Summers and Winters in the Orkneys

Preface

TO THE NEW EDITION. In this new edition there is not much additional matter, hut the text has been carefully revised in order that the information contained in the book might be made as accurate as possible. It is hoped that the map and illustrations will have the effect of giving readers a more vivid impression of the interesting nature of Orcadian anticpiities and scenery. AX CONTENTS — a-^>*«-

Chapter I

Kirkwall. Northward Ho ! — Wick Bay — Noss Head Lighthouse — Sea- View of the Caithness and Orkney Shores — String Sound — Kirkwall from the Bay — Quaint Streets — Aspects of Social Life, Old and New — Character and Habits of the Burghers — Pastimes — Battle of the Ball — Lammas Fair. .......

Chapter II

Cathedral of St. Magnus and Bishops' Palace, Exterior and Interior Views of the Cathedral — Its Historical Interest — Arrival of the Northmen — King Olaf 's ' Muscular Christianity ': — Martyrdom of Magnus — Founding of the Cathedral and Bishops' Palace — The Last of the Sea-Kings — Haco's Death and Burial — Memorial Tablets — Annals of the Bishopric Estate. VI CONTENTS. 77 1(1! I 1%

Chapter III

Rule of the Bashaivs: Earl Patrick Stewart. Ruins of the Eirl's Palace — Character and Acts of Patrick Stewart — Visit of the Duke of Sutherland — Return Visit of Earl Patrick to Dornoch — Quarrel between the Earls of Orkney and Caithness — Court Record — Insurrection in Orkney — Earl Patrick on the Scaffold.

Chapter IV

Interior of Pomona. Wideford Hill — View of the Islands — Picts' House — Orkney Trows — Maeshowe — Standing Stones of Stenness. .........

Chapter V

Summer Cruising — Tack First. Run to Rousay — Fowling— Gairsay and the Wire Skerries — Roost of Enhallow — Westness — Swendrow — A Northman's Raid — On the Hills — Summer Shower — Egilshay and Eday — Calfsoimd — The Pirate Gow — Redhead and Rapuess Cliffs — Pierowall Bay — Noltland Castle — Westray Dons — How of Habrahelia — Norse Tragedy — Night Sail 151

Chapter VI

- Summer Cruising—Tack Second. In a Cattle-Boat — Summer Squalls — Stronsay — Mill Bay — The Mermaid's Chair— Vat of Kirbuster— Cliff Scenery— A Burial Ground— Whale-Chase — Fair Isle and the Fair Islanders — Norse Ward-Fires. CONTENTS. VII 23ti 344

Chapter VII

West Mainland and the South Isles. Stromness and its Scenery — Hoy Sound — Kame Echo and Hoy Cliffs — View from the Ward Hill — Enchanted Carbuncle — Dwarfie Stone — Norna and Trolld — Under the Rocks — South Isles — Longhope — Ruins of Snelsetter — Moodie Family — South Ronaldshay — Sandwick — Old Province of Bergisherad — Birsay Palace. .

Chapter VIII

Rural Economy and Peasant Life. Formar State of the Orkneys — Causes Retarding Progress — Primitive Farming— Change of System and Consequent Improvements — Cottages — Stronsay Hut — Domestic Animals — Character, Habits, and Condition of the Peasantry — Popular Superstitions — Bessie Miller — Old Customs — New Year's Eve Song — Native Airs and Legends — Dialect — Wedding Incident — Names of Places and Persons. .... 287

Chapter IX

The Seasons in Orkney. Climate — Spring-time — Summer Walk — Orcadian Ornithology — Rarœ Aves — Birds of Passage — Haunts of Sea fowl — Egg-gathering Exploit — Old Modes of Bird- Catching — Moorlands — Links or Downs — Peat-Casting — Midsummer Sunset — Autumn Scenes — Sea-Colours — Beach-Birds — Sports — Winter Scenes by Day and Night — Aurora Borealis. ...... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. «^»;m Page Whale Hunt (Frontispiece). St. Magnus Cathedral, ■■- ' - - - - 41 Memorial Stones, ------- 68 Earl Patrick Stewart's Palace, Kirkwall, - - 108 Stones of Stenness, ------- 144 Specimen of 'Maeshowe Runes,- ... - 150 Noltland Castle, 195 Old Man of Hoy, - - - - - - -

