said, filled the channel of the irresistible Pentland.

To the blown Baltic, then, they say,
The wild waves found another way,

Where Orcas howls, his wolfish mountains rounding.

COLLINS'S Ode on Liberty.

But the fishermen of Rackwick sleep as securely on the verge of the devouring element, as the inhabitants of Portici at the foot of Vesuvius".

Eagles are very numerous in Hoy. Mr. Bullock, proprietor of the London Museum, is supposed to have discovered every species of those birds known in Great Britain, except the Osprey. At that time, and till lately, the number of species, besides the Osprey, was allowed to be four; but the recent researches of naturalists have reduced it to two, it having been ascertained that the Ring-tailed is the Golden, and the Sea-Eagle the Cinereous in an im

mature state.

The north-west promontory of Sanda, one of the Orkneys (says Mr. Lyell, in his work on Geology, Vol. I. 263,) has been cut off in modern times by the sea, so that it became what is now called Start Island, where a lighthouse was erected in 1807, since which time the new strait has grown broader."

+ See SELBY's Ornithology.-Mr. Selby thus describes a method of taking eagles occasionally employed in Scotland. "A miniature house, at least the wall part of it, is built on ground frequented by the eagle, and an opening left at the foot of the wall, sufficient for the egress of the bird. To the outside of this opening a bit of strong skeiny (cord) is fixed, with a noose formed on one end, and the other running through the noose. After all this operation is finished, a piece of carrion is thrown into the house, which the eagle finds out and perches upon. It eats voraciously, and when fully satisfied it never thinks of taking its flight immediately upwards, unless disturbed, provided it can find any easier way to get out of the house; for it appears that it cannot readily begin its flight but in an oblique direction; consequently it walks deliberately out at the opening left for it, and the skeiny being fitly contrived and placed for the purpose, catches hold of and fairly strangles it." In regard to the

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to observe them, are very singular. İt is remarkable, that The habits of the eagle, described by persons accustomed their numbers neither increase nor decrease: each pair has two places for building their nest, and shifts the work from destruction of one pair, is immediately filled up by another, one to the other if disturbed. A vacancy, occasioned by the occupying their haunts and breeding-place; and it is probable that the increase in the number is prevented by the old birds driving away the young. This is the well-known eagles levy heavy contributions on the lambs and pigs in practice of ravens, and several birds of the falcon-tribe. The in his garden, was disturbed by a loud squeaking, which the neighbourhood. Mr. Hamilton, while walking one day commenced near his mill, and by degrees grew fainter and fainter. He advanced to the spot, and immediately perceived one of his pigs struggling vainly in the talons of Wart-Hill. There is at present a man living in Orkney, an eagle, who was soaring away with his prey towards the who was seized when a child by an eagle, and was carried a little distance: when the bird, becoming alarmed, dropped him, having but little injured him. Other instances have occurred of similar attempts on children. Mr. Hamilton was more successful in another instance, in inflicting punishment on one of these depredators. An eagle had so effectually entangled his claws in the back of a sheep, that he could not disengage himself, and afforded Mr. Hamilton the opportunity of killing him with his stick.

From the side of the Wart-Hill the Sound of Hoy opens beautifully in all its extent, bounded by the opposite chain of hills in Pomona. We passed a richly green spot, called the Meadow of Kean, enclosed by the lofty buttresses of the Wart-Hill, and, after pausing a few minutes to listen to the fine echoes, descended to the hospitable Manse, where we were welcomed by a large party. Our host had been minister of this parish thirty years, and had found it at his coming much neglected. No Sacrament had been administered in it during thirty years previous.

ORKNEY; SANDWICK; BURGH AND CASTLE OF BIRSA.

On the following day, I was introduced at his manse to the minister of Sandwick, the Rev. Mr. Clouston, who had filled the parochial office during sixty years, and his present situation during half that period. Though much advanced in years, he communicated his various information in a very agreeable manner, and described with enthusiasm the visit of Captain Cook and his companions, and that more recent of Captain Franklin and his party to Orkney. The latter occupied a dismantled house, near the Manse, during some days, while detained in the island by contrary winds, swinging their hammocks from the rafters. Mr. Clouston's son, a young man, very assiduous in the discharge of the ministerial duties delegated to him by his father, deemed it necessary, as is by no means unusual among the young clergy destined for the Highlands and Islands, to prepare himself at the University for this laborious station, by adding to his usual theological studies, that of medicine and other sciences. A practical acquaintance with medicine is indeed almost essential to a minister in many parishes of Scotland, in which no professional assistance can be procured. Some of the clergy differ in opinion, as to the expediency of a minister uniting the two functions; finding that their recipes for the bodily ailments of their parishioners are so much in request, as almost to preclude the introduction of a word in behalf of their spiritual welfare: but when their lot happens to be cast in a parish in which people frequently die from want of medical relief, humanity leaves them no alternative. Many parts of Scotland are 30 to 60 miles removed from a medical practitioner,-a long and rough ferry, perhaps, intervening.

