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 MY HOLIDAYS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM CHAMBERS 
 
 OF GLENORMISTON 
 LORD PROVOST OF EDINBURGH 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION 
 1867
 
 Edinburgh : 
 Printed by W. and It. Chambers.
 
 D- 
 
 THE following Sketches refer to my Excursions as a 
 Commissioner of Northern Light-houses along the coasts 
 of Scotland in I860 and 18G7. Written for amusement, at 
 intervals of leisure after returning home, and printed in 
 this form as a gift to a few private friends, the Sketches, 
 however imperfect, may possibly convey an idea of one of 
 the many duties assigned to the office which I have at 
 present the honour to occupy. 
 
 W. 0. 
 
 September 1867- 
 
 1575G 1 H
 
 MY FIKST HOLIDAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 AN amusing peculiarity in the office of the Lord Provost 
 of Edinburgh is the obligation of being a member of 
 so many public bodies, that he would frequently have to 
 give his presence at five or six places at precisely the same 
 hour a thing not easily done, even with the aid of a 
 carriage and pair of horses. In circumstances of this per- 
 plexing nature, his Lordship usually compounds with his 
 sense of duty sometimes preferring one Board, and some- 
 times another, with perhaps a kind of leaning to some one in 
 particular. In occupying the onerous position here referred 
 to, if I have had any preference at all, it has been for the 
 Commission of Northern Light-houses, a body invested with 
 the duty of managing all the light-houses on the sea-coast of 
 Scotland and Isle of Man, now amounting to nearly sixty in 
 number (to say nothing of buoys and beacons), and involving 
 an expenditure of eight-and-twenty thousand pounds per 
 annum. 
 
 This Northern Commission may be accepted as a fair 
 specimen of that little understood state of affairs in which 
 many people, for the honour of the thing, give their time and
 
 6 My First Holiday. 
 
 trouble for nothing certainly nothing in the way of cash. 
 A story is told of Joseph Hume having, in his virtuous 
 indignation in parliament, described the Commission of 
 northern luminaries as being a regular and costly job, when 
 he was set right by the Lord Advocate of the day, who stated 
 that the whole remuneration derived by the Commissioners 
 for their trouble consisted in a dinner once a year whereupon 
 Joseph, in a state of munificent repentance, declared that 
 they should in future have two dinners instead of one ! 
 These two dinners are now, accordingly, a settled institution 
 in Edinburgh, the head-quarters of the Commission ; and, 
 from experience, I can say that the institution is conducted 
 in no niggard fashion. Supposing the story to be correct, thu 
 Lord Advocate might have added, that half-a-dozen or so of 
 the Commissioners, along with two or three guests, are 
 indulged with an excursion, free of expense, annually in the 
 Pharos, a powerful and commodious paddle-steamer belonging 
 to the Board, which is employed in carrying stores to, and 
 in making periodical inspections of, the several light-houses. 
 Who is to go in the Pharos is sometimes a matter of 
 delicate consideration. The Commissioners consist of certain 
 crown-officers, and sheriffs of maritime counties, along with 
 some civic magistrates ; and at a meeting for the purpose, 
 the selection is properly adjusted, not a little depending on 
 the wish of the parties, for what some may consider to be a 
 privilege, others view as a positively irksome or impracticable 
 duty. In 18G6, my first year of office, I was honoured by 
 being named one of the excursionists; and not disinclined to a 
 little airy variety in the routine of public business, I ventured 
 to give my assent. The only real pinch was how to get away. 
 The Ph(iro8\va8 to depart for its voyage on the west coaston the 
 23d of July, but owing to certain civic matters of pressing
 
 My First Holiday. 7 
 
 concern, I could not leave for some days later ; by these means, 
 I lost the Clyde, Galloway, and Isle of Man part of the 
 excursion, and had to be taken up in the harbour of Belfast, 
 where the Pharos was appointed to lie tranquilly during 
 Sunday the 29th. 
 
 Apropos of the Isle of Man what has it to do with the 
 Northern Commission ? Thereby hangs a tale. Light-houses, 
 as is very reasonable, are supported from the proceeds of 
 statutory dues payable by the ships which are presumed to 
 benefit by them outgoing foreign vessels paying the dues on 
 starting, and vessels entering port paying on arrival the 
 whole managed in a neat way by the officers of customs. In 
 old times say fifty years ago the Isle of Man had its own 
 system of lights, which were so bad as to be complained of 
 by the Liverpool traders ; and it became obvious that these 
 lights should pass under the authority of one of the three 
 Boards of the United Kingdom the Trinity House of 
 England, the Ballast Board of Ireland, or the Northern Lights 
 of Scotland. The method adopted for settling the question 
 was exceedingly rational ; it was to ask what each Board 
 would take to light the Isle of Man, and adopt that which 
 was cheapest. The Trinity offered to maintain the lights for 
 twopence per ton on all vessels that passed ; while the 
 Northern Commission declared its readiness to accept the very 
 small sum of a farthing pjr ton. This was in 1815, since 
 which time the Isle of Man, in the matter of light-houses, 
 has been connected with Scotland. The farthing per ton 
 was a shrewd conception. So large is the number of vessels 
 passing the Isle of Man, that this forms the best-paying 
 branch of revenue of the Northern Lights. 
 
 Reaching Belfast (by way of Greenock) early on the morning 
 of Saturday 28th, and hospitably entertained and escorted
 
 8 My First Holiday. 
 
 about by an esteemed citizen, I had an opportunity 
 of visiting the more remarkable places in the town ami 
 neighbourhood, and learning some particulars worthy of note. 
 As it was twenty years since I had seen Belfast, I was not 
 prepared for its vast extension and numerous street improve- 
 ments, or for learning that the annual income of its harbour 
 has risen, since 1848, from 23,000 to 52,000 looking 
 to which notable circumstances, one is inclined to feel some- 
 what incredulous on the score of alleged Irish poverty. 
 Belfast, at all events, possesses one unmistakable evidence 
 of social advancement a foetid river and harbour; so 
 loathsome and insalubrious were its waters, that the Pharos 
 could not make out the entire Sunday at its handsome quay ; 
 and, receiving me on board, dropped down for the night to 
 the open seu adjoining Carrickfergus. 
 
 Skirting along the north of Ireland, and then shooting 
 across to the southern points of the Hebrides, I enjoyed my 
 first day at sea. In passing, we took a look of the Giants' 
 Causeway, which all on board pronounced to be a poor affair 
 in comparison to Staffa. At the Rhins of Islay began that 
 systematic visitation of Scottish light-houses which was 
 pursued for the next fourteen days, among the outer and 
 inner islands, and along the coast of the mainland as far as 
 Cape Wrath ; from which limit the vessel retraced its course; 
 southwards to Oban, leaving the east coast, and Orkney and 
 Shetland Islands, for next season. 
 
 With the drawback of generally dull and moist weather, 
 suggestive of an improvement of Scott's well-known lines : 
 
 () Caledonia ! stern and wild, 
 Wet-nurse for a poetic child 
 
 and occasionally tossed about in a rather unceremonious way,
 
 My First Holiday. 9 
 
 life glided on pleasantly in the Pharos ; there being in it 
 that nice blending of duty with amusement, good living, and 
 leisurely converse, which constitutes an enviable mode of 
 existence at anyrate, I do not know of anything better in 
 this world of ours. Five sheriffs, the provost of Inverness, 
 the senior bailie of Glasgow, the secretary, and myself, made 
 up the party *a joyous set of mortals, who, with one or two 
 exceptions, scorned to be sea-sick, in nearly all weathers 
 played at shovel-board on deck, and quite as regularly made 
 their appearance at meals as they took to the boat to visit 
 the several light-houses. 
 
 It is customary in these excursions by the Pharos, fur 
 one to be chosen ' commodore,' who has the high function of 
 presiding at table, regulating the routes as well as general 
 procedure, and of deciding what shall be the daily bill of 
 fare in which last capacity he has frequent serious 
 communings with the cook. Our commodore on this 
 occasion was the Sheriff of Forfarshire, who happily 
 tempered power with discretion, kept all in good-humour, 
 and deservedly received a vote of thanks for his services, 
 not the least of which consisted in keeping a capital cuisine. 
 Breakfast at 9 (a Scotch breakfast), lunch at 1, dinner at 6 
 (full dress), tea at 8, and anything you like at 9 ; all in bed 
 by a little after 10. Such was the usual routine in the 
 alimentary department any modification in the fare, 
 considering the amount of fresh air and hard work 
 encountered, being quite out of the question. It added 
 not a little to the comfort of the party, that the ship 
 anchored in a quiet bay every evening about dinner-time 
 that, in my opinion, contributing materially to digestion 
 and did not start on a fresh cruise till 7 next morning, 
 which allowed a walk of a couple of hours on deck, to 
 
 A 2
 
 io My First Holiday. 
 
 promote a relish for the kipper, the fresh herrings, and the 
 other edibles which at 9 garnished the table of the saloon. 
 
 I have never lived for a time on board any vessel so 
 entirely satisfactory as tho Pharon. With the exact 
 discipline, promptitude, and courtesy observable in war- 
 ships, it offered the comforts of a well-regulated home the 
 alimentary arrangements above hinted at ; a library, if you 
 wished to indulge in reading ; and a snug little room on 
 deck, provided with telescopes, charts, and maps, where one 
 might lounge at ease, and be ready to turn out in a moment 
 with field-glass in hand, to scrutinise the wildly picturesque 
 shores of the Hebridean Archipelago. 
 
 There was always some little bustle and fun, along with a 
 becoming air of business, on landing. The stoppage and 
 anchoring of the vessel about a quarter of a mile from the 
 shore, the lowering of a boat, into which the party trooped 
 in walking trim, and the serving out of capacious and well- 
 kept sea-cloaks, as a shelter from the spray while darting 
 over the waves, formed the ordinary routine of disembarka- 
 tion. One thing was never missed the landing of ' Milo.' 
 All who have sailed in the Pharos have made the acquaint- 
 ance of Milo, a middle-aged, brown water-spaniel, somewhat 
 lazy from not having much to do, but solemn in character, 
 and to all appearance, impressed with the conviction that he 
 is an essential member of tho crew. Milo always makes a 
 point of going on shore with tho Commissioners, in order to 
 have a ramble about, while they are engaged in their grave 
 official investigations. When the landing is at a precipitous 
 quay, up which you have to climb by a fixed iron ladder, 
 poor Milo is somewhat nonplussed ; but the difficulty is got 
 over by his being placed on the back of one of the sailors, 
 whom ho grasps round the neck with his forepaws, carried
 
 My First Holiday. 1 1 
 
 in which fashion up the steep ladder, he is set down in 
 safety ; and by the same pleasant process of locomotion, he 
 returns to the boat, after enjoying his scamper over the 
 scanty herbage which clothes the rocky promontories. 
 
 In these landings, there was considerable uniformity. 
 For the most part, the light-houses are placed on bold head- 
 lands, at a distance varying from a hundred yards to a mile 
 and a half from the landing-place. Each establishment 
 consists not only of a tall stone tower, with its lofty lighting 
 apparatus, but of a cluster of neat dwellings for the keepers, 
 to which, in all cases, there is convenient access from tl it- 
 shore by a road made at the expense of the Commission. 
 The making of these roads form*, in some instances, a heavy 
 item of outlay, but is indispensable for the construction of 
 the works, and afterwards for facilitating the regular and 
 safe transmission of stores. Reaching the spot, and throwing 
 aside walking-sticks and loose upper-coats, the Commissioners 
 mount in the first place by winding stairs and ladders to 
 the summit of the tower ; there they sagaciously examine 
 the bright burnished lamps, lenses, and reflectors some, 
 perhaps, by dint of repeated investigation, acquiring for the 
 first time an intelligent idea of the difference between the 
 two great modern systems of lighting the catoptric and 
 dioptric. All, at least, are struck with the singular beauty 
 and ingenuity of the works, and of their great value as 
 regards averting shipwreck and the saving of human life. 
 Xoble outposts of humanity and civilisation are these 
 gigantic structures ! Would not any one be proud to take 
 part in their organisation and maintenance ! 
 
 Large lenses and prisms of different shapes for concentrating 
 and sending forth the rays of light from effulgent oil-lamps, 
 constitute a leading feature in the apparatus. Formerly,
 
 12 My First Holiday. 
 
 Great Britain could not produce these lenses in perfection, 
 owing to the obstruction to experiment caused by the glass- 
 duties, and our light-houses were therefore supplied with the 
 needful apparatus by France. Now, the works arc of home- 
 manufacture, glass, lamps, reflectors, and everything Chance 
 of Birmingham for lenses, and Milne of Edinburgh for brass 
 and lamp-work, being the main producers ; the cost of a 
 fully-equipped apparatus is from 800 to 3000, according 
 to the class and character of the light. The outlay in building 
 a light-house varies, according to dimensions and other 
 circumstances, from 4500 to six times that amount ; but 
 sometimes the cost is considerably higher. Something, I 
 learn, in the way of sufficiency, depends on the spirit which 
 happens to influence the Trinity House of England and 
 Board of Trade, which, by statute, exercise a certain control 
 over the operations of the Northern Commission the Trinity 
 as regards sites and projects, the Board of Trade as regards 
 plans, revenue, and expenditure. It was not always so ; ami 
 some appear to think that under the new regime the spirit of 
 economy has weighed a little too heavily on the construction 
 and general character of the light-houses lately erected on the 
 dangerous sea-shores of Scotland. A pretty bold attempt was 
 made about sixteen years ago to abolish the Scottish and 
 Irish Boards, and concentrate the entire management in the 
 Trinity House. A recommendation to this effect came, as I 
 think, with a peculiarly bad grace from the Royal Commission 
 employed to look into these affairs ; for in drawing a 
 comparison, it had to acknowledge that the ' Scotch light- 
 houses arc in the best state of general efficiency, the English 
 next, and the Irish third.' The Northern Commission was 
 accordingly let alone, and continues as effective as ever, under 
 the administration of a vigilant secretary and the body of
 
 My First Holiday. 13 
 
 unpaid officials, who seem to take a surprising degree of 
 interest in its operations. Something of its success is 
 doubtless also due to the Stevensons, a well-known family 
 of engineers, who have done great things for Scottish and 
 colonial light-houses. The late Robert Stevenson, the father, 
 was the eminent constructor of the light-house on the Bell- 
 Rock, and for the Skerryvore we are indebted to his elder 
 son, Alan, recently deceased. 
 
 Were I giving a formal history of light-houses, I should 
 specify a number of things which characterise the Scotch 
 establishments, and have led to the foregoing testimony of 
 their marked superiority. I will refer only to what no one 
 can avoid noticing the respectable appearance of the keepers 
 and their families, the large number of children, the neatness 
 and substantiality of the dwellings, and the air of comfort 
 which universally prevails. One would almost think that a 
 blessing was showered upon the fraternity, in compensation 
 for the exile which all less or more necessarily experience. 
 But it is to be kept in mind that the ' service' is somewhat 
 enviable, and commands a superior class of officers. To the 
 excellent pay of from fifty to seventy guineas a year, are 
 added a uniform, a free furnished house, coal and candle, a 
 garden, and a cow's grass if it can be obtained, books and 
 periodicals changed about for mutual convenience medical 
 attendance, and lastly, the visits of a missionary. 
 
 When the keepers have to do duty in those light-houses 
 which stand on isolated rocks in the ocean, and must for 
 weeks be absent from their homes, they are, over and above 
 all these various advantages, provided Avith rations. The 
 Board furnishes the houses of the keepers in every 
 particular, and by means of regular inspectors, preserves 
 the whole in good order. It could not well be otherwise.
 
 14 My First Holiday. 
 
 Like soldiers on duty, keepers are moved about from place- 
 to place, according to promotion in the service, health, wish 
 for change, and other causes ; and when ordered off to some 
 new scene, the family has only to carry away its personal 
 luggage, with perhaps a few fancy articles, such as a 
 favourite canary in a well-wrapped-up cage, a geranium in 
 Hower, or a stuffed solan goose, prized as a chimney-pieci- 
 ornament. Quitting one home, it may be in a wild islet of 
 Shetland, and reaching another possibly on the inoro genial 
 shores of Mull, the wanderers find it a facsimile of that 
 which they have left the very eight-day clock, in its 
 burnished mahogany case, that confronts them as they 
 enter the new mansion, presenting, as it were, the face of 
 a well-known friend, and in familiar sounds ticking an 
 accustomed welcome. 
 
 Social economists speculate on plans for making life- 
 assurance a matter of compulsion. This is done by the 
 Northern Lights in a way worth describing. From the 
 annual salary of each man who enters the service, the sum 
 of 3 is deducted, and laid out in insuring his life. The 
 insurance is taken in the name of the Commissioners, who, 
 on the decease of the assured, draw and pay the amount to 
 his family. According to the age at commencement, the 
 sum ultimately realised ranges from 100 to 130, and 
 comes as an acceptable boon to the bereaved wMow and 
 children. The good effected by this arrangement is incal- 
 culable. There are likewise retiring allowances for super- 
 annuated and well-behaved officers. 
 
 Comparative seclusion, remoteness from friends, at most 
 only one or two neighbours with whom to hold rational 
 converse : Are not these terrible drawbacks on the current 
 sources of happiness of these light-house keepers ? Not at
 
 My First Holiday. 15 
 
 all. Instances are not unknown of individuals sinking 
 under the quietude and sameness of their mode of life ; but 
 these are exceptions. As a general rule, the keepers and 
 their families are a happy set of people, well read as to what 
 is going on in the world, and accustomed to make the best 
 of opportunities for bettering their circumstances. The 
 periodical visits of inspectors, and of the Pharos or some 
 other vessel with stores, are events of moment. But the 
 greatest event of all during the year is the arrival of the 
 Commissioners, when the flag is hoisted in their honour, and 
 requests are entered in the note-book of the secretary. Some 
 keepers solace their spare hours with handicrafts. One is a 
 good tinsmith ; another amuses himself with a turning-lath 
 and carpenter's bench ; and I heard of a third who is noted 
 among the islands as an excellent bootmaker. Setting aside 
 all such useful recreations to fill up the time, let us again 
 remember that these light-house keepers belong to a class of 
 society who value the importance of an assured income, 
 along with the other substantial benefits and social elevation 
 of the service, above mere sentiment. Neither man nor 
 woman whom I talked to complained of loneliness. No ; it 
 was not there that the shoe pinched. Revealing, as I 
 thought, a fine trait in the Scottish character, that which 
 only and really detracted from the happiness of the situation, 
 was the difficulty often the entire impracticability of 
 getting proper schooling for the children. ' I have not been 
 at church for four years, and scarcely expect to be ever at 
 one again,' said the wife of a keeper. Another whom I 
 spoke to, gets to church twice a year in a boat, the voyage 
 thither being fourteen miles, along a rugged coast full of 
 sunk rocks. However, the desire to do a duty to offspring 
 goes beyond any such consideration. The want of school*
 
 16 My First Holiday. 
 
 is the subject of constant lament ; for without education, 
 how are the children to get on in life. As a make-shift, 
 sometimes an elder girl teaches the younger, or the parents 
 themselves try to take the matter in hand, while the 
 missionary also to a certain extent helps in the business of 
 elementary instruction. I am not without a hope that the 
 Commissioners, with the sanction of the Board of Trade, 
 will fall upon some expedient to insure the education of 
 the numerous children connected with their establishments. 
 A few migratory young schoolmasters making periodical 
 rounds, would go far to remedy the evil. 
 