Chapter I Kirkwall

Northward Ho ! — Wick Bay — Noss Head Lighthouse — Sea- View of the Caithness and Orkney Shores — String Sound — Kirkwall from the Bay — Quaint Streets — Aspects of Social Life, Old and New — Characters and Habits of the Burghers — Pastimes — Battle of the Ball — Lammas Fair. HE position which the Orkney Islands occupy in the map of Great Britain imparts to them a peculiar aspect of remoteness. As the Londoner, hunting up new autumnal routes, runs his eye along the great stretch of coast on the eastern seaboard of England and Scotland, he pauses at Duncansbay Head, or the traditional site of John o'Groat's House, and casts a timid, pitying glance at the lonely groups of islands n lying far off in the North Sea. He may recall Longfellow's description of the Orkneyan skerries answering the hoarse Hebrides, as if they were near and friendly neighbours ; but the Western Isles, clinging closer to the iron ribs of the land, seem to have a more attractive situation on the map, and so the intending tourist fixes upon Mull or Skye as the Ultima Thule of his holiday trip.

There is really, however, nothing so very formidable in a visit to Orkney, notwithstanding the apparent re moteness of the islands, and the proverbial fierceness. of the Pentland Firth. Fine, swift, and roomy steamships — the property of the Aberdeen, Leith, and Clyde Shipping Company — now make bi-weekly trips in summer and autumn between Gran ton, Aberdeen, and Kirkwall, passing on also, one hundred miles further north, to the quaint capital of Shetland. The average time taken by the steamers on their passage from Granton to Kirkwall, allowing for detentions at Aberdeen and Wick, is only about thirty hours, and the coast sceneiy is. sufficiently varied and picturesque to enliven the Parting " Foys." 3 sail. Travellers, who prefer the overland route, can find their way into Caithness by rail and coach, and thence make a short cut across the Pentland Firth in the mail steamer which plies six days a week, all the year round, between the Scottish mainland and the port of Stromness.

But easy as it now is to reach Orkney, the enterprising tourist might have felt the trip rather tedious in the years which pre ceded the introduction of steam. At one period the intercourse between the islands and other parts of Britain was so limited, that the churches in Orkney are said to have offered up the usual loyal prayers for James II. three months after he had retired to St. Germains, and so formidable did a jaunt to Edinburgh last century seem to Orcadians that they were in the habit of making their wills before leaving for the South, and of celebrating a solemn " soy," or parting feast, with their friends.* * The following curious and amusing quotation from an old diary, kept by the son of Mr Fea of Cl^stran — a once famous but now extinct Orkney familywill serve to indicate at once the expensivencss of a "soy" or parting feast, and There is a pleasurable excitement, more keenly felt by sea than by land, in gradually approaching for the first time some remote region of the country, which, though vaguely imaged in the mind, is still unfamiliar in the main features of its scenery.

This feeling I fully realised when, bound for the terra incognita of Orkney in the Northern mail-steamer, the long rugged lines of the Caithness cliffs and the dark -blue peaks of the Morven mountains hove into view in the light of a May morning. On the previous day there might be much to attract the eye when we steamed along the coast, passing the the tedious delays that frequently beset Orcadian travellers in the olden time : — " 1721. " Septr. 16th. To Incidents (Expenses) at Kirkwall at my departure for by ane Hogshead of Wine I got from my Father to Drink my Foy with, . . £34 14s. " Octr. 15. To my Journey South having taken my departure from Kirkwall, 16 September, 1721, and did not arrive there (Edinburgh) till the 15th Octr. . being 12 days stoimed at the Ferry as per the particular acco"- £44 9s." Scotch money at the period named was nearly of the value of sterling money now.

Noss Head Lighthouse. 5 lonely Bell Rock and the ruins of Dunottar ; but my interest in the scenery continued to increase with our northward progress, and novelty lent a charm to the wild picturesqueness of Wick Bay. The capital of Caithness is not enriched, like the capital of Orkney, with the ruins of antique palaces, but she can boast of rock ramparts, colossal rocks, and solitary sea-pillars more imposing than the grandest fabrics reared by human hands. On leaving Wick, her last port of call on the Scottish mainland, the steamer holds on her course to the far North, running close along the Caithness shores. Awe, not unmingled with admiration, is excited by the huge buckler-like promontory of Noss Head. The lighthouse tower on its summit is a structure of great strength and solidity, and the mechanism tint regulates the far-flashing lights is of the most exquisite description.