osprey, I have little doubt that I saw this bird on the Sound of Hoy. It flew close, to the vessel, during the gale which then prevailed, and was pointed out to me by onc of the crew as an eagle that lived solely on fish, and it certainly resembled much the osprey, if not the bird itself. Mr. Bullock may not have seen one, as it has become, as we are informed by Mr. Selby, very rare.

Mr. Lloyd says, in his Northern Field Sports, that eagles in Orkney are represented as striking turbot and other fish, and being sometimes carried by them under water. For the following account

of an eagle's larder, discovered in the Isle of Arran, when a nest of
that bird was taken, I have the authority of a Scottish laird who
received it from an eye-witness. It consisted of four rabbits, several
gredients excited much surprise: they were probably the young of
grouse, a black cock, a lamb, and two eels. The last-mentioned in-
banquets, was strewed around.
the conger. A large collection of bones, the remnant of former

The remains of a house, built by George Graham, last [ Bishop of Orkney, and now tenanted by a cotter, may yet be seen pleasantly situated at Brakeness Point, a promontory marking the western entrance of the sound. The episcopal arms, subscribed by the date of 1633, are engraved on the door. The kitchen and hall remain, as well as some other apartments. The coast at Brakeness Point is very low, but rises much northward; it abounds in slate. The Black Rock, which is composed of this material, exhibits the singular phenomenon of a complete natural staircase, descending to the edge of the water, as accurately wrought into steps as if by the hand of a human artificer. A great variety of sea-weeds is found along the coast. Spars, Molucca beans, and other American productions are occasionally deposited on the shore by the Gulf Stream, which sweeps these Islands after completing its northern circuit. Birsa is distant 12 miles from Stromness, on the northern coast of Pomona. On the road to it, the retrospective view of Stromness, its harbour, the sound, and the hills of Hoy, is very picturesque.

The country resembles very much the treeless parts of England, consisting of a series of gently sloping hills covered with corn or fine turf, interspersed with patches of heath. Several cottages were pointed out to me belonging to that class of independent proprietors, called in Orkney Udallers, or Allodial holders; their property consists of from ten to sixteen acres and upwards. The Udal tenure is disappearing in Orkney and Shetland: it is liable only to tithe and tribute, being wholly exempt from feudal obligations. That the Udal tenures are still numerous, is obvious from the fact that the minister of Stromness receives his stipend from 120 heritors, a circumstance remarkable when contrasted with there being but a single heritor in many of the parishes of the western parts of Scotland. The judge, in a trial which involved some Udal property, asked of whom the Udallers held their tenures. "They hold of God Almighty," was the reply of the zealous advocate. The Norwegians introduced into Orkney their weights, which remain to the present day, but appear to have abstained from all interference with the customary modes of regulating and disposing of property which they found in these islands; a proof of the leniency of their rule. The lands in Orkney are now chiefly held in fee of Lord Dundas, who is invested with the rights of the earldom, with the exception of those once appertaining to the church, which are held of the crown. The farms are leased, and underlet from year to year, a system which is found pernicious and fatal to improvement, and is, perhaps, the main cause of the little progress hitherto made in the cultivation of the land.

the entra

The cottages of the Orcadians are built studiously for the purpose of screening them against the sweeping wirds. They resemble fortifications. They are clustered together for the purpose of mutual shelter, and are constructed, like the walls, of stone skilfully adjusted without cement: they are also very large: the inhabitars occupy the central apartment, to which light is mitted solely by an aperture in the ceiling; this is sometimes, according to the means of the family, surrounded by additional chambers for sleeping, a kiln for corn, projecting from the outside in the form of a semicircular buttress, and also by a barn or store-room. Square heaps of peat complete the group of structures, the wbie being entirely enclosed by a high stone wall. The interior is a perfect labyrinth, in the mazes of which the visiter, having passed the door of the outer enclos are, may wander for some time ere he discovers nce to the dwelling: each cottage is provided with a gar en, chiefly yielding potatoes and cabbages. The use of 'chis latter vegetable, introduced into the island, accordng to Dr. Barry, who has thus given publicity to the popular tradition, by Cromwell's soldiers, is now become very general; and I was informed that dysenteries and other complaints of the same species are found to arise from the excessive use of it, or from its not being adequately qualified by substantial food. In possession of the kail yard, the Orkney peasantry exhibit a decided superiority over those of the Northern Hebrides and Highlands. I observed the rig-tenures or strips of land, held by different tenants. This system still prevails in Orkney: amongst the objections to it is the opportunity afforded to the dishonest holder to encroach by degrees upon the land of his unsuspecting neighbour. The progressive enlargement of some of these strips of land, at the expense of others, is a subject of much amusement. A good honest minister, holding a tract of this sort, suffered it, from inattention or