 I inquired if there was much intercourse between the 
 keepers and the widely scattered families of the Gaelic- 
 speaking natives. Very little, was the reply. As a rule, 
 the Board find it necessary to discourage the visits of these 
 poor people to their establishments, on account of personal 
 habits which a*e adverse to the scrupulous cleanliness 
 insisted on in the dwellings. Those who are acquainted 
 with the miserable condition of the natives of the more 
 remote western islands, will not be surprised at this species 
 of exclusiveness. Wherever placed, the cluster of buildings 
 composing the establishment, with their whitewashed walls, 
 form a kind of oasis in the desert a bit of civilisation 
 planted and flourishing in the midst of scenes of savage 
 sterility and human degradation. 
 
 Mention of these circumstances reminds me that the 
 service has two prizes, to which all keepers with ambitious 
 views properly aspire. These are appointments to the Bell- 
 Jiock and Skerryvore, in both of which the keepers reside 
 for weeks, in the midst of the ever-surging waves, and only 
 enjoy the society of their families at stated intervals. How 
 do we explain the paradox ? Simply enough : higher pay,
 
 My First Holiday. 17 
 
 rations, and chiefly, convenient schooling for children. The 
 Bell-Rock, with a family residence at Arbroath, where schools 
 abound, and employment for children is obtained, was on all 
 hands referred to as the ne plus ultra of light-house appoint- 
 ments a thing sighed for, but not easily obtained, and when 
 quitted, looked back upon as a kind of ' Paradise Lost.' 
 
 And now, let us be off for Skerryvore, which some people 
 think, myself for one, is worth travelling a thousand miles 
 to see ; but the voyage must be left to another chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OFF for the Skerryvore, but only after the essential pre- 
 liminary of spending a day at Oban in coaling. Oban, 
 which may be taken to be a kind of metropolis of the 
 Hebrides, is the place set apart for this important particular, 
 and thither the Pharos wended its way from Islay and the 
 Sound of Jura. All who are acquainted with the beautiful 
 land-locked bay of Oban, will recollect seeing a strange black 
 hulk composedly anchored near the island of Ken-era, 
 opposite the town, and perhaps they may have wondered 
 why that old and mastless vessel should not be removed and 
 broken up as a useless speck on the scene. That dark mass, 
 however, is not useless, nor is it without a history. It is 
 what remains of the Enterprise, a strong-built wooden vessel, 
 which took part in the ill-fated explorations of Sir John 
 Franklin, and which, placed at the disposal of the Com- 
 missioners of Northern Light-houses, is employed by them as 
 a repository for coal and miscellaneous stores. Nor is the 
 mass dull and lifeless. It is inhabited by a keeper and his 
 family, who, as things go, find themselves tolerably well oft'. 
 The hulk, as a western depot, is often visited for light-house
 
 1 8 My First Holiday. 
 
 purposes ; the children of the keeper are rowed daily ashore 
 to a school at Kerrera ; and if the little dog which feels itself 
 to be installed as a guardian of the old battered craft does 
 not often get across the bay to Oban, it can at least reckon 
 on now and then renewing acquaintance with Milo, when 
 the Pharos steers alongside, and a broad gangway for wheel- 
 barrows is temporarily established between the two vessels. 
 
 There was a day of this gangway intercommunication, 
 during which loads of coal were wheeled by a band of grimy 
 Calibans from the Enterprise to the Pharos, and the two 
 dogs paid accustomed visits to each other, and in their own 
 way talked over matters of canine interest. The Commis- 
 sioners, in the meanwhile thrown off work, went on shore at 
 Oban to look after letters and newspapers, and a number of 
 them, by way of filling up the time, set off on a sauntering 
 pedestrian excursion to Dunstaffnage; but I believe they 
 never reached that historical ruin, for all were anxious to 
 return to the ship in good time for the raising of the anchor, 
 it having been determined that as soon as the coaling was 
 over, the ship should make the best of its way for Tobermory 
 in Mull for the night. With all on board, six o'clock saw 
 the Pharos once more pursuing its way among the islands. 
 
 Early next morning, we were en route round the northern 
 extremity of Mull, and with a slight bend southwards to 
 have a glimpse of Staffa, the vessel held on almost straight 
 west to Tyree, a long unpicturesque island, generally low and 
 grassy, with a high rocky extremity presented to the full 
 sweep of the Atlantic. In a small cove near this headland 
 is the harbour of Ilynish, at which, while the Pharos 
 remains discreetly in the offing, we land to make our 
 inquiries. Milo, of course, is not forgot ; on the back of a 
 sailor, who climbs up the ladder at tho pier, he is placed
 
 My First Holiday. 19 
 
 amongst us on solid ground, and makes off over the adjoining 
 knolls. The inner part of the small harbour consists of a 
 wet-dock sufficient for the sailing schooner of fifty or sixty 
 tons burden, which is employed in communicating with the 
 Skerryvore light-house, eleven to twelve miles distant. 
 
 Hynish, altogether, is but an adjunct of Skerryvore. In 
 the olden time, it may have been a clachan of the Highland 
 type, but now it is nothing more than a settlement of 
 families less or more under the auspices of the Commis- 
 sioners of Northern Lights ; and only after a little scrutiny 
 do we see, on some distant braes, several poor-looking 
 thatched huts spared from inevitable clearance. Like all the 
 establishments for the residence of light-house keepers, that 
 at Hynish is of a most substantial kind ; it embraces 
 residences for the families of four keepers, along with 
 dwellings for the men who attend to the small sailing tender, 
 and one or two houses for stores a community larger than 
 usual, and better off than that of most other places as regards 
 a tolerably near neighbourhood to a church and school, and 
 also medical attendance. Though fertile and mild in climate, 
 Tyree seems to be destitute of trees. The Atlantic blasts 
 would probably prevent their growth, but certainly they offer 
 no check to the vegetables and flowering shrubs with which 
 the walled gardens of the keepers are plentifully stocked. 
 
 Behind the settlement, on a conspicuous knoll overlooking 
 the sea on the west, stands a tower of observation for holding 
 intercourse by signal with the lone dwellers on the rock. 
 In the upper floor of the building is placed a large telescope, 
 pointed in the direction of Skerryvore, which some of our 
 party declared they could see like a speck on the dim 
 misty horizon ; but this feat was beyond my power of vision. 
 I could see nothing but the great broad ocean, with its long
 
 20 My First Holiday. 
 
 swelling waves, and the sea-birds which wheeled in graceful 
 motion over the coast of the island. Little* time was spent 
 in these and other investigations. It was of the utmost 
 importance to reach Skerry vore at low tide, in order to have 
 the best chance of effecting a landing ; the weather, though 
 dull, was also still favourable, but both barometer and sym- 
 pisometer hinted that there should be no undue delay in 
 taking our departure. Off, accordingly, we went, the whole 
 male population respectfully attending on the quay, and 
 watching till the boat had placed us on board the Pharos, 
 which instantly steamed away in the required south-western 
 direction. 
 
 Of course, all were anxious to catch the first glimpse of 
 Skerryvore, and in spite of cold and damp, took up positions 
 on the bridge of the steamer, in company with Captain 
 Graham, the commander, who directed attention to the point 
 where the tall structure would be seen emerging from the 
 bosom of the deep. And there, sure enough, at length it 
 made its appearance, looming dimly through the dull haze, 
 solitary amidst the world of waters. As the vessel approached 
 this extraordinary work of art, the feeling of those who had 
 not previously seen it was one of intense pleasure and satis- 
 faction. There are sights of such impressive grandeur as 
 cannot be forgotten, and the recollection of which forms one 
 of the charms of existence. Among these I have 'reckoned 
 the falls of Niagara, the ruins of the Colosseum, and interior 
 of St Peter's, and now am able to add the Skerryvore light- 
 house. Its isolation is paralleled at the Bell-Rock and 
 Eddystone, and one or two other places. So far, there is 
 nothing singular. What enchains the mind of the spectator 
 is the remarkable dimensions and matchless beauty of design 
 of the Skerryvore its elegant curving taper, from the broad
 
 My First Holiday. 21 
 
 and firm base to the summit, and its great height of a 
 hundred and fifty feet to the top of the lantern, which is 
 double the altitude of the Eddystone, and a third higher 
 than the Bell-Rock. There is, however, more to surprise us 
 in the perfection with which the whole is finished, as well 
 as in the depth of thought required in its execution. I 
 believe there is only one loftier light-house in the world. 
 This is the Tour de Gorduan, situated on a reef of rock at 
 the mouth of the river Garonne, which is a pile rich in 
 architectural details, rising tier above tier to a height of a 
 hundred and ninety-seven feet. Perhaps, after all, the true 
 explanation of the overpowering effect in the Skerryvore is 
 derived from the exceeding simplicity of the structure ; for it 
 seems to combine what mechanical science signifies to be the 
 strongest in material, form, and construction, along with 
 what aesthetics would say is most thoroughly simple and 
 tasteful. But it is only on close examination that we learn 
 fully to appreciate the genius of the constructer. 
 
 The Pharos having dropped anchor, the party, by means 
 of two boats, were rowed to a narrow inlet or gully in the 
 straggling heap of rocks, which at the low state of the tide 
 shewed a variety of protuberances, on the highest and 
 broadest of which the light-house was planted. Our appear- 
 ance had brought out the three keepers in their uniforms, 
 and, ready to lend assistance, they helped us to step ashore 
 without difficulty. A pathway of ribbed iron, riveted to 
 the rock, and painted red, enabled us at once to walk 
 forward to the foot of the tower under the doorway, which 
 faces the east. Here, looking around, there was apparently 
 at least an acre of rocks in detached masses visible above 
 the water, with a limited smooth space for walking about on 
 all sides of the building. Dry, and free from marine plants,
 
 22 My First Holiday. 
 
 the higher part of the ledge was at the time about 6fteen 
 to eighteen feet above the sea-level ; and I learned that, 
 except during heavy storms, the rock adjoining the light- 
 house, and certain outlying patches, are never entirely 
 covered. The whole of the ledge, consisting chiefly of a 
 kind of gneiss ploughed into gullies, in which boulders are 
 kept ever rolling about, is but a portion of a long stretch of 
 hard rocks here and there shewing their dangerous presence 
 by the lashing and fretting of the sea, and on which wrecks 
 were of frequent occurrence previous to the completion of 
 the light-house. 
 
 As early as 1804, Mr Robert Stevenson paid a visit to 
 the Skerryvore reef, the terror of homeward-bound mariners, 
 and again he made a more special investigation of the rock 
 in 1814, in company with a party of Northern Commissioners 
 on their annual tour of inspection. On this occasion Walter 
 Scott accompanied the Commissioners in their sailing yacht, 
 and, in his own easy and humorous way, has given the 
 following account of the visit in his diary : 
 
 ' Having crept upon deck about four in the morning, I 
 find we are beating to windward off the island of Tyree, 
 with the determination on the part of Mr Stevenson, that 
 his constituents should visit a reef of rocks called Skerry 
 Vhor, where he thought it would be essential to have a 
 light-house. Loud remonstrances on the part of the 
 Commissioners, who one and all declare they will subscribe 
 to his opinion, whatever it may be, rather than continue the 
 infernal buffeting. Quiet perseverance on the part of Mr 
 S., and great kicking, bouncing, and squabbling upon that 
 of the yacht, who seems to like the idea of Skerry Vhor as 
 little as the Commissioners. At length, by dint of exertion, 
 came in sight of this long ridge of rocks (chiefly under
 
 My First Holiday. 23 
 
 water), on which the tide breaks in tremendous style. There 
 appear a few low broad rocks at one end of the reef, which 
 is about a mile in length. These are never entirely imder 
 water, though the surf dashes over them. To go through 
 all the forms, Hamilton, Duff, and I resolve to land upon 
 these bare rocks in company Avith Mr Stevenson. Pull 
 through a very heavy swell with great difficulty, and approach 
 a tremendous surf dashing over black pointed rocks. Our 
 rowers, however, get the boat into a quiet creek between 
 two rocks, where we contrive to land well wetted. I saw 
 nothing remarkable in my way excepting several seals, 
 Avhich we might have shot, but, in the doubtful circum- 
 stances of the landing, we did not care to bring guns. We 
 took possession of the rock in the name of the Commissioners, 
 and generously bestowed our own great names on its crags 
 and creeks. The rock was carefully measured by Mr S. 
 It will be a most desolate position for a light-house the 
 Bell-Hock and Eddystone a joke to it, for the nearest land 
 is the wild island of Tyree. So much for the Skerry 
 Vhor.' 
 
 Twenty years elapsed after this memorable visit before 
 the Commissioners ordered surveys and plans ; and not 
 until 1838 were operations for the establishment of a light- 
 house commenced by Mr Alan Stevenson, to whom is due 
 the glory of planning and perfecting the undertaking. The 
 Avorks Avere carried on at three places at Mull, where the 
 stone, a pale reddish granite, Avas quarried ; at Hynish, 
 where all the slabs were shaped and arranged to fit their 
 respective positions ; and finally, on the rock. It is scarcely 
 possible to imagine the amount of anxiety and bodily toil 
 endured by the constructor in these varied proceedings. 
 One of the lively episodes in the history of the building AVUS
 
 24 My First Holiday. 
 
 the destruction, by a storm, of a temporary wooden barrack 
 planted on the rock for the use of the operatives. Only by 
 an indomitable degree of courage was the light-house at 
 length completed, after six years of exertion. It says not a 
 little for Mr Stevenson's nicety of calculation, that although 
 the stones had to be prepared at Hynish, they did not, on 
 being set in their several courses, vary the sixteenth of an 
 inch, while the building did not exceed half an inch in 
 height over the intended dimension. Nor is it a matter less 
 worthy of note, that throughout the whole of the hazardous 
 undertaking not a single life was lost by accident. 
 
 On the 1st of February 1844, the Skerryvore Light for 
 the first time sent its brilliant rays over the surrounding seas, 
 and human skill may be said to have achieved a new 
 triumph. What was the entire cost of this wonderful work 
 of art, including the establishment and harbour at Hynish 1 
 It was 83,000 not a great sum, all things considered. 
 It is a circumstance to be gratefully borne in mind, that the 
 late Duke of Argyle permitted the stone to be taken free of 
 charge from his quarries. A very few figures give one a 
 notion of the ponderous character of the light-house. With 
 a foundation sunk fifteen inches in the rock, the base of the 
 edifice is forty-two feet in diameter, and is solid for the 
 first twenty-six feet to which point the mass of masonry 
 weighs two thousand tons. Above this level, th"e walls are 
 fully nine and a half feet thick, gradually reduced to two 
 feet, and leaving an interior space of twelve feet in diameter. 
 By an adjustment of weight in reference to the height of 
 the building, the centre of gravity is kept comparatively 
 low ; and with the additional means which are employed to 
 joint and cement the stones firmly in connection with each 
 other, tho whole becomes a species of monolith, which,
 
 My First Holiday. 25 
 
 seemingly, not all the pressure of the sea in its wildest mood 
 is ahle to disturb. 
 
 Let us ascend to the interior. Climbing hand-over-hand 
 up a weather-stained brass ladder attached to the side of the 
 tower, we one by one reach the doorway in the enormously 
 thick wall, and find ourselves in what may be styled the 
 ground-floor of the building. Stone is above, below, and 
 around us, for neither deal flooring nor ceiling enters into 
 the composition. A step-ladder, bent to the interior curve, 
 enables us, by clutching to a brass rail, to reach the next 
 story above ; and so on through ten stories we reach the top. 
 In the construction of the stone floor of each story in 
 succession there is much to admire. It consists of an arch, 
 but not of the ordinary kind. From the walls around flat 
 stones are projected and jointed into one central stone, the 
 whole forming a compact mass, level on ihe top for the floor, 
 and slightly curved on the under side for the ceiling of the 
 story belgw. These flat stone arches, in which gaps are left 
 for the ladders, are probably of value as regards strengthening 
 the general fabric. The lower stories are used for stores of 
 coal, fresh-water, provisions, and other articles. In one 
 of them were a carpenter's bench and tools. Above are the 
 sitting and sleeping rooms lighted by windows, and fitted up 
 with furnishings of oak. Everything was comfortable and 
 even tasteful; but not more so than was proper for the 
 residence of three men cut off for Aveeks from intercourse 
 with the outer world. On a window-sole stood a geranium 
 in flower, doubtless an importation from the gardens at 
 Hynish. The highest floor of all, as in the other light- 
 houses under the Commissioners, is provided with a table 
 and chair, with writing materials, along with a book for 
 inscribing the names of visitors ; we also find a shelf with 
 
 B
 
 26 My First Holiday. 
 
 books and periodicals to wile away the hours during watch, 
 and a framed list of the exact time for lighting up and 
 extinguishing the lamp daily over the whole year. On this 
 last-mentioned particular, the system prevalent at the Scottish 
 light-houses deserves special notice. Instead of lighting up 
 at sunset, and extinguishing at sunrise, as is the practice, I 
 believe, in England and elsewhere, the plan consists in 
 inakiug allowance for the long periods of twilight in 
 northern latitudes, more especially in the summer months, 
 when, although the sun is below the horizon, there is in 
 reality good daylight. Tables are calculated accordingly, 
 from actual observation in the different localities. By 
 adopting this plan of lighting, the Northern Commissioners 
 effect a saving in oil of not less than 1GOO a year. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, the arrangement for the keepers is to 
 watch four hours alternately, and on no account whatever is 
 one to leave until another takes his place. The watcher can 
 readily communicate with the apartment of the sleeper who 
 is to succeed, by blowing through a small tube in the wall, 
 which produces the sound of a bell. Sitting on duty in this 
 upper apartment, the keeper has overhead the great blaze of 
 light effected by the central lamp, which, according to the 
 dioptric method, shines through annular lenses ; beside him, 
 in the centre of the apartment, is the mechanism, in the 
 form of clock-work, by which the frame of lenses revolves, 
 and causes an alteration of darkness and a bright blaze of 
 light every minute. By a narrow ladder we ascended to the 
 iron gangway around the apparatus of lenses, and had the 
 process of lighting explained. The light, when at the 
 moment of greatest brilliance, can be seen at a distance of 
 eighteen miles on the sea-level. Its appearance is a warning 
 to avoid the foul ground in the neighbourhood, of which
 
 . My First Holiday. 27 
 
 Admiralty charts give the fullest intimation. From the 
 floor occupied by. the man on duty, there is an outlet by a 
 door to the exterior balcony, on which is placed a bell to bu 
 struck as a fog-signal. We examined the bell. By an 
 adaptation of the clock-work, it can be made to sound at 
 regular intervals, but it is doubtful if these signals of danger 
 can be heard at any great distance. My own experience of a 
 fog, on one occasion in crossing the Channel to Calais, where 
 a bell was kept tolling, leads to the supposition that bells 
 can be heard but a short way off during a thick palpable 
 fog, and are of little practical avail. 
 