Standing within the red-stained globes, and looking out upon the waters and shores of Ackergill Bay, the view is one that seldom fails to strike the beholder with astonishment. The red glass changes the hue of the water into a pitchy blackness, and the foam of the waves into seeming flakes of fire. Sea-mews that dart swiftly past, or swoop over the waves, are transformed into winged flames, and the ships, tilting over the burning foam, appealrigged with fiery shrouds. To the wide stretch of Ackergill Bay the strong towers of Ackergill, Girnigoe, and Castle Sinclair impart a picturesque aspect. The scenery of the east coast of Caithness gradually gains in wiidness until it culminates in the sea-shattering precipices of Duncansbay Head. Cormorants and kittiwake gulls haunt the shelves and mighty chasms, or wheel with plaintive scream around the colossal " stacks," which impress the mind even more than the scarred rampart ofcliffs.

The lines of Keats addressed to Ailsa Crag might also be applied to these " craggy ocean pyramids." On passing the precipices of Duncansbay, the steamer rolls with a livelier motion in the strong and swift tidal currents that surge into the North Sea through the Pentland Firth. The southern Pentland Firth and South Isles. 7 division of the Orkneys is now full in view, with Stroma and the Pentland Skerries lying between them and the Caithness coast. Your eye ranges over a vast extent of rocky, irregular, and foam fringed shores, which remind you of Trinculo's words in the Tempest — " Here's neither bush nor shrub to bear off any weather at all." From the huge headland on its north-eastern extremity, the Caithness coast dips down into the sandy reaches of Gills Bay, and again on the west launches boldly out into the towering promontory of Dunnet Head.

Ou the opposite side of the Firth the southern Orcades,* running along leagues of .sea with their serrated shores, ending in defiant nesses, and reced ing in finely-rounded hills, present the appearance of a continent which has been shattered into pieces * The group oonsists of two divisions. The North Isles lie on the northern side of Pomona, and the South Isles on the southern side. This distinction was probably first made by the Norwegians, who divided the Hebrides into the Nordereys (Northern-isles) and the Sudereys (Southern isles), the Point of A rdnani urehau forming the line of separation. by some violent convulsion of nature. On east and west, to the German Ocean and the Atlantic, they oppose formidable bulwarks of rock, rising in the great cliffs of Hoy to the height of 1000 feet above the sea-level, but inside the islands, em bosomed in sheltered flows and bays, the fields of grass and grain mantle the sloping shores down to the water's edge.

When the mouth of the Pentland is passed the steamer skirts the eastern coast of South Ronald shay and Burray. Here the voyageur is reminded, by the Norse names of bays and headlands, that he is now in the ancient realm of the Sea-kings, celebrated in countless sagas. Pomona, or the Orkney Mainland, separated from Burray by the beautiful Holm Sound, follows next in the pano ramic procession of islands, stretching away in a line of irregular shore to the bold terminal pro montory of Moul Head. Copinshay, Corn Holm, and the Horse of Copinshay — a massive rock thus named from its peculiar configuration — lie off the coast to seaward in a lonely, solemn, and romantic String Sound and Eiwlck Bay. 9 group. When we have rounded the Moul Head of Deerness, the steamer takes a westerly course, steering right into the heart of the islands, and passing the mouths of Deersound and Inganess Bay — two fine expanses of water which penetrate like fiords into the interior of the Mainland, and afford convenient anchorage and excellent shelter to vessels of the heaviest tonnage.

The sea now contracts to the channel of String Sound, which curves like a noble river between the shores of Shapinshay and Pomona. On the Shapinshay side of the Sound, where it bends into the Bay of Elwick — once a favourite resort of Norwegian war-fleets — Balfour Castle, the new and stately mansion of the island proprietor, stands conspicuous, exciting an agreeable surprise by the closeness of its resemblance to Abbotsford, though wanting the adornment of rich woods and the companionship of pastoral hills. Opposite Elwick Bay, in the middle of the Sound, there lies cradled on the waters one of those green islets, known by the fine old Norse name of holms, which add so much to the beauty of Orcadian seas. At the mouth of String Sound there is another islet called Thieves' Holm, whore Earl Patrick Stewart, tyrant of Orkney in the days of James VL, executed " Jeddart justice " on malefactors of his own making.