forbearance, to dwindle away gradually to a hair's breadth, whilst the proportions of his iniquitous neighbours exhibited a corresponding increase. Some of the customs described by Dr. Macculloch as prevailing in St. Kilda are similar to those of Orkney; among others this of runrig, and the peculiar mode of preserving their produce, of which he observes that "the eye is caught by the great number of small stone buildings scattered over it, naturally mistaken for the habitations of the natives. These are the pyramids of Martin, and are used for saving all their produce, their peat, corn, hay, and even their birds. These: structures are round and oval domes resembling ovens, eight or ten feet in diameter, and five or six in height." This practice, he also observes, is alluded to by Solinus as common in the Western Islands, and as now unknown except in St. Kilda. He describes the breed of sheep in that island to be the Norwegian, of miserable and scanty fleece, the same which still prevails in Shetland. SL Kilda, Orkney, and Shetland, constituting the outer circle of the Scottish Isles, obviously derived their customs in part from the same northern origin.

On our right lay spread out in all its wide expanse Loch Stennis. The venerable palace reared its stately pile on the shore of a bay on the western coast of the island, sheltered from the northern sea by the steep and lofty promontory called the Burgh of Birsa, which is united to the main land by a low level tract. To northward appeared the bold coast of Westera, one of the Orkneys, separated from Pomona by a broad sound, whilst the valley of Birsa, washed by its waters, exhibited rich harvests, groups of busy reapers, and small tracts of turf on which tethered cattle and geese were feeding. The notice of these birds may appear trifling to the English reader; but their presence indicates the superior advancement of the Orkneys, as compared to the Western Isles, in most of which they are unknown. It may seem incredible, brit is nevertheless true, that were some of our most common farm-yard animals, an English horse, an ass, a turkey, and a goose, conveyed to many of those islands, they would excite as much astonishment as a bear and a monkey, the inhabitants having no idea of them but from description. The sheep were busily cropping the sea-weed on the beach of the bay. These animals invariably descend from the hills at the time of the ebb, apparently being instinctively aware of the alterations of the tide. I little expected to be reminded of the Isle of Thanet at the most northern point of my tour, in a district swept by blasts and the spray of the northern ocean.

The site of the palace of Birsa reflects credit on the tasteof its founder, probably a Sinclair; its enlargement and embellishment are ascribed, as has been already stated, to Robert Stewart, in the commencement of the seventeenth century, and contributed to the fatal extravagance of his family. The Manse and Kirk are near the palace. The minister is much advanced in life, and has held his present situation above thirty years. A fair inference respecting the longevity of the natives of these islands may be drawn from the age attained by the three ministers, of whose hospitality I partook; and the periods of time during which they had severally filled the pastoral office in their respective parishes; and further, from the fact that three of the six ministers, forming the presbytery of Cairston, have each filled the office during half a century. The Orcadians, notwithstanding their rainy and boisterous climate, are indeed healthy and long-lived: they are subject, however, to inflammatory complaints, cold and scrophula, besides epidemics. In default of stables, we turned our horses loose in the churchyard, and fixed the saddles and bridles on the wall under soaking rain, and then proceeded to take some refreshments at the Manse, and to view the palace.

The old paved road leading to this ancient edifice has been rescued from the earth and rubbish which buried it by the present minister. The palace forms a square quadrangle, and though in a ruinous state, retains all its apart ments and chimneys, which are high and ornamental. In no part of our buildings has ancient dignity been sacrificed to modern convenience more effectually than in our chimneys. The hall, kitchen, guard-room, and dwelling-rooms, provided with windows commanding agreeable prospects, and long galleries, connecting the opposite extremities of the building, are still in tolerable preservation. The seas, during north-western gales, burst over the lofty summit of the Burgh, and deluge the valley on the opposite side with spray.

The parish of Birsa comprehends Harra. The latter is the only entirely inland parish in Orkney. It is that