 As the weather had partially cleared, we had a pretty 
 extensive view over the waste of waters from the balcony. 
 The only visible land was that of Tyree at Hynish, Avith its 
 signal-tower. I was interested in knowing the method of 
 intercourse by signals. Every morning between nine and 
 ten o'clock, a ball is to be hoisted at the light-house to 
 signify that all is well at the Skerryvore. Should this signal 
 fail to be given, a ball is raised at Hynish to inquire if any- 
 thing is wrong. Should no reply be made by the hoisting of 
 the ball, the schooner, hurried from its wet-dock, is put to 
 sea, and steers for the light-house. Three men are con- 
 stantly on the rock, where each remains six weeks, and then 
 has a fortnight on shore ; the shift, which is made at low 
 water of spring tides, occurs for each in succession, and is 
 managed without difficulty by means of the fourth or spare 
 keeper at Hynish, who takes his regular turn of duty. 
 According to these arrangements, the keepers of the Skerry- 
 vore are about nine months on the rock, and about three 
 months with their families every year. But this regularity 
 may be deranged by the weather. One of the keepers told 
 me that last winter he was confined to the rock for thirteen
 
 28 My First Holiday. 
 
 weeks, in consequence of the troubled state of the sea 
 preventing personal communication with the shore. I 
 inquired how high the waves washed up the sides of the 
 tower during the most severe storms, and was told that they 
 sometimes rose as high as the first window, or about sixty 
 feet above the level of the rocks ; yet, that even in these 
 frightful tumults of winds and waves, the building never 
 shook, and no apprehension of danger was entertained. 
 
 When the weather is fine, the keepers are not by any 
 means confined to the building. They may straggle about 
 among the gullies, enjoy the fresh air, and amuse themselves 
 by angling for the smaller kinds of white-fish ; any catch of 
 this sort imparting a little relish to the monotony of the 
 daily fare. The visits of seals, which are occasionally seen 
 frisking in the surf, also furnish some amusement, and one 
 can fancy that, to a student of natural history, life at the 
 Skerryvore might furnish some useful memoranda. The 
 keepers, as previously mentioned, do not complain of 
 solitude ; the obligations of professional duty, and the peri- 
 odical return to their families at Hynish, where in fine 
 weather they occupy themselves with their gardens, help 
 materially to banish the sense of loneliness. Besides, as we 
 observed from the visitors' book, yachting-parties sometimes 
 land on the rock, and ascend to the top of the light-house, 
 perhaps leaving behind them the acceptable gift of a few 
 newspapers, to shew what is going on in the outer world. The 
 Commissioners do not object to the visits of respectable 
 parties to this or any other light-house under their charge, 
 for they believe that such visits, when properly conducted, 
 may be in various ways beneficial. 
 
 We spent an hour on the rock ; more time could have 
 been agreeably occupied, but the Commissioners of Northern
 
 My First Holiday. 29 
 
 Lights act as men of business, and have little to charge 
 themselves with in the way of procrastination. There was 
 other work to be done before night. We had to reach a 
 bay behind Barra Head, the bold southern promontory of 
 that long series of islands and rocks which stretch north- 
 wards and terminate in the Butt of Lewis. The Pharos, 
 with all safely on board, is therefore to be supposed once 
 more pushing onward in its course. My last look of this 
 giant of the ocean embraced the three keepers standing at. 
 gaze on an elevated peak of the rock, but the rising mist 
 and increasing distance soon shut them from our view; and 
 Skerryvore remained only as one of the pleasing remem- 
 brances of my excursion. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 T EAVING Skerryvore wrapped in the rising mists, the 
 J-J Pharos went steadily on its way in a north-westerly 
 direction for Barra-Head, on the small island of Bernera, 
 which may, from its great height, in clear weather be seen 
 from a considerable distance. In present circumstances, it 
 did not become visible till we were within ten miles of its 
 light-house, situated on the summit of the precipitous crag. 
 The value of the Barra-Head light can be easily conjectured, 
 for shipwreck on the cliffs beneath would be instantaneous 
 destruction. 
 
 With the headland on our left, the Pharos rounded into 
 a sheltered bay, where it dropped anchor for the night. 
 Properly speaking, the bay was a channel between two 
 islands, Bernera and Mingalay ; but intersected as it is with 
 huge rocks near its western extremity, it is impracticable 
 for navigation. Both islands and some others are often 
 collectively styled Barra, from the larger of the group, and
 
 30 My First Holiday. 
 
 hence the terminating point of the most southerly receives 
 the designation Barra-Head. Onr business was exclusively 
 with this famed promontory, and to reach it, there was 
 before us a pretty long walk up-hill. Overnight, it was 
 resolved in full conclave that the walk should be performed 
 next morning before breakfast, as there was a long day's 
 work afterwards ; but as this was deemed to be exacting in 
 the way of duty in fact, against all rule, and not to be 
 construed into a precedent cups of coffee were to be 
 considerately served all round before starting. So fortified, 
 the Commissioners were next morning rowed ashore about 
 seven o'clock, and made their landing on Bernera at an inlet 
 in a long stretch of dry rocks, dotted over with quantities of 
 fish in the process of being cured for export. With Milo as 
 a sort of scout in advance, all sturdily betook themselves to 
 the ascent. The road slanted upward across the open 
 hillside, which was devoted chiefly to the pasturage of a 
 few cattle and sheep. Here and there were small patches 
 of barley and oats, enclosed with fences of turf; but so 
 meagre were the crops, and so plentifully interspersed with 
 tall dock- weeds, that there was promise of but an insignificant 
 harvest. The tenants of these crofts, as far as I could see, 
 were the dwellers in two or three thatched huts by the 
 wayside. Nearly half-way up, I called attention to a 
 phenomenon in these parts a low building which appeared 
 to be a mill of some kind, with a wheel at one end, movable 
 by a rill of water from the grounds above. 
 
 After a stiff pull, we at length reach the light-house 
 establishment, which, with its environing walls and gates 
 has somewhat the aspect of a fortification. The whole of 
 the buildings are of a beautiful white granite, quarried in 
 the island. As in similar cases, the transition from the
 
 My First Holiday. 31 
 
 rough state of things outside the establishment to the 
 orderly arrangements within, was an abrupt step from 
 medieval to modern times. An interior paved court is 
 environed by the houses of three keepers ; and passing them, 
 we reach the tower for the light, with its winding stair, 
 which all immediately ascend, preceded by one of the 
 keepers. What an outlook from the upper story down to 
 the sea, which surges seven hundred feet below ; and what 
 myriads of sea-birds screaming and fluttering on ledges of 
 this tremendous precipice ! I have seen it stated that these 
 cliffs excel in grandeur anything of the kind in the Hebrides. 
 and can scarcely doubt that such is the case. On a 
 projecting point immediately in front of the light-house, are 
 the ruins of an old castle or keep, once the stronghold of 
 some Hebridean chief. As usual, before departure, we visited 
 the several houses of the keepers, and entered into a little 
 friendly conversation on matters of domestic interest. In 
 one of the dwellings, some information was picked up 
 respecting the water-mill which had excited our curiosity. 
 The mill is entirely the handiwork of an ingenious assistant 
 light-house keeper (a Fife man), who diverted his leisure 
 hours in its construction. He erected the building, covered 
 it with a tarpauling roof, and fabricated the whole of the 
 grinding apparatus. The most difficult part of the under- 
 taking was accomplished by adapting an old cart-wheel. 
 The idea of erecting a mill was suggested by the absence 
 from the island of all means for grinding except by a primi- 
 tive species of hand-querns. It turned out to be a grand 
 conception this mill. Glad of the opportunity of so easily 
 transforming their corn into meal, the crofters besought the 
 privilege of using it, which was of course allowed ; and as 
 money happens to be a rare article in Bernera, the multure
 
 32 My First Holiday. 
 
 was arranged on the convenient footing of giving a lamb for 
 a grist, be the quantity much or little. 
 
 Returning leisurely before the others, I had time to 
 inspect the interior of the mill, which I found to bo about 
 eight feet square, and lighted only by the low doorway ; 
 adjoining is a kiln, equally diminutive, made, as I was 
 told, from a piece of old sheet-iron, and indispensable for 
 drying the parcels of grain which are taken to this modest 
 establishment to be ground. I afterwards took the liberty 
 of visiting two thatched dwellings of the well-known 
 Western Island type poor lowly biggings, with no attempt 
 at either neatness or cleanliness in their miserable sur- 
 roundings. Let me just say a word or two about dwellings 
 of this sort. A leading feature consists in a twisted orifice 
 in the roof, to let out the smoke as it ascends from the peat- 
 fire in the middle of the clay-floor the said twist being 
 adjusted so as to keep the rain from falling directly down 
 over the fire, which would not be pleasant. Two things are 
 obviously disliked in this quarter of the world chimneys 
 and windows. The great enemy is cold, which would be 
 radiated from windows of ordinary size ; and with a chimney 
 constructed in the wall of the house, the family could not 
 sit round the fire. If the smoke does not shoot immediately 
 upwards, so much the better ; hovering overhead, it keeps 
 the dwelling warm, and shrouds all in that fine indistinctness 
 which affords play to the imagination. It is, however, not 
 altogether for such reasons that the inmates of these cabins 
 dislike slated roofs. Thatch offers a particular advantage. 
 When sufficiently rotted with damp, and well suturated with 
 soot, it forms an esteemed manure, and is carried away in back- 
 loads to the arable plots in the vicinity ; wherefore each 
 house may be said to be a dungheap in preparation, such
 
 My First Holiday. 33 
 
 as Mr Mechi, I venture to think, has not yet introduced into 
 his marvellously economical systems of husbandry. 
 
 I had learned, from various knowing hints and looks of a 
 Commissioner, that it was not advisable to enter any of the 
 dwellings organised on these admired principles, but had no 
 reason to regret having disregarded the well-meant intima- 
 tions. In the first hut I entered there was an old woman 
 barefooted, who could speak only a few words of English, 
 but seemed anxious to be hospitable, and set a chair for me 
 beside the peat-fire. Though small, smoky, and dingy, the 
 cottage contained a loom in one corner, in which was a web 
 of dark woollen cloth, which the woman made me understand 
 was for the clothing of the family. In the other hut there 
 were an old woman carding wool, and her daughter neatly 
 dressed in tartan, who spoke English tolerably. Here, also, 
 was a loom, at which the daughter wove the family woollen 
 clothing ; a circumstance shewing no little thrift and ingenu- 
 ity. The husband and sons connected with these families, as 
 I understood, occupy their time partly as fishermen, and at 
 certain seasons take cargoes of cured fish in their open boats 
 to Portrush, on the northern coast of Ireland, or sell them to 
 Glasgow traders. "What with the hill-pastures, the arable 
 patches, and the sea, there was apparently no deficiency as 
 regards means of living; and if existence in these smoky dens 
 did not seem altogether enviable, I was constrained to remem- 
 ber that I had not long since visited dwellings in the closes of 
 
 o O 
 
 the Old Town of Edinburgh quite as dingy, and infinitely 
 more revolting. In the last of my civic explorations, I had 
 seen a dwelling in Toddrick's Wynd consisting of a single 
 dungeon-looking apartment, without a window', in which ten 
 persons of different sexes habitually lived, but one of whom, 
 by a not unusual casualty, happened at the time to be in 
 
 B 2
 
 34 Aly First Holiday. 
 
 prison. After spectacles of this nature so near home, ami 
 which the world takes very complacently, it would be 
 ridiculous to bear hard on the domiciliary condition of these 
 Bernera crofters. 
 
 All on board by half-past nine, and the Pharos once more 
 under steam, taking its course along the east side of Barra, 
 South Uist, Benbecula, North Uist, and a number of inter- 
 mediate islands, aud stopping for a short time midway to 
 admit of a visit to the light-house of Ushenish. The 
 programme indicated that the Commissioners were to visit 
 the Monach light, on the western side of the islands, which 
 the vessel was to reach through a navigable channel ; but 
 the weather proved too stormy for us to face the Atlantic, or 
 to attempt a landing in that direction ; the Pharos therefore 
 pursued its way to Lochmaddy, a well-sheltered bay in North 
 Uist, where it was to remain for the night. Cold and gusty 
 as the day happened to be, most of the party kept the deck, 
 and occasionally mounted to the bridge, with field-glass in 
 hand, to catch glimpses of the rugged coast, which appeared 
 a strange combination of rocks, low unpicturesque hills, and 
 inlets of the sea. Some amusement was derived from the 
 notion that part of this ungenial domain was the ancient 
 patrimony of the M'Neills of Barra, who at one time assumed 
 the airs of independent sovereignty, and, according to 
 Carstairs's state-papers, had sent a magniloquent letter 
 offering aid to the Earl of Argyle. The best of the traditions 
 regarding these self-sufficient old chieftains, is that of the 
 daily proclamation, in Gaelic, from the top of their castle of 
 Chisamil : ' Hear, O ye people ! and listen, O ye nations ! 
 The great M'Neill of Barra having finished his dinner, all 
 the princes of the earth are at liberty to dine !' Seen from 
 the east side, Barra and the other islands we were passing
 
 My First Holiday. 35 
 
 did not seem qualified to furnish a dinner ; but that there 
 might be no mistake on this point, Captain Graham let us 
 know that the belt of fertility stretched along the west side, 
 and that there the sea-shores were remarkably rich in cockles 
 and other varieties of mollusks ; from which I would infer, 
 that with a reasonable degree of diligence on the part of his 
 caterer, the great M'Neill never wanted for a good dish of 
 lobster at his famous entertainments. Be this as it might, 
 there can be no doubt that the seas hereabouts are not a half 
 nor a tenth part fished. I would almost go the length of 
 saying, that members of the cod, ling, and sethe tribes jostle 
 each other in their anxiety to be caught and eaten ; when 
 baited lines were thrown overboard while the vessel was at 
 rest, hauls Avere rapidly made, of which cooked specimens 
 duly made their appearance in the saloon. 
 
 The reverend minister of Barra, writing in 1840, tells us 
 that the great majority of the inhabitants were Roman 
 Catholics ; and the same thing is said by the incumbent of 
 South Uist respecting his parishioners ; but as we go north- 
 wards, Protestantism in the Presbyterian form gains as 
 remarkable a predominance. This diversified religious 
 condition of the Western Isles is exceedingly curious. 
 It is historical. From the possessions of certain chiefs, 
 the Reformation was somehow excluded, and three centuries 
 have failed to make any great change in this respect. Not 
 only in language and style of living, but in religious 
 sentiment, people are here seen much as their predecessors 
 were immediately after Columba, in the sixth century, 
 propagated a knowledge of Christianity in these insular 
 Caledonian regions. Any one having a fancy to see what 
 Scotland generally was like a thousand years ago, may go to 
 Barra that is to say, if he can manage to get to it, which
 
 36 My First Holiday. 
 
 may be no easy matter. The extreme difficulty of visiting 
 this and other outlying islands must have acted detrimentally 
 on their interests. The mere trouble of getting from island 
 to island across narrow sounds is annoying. Through these 
 channels, the tides run with a violence that no ordinary boat 
 can withstand. At low water, a number of the channels 
 are dry, and at such times they become excellent fords for 
 traffic by carts or otherwise, on which account the exact 
 state of the tides is a matter of vital solicitude to the 
 islanders. To wish a wayfarer 'a pleasant ford' is some- 
 thing more than an idle compliment ; for if he misses the 
 nick of time to make his passage, a delay of twelve hours 
 in his journey may chance to be his fate. From perhaps 
 this as well as other causes, post-letters take a desperately 
 long time to make their way through this part of the 
 Western Isles, which, but for the touching of one of 
 Hutcheson's Glasgow steamers once a fortnight at Loch- 
 maddy, would still bo deprived of nearly all regular means 
 of communication for goods or passengers. 
 
 Lochmaddy was to us a desirable haven, for the weather 
 was hourly growing worse, and all were glad when, within 
 the shelter of the bay, two anchors were dropped, to keep 
 all secure till morning. As could be seen through our 
 glasses, there was no town on the shore ; only two or three 
 buildings with slated roofs, one of which was said to be 
 the house of the sheriff-substitute; and this resident 
 magistrate, by way of compliment to the Commissioners, 
 politely hoisted his flag as we next morning departed on 
 our assigned course. This day, Saturday, August 4th. 
 weather continues cold and boisterous ; few keep the deck, 
 but all, with two exceptions, of whom I am one, are able to 
 go off in the boat to visit two light-houses. The last of
 
 My First Holiday. 37 
 
 these establishments was on the point of land on turning 
 into Stornoway Bay ; and getting this piece of duty over, 
 the vessel was at its anchorage just in time to allow of 
 dinner being served with some degree of comfort. 
 
 Stornoway, I should say, is a good place for finishing off 
 a week's cruise. It offers a fair choice of churches for 
 Sunday, and in this respect it was fully taken advantage 
 of by our party, as well as by the ship's officers, for the 
 weather had temporarily calmed, the sun shone, and a walk 
 on dry land was a luxury which no one could despise. 
 Built in a semicircle at the inner end of the bay, Stornoway 
 appeared to be a rudimentary kind of Oban ; but in place 
 of the high, picturesque background of that pretty West 
 Highland town, we have, as the only object of interest, the 
 castellated mansion of Sir James Matheson, the munificent 
 improver of the Lewis, and of this seaport in particular. 
 Between ten and eleven o'clock, two boatfuls are set on 
 shore at the slip of quay, and all make off for their respective 
 places of public worship. About an hour too early for the 
 one I am bound for, there is time to look about, and see 
 what is going on. Shops all decently shut, and men and 
 women pouring in streams from different quarters towards 
 a central point, to which they are lugging along chairs or 
 stools as seats for an open-air preaching. Dropping into 
 the concourse, I am led to a grassy field with environing 
 Avails, having a wide gateway, at each side of which stands 
 a man gathering halfpence in a dinner-plate. A tent is 
 placed at one end of the area for the preacher, and stretching 
 half-way across the enclosure is a table decorously covered 
 for dispensing the communion. The scene, with its great, 
 crowd of worshippers, was solemn, and more than usually 
 interesting ; but as the service was in Gaelic, I listened
 
 38 My First Holiday. 
 
 without edification, and did not remain longer than was 
 necessary to satisfy a reasonable curiosity. 
 
 I saw little more of Stornoway. On returning to the ship 
 after attending church, the effects of the last two or three 
 chilly days, and perhaps some over-fatigue, rendered it 
 advisable that I should betake myself to bed ; and greatly 
 to my regret, I was robbed of the opportunity of enjoying 
 the kindly proffered hospitality of Stornoway Castle, and 
 learning something coherent of those physical and social 
 improvements on the Lewis which have far and wide spread 
 the renown of Sir James Matheson. Well pleased I should 
 have been had my brother Commissioners seen the 
 desirableness of staying at Stornoway over Monday ; but 
 it was resolved otherwise, and in the face of a gale which 
 rendered a visit to the light-house at the Butt of Lewis 
 altogether impracticable, the Pharos, as if determined to get 
 into a mischief, was again on its travels. To all appearance, 
 the storm had been reserving itself till we got fairly outside, 
 and then what an uproar of winds and waves ! Nothing for 
 it but to give up, iiistanter, the northerly direction to the 
 Butt, and fly eastward across the Minch to some quiet bay 
 on the coast of Sutherlandshire. Bad as things were, no one 
 had the least fear of the Pharos coming to any disaster, for, 
 strongly built, and broad in the beam, it swept on^its course 
 in. gallant style, and about mid-day took us all safely into 
 Lochinchard. Having properly punished our audacity, the 
 weather, as if by magic, suddenly changed to the brightness 
 of a tranquil summer day. Party go on shore to fish in a 
 small river in the neighbourhood two of the sheriffs, great 
 in the angling art, bring back a grilse and salmon-trout I 
 am again on my legs, and able to assist at dinner, at which 
 there is not a little merriment over the day's adventures. A
 
 My First Holiday. 39 
 
 degree of novelty at table was the presence of a country 
 doctor, whom the angling party had discovered on his 
 journey to some distant scene of professional duty. This 
 young gentleman let us have an idea of what was a Highland 
 doctor's course of life. His range of practice was over sixty 
 miles in different directions. Sometimes he was on horseback 
 two days at a time, bivouacking at farmhouses and shielings 
 by the way ; and no sooner did he get home after these 
 excursions, than he had to be off somewhere else. The 
 narration of these circumstances reminded rne of a saying of 
 Mungo Park, that his toil and distraction during his first 
 travels in Africa were nothing in comparison to what he 
 endured in the ill-requited practice of a Scottish country 
 surgeon. 
 