Kirkwall Bay, and the fine amphitheatre of engirdling islands, swelling as they recede into ridges of brown hills, open out to the gaze in beautiful and expansive prospect as the steamer emerges from the waters of the Sound. It may happen, indeed, that the first view of the central islands, with their low grassy shores and hills of moderate elevation, scarcely accords with the pre conceptions of some visitors, who have formed their ideas of Orkney from the scenery of the Hebrides ; but in this softness of aspect and outline there is the beauty of unexpectedness, all the more pleasing in contrast with the wildness of the outside wall of rocks. In its first rapid survey of the island shores, the eye rests with livelier interest on the Orcadian capital — quaint, grey, and old — seated on the Kirkwall from the Bay. 11 southern side of its spacious bay, while the massive Avails of St. Magnus Cathedral, and the ruins of the Bishops' and Earls' palaces tower in stately dignity above the circumjacent roofs.

The waters of the bay seem to run up to the very basement of the houses, which huddle closely together, as if eager to find shelter and protection under the great wide spread wings of St. Magnus. The site of the cathedral has been so skilfu ly selected that the noble pile presents an imposing appearance over leagues of the island seas. How would the hearts of the Sea-kin^s throb when, steering: their course from " Noroway o'er the faem," the red walls and familiar tower of St. Magnus, burnished with the light of sunset, shone over the waters of the quiet bay! Passengers for Kirkwall were, until lately, rowed ashore in small boats, but an elegant iron pier, ex tending from the harbour, which is now completed, has greatly expedited the serious business of disem barkation by enabling the steamers to run alongside in all states of the tide.

The town is veiy ancient, and the name " Kirkwall," is a corruption of kirk vaag — the church voe, or the church on the voe. A chapel, dedicated to St. Olaf, antedated the cathedral of St Magnus, and the homesteads of the Norsemen clustered around it. In the time of the Norwegian occupation the town was erected into a royal burgh, and this distinction was confirmed by a charter of James III., when the islands were annexed to the Scottish crown. Long, straggling, and singularly antique in appearance, it recedes from the bay along the margin of an Oyce or inlet, locally termed the " Peerie Sea," which fills and empties at the flow and ebb of tide. The line of road, leading from the town to the sister burgh of Stromness, separates the Oyce from the bay, and crosses a single-arched bridge, through which the flowing and ebbing waters are ever rushing to and fro.

A ridge of rising ground behind the town forms the eastern side of the valley, little more than a mile in extent, that stretches between Kirkwall Bay and Scapa Flow on the opposite coast of Pomona. The original founders of the capital appear to have exercised their ingenuity Quaint Streets. 13 in avoiding alike the sea in front and the hilly ground behind, and thus the greater portion of the main mile-long street is so exceedingly narrow that there is only space for a strip of causeway between the pavement on either side. This curious style of street-building might suit the time when pack-ponies carried burdens like camels, or went ambling alone under the equal-poised weight of pendant cubbies, But the narrow defiles between rows of houses, where " two wheel-barrows tremble when they meet," are ill-adapted to suit the requirements of improved means of conveyance and increasing traffic.

It takes skilful steering on the part of drivers to avoid collisions, and a runaway cart spreads conster nation like a war-chariot. From the main street, which expands into an open and airy oblong space in front of the cathedral, and again • contracts, there branch off at intervals to right and left curious paved courts and long dingy lanes. The houses at the heads of the closes have generally their gables turned toward the street, and this want of uniformity gives a singularly quaint, old-world, and eccentric appearanca to the burgh. Ancient tenements lean back to back, or front each other defiantly only a few feet apart, and there is also an odd intermingling of eleo-ant new banks and time-worn edifices. Some of the large and commodious buildings huddled together and hidden from view in back courts were, in former years, the abodes of the leading families in the islands, who spent the winter months amid the gaieties of the Orcadian capital.

The Stuarts of Brugh, Moodies of Melsetter, Balfours of Elwick, Baikies of Tankerness, Traills of Holland, and other families, had all their town houses and country mansions, and some proprietors still adhere to the good old plan of maintaining urban and rural residences. Ancient dates and defaced inscriptions and coats of arms impart dignity to dwellings that have undergone frequent renovations at the hands of tho plasterer and hodman. The Town House — an indifferent structure which gains little by its proximity to the cathedral — was built partly by subscription and partly with the fine imposed upon a fiery Jacobite, Sir James Stewart of Burray, for Gardens and Trees. 15 wantonly wounding the sheriff-clerk of Orkney when crossing Plolm Sound in a small boat. In the rear of the houses along the main street O there arc extensive gardens which refute, with their flush of green foliage in summer-time, the oft repeated statement that trees are unknown in Orkney.