 A light-house keeper with his family from Pladda had 
 made' his way as far as Stornoway, en route for Cape Wrath. 
 Keceived on board the Pharos, he was landed with his wife, 
 bairns, and boxes at Lochinchard, whence he was directed 
 to proceed by a cart to the place of his destination. To the 
 general surprise, the whole boat-load were brought back to 
 the vessel. The people at the inn had a cart, which was at 
 the man's service ; but the only two horses in the establish- 
 ment were lame, which was as bad as having no cart at all. 
 Family once more stowed away somewhere on board till 
 next morning, when, if storm do not reappear, they are to be 
 taken on to Cape "Wrath. Fortunately, next morning the 
 weather had taken itself up ; by an early start, we were off 
 the Cape by seven o'clock, and saw before us that grand 
 sweep of rugged precipices which constitute the north- 
 western extremity of the island of Great Britain. Here the 
 knocked-about light-house keeper was landed, and installed 
 at his post by the Commissioners j they bringing back with
 
 4O My First Holiday. 
 
 them a keeper who had been promoted to Skerryvore. So 
 adroit are the arrangements of the service, that the ingoing 
 of one family and the outgoing of another scarcely occupied 
 an hour. An object of special care on the part of this new 
 family, whom we were taking with us as far as Portree, was 
 a hen with a brood of infantile chickens under her wings, 
 the whole very nicely accommodated in a basket, and which, 
 unconscious of the change, are now doubtless picking their 
 way comfortably about at Hynish. 
 
 At Cape Wrath, the captain had his suspicions as to the 
 weather. Things did not look well in the north-west ; and 
 when returning southward along the coast of the mainland, 
 the storm resumed its fury. Driving onward before the 
 misty blast, any attempt to laud on the island of Rona, to 
 inspect the light-house, was deemed hopeless ; and the 
 vessel did not stop in its course till it arrived in the eVfening 
 at Portree in Skye. The bay of Portree, laud-locked and 
 sheltered like a placid basin from the outer storms, was to us 
 a pleasant haven of rest ; and further, it enabled us to procure 
 some much-needed public intelligence. From the Clansman, 
 one of Hutcheson's steamers, without which the social 
 condition of the Western Isles would still cut a sorry figure, 
 we procured Glasgow morning newspapers of the day of our 
 arrival ; after perusing which, we sauntered about for an 
 hour on shore, admiring the beauty of the scene from a 
 prominent woody knoll overlooking the town and bay ; and 
 while admiring, remembered that the spot had been visited 
 by James V. of Scotland on his celebrated hydrographic 
 expedition round the coast in 1540. 
 
 Next day, resuming our route, the voyage of the Pharos was 
 greatly more pleasant through the sinuous channel of Kyleakin 
 a name ever commemorative of Haco of Norway and his
 
 My First Holiday. 41 
 
 maritime exploits ; after visiting the light-house at that 
 picturesque strait, also one at Isle Oronsay, and another on 
 the bold promontory of Ardnamurchan, night saw us back to 
 our old anchorage at Tobermory. 
 
 I have little more to tell. Had I set myself to write a 
 book, instead of a few off-hand sketches, how easy and 
 perhaps how agreeable it would have been to scatter in a 
 variety of statistical details and conversational anecdotes, 
 along with a seasoning of territorial and family history ! 
 What could not one say about that marvellous change of 
 ownership in the Highlands the transference of vast estates 
 from the Mackenzies, Mackays, Macleans, Macdonnels, and a 
 dozen other Macs, with a few Campbells to boot, all high 
 chiefs in their day, to the Mathesons, Baillies, Ellises, Bairds, 
 Dalgleishes, Eamsays, and so on. And what strange tales 
 about rise of rental in the hands of these men of the modern 
 world ! How could we also expatiate on the character of the 
 natives on mainland and island ; describing with what 
 patience and good-behaviour these poor people have suffered 
 vicissitudes such as few are well acquainted with. And then, 
 how the pen would dilate on the wisdom of their unmur- 
 muring submission to lawful authority how by such pro- 
 priety of demeanour they have in reality conquered and 
 absorbed the Sassenach, allured him to abide in their Avild 
 glens, made him a grateful landlord, furnished him with a 
 following of gillies, put him in kilts, and actually taught 
 him to be fond of the bagpipe, and to dance the Highland 
 fling ! 
 
 All that and much more must be left to some one with a 
 little more time on his hand than I just now happen to have 
 at my disposal. After visiting the light-house on the point 
 of land near Tobermory, Thursday the last day of our trip
 
 42 My First Holiday. 
 
 was devoted to the light-houses of Lismore and Goran Ferry 
 on Linnhe Loch, familiar to all tourists to Glencoe and thr 
 Caledonian Canal. At Oban, on the morning of Friday the 
 10th of August, proceedings were brought to a close; and 
 respectfully conveyed by boats to the quay, the Northern 
 Commissioners dispersed on their respective routes home- 
 ward. So ends MY FIRST HOLIDAY.
 
 MY SECOND HOLIDAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A WILD and seemingly persistent gale from the north- 
 east, drenching showers of rain, with thick mists 
 shrouding the sky and hovering over the turbulent waters of 
 the Firth of Forth. Such was the unaccountable state of 
 the weather at Edinburgh on the morning of Monday the 
 22d of July 1867 a season when one might reasonably have 
 reckoned on something like summer and its accustomed 
 sunshine. It was at least under an expectation of this 
 sort that the Commissioners of Northern Light-houses had 
 arranged to start with the Pharos steamer, on their annual 
 voyage of inspection. Fixed securely to the pier at Granton, 
 there lay the vessel, primed with coal, and equipped with 
 all manner of stores for bodily comfort, ready for sea at a 
 moment's notice, or, as the captain said ' Only about 
 twenty minutes wanted to get up the steam, sir, and be off.' 
 But to think of being off in the face of that resolute north- 
 easter, and its dense fogs and drizzle, was sheer nonsense. 
 The voyage was to be along the eastern coast of Scotland to 
 Orkney and Shetland : light-houses perched on craggy 
 eminences, at which landing can be effected only in line
 
 44 My Second Holiday. 
 
 weather, wore to be visited here and there along the whole 
 route. Obviously, the thing was out of the question. 
 
 At nine o'clock, when I ought to think of moving, I look 
 out of windows back and front, to see if there be any 
 prospect of clearing. None whatever. The sky all round is 
 inexorably dull not the faintest break rain remorseless in 
 its pelting fury. At a loss what to do or think, I am 
 relieved by the entrance of a visitor. 
 
 ' I have just called to ask your Lordship what is to be 
 done,' said the Secretary of the Commissioners, with a face 
 of extreme perplexity. ' The weather seems hopeless ; but, 
 on the other hand, if we don't start, the programme for the 
 different voyages will be inconveniently deranged.' 
 
 In this latter view of the case lay the real difficulty. 
 On former occasions, the Pharos had taken the east coast 
 one year, and the west coast another ; but now it was con- 
 sidered preferable to inspect the whole light-houses (weather 
 permitting) every year. This was to be effected by three 
 voyages in succession, each with its distinct party of 
 Commissioners ; if the first party, therefore, did not keep 
 the prescribed time, there would necessarily be a general 
 and awkward derangement. 
 
 ' What has usually been done in circumstances of this 
 kind?' I inquired, for I find it a safe thing in official life U 
 go a good deal by precedent. 
 
 ' Such a thing as detention by weather never occurred 
 before in all my experience,' said the Secretary with a 
 marked degree of astonishment. 
 
 4 "Well, then, you will at once send for Captain Graham 
 to consult with us at eleven o'clock at your office down 
 with a cab to Granton for him immediately." 
 
 Scene Office of Northern Lights in George Street, at
 
 My Second Holiday. 45 
 
 eleven, Captain, Secretary, and two Commissioners namely, 
 the Sheriff of Caithness and myself are in grave consulta- 
 tion, rain still driving furiously outside ; hardly anybody 
 to be seen moving about ; my horses dripping in meek 
 patience, and perhaps meditating on the comforts of the 
 stable from which they have been ruthlessly dragged that 
 terrible morning. 
 
 The resolution come to is, that the Pharos must remain 
 in situ till to-morrow morning after breakfast ; but that, on 
 the chance of the weather moderating, the Commissioners, 
 and the friends who are to accompany them, must be on 
 board to-day in time for dinner. A wise determination, 
 worthy to be followed in all similar circumstances. It was 
 not the less judicious, that not even next day, nor next 
 again, did the wind, rain, and fog abate, during which 
 protracted period, what could the luckless Commissioners 
 do but make themselves as comfortable as possible ? They 
 were enjoying life at sea, with the peculiar advantage of lying 
 tranquilly in harbour, and receiving the visits of acquaintances. 
 
 On Thursday, the weather shews symptoms of mending. 
 The captain, who for three days has been examining the 
 aneroid barometer in the chart-room every ten minutes, 
 reports that there is at last a slight movement in the right 
 direction ; and further, that the commander of the St 
 Mcujnus, which has just arrived from Lerwick, communi- 
 cates the cheering intelligence that he left Bressay Sound 
 basking in sunshine. Hopes of a speedy departure rise 
 high on board the Pharos. Captain and mate think we 
 may venture to cast off at four o'clock in the afternoon, 
 when we shall be helped by the tide. As commodore 
 for to this maritime honour I had been promoted by 
 the Commissioners I sanction the order for departure
 
 46 My Second Holiday. 
 
 accordingly. Stores, a little impaired by recent proceed- 
 ings, are reinvigorated by fresh importations. Tilings are 
 decidedly looking up. 
 
 The delay, which had been manfully borne by the 
 Commissioners for three mortal days by dint of such 
 services as could be rendered by the cook and steward's 
 departments, had proved to me a special benefit. I was 
 able to do some public business in the interval which I 
 could not complacently have left undone. Up till the last 
 available minute, I was occupied with the ceremonial of 
 delivering prizes at the High School ; and rushing away 
 from this academic demonstration, I was just in time to 
 reach the Pharos, when the loud rustling of the spare steam 
 plainly indicated that everything was at length ready for 
 departure down the still troubled Firth. 
 
 A few notes, written from memory, will explain what 
 followed. 
 
 TJmrsday, July 25. Pharos is let loose at 4.15 P.M. A 
 lady, wife of one of the Commissioners, having bidden good- 
 bye, waits to see the vessel leave the harbour. Interested 
 in Shetland, her last words, patriotically cried to us from 
 the pier, are : 'Mind to go to Scalloway ; try to see Foulah.' 
 ' Ay, ay ' handkerchiefs are mutually waved, till increasing 
 distance and the dull creeping haze obscure the shore, from 
 which we are rapidly separated. It is cold ; some turn in. 
 I call the Commissioners together and resolve on line of 
 route. All agree that, in consequence of the loss of time, 
 as well as the state of the weather, it is advisable to 
 abandon that part of the programme which refers to the 
 visiting of St Abb's Head and other light-houses along the 
 coast of the mainland. There is nothing now for it but to 
 drive right on to Shetland.
 
 My Second Holiday. 47 
 
 This resolution was contrary to ordinary practice, for the 
 rule, as formerly stated by me, is, to anchor every evening 
 in a quiet bay, previous to sitting down to dinner. Nor is 
 this a very unreasonable arrangement. The Commissioners 
 are not paid officials, and considering their frequent attend- 
 ance at meetings, as well as the other work they perform, 
 it would be rather too bad to expect that, in their annual 
 inspections, they should make the unbecoming sacrifice of 
 sailing night and day. I entirely coincide in the propriety 
 of not beginning to make any noise on board before six, 
 and not starting before seven o'clock in the morning of 
 ' doing ' not more than two or three light-houses in the day 
 (which is quite enough, as some of them are more than two 
 hundred steps high, with steep ladders at top) ; and of cast- 
 ing anchor in a sheltered haven for the night. These 
 primary rules are to be invaded only on some particular 
 emergency, as on the present occasion. 
 
 On and on, the vessel drove in its course, passing in the 
 dusk the Bell Rock light-house, which blazed forth in soli- 
 tary grandeur over the waste of tumbling waters. The Bell 
 Rock light-house was one which we were to visit, according 
 to the programme, but that was now impossible. The rock 
 can only be visited deliberately at low water, when a large 
 part of it is exposed, and boats are able to sail into a kind 
 of creek, whence we scramble to the base of the tower. In 
 the course of a visit to it, in September 1866, on the 
 occasion of the Pharos delivering oil and other stores, I had 
 an opportunity of inspecting this interesting triumph of art, 
 the work of the late Eobert Stevenson. The erection of the 
 Bell Rock light-house occupied from 1807 till February 
 1811, and cost 60,000. Its height is one hundred feet; 
 at full tide, the sea reaches five or six feet above the base,
 
 48 My Second Holiday. 
 
 but during storms the waves dash much higher, and the 
 .spray is sometimes carried by the force of gales as high as 
 the lantern. The light is a revolving one, red and white. 
 In one of the small apartments occupied hy the keepers, is 
 a remarkably fine bust of the constructer, who died 1850. 
 In 1814, the Bell Eock was visited by Sir Walter Scott, 
 who, on inscribing his name in the album of the tower, 
 wrote the following often-quoted lines : 
 
 Far on the bosom of the deep, 
 
 O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep ; 
 
 A ruddy gem of changeful light, 
 
 Bound on the dusky brow of night : 
 
 The seaman bids my lustre hail, 
 
 And scorns to strike his timorous sail. 
 
 In Mr Stevenson's account of his operations at the Bell 
 Eock, forming a portly and highly-illustrated volume, it is 
 mentioned, that with a view to benefiting the keepers of the 
 light-house, a quantity of mussels of a large variety were 
 removed from the sea-shore at Arbroath, and planted ou the 
 shelving rocks around the tower. This well-meant attempt 
 at colonisation failed in its object in consequence of the 
 marauding proceedings of the small buckies Buccinum 
 lapillis. These animals, which seemed to lead an innocent 
 sort of life among the crevices of the rocks, by means of a 
 proboscis more powerful than any gimlet, bored holes in the 
 unfortunate mussels and sucked them clean out. With this 
 hint, that mussel-culture has no chance of success where 
 buckies possess the field, I may bid good-bye to the Bell 
 Eock light-house as it blazed on ' the dusky brow of night,' 
 and attend to the. matter immediately in hand. 
 
 Friday, July 26. Gale and mist still continue. The 
 Pharots, which is a capital sea-boat, broad in the beam, and
 
 My Second Holiday. 49 
 
 can Jo ten miles an hour to a nicety, goes pushing busily 011 
 all day out of sight of land. There is an ugly twisting sea. 
 which causes a kind of mixture of rolling and pitching, not 
 easy to put up with. One or two have a touch of the mal 
 de mer. It is so cold, that there is little walking on deck. 
 Along with the tried hands, I won't give in, and, to set a 
 good example, make a point of attending all the meals, of 
 which I introduce a new one coffee to be on the table 
 every morning at seven, for those who get up early, and who 
 wish to take something before the grand dejeune at nine. 
 This novelty highly approved of. 
 
 Towards the close of day it is announced that Fair Isle is 
 in view. We forthwith run upon deck wrapped in cloaks, 
 and there to be sure is seen the first of the Shetland group, 
 lying at the distance of several miles. It is a high rocky 
 island, but we do not distinguish more than its outlines, 
 and we have no time to pay it a visit. This I regret, for 
 Fair Isle possesses some historical, if not social, interest. It 
 was in this remote island that one of the ships of the 
 Spanish Armada, in which was the Duke of Medina Sidonia. 
 was wrecked, in the attempt to escape northwards in 1588 : 
 and from the Spaniards who were thus thrown on the 
 hospitality of the natives was derived that taste for dyeing 
 knitted woollen articles for which the island has ever since 
 been noted. The colours employed are blue, yellow, and 
 red in different tints, such as are seen in the woollen pro- 
 ductions of Cadiz, and figures of the Maltese cross are 
 usually blended in the patterns. Fair Isle was lately sold 
 to a new proprietor ; but such, I am told, is the poverty 
 of the inhabitants, that the purchase is probably not of a 
 very enviable kind. 
 
 Somewhat later, we see Foula, a huge mass, situated far 
 c
 
 5O My Second Holiday, 
 
 in the distance on the western horizon, under the golden 
 light of the setting sun ; and when darkness approaches, we 
 have before us the loftily-perched light-house of Sumburgh 
 Head. The light is one we are to visit; but meanwhile 
 it must be passed. On the outlook, the keepers are aware 
 of our proximity, and hoist their flag, which is faintly 
 observed fluttering in the night-breeze at the summit of the 
 cliff. Some miles further we have yet to go, skirting the 
 eastern side of the mainland of Shetland. Not until about 
 ten o'clock does the Pharos round to the left into Leven- 
 wick Bay, and drop anchor, after a run of thirty hours from 
 Granton. All at once, the grinding noise of the engine 
 ceases. "We are in profound quiet. The relief to the 
 sensations is immense. 
 
 Saturday, July 27. Up steam, and off at seven, and 
 again on our travels northwards. The first object of interest 
 that comes in our way is Noss Head, a bold and lofty 
 precipice, upwards of six hundred feet high, and against the 
 base of which the sea eternally rages, scooping out the 
 lower and more friable strata, so as to cause great caverns 
 and strangely shaped stacks. One of the largest of the 
 detached masses was formerly reached by adventurous 
 fowlers being drawn in a basket along a cord at the top of 
 the cliff; but the 'cradle of Noss,' as this aerial machine 
 was termed, has been given up, not only on account of its 
 danger, but as being too attractive to crowds of strangers 
 who were troublesome to the farmer of the adjoining lands. 
 We had a capital sight of this magnificent headland from 
 the deck of the Pharos, which approaching to within a 
 distance of a hundred yards, paused in its course for about 
 A quarter of an hour, to enable us to realise the imposing 
 grandeur of the scene. The reddish-coloured strata formed
 
 My Second Holiday. 51 
 
 long and narrow shelves, rising tier above tier, on which 
 sat myriads of white sea-fowl in regular rows, looking out 
 placidly on the ocean. To discompose their deliberations, 
 the two brass guns belonging to the vessel "were loaded with 
 powder, and fired cliffward one after the other. The 
 astonishment must have been "bewildering to these dwellers 
 
 Cradle of Noss. 
 
 of the rocks, for immediately they filled the air so thickly 
 as to have the appearance of a shower of snow. Off the 
 whole winged their flight tunmltuously eastward, and, for any- 
 thing I know, they did not recover their equanimity, or stop 
 in their headlong course, till they reached the coast of Norway. 
 It may be supposed that the weather had somewhat 
 cleared up to permit of this manoeuvre; certainly, the
 
 52 My Second Holiday. 
 
 drizzle and fog had vanished, and the wind was lulled, but 
 the sea continued to roll on in angry surges, and it was not a 
 little mortifying to have to pass the light-house at Whalsay 
 Skerries about noon without being able to effect a landing. 
 
 Again the Commissioners meet to consult as to proceed- 
 ings, and it is thought expedient to seek a harbourage in 
 Jialta Sound, in North Unst, cast anchor, and remain over 
 .Sunday. The Sound, I was told, is a land-locked bay, and 
 as tranquil as a pond ; which information proved correct. 
 The vessel steamed quietly to its moorings. All around 
 was a bleak country, rising to hills of moderate height ; no 
 trees, and few enclosures of any kind, with huts of the 
 humble thatched type, such as one sees in Skye and other 
 western islands. We recognise two houses, built in proper 
 style, and slated. One of them, Buness, the residence of 
 Mr Edmonston, the udaller or proprietor of this hyper- 
 borean domain, is a neat mansion of dark stone, with a 
 lawn spreading down to the shore of the inlet, and a pier, 
 at which small vessels may draw up. 
 
 It being still early in the day, there were projects of 
 excursionising. Boats were ordered to be lowered, and 
 every one could do as he liked. The greater number were 
 inclined for a walk across the hilly ground to Burra Fiord, 
 to visit the dwelling-houses of the keepers who are^connected 
 with the light-house on the sea-girt rock at the northern 
 extremity of Unst. The distance to the station was said to 
 be three miles, others declared it to be good four miles, and 
 this word good, I could gather, meant at least a mile more. 
 Leaving the more adventurous to undertake this undefinable 
 ramble,- 1 chose to land with the Secretary and one of the 
 Commissioners, for the purpose of paying our respects to 
 the udaller of Buness, and asking him on^ board to dinner.
 
 My Second Holiday. 53 
 
 This was my first landing in Shetland. The scene was 
 bleak, and the air as thin and chilly as might have been 
 expected so near the sixty-first degree of north latitude. It 
 was at this spot that Biot, the eminent French astronomer, 
 resided in 1817, to make observations on the English arc of 
 meridian, and determine the figure of the earth by the 
 action of the pendulum. An upright stone, with an inscrip- 
 tion, is pointed out as that to which his apparatus was 
 attached. There was something pleasing in the idea that 
 the place, with all its wildness, had been selected for an 
 important scientific experiment. The late Mr Edmonston, 
 uncle of the present worthy udaller, in whose time Biot 
 paid his memorable visit, must have been a man of no ordi- 
 nary kind. One of his fancies was so profound an admira- 
 tion of the late Duke of Wellington, that he travelled all 
 the way from Unst to London to see him, and, honoured 
 with an interview, he became a favoured correspondent of 
 the Duke. The present Mr Edmonston entertained us with 
 an account of this incident in the family history, and sheAvecl 
 us a bundle of carefully preserved letters, written in the 
 characteristic and well-known ' Field-marshal ' style. 
 
 After a chat with Mr and Mrs Edmonston, we walked 
 out to see the surroundings, and get a notion of the state of 
 vegetation. I remark that trees are very much wanting for 
 the sake of shelter, and the udaller, who has a laudable 
 taste for improvement, points dolorously to the thin, 
 withered shanks of some infant ashes and firs which he had 
 planted within the walled policy. ' All dead,' I observe, 
 with the proper degree of sympathy ; ' but there is an 
 artifice in planting trees. In order to get them to grow, 
 you need to plant them close to each other, for the sake of 
 mutual shelter and warmth; thin planting is worse than
 
 54 My Second Holiday. 
 
 useless.' The udaller did not undervalue this hint; but, by 
 way of practical answer, conducted us to a walled garden to 
 notice the whimsicalities of a Shetland climate. The garden 
 possessed a few apple and other trees, but not one of them 
 shewed a green leaf above the top of the wall, the upper 
 parts exposed to the blasts from the sea being scorched into 
 the condition of a scavenger's broom. It passed through 
 my mind that a single barrel of American apples would be 
 ten times more to the purpose than all the fruit which could 
 possibly be produced in Hialtland. 
 
 All were on board in time to dress for dinner at hall-past 
 six, at which hour the udaller came alongside in his boat, 
 and was ceremoniously received on the quarter-deck. As 
 we were to have a guest of this distinction, everything was 
 ordered to be in the best style. One of the privileges of the 
 commodore is to settle the bill of fare, and prescribe the 
 wines and liqueurs that are to be used. After some cogita- 
 tion with the steward on these important particulars, I 
 issued the following menu : Mock turtle-soup, salmon, fillets 
 of haddocks, dressed calf's-head, curried chicken, corned 
 beef, greengage tart, cabinet-pudding, and savoury omelette ; 
 which, considering that we were lying in a northern voo 
 fully three hundred miles from shops, was not bad. With 
 the wine, walnuts, and other trifles on the table, and Philip 
 as a faithful Ganymede ministerially at call, things went 
 so merrily on that the early troubles of the week were for- 
 gotten. A facetious Commissioner told his drollest stories ; 
 another sang* the Bonnie House of Airlic with uncommon 
 dramatic effect; other melodists obligingly contributed to 
 the general amusement ; and from the udaller wo received 
 some particulars concerning the state of affairs in Shetland.
 
 My Second Holiday. 55 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Q TINT) AY, July 28. A tranquil morning, at anchor in 
 O Balta Sound. All is hushed on board the Pharos. The 
 crew is at rest; and Milo, grown somewhat obese, lies 
 stretched out on the well-scrubbed deck. We hear no 
 sound in our cabins but the low gurgling ripple of the water 
 011 the exterior of the vessel. The weather is still dull, and 
 the sky overcast; but the drizzle has ceased, and there is 
 a prospect of a tolerably pleasant walk to the parish church 
 of Unst, which is spoken of as being little more than a mile 
 distant in the direction of Burra Fiord. We see the road to 
 it across the open heath, for roads, under the inspiration of 
 an act of parliament, are beginning to make their appearance 
 in these remote islands. 
 
 After breakfast, I am waited on by Captain Graham, to 
 propose that divine service should be performed on board 
 say at a quarter to eleven o'clock, to allow time for after- 
 wards going to church, if the Commissioners are disposed to 
 go ashore. The service is to take place, as is customary, in 
 the saloon, where the whole ship's company are to assemble. 
 As commodore, I am expected to undertake the office of 
 chaplain. 
 
 A few minutes before the appointed time, the steward 
 spreads the Commissioners' flag on the table, and on it lays 
 a large Bible, with which is bound up a printed prayer by 
 the late Eev. Dr Brunton. of Edinburgh, which, imperfect 
 as I think in several particulars, I supplement from the 
 Book of Common Prayer. At the sounding of the ship's 
 bell, the whole company, in naval uniform, with Bibles in 
 their hands, enter the saloon, and are accommodated with
 
 56 My Second Holiday. 
 
 seats. The assemblage was decent and devout, and not n 
 little interesting. The effect was considerably heightened 
 by all singing the 100th Psalm, the tune of which was 
 raised in proper style by a young gentleman, son of thir 
 Secretary, whom we had the pleasure of having with us. 
 The service occupied about half an hour, after which all the 
 party but myself went ashore to church. I had to refrain 
 from going with them 011 account of the peculiar chilliness 
 uf the air, which seemed to pierce through me and cause n 
 tendency to shivering. Left alone at the fireside in th^ 
 saloon, I spent the forenoon with such solacement as could 
 be gathered from a well-stocked library. 
 
 On deck at two o'clock, I see, by means of a field-glass, 
 the people from the church dispersing over the bare slopes 
 of the island to their several homes. Our party, which is 
 approaching the boat, where it lies at the small quay near 
 Buness, I observe, is recruited by two strangers, with whom 
 an acquaintanceship had been made at church, and who 
 were invited on board to luncheon. They prove to be two 
 men of science out on an exploratory expedition, their chief 
 object being to dredge for varieties of hitherto unknown shells 
 on these wild northern shores. It is curious that, go when- 
 one will, he falls in with persons who know something of 
 him, or with whom there is some bond of intimqcy. One 
 of the gentlemen in question knew my brother while he 
 resided in London, and I had met the brother of the other 
 several years ago in Dublin. An agreeable conversation 
 accordingly ensued on matters of scientific and social 
 concern. The two conchologists had not been very success- 
 ful in their researches, in consequence of the bad weather, 
 and they intended soon to depart, in order to be in time for 
 the approaching meeting of the British Association. I
 
 My Second Holiday. 57 
 
 ventured to hope that the sermon which the party had that 
 day heard delivered at the parish church had "been quite 
 satisfactory; all spoke of it with more approbation than of 
 the church itself, which, they said, looked as if it had not 
 been swept or dusted for years. 
 
 One, however, should not expect to find here the trim 
 order in which things are kept in populous and wealthy 
 communities. Unst, like most other parts of Shetland, is at 
 present experiencing an excessive pressure of local rates. 
 Formerly, the poor used to get only two or three shillings a 
 year for clothes, and were sent adrift from house to house 
 for subsistence. But the neAV poor-law has changed all 
 that. The udaller informed us that the poor-rates on his 
 property amount to four shillings and tenpence per pound 
 per annum on his valued rent, and that, after paying 
 other public burdens, he does not get more than half 
 his nominal rental. Probing the matter of rates, I learned 
 that there was as yet no poor-house in Shetland to test the 
 applications of paupers, and act as a stimulus to exertion ; 
 wherefore, as I hinted, there did not appear to be anything 
 to prevent the whole rental of the islands from being diverted 
 to the maintenance of the poor. Throughout the country, a 
 middle class can scarcely be said to' have grown up. There 
 are proprietors, and a vast number of small tenants who pay 
 their rent mostly in fish; to procure which the male inhabit- 
 ants go to sea, and hang about the curing-stations, while the 
 duty of attending to the land and to work generally, falls, in 
 a great measure, to the share of the women a system of 
 social economics which seldom comes to any good. In a few 
 places, the modern system of husbandry has been introduced 
 with good effect; cottages have been pulled down, and 
 their impoverished inhabitants got rid of, the land s<> 
 
 c 2
 
 58 My Second Holiday. 
 
 cleared being thrown into farms of reasonable extent ; but 
 elsewhere, everything, as far as I could learn, is on a rude, 
 primitive type. In some sheltered valleys there are, I was 
 told, good crops under a proper rotation, which are aided by 
 the long daylight from May to July, when absolute darkness 
 even at midnight is unknown. 
 
 Monday, July 29. The scene suddenly shifts. At lialf- 
 past six 'o'clock, the anchor is heaved, steam is raised, and 
 at seven the Pharos is pursuing its way out of Balta Sound, 
 and once more facing the open sea. 
 
 'Well, commodore, where are we bound for now?' said 
 one of the gentlemen on board, ascending to the gangway 
 over the chart-room. 
 
 ' We are,' I replied, ' going northward round the Scaw of 
 Unst, in order to have a look at the light-house on the 
 Mickle Flugga : as for landing at it, that, I fear, will be 
 impossible, for there is still a heavy sea on ; but we shall at 
 all events shew ourselves to the keepers, and see some fine 
 scenery in passing along the coast.' 
 
 The starting of the vessel, and the intelligence that we 
 were going round by the Flugga, brought all the party on 
 deck, and eyes were eagerly turned to the jagged, iron-bound 
 coast along which we were driving. Both from the nature 
 of the rocks and the violence of the sea, the coast of Shetland 
 is generally abrupt, and we can observe that, from the more 
 precipitous parts, large masses, after being undermined, have 
 slid down and been engulfed in the ocean. The rocky 
 structure of Unst is rich in chromate of iron, an article 
 which, until lately, was quarried to a considerable extent, 
 and exported by Mr Edmonston ; competition from foreign 
 rountries has unfortunately ruined this valuable trade, and 
 at present some thousands of tons remain unsaleable at a
 
 My Second Holiday. 59 
 
 remunerating price. The stoppage of this branch of industry 
 has of course limited the already too scanty means of employ- 
 ment on the island. The rocky shore, however, if not com- 
 mercially productive, is at least strikingly picturesque, and 
 would afford some fine studies for the marine artist. 
 
 Approaching Burra Fiord, we come in sight of two dark 
 protuberances in the sea, at the distance of about two miles 
 from land. On the larger of the two, which is nearest the 
 shore, the light-house we are in quest of has been built. As 
 these unshapely islets are out of the line of ordinary naviga- 
 tion, the planting of a light-house on one of them appears 
 to be of doubtful utility. The work, it is proper to say, was 
 not undertaken by the Commissioners until they were urged 
 to do so by government during the progress of the Russian 
 War, when a British squadron was expected to cruise in 
 these northern latitudes. The history of the building of the 
 light-house on the Mickle Flugga, as the larger islet is 
 termed, would be as full of feats of daring and ingenuity as 
 that of the tower of Skerryvore. The islet rises to a height 
 of two hundred feet from the water, and is so rugged and 
 precipitous as to be accessible only by steps cut in the 
 southern or lowest side. On the summit, and overhanging 
 the northern cliff, stands the light-house, a tower fifty feet 
 high, surrounded by a wall, within which are embraced rooms 
 for the storage of coal, oil, and other articles, the whole of 
 which are hoisted from the landing vessel by means of a 
 windlass and species of railway fixed at a slope on the 
 surface of the rock. The execution of the various works, 
 including houses for the families of the keepers at Burra 
 Fiord, of which we have a glimpse in passing, cost thirty- 
 two thousand pounds. The expense of light-house main- 
 tenance is greatly increased by the erection being placed ou
 
 60 My Second Holiday. 
 
 ;i solitary reef or islet ; for in this case, four keepers (three* 
 <>f whom must always be on duty) are required instead of 
 two. There is also much expense for boats and boatmen, 
 besides storage of provisions. Worst of all, the keepers arc- 
 liable, from stress of weather, to be cut off for weeks from 
 the mainland, and doomed to compulsory exile on the rock, 
 long after the time they should be relieved. This seemed k> 
 be the condition of the keepers belonging to the light-house 
 now under notice. The sea rolled towards the islet in long 
 swelling waves, which broke in Swirling surges against the 
 only landing-place, and rendered our visit impracticable. 
 This was not less a disappointment to us than to the three 
 keepers, who, hoisting their flag in our honour as soon as we 
 came in sight, watched with sorrowful interest the vessel 
 standing oif, and pursuing a course towards the channel 
 which divides Unst from Yell. And so that strangely placed 
 light-house, with its flag wildly fluttering in the wind, and 
 its keepers wandering like disturbed spirits round its lofty 
 outworks, was left behind in its dismal solitude a thing to 
 intrude on remembrance in the wakeful moments of night, 
 when we think of these distant regions, and the inclemencies 
 to which they are exposed. 
 
 On this memorable morning, which saw us compass the 
 northern limits of the British Islands, breakfast was put oft" 
 tor half an hour, in order that we might sit down with 
 comfort in the comparative tranquillity of a sheltered sound. 
 With Unst and afterwards Fetlar on our left, and the large 
 island of Yell on our right, the Pharos pursued its way 
 undisturbed, and the further south We advanced, the weather 
 continued to improve. By the ship's officers, Fetlar was 
 described as being considerably cleared of its old cotter 
 system, and transformed into pastoral farms of a modern type.
 
 My Second Holiday. 6i 
 
 The island, I was informed, is one of those from -which 
 ponies of the small Shetland breed continue to he exported. 
 
 Doubling on our former course, we were abreast of 
 Whalsay Skerries about noon ; but again no landing could 
 be effected on the outer skerry, or small rocky islet on which 
 the light-house is placed. A boat, however, was able to 
 reach the larger island, containing the houses for the families 
 of the keepers. This station, which we inspected, is not 
 satisfactory. Besides suffering from an imperfect supply of 
 water, the dwellings are planted on an exposed brow over- 
 looking the sea, and being unprotected by a surrounding 
 wall, are open to all the storms that can blow r . Who are 
 responsible for this and some other defects which are prolific 
 of constant outlay '? I^ot the Commissioners of Northern 
 Light-houses, but the Board of Trade, in the exercise of those 
 powers of control given to it by the Merchant Shipping Act 
 of 1854. As the Board sanctions the expenditure on light- 
 houses from an imperial fund, the Commissioners are 
 relieved from a dependence on mere surplus dues for the 
 erection of new establishments. This plan, doubtless, works 
 very advantageously as regards maritime interests ; but as has 
 been alluded to in ' My First Holiday,' the Board of Trade 
 is apt at times, through a spirit of economy, to be a little 
 too parsimonious. Wherefore, as at Whalsay, the want of 
 surrounding walls to afford shelter to the dwellings, and 
 often also that want of hand-rails in the steep staircases of the 
 towers, which Commissioners of a certain age feel to be 
 somewhat trying. It is commonly remarked that the Scot- 
 tish light-house establishments of recent date for the most 
 part poorly compare in point of substantiality and comfort 
 with those of earlier origin, when the Commissioners were 
 not subject to this kind of control.
 
 62 My Second Holiday. 
 
 Passing Noss Head, the vessel bore us into Bresaay 
 Sound, which separates the island of Bressay on the east 
 from the mainland of Shetland on the west. On a promi- 
 nent headland on our right stands Bressay light-house, which 
 we are fortunately able to visit and inspect. Immediately 
 afterwards, the Pharos steamed up the Sound to Lenvick, 
 the capital of Shetland. In approaching it, we see, on a 
 prominent knoll on our left, some modern buildings of 
 tasteful architecture, the gift of Mr Anderson, a native of 
 the town, and designed for an academy and retreat for a 
 certain class of aged persons. Behind the knoll, in front of 
 a finely-sheltered bay, we find Lerwick, built in a most 
 irregular manner on the gentle declivity of a hill, with an 
 eastern exposure. The most conspicuous feature in its 
 character is that the houses nearest to us are built with their 
 gables into or close upon the water, with intervening steps 
 or slips of quay which lead to the main street, if so it can 
 be called ; for it is nothing more than an irregular lane, 
 varying in breadth, but at the narrowest parts sufficiently 
 wide to admit the passage of a cart. With lanes of lesser 
 dimensions extending to the higher and more open parts of 
 the town, and with buildings set down with little attention 
 to regularity, there is altogether a foreign dash about 
 Lenvick, or at least an air of novelty, according to our 
 conceptions. There is one peculiarity deserving of special 
 notice, and that is the fact of its thoroughfares being well 
 paved all over with flagstones, as is the case with Genoa 
 and Naples. For this comfort, it is doubtless indebted 
 to the prevalence of that kind of stone in the neighbourhood, 
 which is easily quarried in flat slabs for pavement. Why 
 the outer fringe of buildings should be set down within 
 sea-mark, is not commonly explained, and wo are left to
 
 My Second Holiday. 63 
 
 conjecture that this fashion of house-building has had 
 something to do with the landing of articles without the 
 formality of paying customs-duties. 
 
 Lerwick is not an old town ; probably not older than the 
 middle of the seventeenth century; the original capital of 
 the country having been Scalloway, a decayed town, with 
 the ruins of the infamous Earl Patrick's castle situated on 
 the west side of the mainland, which, I am sorry to say, in 
 spite of the best intentions, we had no opportunity of visiting. 
 Although shewing symptoms of improvement in particular, 
 no want of variety in churches 'Lei-wick has obviously still 
 to do a good deal to procure a character conformable with 
 modern ideas of civic economy. In particular, its thorough- 
 fares require widening; and it requires a hotel for the 
 accommodation of those strangers who may be disposed to 
 pay it a visit. I hope to hear that in these and some other 
 matters it has made a start in advance. 
 