From some elevated spot, like the outside gallery of the cathedral spire, considerable numbers of trees are visible, growing singly in the shelter of the gardens, or forming pleasant groups and belts in the vicinity of the town. There is a beautiful grove of oak, ash, and elm trees in front of the Earl's palace, the leafy verdure of which mantles the ruins in twilight gloom, and away doAvn in the very heart of the ancient burgh three stately trees, that seem to have wandered from some southern woodland, spread their benignant shadow across the street. Apple, pear, and cherry trees thrive pretty well in the best kept orchards, and there is no lack of goodly-sized currants, gooseberries, and strawberries. But, while notinothe apple trees in the midst of the gardens, and oiving due prominence to the shady walks that enoirdle a few of the suburban villas, it may be well to admit that woods are as rare in Orkney as snakes in Iceland.

The great roots and pieces of tree trunks, sometimes found deeply embedded in peat bogs and sandy bays, seem to afford evidence that the islands were once clothed with shaggy wood, like the Norwegian hills now in the same latitude, with expanses of spruce and pine ; but some mysterious agency has refashioned the country in the lapse of centuries, and the primeval forests in their beauty " have been left without a witness on the seas." In the gardens of Kirkwall flowers of the more familiar types grow in greater variety than ornamental and fruit trees, which lose their strength by frequent germination in the open winters of Orkney. The utlle, indeed, in garden produce, is better understood and appreciated by the generality of Orcadians than the dulce. Though some flower-fanciers rear rare and delicate plants in conservatories, the science of floriculture numbers few enthusiastic votaries, and a flower-show would be as great a novelty to the inhabitants as an industrial exhibition.

Shopkeepers. 17 The shops and public offices in the most nor thernly royal burgh of Britain do not differ greatly from similar places of business in southern provincial towns. Regular steam communication affords the merchants facilities for visiting the great marts of commerce, and their frequent returns with the latest novelties in dress from the London, Manchester, and Glasgow markets are duly notified in the advertising columns of the two local newspapers. In former years the shops very much resembled bazaars, the same merchant being grocer, ironmonger, stationer, draper, and druggist, all in one ; but a division of labour has now been introduced, and this improved system makes competition less keen. A few of the shop keepers, however, still conduct two or three branches of business, and some of the most enterprising are part owners of ships.

Good speculations are occasionally made by the cheap purchase of wrecked cargoes and the carcases of ca'-ing whales, when a shoal has been fortunately stranded somewhere among; the islands. In matters of dress the citizens of Kirkwall are kept abreast of their neighbours, and b seldom appear in public with anything outre' in attire. Writing, in 1814, the author of an old Agri cultural Report says : — " The gentlemen in Kirkwall, as well as the meaner sort, have adopted the English dress ; excepting that the latter wear bonnets instead of hats, which are knit chiefly at Kilmarnock, and are exceedingly cheap." The Kilmarnock shave now quite disappeared from the streets, although old men may still preserve them to cap their fireside comforts. In the sister town of Stromness the fondness for finery is more strongly pronounced among the fair sex; but the reign of fashion extends to the remotest islands, and crinoline is worn in its season by the daughters of Papa Westray.

There is nothing in this circumstance to excite astonish ment, since Lord Dufferin informs us that the ladies of Reikjavik, when invited to balls and parties, wear low dresses of the conventional type, which expose the snowy charms of Icelandic beauty. The citizens of Kirkwall have long been noted as a church-going people, and this good habit has had the happy effect of inducing, in matters of Aspects of Social Life. 19 dress, a decent carefulness that rarely passes into mere display. Society, in this remote burgh, as in the generality of Scottish provincial towns, has its distinct centres, with separate circles revolving round them in calm regularity. Few of the county families now reside in the town over winter, and the aspects of social life have thus undergone a great change within the memory of living citizens.

" 'Tis sixty years since," says the old beau garqon with a sigh when he recalls the departed gaieties of other days. Early in the century, when French and Dutch privateers made frequent raids upon the Islands, the presence of military gave animation to the burgh, and sub scription assemblies were started in the Town House for the entertainment of the officers. These weekly dancing reunions, which lasted a number of seasons, were patronised by the county families, and graced by the presence of Orcadian beauty. Negus or rum-punch, piping hot, was the refreshment pro vided for the ladies who attended the balls. The ordinary orchestra consisted of two violins, a violoncello, and a tambourine, and those were gala nights to the Romeos and Juliets when minuets and Scotch reels were danced to the more resonant music of ships'-bands.