 While several of our party landed to visit Fort Charlotte, 
 which commands the harbour, and could effectually protect 
 the shipping, I proceeded with the sheriff of "Wigtonshire to 
 make some calls in the town. But we could not have done 
 so at a more inopportune period. It was five o'clock in the 
 afternoon ; the mail-steamer for Granton, which was seen 
 lying at anchor, was to depart at half-past six, and the 
 whole community were engaged in writing their letters for 
 the south. This is a serious affair, for there is a despatch 
 only at intervals of several days ; and what in these circum- 
 stances will not one do to avoid ceremonial interruptions? 
 I am afraid our visit was inconvenient in more places than 
 one; yet nothing could exceed the politeness with which we 
 were received. If my limited experience is worth anything. 
 it goes to verify the reputation which the Shetland gentry
 
 64 My Second Holiday. 
 
 have acquired for their hospitable and kindly feelings. We 
 extended our walk to Hayfield, a villa prettily situated, and 
 with a fine look-out, at the distance of half a mile from the 
 town. One of the objects of our intrusive calls was to otter 
 invitations to dinner; and as a result, the Commissioners were 
 favoured with the company of Mr Muir, the recently settled 
 sheriff-substitute, and of one of the Messrs Hay, whose firm 
 pOMCQCes the chief import and export trade of the place. It 
 need hardly be said that the great article of export is dried 
 white fish, chiefly ling and tusk, vast quantities of which 
 are carried away annually for Spanish consumption. In 
 preparation for these exports, piles of fish are seen stacked 
 up along the coasts, to be sent with boats in due season to 
 Lerwick. The exports generally of Shetland have been 
 much increased in recent times by the introduction of steam- 
 communication ; so much is this the case, that the prices of 
 all native produce have risen, and the cost of articles of 
 daily consumption at Lerwick does not, it is said, greatly 
 differ from what it is at Edinburgh. One particular export 
 deserves to be noticed; I refer to those knitted woollen 
 articles, which, for fineness and tastefulness, have obtained 
 a wide celebrity. In the produce of these articles by hand- 
 labour, there is manifested an extraordinary amount of 
 feminine industry, which, it is to be hoped, meets with a 
 lair reward. At my request, a young and skilled tricoteiue 
 was sent on board to exhibit the knitted wares she had for 
 ale, and she offered for inspection some shawls of remark- 
 ably delicate texture, one of which I purchased to take 
 home as a present. Knitting seems universal. Women of 
 a humble class may be observed busy at this kind of work 
 while engaged in carrying back-loads of peats into Lerwick, 
 ur when on their way to some sort of rural occupation.
 
 My Second Holiday. 65 
 
 In the course of conversation with our giiests at dinner, 
 I was curious to know how far the old Norwegian traditions 
 and usages had disappeared before modern improvements, 
 and learned that little of them remains, at least in Lerwick 
 and its neighbourhood. Mr Hay expressed some regret that 
 the once useful official, the Ranzelman, whose duties some- 
 what resembled those of a bailie and head-constable, had 
 vanished along with the Fowdes, or aboriginal magistrates, 
 of different degrees of importance : but it is not clear that 
 the united action of a procurator-fiscal and a sheriff is 
 either quite so cheap or so expeditious in composing differ- 
 ences as that of the Eanzelman of a former polity. 
 
 Talking of maritime matters, it was mentioned that two 
 fishermen of Lerwick had just reported having seen a large 
 whale, probably worth a thousand pounds, floating about at 
 sea without an owner. I asked ' why the fishermen had 
 not tried to secure so valuable a prize it might have made 
 their fortune.' For the explanations in reply I was not 
 prepared. ' If the dead whale in question had been towed 
 to land, it would have been taken possession of by the 
 receiver of wreck, without perhaps giving so much as 
 thanks to the poor men who took the trouble to bring it in.' 
 The provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, as regards the 
 saving of wreckage, Chough of undoubted value in preventing 
 the plunder of property thrown on the shore, are, after all, 
 not the perfection of human wisdom. It cannot be con- 
 sidered a very judicious thing to discourage fishermen from 
 securing waifs, such as dead whales, which, left to them- 
 selves, would disappear on the face of the deep, and be of no 
 use to anybody. How often are we taught that there is a 
 possibility of being too ' sicker ! ' 
 
 On the principle of prevention being better than cure, the
 
 66 My Second Holiday. 
 
 establishment of a series of light-houses from the Pentland 
 Firth to Bressay Sound, has done more for the mariner in 
 this quarter than any laws that could be invented. Ship- 
 wreck on the coast of Orkney and Shetland is now of so 
 rare occurrence, that the inhabitants no longer speculate on 
 e.king out a living by what the sea may casually send them, 
 and therefore rely more distinctly on regular industry. The 
 same thing, however, may be said as regards the east and 
 west coast of the mainland of Scotland ; long tracts of 
 which as, for example, from the Sound of Jura to Cape 
 Wrath are now lighted almost like a street. I remember 
 a party of Commissioners facetiously talking of a letter that 
 had been some years ago received from a gentleman, praying 
 for a charitable contribution to a particular district, the 
 j,TOunds of application being that the inhabitants of the 
 neighbourhood had seriously suffered in their means of 
 livelihood by the establishment of a light-house ! 
 
 Dinner-party broke up at ten for the Pharos keeps good 
 hours and bidding our Lerwick guests farewell, see them 
 handsomely off in a six-oared boat for the not far-distant 
 shore. "We all turn in and the ship lies quietly at anchor 
 for the night.
 
 My Second Holiday. 67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AS a result of some reading and conversation during the 
 last two or three days, I note the following particulars 
 concerning the history of Shetland, Zetland, or Hialtland, 
 as it is variously called. 
 
 It is difficult to determine whether the Romans were 
 acquainted with Shetland. It is certain, however, that the 
 emperor Claudius, about the year 43 of our era, visited what 
 the Roman writers call the ' Orcades,' whence the modern 
 term Orkney. Virgil speaks of the power of Augustus being 
 extended ' ultima Thule ' to the furthest Thule ; but where 
 was this Thule 1 is the question. Was Orkney Thule, or was 
 it Shetland 1 A modern writer speculates on the island of 
 Foula being Thule ; all we have to do being to substitute 
 Th for F, in order to make the two words resemble each 
 other. I fear that this easy way of getting over the 
 difficulty will not answer. However, it is open to any 
 one to point out the true Thule, and until that is done 
 we may take the liberty of assigning Virgil's designation to 
 Shetland. 
 
 The earliest inhabitants of the Orkney and Shetland islands 
 are usually spoken of as being the Picts. Eut then comes 
 the perplexing question, who were the Picts 1 If ever there 
 were such a people, of whom stories are told that seem to be 
 little better than fabulous invention, they were assuredly, as 
 concerns Orkney and Shetland, not a Celtic race ; because 
 there is not a trace of Celtic ancestry in these islands, 
 nor of Celtic terms applied to localities. Looking to 
 existing antiquities, of which I will have to say something 
 in due season, it would appear that the early inhabitants
 
 68 My Second Holiday. 
 
 of these islands more particularly Orkney were a branch 
 of the same people who occupied England in ages before 
 the intrusion of the Celts. Be this as it may, there can 
 be no doubt that the occupants of the islands during the 
 middle ages were of Scandinavian lineage colonists, in fact, 
 from Norway spoke the Norse tongue, and were governed 
 by Norse chiefs, who with Norse laws and usages affected a 
 certain degree of independence. The medieval history of 
 Orkney and Shetland has accordingly little connection witli 
 the history of either England or Scotland. It is a history 
 properly belonging to that of Norway. 
 
 In looking to the Scotland of the present day consolidated 
 into a harmonious whole, we are apt to forget that it did 
 not, even as lately as the twelfth century, comprehend tin- 
 Hebrides on the west, or the Orkney and Shetland islands on 
 the north of the country. Of these various islands the kings 
 of Norway made themselves masters in the ninth century. In 
 H75, Harold Harfager, king of Norway, wrested the whole 
 from native chiefs, and for centuries afterwards they were 
 under the rule of Jarls or Earls, as also bishops and 
 other functionaries, deriving authority from the Norwegian 
 monarchs. We hear little good of the Lords and Jarls of 
 the Isles, who were incessantly fighting with, and robbing 
 :ul killing each other. As a specimen, take one of them 
 named Sigurd, who became Earl of Orkney and Zetland 
 about 915, a ruffian who well deserved the fate recorded of 
 him. Having, with a body of mounted followers, complefcnl 
 a victory over certain chiefs in the north of Scotland, he 
 directed each horseman to suspend the head of a fallen 
 enemy from his saddle. He carried one of these hideous 
 trophies himself. It was the head of a knight, from a tooth 
 in which, Sigurd, in suddenly leaping his horee, received so
 
 My Second Holiday. 69 
 
 severe a wound in the calf of the leg that the part mortified, 
 and he died soon after. 
 
 Intelligible Scottish history, as we all know, opens in the 
 reign of Alexander III., when that monarch, partly by a 
 victory over Hacon, king of Norway, at Largs, 1263, and 
 subsequently by a negotiation with Magnus, Hacon's son 
 and successor, in which he agreed to pay an annual quit- 
 rent, established the authority of the Scottish crown over the 
 Hebrides, 1266. That, then, is the date of the annexation 
 of these western islands to Scotland. The quit-rent, 
 known as the annual of Norway, was never regularly paid, 
 and at length there were such heavy arrears due, that 
 Christiern, king of Denmark, successor of the old Norwegians, 
 issued threatening denunciations against Scotland. Money 
 being a scarce article in these times, compliance with 
 Christiern's demand was plainly impracticable. What 
 followed is an amusing instance of the way in which the 
 tables may be turned on a clamorous creditor. "When 
 matters between Denmark and Scotland were on the point 
 of explosion, certain friends of both parties happily fell 
 upon a method of settlement : Let Christiern give his 
 daughter Margaret in marriage to James III., the young 
 king of Scotland; abolish the annual; cancel the debt; and 
 as a handsome thing, let the princess have a dowry of 
 sixty thousand florins. On these terms, settled by treaty 
 at Copenhagen in 1468 and which I am astonished that 
 Christiern agreed to the marriage of James and Margaret 
 took place. According to the bargain, James was to have 
 ten thousand florins cash down with the princess, and for 
 the remaining fifty thousand the Orkney Islands were to 
 be assigned in pledge. After all, Christiern could not 
 manage to pay the stipulated ten thousand. He said he
 
 7O My Second Holiday. 
 
 could give no more than two thousand, and James might 
 take the Shetland islands in pledge for the remaining eight 
 thousand. They were taken accordingly. It does not 
 appear that the king of Denmark ever paid a shilling of the 
 promised dowry. Certainly, he failed to redeem the two 
 pledges which he had given. And so, for want of an insig- 
 nificant sum, Denmark had to relinquish both groups 
 of islands, which, to make things secure, were irrevocably 
 annexed by act of parliament to the Scottish crown, 1470. 
 
 From that period, the Orkney and Shetland islands 
 followed the fortunes of Scotland, but for many years 
 they were the prey of a series of rapacious court favourite*, 
 who exceeded all the ordinary rights of feudal superiors. 
 The most extravagant and oppressive of these autocrats was 
 Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, son of Earl Robert, who 
 was a natural son of James V. The conduct of Earl 
 Patrick resembled more that of an unprincipled Eastern 
 pasha than a royal viceroy or commissioner. Dwelling in 
 state at his castle of Scalloway in Shetland, or his palace at 
 Kirkwall in Orkney, ho moved about with a large band of 
 armed retainers, made laws to suit his own selfish purposes, 
 extorted fines and confiscated the lands of proprietors, and 
 cruelly pressed fishermen and artificers into his service, 
 whom he forced to labour for him without fee or reward. 
 For his petty tyrannies, the earl might have escaped the 
 vengeance of the law, but his assumption of regal powers 
 could not be overlooked. Summoned to answer for his 
 crimes, he was confined first as n prisoner in Edinburgh 
 Castle, and afterwards, for greater security, in the Castle of 
 Dumbarton. In this lastonentioned place of confinement 
 he had the imprudence and audacity to induce his natural 
 son, Robert, a youth of twenty-two years of age, to proceed
 
 My Second Holiday. 71 
 
 to Kirkwall, and there hold out the castle against the royal 
 power, until he, the earl, should effect his escape. Besieged 
 by a force under the Earl of Caithness on behalf of the crown, 
 the castle was resolutely maintained by Eobert for the space 
 of two months; but at length, September 29, 1614, was 
 surrendered by a retainer, Patrick Halcro, on condition that 
 his own life should be saved. Robert and five of his com- 
 pany were tried and hanged at Edinburgh, January 1615. 
 A few days later (February 6), Earl Patrick was beheaded 
 at the Cross in the same city the spectacle of an earl, 
 cousin of the king, led out to execution, being one of the 
 memorable events in a reign noted for its ghastly public 
 tragedies. Stripped of everything, a son of the earl was 
 fain to beg an alms from parish kirk-sessions. The whole 
 history of this family of Stewarts is so full of romantic and 
 tragic qualities, that one wonders why it has never been 
 fully and popularly narrated. The ordinary histories of 
 Scotland barely allude to the subject.'' 4 
 
 The next oppressor of the islanders was Sir James Stewart 
 of Kilsyth, afterwards Lord Ochiltree, in the capacity of 
 farmer-general. In 1643, "William, Earl of Morton, was 
 granted the jurisdictions and royal rents of the islands, and 
 under his chamberlains there were fresh forms of exaction. 
 The Morton family being confirmed in its rights and 
 privileges in 1742, was able to dispose of them in 1766 
 for the sum of 60,000 to Sir Lawrence Dundas, ancestor 
 of the present Earl of Zetland, who now enjoys this 
 insular heritage, in which is embraced the right of drawing 
 
 * Inquirers may consult an ably edited body of documents, Oppressions 
 of the Islands of Orkney and Zetland, presented to the Maitland Club 
 by David Balfour, Esq. of Balfonr and Trenabie ; also Pitcairn's Criminal 
 Triah ; and Chambers 1 s Domestic Annals of Scotland.
 
 72 My Second Holiday, 
 
 rents and duties of various kinds, with patronage of 
 churches, &c. 
 
 The primary blunder of the crown which has led to no 
 end of extortions and litigations, was the assigning of these 
 islands as a squeezable inheritance to a set of worthless 
 courtiers. It seems to have been a leading object with these 
 personages to alter the holding of the lands throughout the 
 islands from tidal to feudal tenure. According to the old 
 udal holding derived from the Norwegian system, the pro- 
 prietor enjoyed his lands in absolute freehold heritage, 
 with or without the intervention of written title. Earl 
 Patrick's policy consisted in compelling the udallere to 
 receive feudal investiture from himself as superior, and ift 
 his time this change was effected on a large scale. Since 
 that period, most of the landed possessions in Orkney and 
 Shetland have been brought under feudal holding, such as 
 is common elsewhere in Scotland ; proprietors, generally, 
 however, still being familiarly styled udallers.* One of the 
 wrongs which the udallers have had to complain of is the 
 exaction of scatt, an old Danish land-tax, and also the pay- 
 ment of the modern British land-tax, levied from the same 
 properties. In the scatt, which has been adjudged to be of 
 the character of a feu-duty, is now included the wattle, a 
 petty tax formerly paid to the Fowd, or local magistrate. I 
 am sorry that I have neither time nor space to go deeper 
 into this intricate subject ; and can only state it as my 
 
 * About 1823, old deeds of udal tenure were sold as curiosities at book- 
 stalls in Edinburgh at a shilling apiece. They consisted of dingy pieces 
 of vellum scarcely six inches square, with a seal in the corner, and were 
 dated at- Bergen in Norway. How these documents should have been 
 brought away from Orkney and Shetland, and how they came to this low 
 paas, instead of being deposited among public records, I am unable to 
 explain. The circumstance is distinctly in my recollection.
 
 My Second Holiday. 73 
 
 impression, from a perusal of various works, that the landed 
 proprietors of Orkney and Shetland have first and last been 
 very shamefully treated. 
 
 "Whether as being nearer to the mainland of Scotland, or 
 from other circumstances, Orkney has been fortunate in 
 coming in for a greater share of public favour than Shetland. 
 James III. erected Kirkwall into a royal burgh in 1486; but 
 Shetland had less reason to repine at the granting of this 
 distinction than to feel aggrieved at having no share with 
 Orkney in parliamentary representation until the Reform 
 Act of 1832, although both formed one county. Dr 
 Edmondston writes sorely on this mark of political injustice 
 and degradation, seeing, as he says, that ' the inhabitants of 
 Zetland are extremely loyal, and they pay without a murmur 
 every tax which is imposed on them ; nor does any part of 
 the empire, for its population, supply so many sailors to the 
 navy.' * As regards redress for this and other wrongs, 
 the udallers perhaps fell into the mistake of not being 
 sufficiently clamorous. 
 
 It appears that the principal families in the islands are 
 descended from Scottish gentlemen Avho settled in the 
 seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century ; 
 there being few who claim Norwegian descent. The K"orse 
 tongue, which, according to Brand, still lingered among the 
 people when he visited Orkney and Shetland in 1700, has 
 been completely superseded by English. Brand's visit was 
 an historical incident. He was one of a deputation from 
 the General Assembly to settle the Presbyterian Church 
 polity in the islands, in virtue of the Revolution Settlement. 
 His account of what he saw and heard on the occasion is 
 
 * View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands, by 
 Arthur Edraondston, M.D. ; 2 vols. 8vo, 1809. 
 
 D
 
 74 My Second Holiday. 
 
 exceedingly amusing. He gravely tells us th.it tin n- wen* 
 still witches in the islands, and that ' not alx>ve forty or 
 h'fty years ago, almost every family had a Brownie, or evil 
 spirit so called, which served them, and to whom they gave 
 sacrifice.' "We likewise hear of various superstitious usages ; 
 some of which have a hold on the popular fancy even till 
 our own times. Dr Edmondston mentions that there was 
 still a belief in lucky and unlucky occurrences ; as, for 
 example : ' If a man tread on the tongs in the morning, or 
 he asked where he is going, he need not go to the fishing 
 that day. Certain names must not be mentioned while they 
 are setting their lines, especially the minister and the cat.' 
 It would appear that a belief in the cure of scrofula by the 
 royal touch still holds its ground in Shetland. This fact is 
 learned from the Statistical Account of the parish of Mid and 
 South Yell, written in 1841. As, however, the royal touch is 
 impracticable, a substitute is found in touching a few half- 
 crowns of the coinage of Charles I. ; 'there being few localities 
 in Shetland in which a living evidence is not to be found of 
 one said to have been "cured by the coin.'" If disposed to 
 laugh at this, we have to keep in mind that on the 30th of 
 March 1712, Queen Anne touched as many as two hundred 
 persons 'for the evil;' and that Swift and other learned 
 persons of his time believed or affected to believe in the 
 efficacy of this nonsensical ceremonial The Tower class of 
 Shetlanders are therefore only a hundred and fifty years 
 if so much behind the best English society as regards this 
 superstition. Their notion that touching certain coins is of 
 equal value with the royal touch, is perhaps derived from 
 the circumstance of patients having received a small gold 
 roin, called a ' Touch-piece,' when dismissed from the royal 
 presence.
 
 My S-ccond Holiday. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ^TUESDAY, July 30. As previously arranged, the Pharos 
 J- got up steam at seven o'clock, at which early hour we 
 bade good-bye to Lerwick, while the thin blue smoke of the 
 peat-fires from the chimneys of the irregularly-built town 
 ascended in the morning air. Our way was southward down 
 Bressay Sound, keeping so near to the mainland as to take 
 the narrow channel between it and the island of Mousa. 
 Without going out of our course, I was anxious on my own 
 part as well as on that of others to see the tower of Mousa, 
 ordinarily called Burgh-Mousa, about which there has been 
 no little discussion among antiquaries. 
 
 Without being much of an archaeologist, I may presume 
 to say that the Shetland group of islands does not exhibit 
 any memorials referrible to a very remote historical period 
 ut least, none of any moment. Its antiquities are principally 
 medieval, or dating from probably the seventh or eighth 
 century, when the natives were exposed to the harassing 
 predatory incursions of the Norsemen, previous to the 
 conquest by Harold Harfager. The old towers scattered 
 aboxit Shetland and the north of Scotland, which arc 
 usually spoken of as having been built by the Picts, are all 
 similar in character, and peculiar in construction. We had 
 a glance at the remains of one of them situated on an island 
 in a loch near Lerwick, and now we were to see another 
 which, by means of recent repairs, is singularly complete, 
 and certainly so interesting as to be worthy of deliberate 
 inspection. 
 
 In going southward down the channel, which is about a 
 mile wide, the tower of Mousa made its appearance on our
 
 76 My Second Holiday. 
 
 left, and stopping the vessel for a few minutes, a boat-load 
 of us went ashore to pay it a visit. It occupies a knoll 
 close upon the rocky sea-beach, from which materials for its 
 construction had been taken. The whole fabric is composed 
 of Hat slabs of clay slate, which have been easily piled 
 together in a compact mass without the aid of mortar. In 
 exterior figure, the tower is round, inclining inwards about 
 half-way up, and then bulging out near the top. Near the 
 foundation, its circumference is 158 feet, and it measures 
 about 40 feet in height. On the side next the sea, there 
 is a doorway, and that is the only exterior aperture. If 
 there were ever any door-posts, they have disappeared ; it is 
 feasibly conjectured, however, that instead of employing a 
 door, the inmates had, on emergencies, built up the opening, 
 for which there is an abundance of loose materials at hand. 
 Entering the doorway, we find the wall sixteen feet thick, 
 and looking upwards, feel as if wo were at the bottom of a 
 well, for the circular interior has no flooring, and the top is 
 open to the sky. Opposite the doorway, there is an entrance 
 to a passage and stair, which wind upwards, within the 
 thickness of the wall, to the summit of the building. At 
 different places, there are recesses, or galleries, leading off 
 from the stair, lighted by apertures to the interior; such 
 dismal holes being all that we find in the way of apartments. 
 It is customary to speak of an outer and inner wafl ; but tho 
 two walls, if we so distinguish them, are so firmly bound 
 together by the stair and otherwise, as to afford a united 
 resistance to assault. Obviously, the structure was used as 
 a retreat in case of attack from foreign enemies, against 
 whom missiles could be showered down from tho species 
 of battlement formed by tho top of the well-knit walls. 
 According to tradition, the tower of Mousa was occupied by
 
 My Second Holiday. 
 
 77 
 
 Erland, a Norwegian Jarl, about 1154, when it successfully 
 endured a siege that was undertaken to recover a runaway 
 lady ; but how any lady could have found accommodation 
 in such miserable quarters it is difficult to conjecture. The 
 Society of Scottish Antiquaries deserves thanks for having 
 repaired this fine memorial of a former state of society in 
 
 Tower of Bursli-Mousa, from a photograph by Mr Manvick. 
 
 Shetland. In sailing away, we see the fragment of a 
 similar building on the coast of the mainland immediately 
 opposite. 
 
 Holding on southward, we, in little more than an hour, 
 reach Sumburgh Head, when we may be said to be amidst 
 the scenery so faithfully described in the Pirate; and 
 viewing it as classic ground, I may be excused for going 
 over it somewhat leisurely. Sir Walter Scott tells us that 
 it was as a guest of the Commissioners of the Northern
 
 78 My Second Holiday. 
 
 Light-houses that ho visited Shetland, in their armed yacht, 
 in the summer of 1814; and that, as the nature of th? 
 important business which occupied the Commissioners was 
 connected with the amusement of visiting the leading 
 objects of a traveller's curiosity, he was enabled to store uj 
 recollections, and to hear of circumstances, out of which h 
 afterwards constructed his fictitious narrative. Here were 
 Ave, successors of these Commissioners, engaged in a similar 
 duty, and going over the same ground, but with the superior 
 advantage of being in a steamer, which, threading its way 
 into voes, could set us down with the precision of a carriage, 
 driving up to a doorway. 
 
 At Sumburgh Head we were in the Roost or tide-flow- 
 noticed by the novelist for its impetuosity and danger to 
 mariners. On the present occasion, the sea was calmer than 
 anything we had yet experienced ; and rounding the cape, 
 we steered into West Voe, and cast anchor opposite the low 
 neck of land on which stands the ruin of Jarlshof. At 
 this point, we went on shore to walk to the light-house, a 
 distance of a mile and a half, over which there is a constant 
 ascent. The day was fine, the first on which we had any 
 sunshine, and the walk was a relief from the confinement 
 on shipboard. Jarlshof consists of the gables and other 
 walls of what had been once a spacious dwelling' with out- 
 houses, possessing an outlook to the voe in front, and 
 having some garden-ground behind. Jarlshof pronounct?d 
 Yarlshof, and signifying Earl's House is said to have 
 been a residence of Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, fatlu-r 
 of the. cruel Earl Patrick. The whole ruin, which is 
 plain and devoid of inscription, was seen in a moment, and 
 there was nothing to detain us from our walk, which was 
 partly along a road to a farm establishment that lay ou
 
 My Second Holiday. 
 
 79 
 
 our Hue of route. Xear to Jarlshof, the proprietor of 
 Sumburgh is building a new mansion, which will com- 
 mand a view over the level sandy tract and the sea on 
 each side of the peninsula which terminates in the bold 
 cape on the south. In twos and threes, we are to be 
 supposed as jogging on our way up the long grassy slope 
 
 Ruins of Jarlshof, from a photograph by Mr Marwick. 
 
 towards this prominent headland. At length the light- 
 house is reached, and then begins the climb to the top of 
 the tower, whence we have a magnificent prospect of sea 
 \u\d land, rendered livety by the flight of numerous gulls 
 and other birds which inhabit the crevices of the cliff 
 beneath. From the top of Sumburgh light-house is seen in 
 clear weather the light of North Eonaldshay, in Orkney, and, 
 1 believe, from few other points are the two groups of islands 
 visible from each other. It is only by an actual visit that
 
 8o My Second Holiday. 
 
 one learns how thorouglily the Shetland islands are dis- 
 connected with those of Orkney the association being 
 political and nothing more and also how the Shetlanders 
 still speak of going to Scotland, as if it were to them a 
 kind of foreign country. A young woman, with whom we 
 conversed at Sumburgh Head, mentioned to us that ' she 
 had never been in Scotland;' her furthest stretch south- 
 wards having been only as far as the Pentland Skerries, 
 Avithin sight of Caithness. 
 
 From the elevated spot we had reached, fanning the 
 southern extremity of the parish of Dunrossness, the scene 
 was most picturesque towards the north-west, for in this 
 direction we had Quendale Bay bounded by Fitful Head ; 
 and more remotely, lying in solitary grandeur in the ocean 
 between Shetland and Orkney, the lofty island of Foula, 
 which, above all things, we had been told to try to visit. 
 The sight of Quendale Bay reminded me that it was at 
 Quendale House, the residence of Malcolm Sinclair, that the 
 Duke of Medina Sidonia found a temporary and hospitable 
 retreat on quitting Fair Isle after his shipwreck. Here, 
 says Sir Robert Sibbald, in his Description of the Zetland 
 Isles, the duke remained till a ship was ready to take him 
 away. ' Imagining the people did admire him, he made his 
 interpreter ask Malcolm Sinclair of Queudalo if ever he had 
 seen such a man. To which Malcolm, in broad Scots 
 (unintelligible to the interpreter), replied : " Farcie on that 
 face, I have seen many prettier men hanging on the 
 Burrow-moor." ' 
 
 The estate of Sumburgh appeared to bo under an improved 
 system of farming. The sheep in enclosed parks were of a 
 superior breed, and in good condition. At the farm- 
 steading, through which wo had to pass, I had the curiosity
 
 My Second Holiday. 81 
 
 to examine a turret-like structure, somewhat of the Pictish 
 tower type. It proved to be a kiln of a kind common in 
 the islands for drying corn, but which are now, in many 
 instances, disused. 
 
 Loitering on the shore, under the ruins of Jarlshof, until 
 all the party return from their official inspection, a con- 
 versation takes place on things in general and the future 
 proceedings for the day in particular. 
 
 ' The commodore had better let us hear his mind as to the 
 route,' says one. ' I would like to know what he thinks 
 about Foula,' says another, evidently trusting in the efficacy 
 of the hint. 
 
 ' Well, gentlemen,' I reply, with the gravity suitable to 
 my high function, ' this is a serious matter, and I have been 
 thinking over it for some time. I will give you my view of 
 the affair. In the first place, we have finished off the 
 Shetland light-houses, and our next move is to Orkney. On 
 consulting the printed programme in your pockets, you will 
 observe that our anchorage for the night is to be Otterswick 
 Bay, in the island of Sanday. In point of fact, we could 
 not do better. If we reach Otterswick by eight o'clock in 
 the evening, we shall do excellently, for the sea is now so 
 calm that it will make no sort of difference whether we 
 dine while sailing or at anchor. Now, having a long day 
 still before us, why not bend a little northward to have a 
 look at the western shores of Shetland, where there are as yet 
 no light-houses? I understand there has been some official 
 correspondence as to the propriety of establishing one on the 
 Vie Skerries, near Papa Stour, and also one somewhere 
 about Skelda Ness, bearing north-west on the Bay of 
 .Scalloway. I say, therefore, why not, when we are thus far. 
 take a look in that direction? Our doing so may be useful 
 
 D 2
 
 82 My Second Holiday. 
 
 to the service. Whether we can touch at Foula, will depend 
 on tides and other circumstances, of which the captain will 
 he the best judge. If wo can do so conveniently, I have no 
 objections. And I may add, as perhaps not a bad reason 
 for calling at the island, that the steward hints he is getting 
 short of eggs and poultry, and at a small cost a good stock 
 may be laid in.' This line of argument was complimented 
 for its perspicacity. I was told that I had exhausted the 
 subject. There was not another word to be said. 
 
 There was a disposition to be off, but a number had not 
 yet arrived. The Secretary, who has much to do in making 
 up notes on such occasions, was still absent ; and so wa. 
 one of our guests, Mr Marwick, Town-clerk of Edinburgh, 
 who, with the aid of an apparatus, fixed to the top of a tall 
 tripod, was taking a photograph of Erick's Steps, the cleft 
 in the rock by which, the novelist informs us, the inhabit- 
 ants of Jarlshof were wont for any purpose to seek access 
 to the foot of the precipice beneath the headland. At last 
 all have reached the attending boat, except Milo, which 
 has for an hour been chasing rabbits among the sand-heaps, 
 and seems unwilling to abandon his sport. The mate is 
 despatched on a mission to get hold of him ; and ultimately, 
 after a good deal of whistling and scolding, he is persuaded 
 to return from his scamper. Getting him securely into the 
 boat, where he modestly settles down under the cross- 
 benches of the oarsmen, we shove off from this interesting 
 locality, and in a few minutes we are again placed on the 
 deck of the Pharos. 
 
 The captain, with whom I had immediate conference, 
 declared that, as regards tide and everything else, it would be 
 quite practicable to touch at Foula. ' Let us, however,' said 
 I, ' stretch the compasses across the chart, and measuring
 
 My Second Holiday. 83 
 
 the distance, calculate when we shall reach our anchorage 
 at Otterswick.' This was a simple matter. It was seen 
 that, after giving an hour to Foula, we could be at Otters- 
 wick about eight in the evening, the hour on which I had 
 speculated. 
 
 The vessel, thereupon, is steered in a north-westerly 
 course, to bring us in front of Fitful Head, which rises in a 
 slope so much more abrupt from the water-edge than the 
 angle of repose, that its crumbling strata of sand-flag are to 
 all appearance constantly sliding down into the sea in a state 
 of disintegration. With eyes turned towards this renowned 
 headland, we with some interest observe a number of boats 
 out on a cruise for white-fish. For a minute, the vessel 
 stops in its career, and the waste steam hissing off is a 
 sufficient signal for such boatmen to approach as have 
 anything to dispose of. Eight and left, what a competition 
 to be first in reaching this unexpected market ! The boat 
 that gains the race is manned by three roughly-clad fisher- 
 men, who, on being asked what newly-caught fish they had, 
 hold up three large ' tusk, which the cook and his assistant 
 instantly clutch by the gills, and, in return, to complete the 
 bargain, the steward tosses half-a-crown, which is received 
 with a grin of perfect satisfaction. Again we are on our 
 appointed course the three fish, destined to figure in 
 successive menus, being for some time objects of interest in 
 a culinary, if not natural history point of view, lying in a 
 tub at the entrance to the cook's galley. All the boats, of 
 Avhich we had just seen a specimen, are here, as elsewhere 
 in Shetland, on the old Norwegian model. They are light, 
 shallow, and pointed at each end, ready for being turned in 
 any direction by a dexterous handling of the oars. Emi- 
 nently adapted to the wants of a people of small means and
 
 84 My Second Holiday. 
 
 simple habits, they fall far short of what is required for 
 the llaaf or deep-sea fishing on the scale demanded by 
 enlarged modern requirements ; and unfortunately, there is 
 scarcely a season in which some of these small boats are not 
 lost with all their crews. But how are these disasters to be 
 averted? A land-owner in Shetland told me that he had 
 made an attempt to employ fishermen on wages to fish with 
 a decked vessel, but the experiment had not succeeded to 
 his satisfaction, and was about to be given up. 
 
 Fitful Head is passed, and holding out to sea, we watch 
 the gradual development of Foula, as it emerges from the 
 distant haze, massive and solitary on the face of the deep. 
 Its distance is about thirty-five miles north-west of Sumburgh 
 Head, and eighteen miles directly west of the parish of Walls, 
 to which it is considered to belong. Whatever be the theory 
 as to its ecclesiastical and civil status, Foula is practically a 
 thing by itself, and out of the way of general traffic ; as little 
 is known about it, as if it were an island in the Southern 
 Pacific. Unknown to the world, the world is unknown to 
 it ; at all events, its thread of connection with the ongoings 
 of society is so slender as to be hardly recognisable. There 
 was not one on board who had ever landed on Foula, or seen 
 it nearer than at a distance of thirty miles. The curiosity 
 was, on all hands, correspondingly great to see what it was 
 like. On approaching it, we almost felt ourselves rising into 
 the character of discoverers-. 
 
 It is a blessing to mariners, that go where they will among 
 the British islands, they are provided with a faithful guide 
 in the numerous charts issued by the Admiralty. On these, 
 the result of careful hydrographic survey, the soundingi are 
 marked in figures, and sunk rocks- and strong tidal currents 
 are also plainly indicated. The Pharos, as may be supposed,
 
 My Second Holiday. 85 
 
 is provided with a full assortment of these valuable charts, 
 one of which, appropriate to the sea that is traversed, is 
 always at hand on the gangway, to he readily appealed to by 
 the captain or mate in charge. Examining the chart on the 
 present occasion, there was an assurance of deep water all 
 round Foula, except at the Have de Grind Kocks, which 
 lie about three miles to the east, and shew their presence 
 by boiling surges that are observable at a considerable 
 distance. But these dangerous reefs were not in our course. 
 Steering right up to the island, on its southern side, 
 the vessel was not stopped till within half a mile of the 
 shore. 
 
 At this point, we had a capital view of the island, which, 
 from a low rocky shore, swelled gracefully upwards to some 
 enclosed arable land, whence the ground ascended rapidly to 
 a height, as marked by the chart, of 1369 feet above sea- 
 level. Such is the southern aspect of Foula ; but, as we 
 afterwards found, the appearance is very different on the 
 west and north, where the single mountain of which it 
 may be said to be composed is worn away to a bold and 
 magnificent precipice. The sudden apparition of a large 
 steamer seemed to spread a degree of consternation among 
 the inhabitants. We could see the women making off from 
 their scattered dwellings to the higher grounds, where they 
 stood in groups watching our proceedings. The men were 
 more courageous, yet they looked as if they were not quite 
 sure of us, and perhaps, as occurred elsewhere not long ago 
 in a part of Shetland, associated us with terror-striking 
 traditions of ' the press-gang.' A boat being lowered, our 
 party proceeded to the shore, and effected a landing at some 
 broken masses of rock, up which we scrambled to dry land, 
 holding out presents of newspapers to the natives, and
 
 86 My Second Holiday. 
 
 beckoning on them to come forward. In this, however, they 
 manifested great reluctance. One or two men shyly accepted 
 our gifts; but nothing at first could induce the females 
 to approach, and some of them positively fled to a greater 
 distance. We saw no children, and afterwards learned 
 that they had been hidden in the holes and corners of the 
 dwellings. 
 
 The sheriff of Wigtonshire, with a handful of newspapers, 
 and using many earnest as well as kindly solicitations, was 
 the first to be successful in quelling the female panic. The 
 women, in small parties, ventured to come near us, and 
 were told that we merely wanted to see the island, and 
 to know how the people lived. Confidence being estal- 
 lished, we proceeded to make an inspection of several clusters 
 of dwellings and the small patches of cultured ground in 
 their vicinity. In our walk thither, we could not but view 
 with sorrow the process of scarifying the pastoral part of the 
 land, in order to carry away the turf for fuel, and also for 
 material to enrich the scraps of ground under crops of bear, 
 oats, and potatoes. To such an extent is this ruinous practice 
 carried, that much of the grassy slope facing the sea is 
 reduced to the condition of a stony waste ; and what the 
 inhabitants are to do when all the superficial layer of turf is 
 gone, is more than I can tell, unless it be to suffer downright 
 starvation. 
 
 Any one who has seen the hovels occupied by the poorer 
 inhabitants of Skye and other western islands, can have no 
 difficulty in understanding the domestic architecture of Foula 
 lowly thatched dwellings with a peat-fire in the middle of 
 the clay-floor, from which the smoke, after hanging about 
 the dingy interior, escapes through a hole in the roof. The 
 first dwelling we entered had a cow house as a sort of side-
 
 My Second Holiday. 87 
 
 apartment, and in a lesser den in the passage from the door 
 we found two calves. As there was a pig-house outside, we 
 concluded that the establishment was of a somewhat high 
 order. The live-stock in the other dwellings was, as far as 
 we could see, less extensive. As a kind of excuse for our 
 intrusion, we made some inquiry as to poultry, and hinted 
 that eggs might find a good customer ; but there wa? 
 evidently a scarcity of anything saleable. All the provisions 
 
 Domestic Architecture of Fonla. 
 
 which the steward could forage were a couple of hens, 
 purchased from an old crone at the moderate price of 
 eighteenpence. 
 
 We could recognise no difference in the dress of tin 
 islanders from what we are accustomed to in the Hebrides, 
 except in two particulars. The women have handkerchiefs 
 or small shawls thrown over the head, and tied loosely under 
 the chin; and both men and women wear a species of 
 sandals called ' rivelins ' instead of shoes. I had seen the 
 humbler class of women at Lerwick with the same kind of 
 foot-covering. The sandals are pieces of hide secured by 
 strings drawn together, after the picturesque fashion of the 
 peasantry of the Abruzzi, such as Italian artists have a fancy
 
 88 My Second Holiday. 
 
 for delineating. To render the tread soft, straw or wool i 
 introduced below the foot ; and some artifice of that kind 
 would, I think, be required in walking with skin-sandals 
 over the rough, scarified land of Foula. 
 