The officers of a French frigate, which had been cleverly captured off the islands, found the assemblies quite to their taste, as it enabled prisoners on parole to make conquests in the enemies country. At the period to which I refer — the early years of the century — there was much stir and excitement in the town and throughout the Islands. The noble harbour of Longhope was then the great northern rendezvous of merchantmen waiting for convoy. Kirkwall Bay was frequently visited by war-ships, lying in wait for privateers, or by trading vessels making their escape from suspicious craft outside. Stories are told by the old people of the panic that was caused by the sacking of Roeberry House, in South Ronaldshay, and the hardships that were endured by the people of Sanday, when 400 men, rescued from the wreck of a Dutch war-ship, quartered themselves upon the islanders.

Old Customs. 21 The gaiety which manifested itself in balls, also effervesced in festivities at the New Year season. A practice, akin to first-footing, prevailed to an extraordinary extent among the resident gentility of the town on New Year's day. In the morning two or three choice spirits called at the first house in the line of the main street where they were likely to experience a cordial greeting. If the ladies of the family offered no serious objections, they received a salute such as Advocate Pleydell ad ministered so gallantly to Julia Mannering and Lucy Bertram at Woodbourne. After exchanging the compliments of the season, and partaking of a piece of cake and glass of rum — the favourite liquor of the time — the visitors departed to another house, accompanied by any gentlemen belonging to the family who might be disposed to join them in their cruise.

Thus the first-footers, growing in number as they proceeded, continued their house-to-house visitation until friendly counsellors advised a "syncope and solemn pause." The decline in the spirit of sociality, which is now remarked by the townspeople themselves, may be regarded in part as the result of a decided reaction from the drinking customs that were once so notori ously characteristic of northern hospitality. The carousals in which the Northmen engaged during the winter months were imitated by their descendants and their Scottish supplanters, down to a period not very remote, since there are men still living who can reeall drinking bouts that would have done no discredit to the days of Magnus Troil. In those times it was considered a laudable action to cheat the excise by consuming unlimited quantities of smuggled rum and eau-de-vie, which the islanders contrived to obtain, notwithstanding the vigilance of revenue cutters.

But so great have been the changes wrought by the multifarious moral influences of the age, that Kirkwall is now one of the most sober and sedate towns in the United Kingdom ; and in some of the neighbouring islands there is not even a. hostelry where the wayfarer may quench his noon tide thirst with a stronger liquid than butter-milk. The townspeople in general are intelligent and Peculiarities of Character. 23 industrious and frugal in their habits. The large number of scholars attending the various seminaries affords good evidence of the extent to which the advantages of education are appreciated among them. In the main elements of character they resemble the mass of their fellow-countrymen, with certain super added peculiarities which serve to mark the distinction between Orcadians and natives of the Scottish mainland.

Some of those peculiarities — such as the curious combination of reserve and inquisitiveness — are simply exaggerations of common Scottish characteristics. The natural reserve of the people, and their anxiety, like the ancient Athenians, to hear something new, impart a singularly undemonstrative aspect to their public gatherings, and the decorous quietness that prevails is apt to weigh down the fervid orator, who may have been accustomed in southern cities to rounds of applause. While clergy men from a distance seldom fail in expressing their admiration of the decorum and apparently earnest interest manifested by the different religious bodies in the town, sensational orators, who address weekday audiences, are often less hearty in their com mendations. In their quiet, reserved habits, and grave demeanour, Orcadians bear some resemblance to the existing race of Norwegians, although Norse names are now much more abundant in the Islands than Norse blood.

There may be difficulty in deter mining the extent to which climatic influences affect character, but it seems as natural to associate a grave and staid deportment with the grey skies/ of the north, as "dance and Provencal song and sunburnt mirth" with the warmer and balmier climes of the South. The gravity of disposition, which I have remarked as a characteristic of the people, has nothing in common with the dull, phlegmatic disposition that makes Dutchmen so slow and heavy. Whatever their fathers may have been in the days of single stilted ploughs, run-rigs and kelp-making, Orcadians of the present generation are distinguished for enter prise, and the Islands are making rapid progress in improvement. The agricultural prosperity of the county has saved Kirkwall from the decline which Stratv-plait Manufacture. 25 almost seemed inevitable when the manufacture of straw-plait was annihilated.