 In the article of clothing, the inhabitants exercise much 
 thrift and industry. They card and spin the wool of their 
 sheep, which they weave into cloth on looms of their own 
 construction. Some of the wool is dyed red or brown from 
 lichens, and black from a mineral clay found in the island ; 
 the dye in each case adhering to the wool by a previous 
 application of bark. As I had seen weaving on native 
 looms at Barra on my last year's excursion, there is nothing 
 singular in this system of home manufacture, which is 
 indeed common in all the alpine districts of Northern 
 Europe. It was satisfactory to find in our communication 
 with the inhabitants that all spoke English ; and as all 
 can read, our presents of newspapers were received with a 
 degree of gratification which could not have been experienced 
 in the outer Hebrides. As for Gaelic, nothing of it is 
 known in Orkney or Shetland. We have in these islands 
 got beyond the region of Gaelic, and are amidst the 
 descendants of a Scandinavian people. 
 
 I was told there were four slated houses in Foula, but we 
 saw only two, which were chapels one of them being in 
 connection with the Established Church, and the other 
 maintained by the Congregational Union of Scotland. 
 Except for this Congregational chapel, and the missionary 
 who is deputed as its minister, the island would 1x3 poorly 
 off for religious ordinances. According to the Statistical 
 Account of 1798, the parish incumbent was able to visit 
 Foula only once a year ; and the same thing is said in the 
 Account of 1841, with the further remark, that on these
 
 My Second Holiday. 89 
 
 annual visits, ' the minister remains in the island two 
 Sabbaths, preaching frequently during the interval.' There 
 are said to be a few members of the Free Church. By a 
 school beneficently planted in the island by the Society for 
 Propagating Christian Knowledge, the children are taught 
 the elementary branches of education. 
 
 Measuring three miles in length by one and a half in 
 breadth, Foula is occupied by about two hundred and fifty 
 inhabitants. Depending for subsistence on the catching of 
 tish and the farming of a few acres of land, and dwelling in 
 huts such as I have noticed, their condition, as a stranger 
 might think, is by no means enviable. I am told, however, 
 that they do not experience any serious discomfort. All 
 the families have sheep and cattle more or less in number, 
 and several have saved money, which is placed out at 
 interest. In the social condition of these people, there is 
 not a little to command respect. Using no intoxicating 
 drink, and free from other causes of demoralisation, they 
 are sober, contented, and virtuous. They give trouble to no 
 magistrate, and a breach of the law, I might say an indiscre- 
 tion, is scarcely known in this simple community. Think- 
 ing of all this, one is half inclined to recall a wish to see 
 the islanders in the hands of an emigration agent, to be 
 vsettled in a country possessing doubtless unbounded material 
 advantages, but associated with innumerable temptations 
 and responsibilities. Latterly several young men have 
 emigrated, and the population is not increasing. 
 
 Foula, of course, is owned by a proprietor (Dr Scott of 
 Melby), who draws rents from his tenantry, and is charged 
 with the obligations of a landlord. The annual rental 
 drawn by him is, I believe, 110, paid to a factor who 
 negotiates the purchase of fish from the tenants. Under
 
 go My Second Holiday. 
 
 the auspices of the factor, a store for the sale of articles i 
 established at a hamlet, known as Hametovrn, situated on 
 the shore, about a mile east from where we landed. At this 
 store there is always a good supply of oatmeal, flour, tea, 
 sugar, tobacco, and other articles, which, in the absence of 
 money-circulation, are given in barter for fish, hosiery, eggs, 
 or anything else of exchangeable value. The women bring 
 
 these articles in a species of 
 creel made of woven straw, 
 which they carry on their 
 backs by means of a band 
 across the breast. A creel or 
 basket of this kind, called a 
 casie, seems to be a very 
 common vehicle for the con- 
 veying of commodities. At 
 A Shetland C,ie. Lerwick, I saw it employed 
 
 in the transit of ]>eat. "With 
 
 her loaded casie, the Foula housewife proceeds to make 
 her market at the store, where, for so much tea and 
 sugar, she will pay down so many eggs, and in like 
 manner will give exchanges for soap, salt, tobacco, needles, 
 or such, other things as she requires. I believe that cattle, 
 wool, fish, and some other merchandise are exported by some 
 of the tenants to Reawick on the mainland of Shetland. 
 A room is reserved at the store to be let to any casual 
 stranger, and that is the only semblance of an inn in Foula. 
 There is no regular communication with the island. The 
 ordinary method of reaching it is by fishing-boats from Walls 
 or Reawick. As regards posts, it is further from London than 
 New Zealand. A letter posted in Edinburgh last October did 
 not reach its destination at Foula till the succeeding March.
 
 My Second Holiday. 91 
 
 An intercourse of an hour with the inhabitants was so 
 effectual in rubbing off their shyness, that a crowd followed 
 us from the scattered clachan we had been visiting to the 
 boat ; and one of their own shallops, rowed by four men. 
 with a boy, a barefooted urchin, in the stern, followed us as 
 a friendly convoy to the ship. They said they had never 
 before seen a steam- vessel, except at a great distance, ami 
 did not very well know how it was propelled against wind 
 and tide. To satisfy their curiosity, we invited them on 
 board; and three of them, with the boy, leaping to tin- 
 deck, were shewn the wonders of the engine-room and 
 cabins. Conducted to the saloon, they were struck with 
 admiration of its furniture, but, above all, the large mirror, 
 over the marble chimney-piece, filled them with profound 
 astonishment. As a treat to the boy something, perhaps, 
 for him to remember all his days he was held up to sec 
 himself in the glass; this culminating point in the grotesque 
 scene being provocative of no small degree of merriment. 
 With his pockets stuffed with biscuits, and his hands filled 
 with pictorial newspapers, the little fellow was allowed to 
 escape. Getting into their boat, and respectfully bidding us 
 good-bye, the adventurous party returned to the island to 
 tell of all they had witnessed, and we were left to proceed 
 on our voyage, 
 
 To the geologist and lover of picturesque scenery, a sight 
 of Foula would be valueless if its western or more precipitous 
 side were left unvisited. To this side we proceeded, and 
 there a spectacle of marvellous grandeur presented itself. 
 A precipice of red sandstone, disposed in long and finely 
 curving layers, rose in front of us as steep as a wall, 
 to a height, at the loftiest part, of twelve hundred feet, 
 and stretched in varying configuration, for the space of ;>.
 
 92 My Second Holiday. 
 
 mile, along the sea-margin. In comparison to this, Noss 
 Head, Sumburgh Head, and Barra Head all grand an<l 
 imposing sink into inferiority. The cliffs of Foula have no 
 match in point of height and extent in the British Islands. 
 It would have enhanced the scene, had the long swelling 
 waves rolled in from the Atlantic in the fury which they 
 frequently demonstrate on this wild coast; but, on the 
 other hand, we had reason to congratulate ourselves on a 
 state of the weather which permitted us to relish the 
 spectacle without any unpleasant drawback. As at the 
 other headlands just mentioned, numerous sea-birds build 
 their nests on the cliffs of Foula. The catching of these 
 animals for the sake of their feathers formed a leading 
 pursuit, which has latterly been abandoned. Eagles also 
 take up their quarters on the cliifs, and would commit 
 serious havoc on the live-stock of the islanders but for the 
 JSkua Gull, or Bonxie, as it is called by the islanders the 
 Lcstris catarades, I presume. These gulls, with powerful 
 beak and indomitable courage, attack the eagles, and keep 
 their numbers within bounds. Of these gulls, which may 
 be said to act as a police among the feathered tribes, there 
 are only tliirteen pairs on Foula, which is the only place 
 in Shetland where they build their nests, and are now to be 
 found. The proprietor pays one of the islanders to attend 
 to these birds, and to prevent any one destroying them. 
 
 Having seen these sublime cliffs, there was nothing 
 further to detain us. The head of the Pharos was turned 
 in a south-westerly direction towards the shores of Orkney ; 
 and after a straight run, during which no vessel hove in 
 night, we got safely to our anchorage in Otterswick Bay 
 while it was still good daylight.
 
 My Second Holiday. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 "\TTED NESD AY, July 31. We are in Otterswick Bay, 
 * i in the island of Sanday, one of the Orkney islands, 
 having the previous day quitted the Shetland group, from 
 which we are now separated by a broad sea, not greatly 
 disturbed by traffic. Early in the morning, while the steam 
 is getting up, I go upon deck to talk to the captain, and to 
 see the nature of the country around. A single glance 
 reveals a different condition of things from what we had 
 seen for the last few days. Setting aside Surnburgh and 
 some other favoured spots, the land in Shetland had a 
 bare, unimproved aspect. Here, with certainly less of the 
 picturesque, I observe lands in apparently the highest state 
 of cultivation fields, of proper dimensions, enclosed by 
 stone dykes, under a rotation of cropping such as one sees in 
 the Lothians; and in place of the thatched hovels of a 
 poor tenantry, large, well-built farm establishments, amidst 
 which rise tall chimneys, indicative of steam-engines, and 
 the other mechanical appliances of an intelligently conducted 
 husbandry. 
 
 That is the picture presented by Sanday, and not by it 
 alone ; for in the course of this and the succeeding day, I 
 saw, conclusively, that the Orkney islands are, for the most 
 part, in a remarkable state of agricultural advancement. 
 Why such should be the case would, perhaps, involve the 
 telling of a long story. A soil generally fertile, or, at least, 
 susceptible of improvement by draining and otherwise ; also 
 enterprising landlords, and farmers with capital, may be 
 presumed to have much to do with the present state of 
 affairs. But, I believe, the explanation would be incomplete
 
 94 My Second Holiday. 
 
 were it not mentioned, that no good was done in Orkney 
 until fanning was entirely dissociated from fishing. "Wher- 
 ever the two professions are joined, there you see poverty, 
 and worse than poverty, the degradation of women ; for on 
 them is imposed or rather, I should say, by them is volun- 
 tarily assumed the obligations of field-labour, the digging 
 and carrying of peats, and other drudgeries wholly unbefitting 
 their sex. Another and more significant cause of the change 
 nf affairs is said to have been the sudden collapse of the kelp 
 manufacture, which caused proprietors to rely exclusively on 
 agricultural resources. I know of no part of Scotland relying 
 mainly on rural industry that has made such rapid strides in 
 advance as Orkney. Its exports, which amounted to only 
 .39,677 in 1800, had risen to 192,863 in 1866* a sur- 
 prising instance of improvement in a group of islands cut off 
 from the mainland oi' .Scotland by a sea of difficult navigation, 
 and situated hundreds of miles from the centre of commercial 
 enterprise. The whole fact of Orkney improvement speaks 
 volumes for the intelligence, self-reliance, and indomitable 
 industry of its people. A certain section of the United 
 Kingdom that is continually calling out for legislation and 
 for ' something to be done for it,' may take a lesson from 
 this limited and unfavourably situated, also, looking to past 
 events, ill-treated 'community. 
 
 Only in one particular did I notice a resemblance between 
 Shetland and Orkney, and that was the want of trees. Offer- 
 ing a gratifying spectacle of rural wealth, Orkney had still that 
 general deficiency of adornment, which trees and their foliage 
 alone can remedy. 
 
 * Prefatory chapter to a neat reprint of Barry's History of the Orknty 
 Itland* (W. Peace, Kirkwall, 1867) volume which, in point of editing 
 and mechanical execution, would do no discredit to the metropolis.
 
 My Second Holiday. . 95 
 
 Our operations for the day were to consist in the inspection 
 of three light-houses in succession. The first establislunent 
 visited was that on the island of Xorth Ronaldshay; the 
 next Avas the light-house on Start Point, a promontory of 
 the island of Sanday; and the last of all was a recently 
 erected light-house on the small island of Auskerry, which 
 lies at the entrance to Stronsay Firth, and acts as a guide to 
 the Bay of Kirkwall. The inspecting of them proved a 
 tolerably hard day's work ; for the tower of North Ronald- 
 shay is of great height, and the ascent of the long winding 
 stair at Auskerry is scarcely less fatiguing. Thankful that 
 this duty was over, we looked lovingly up the sound to 
 Kirkwall ; and when that port, the capital of Orkney, was 
 reached in the course of the afternoon, the Commissioners 
 felt that they had earned a title to some hours of relaxation. 
 There the town lay in front of us, situated with a northern 
 exposure on a spacious declivity to the water, somewhat in 
 the striking manner of Lerwick, but it was of greater extent, 
 and in the midst of all standing out grandly was seen the 
 ancient cathedral of St Magnus. 
 
 All of course are going on shore. ' Eoat out,' shouts the 
 captain, and off AVC all pour ; dinner being commanded at 
 half-past six o'clock, at which one or tAvo guests may possibly 
 be expected to make their appearance. Rounding a hand- 
 some neAV iron jetty, AVO are landed at the flight of stone steps 
 at the old pier, and are left to ramble about at Avill. Brief 
 as Avas my visit to Kirkwall, it was more than usually satis- 
 factory. I Avas more pleased Avith it than Avith any toAvn of 
 its size I had seen for a long time. It is clean, neat, old- 
 fashioned. The narroAV streets, paved all oA r er Avith flag- 
 stones, as at LerAvick, are lined AA T ith buildings of the 
 style of the seA r enteenth century, Avhen Scottish domestic
 
 96 . My Second Holiday. 
 
 architecture was distinguished for its picturesque tastefulness. 
 Instead, therefore, of the bald frontages of the eighteenth 
 century, we find in Kirkwall the tapering crow-stepped 
 gables, the ornamental gateways with heraldic insignia, and 
 the small quadrangular courtyards which characterised the 
 era of the later Stuarts. In these well-preserved specimens 
 of an interesting style of architecture, we see the dwellings 
 of the Orcadian gentry in past times, and yet not altogether 
 past, for till this day the houses I speak of are mostly 
 occupied by a respectable order of families not degraded 
 by an invasion of paupers from all quarters of the kingdom, 
 as is unhappily the case with the old mansions in Edinburgh. 
 But besides these antique buildings, Kirkwall exhibits traces 
 of modern prosperity and taste, including the erection of n 
 new hotel, the opening of new thoroughfares, and the 
 erection of handsome villas in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The first rush of our party was, of course, to the cathedral, 
 an imposing structure of red and light coloured saudstoae, 
 founded in honour of St Magnus at the middle of the 
 twelfth, but not finished till the early part of the sixteenth 
 century. The style is rounded and massive. Long in a 
 very bad condition, much has been done at the cost of tlio 
 government to clear the nave, and repair parts of the 
 structure, which were greatly damaged. Buti something 
 remains to be effected. The chancel, enclosed with a glass 
 screen, is stuffed with galleries and a crowd of common-place 
 pews, for the accommodation of the parish church a thing 
 which might surely be amended. At a short distance are 
 the ruins of the Bishop's Palace, and also the open ruin of 
 the palace or castle of Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney. 
 
 The Bishop's Palace, now greatly dilapidated, is that in 
 which Hacon died, after his defeat at Largs, 1263. The
 
 My Second Holiday. 97 
 
 building had probably gone to decay previous to 1540, for 
 when James V. visited Kirkwall that year, he was accom- 
 modated in a dwelling within the town occupied by Bishop 
 Marshall. The most prominent part of the ruin of the 
 Bishop's Palace is a round tower, adjoining the street. The 
 Earl's Palace, almost contiguous, is an elegant and massive 
 structure, two stories in height, with numerous ornamental 
 devices. The lower floor consists of several vaulted apart- 
 ments, and ascending a broad staircase we reach a fine large 
 banqueting hall with oriel windows, and two lesser apart- 
 ments the whole open to the sky, and with floors over- 
 grown with grass. The large lordly hall forms one of the 
 scenes of historical interest which Sir Walter Scott, with 
 marvellous skill, introduces into the novel of the Pirate; 
 for he makes the apartment the place of meeting .of 
 Cleveland with his frolicsome lieutenant, Jack Bunce. 
 This remarkably elegant structure was still roofed and 
 entire, though going to decay, when seen by Brand in 
 1 700 ; for he speaks of the ceilings as being painted 
 with scriptural devices. The walls are still strong and 
 tolerably perfect, and at a moderate cost the building 
 might be restored to a habitable condition. I am told that 
 a notion has been entertained of restoring the edifice, in 
 order to serve as a suite of county buildings, which are 
 much required. Within the enclosures occupied by these 
 different ruins, some trees have grown up, to shew us that 
 in sheltered situations, and with other favouring circum- 
 stances, trees may even be made to thrive in Orkney. I 
 inquired for the old castle of Kirkwall, which was held out 
 by Robert Stewart against the royal forces under the Earl of 
 Caitlmess, and found that the ruins, which stood on the 
 line of the main street, nearly opposite the cathedral, had 
 
 E
 
 98 My Second Holiday. 
 
 l>een lately removed to make way for a cross thoroughfare 
 and provide a site for the Castle Hotel. An inscription 
 on this new and handsome building points out with great 
 good taste the ancient situation of the castle. 
 
 An acquaintance, who visited Kirkwall five-and-forty 
 years ago, mentions to me that on landing, he was some- 
 what amused by being made the subject of scrutiny all 
 round by a tailor, who wished to see the latest Edinburgh 
 pattern of clothing. This was in the days of sailing-packets, 
 when matters were somewhat nulimental. Since that primi- 
 tive period, through the regular visits of steamers and a 
 daily post, Orkney may boast of having no need of strangers 
 as pattern-cards, nor of being without a proper knowledge of 
 the outer world generally. The shops of one kind and 
 another in the principal street in Kirkwall exhibit a pro- 
 fusion of articles sufficient for all wants ; and with two 
 native newspapers, the place has nothing to complain of as 
 regards the diffusion of intelligence. The daily mail, how- 
 ever, brought across the Pentland Firth by a steamer from 
 Scrabster to Stromness, gives Orkney an incalculable 
 advantage over Shetland ; and the same thing may be said 
 as regards roads, of which I had a good example in an 
 excursion to Stennis. 
 
 To be quite plain, the possibility of effecting tliis excursion 
 had been a leading inducement for quitting home, and 
 giving up a fortnight to the business of the Commission. 
 Our ramble through Kirkwall had accordingly another 
 object besides the sight of St Magnus. It was to hire an 
 open carriage and pair of horses, to take a number of us 
 across the country next morning on this important trip. 
 Having adjusted the matter to our satisfaction, we betook 
 ourselves to the steps at the old pier, and were rowed to the
 
 My Second Holiday. 99 
 
 Pharos, taking with us the resident sheriff-substitute, Mr 
 James Robertson, an old friend, whom we persuaded to 
 honour us with his company at dinner. 
 
 Thursday, August 1. This was a great day. While two 
 of the Commissioners and the Secretary remained on board, 
 to proceed with the vessel round by Scapa Flow to Graernsay. 
 a party of five, two being Commissioners namely, Mr 
 Falshaw, senior bailie of Edinburgh, and myself set oil' 
 from the quay in the carriage hired the preceding evening : 
 the arrangement being that we were to be taken on board 
 the Pharos at Stromness, opposite Graemsay, at one o'clock 
 iu the afternoon. 
 
 It was a merry little journey this. We were going to see 
 two of the most remarkable antiquities in Orkney the 
 Maeshowe and the Standing Stones of Stennis, regarding 
 which volumes have been written, without, I am sorry to 
 say, throwing much light on their history. The truth is. 
 there are numerous memorials of long-past ages, of the 
 origin or meaning of which nobody can say anything 
 satisfactory. In France, England, Scotland, and Ireland 
 there are structural remains which date from a period con- 
 siderably before the era of written record. We usually 
 speak of the Celts as being the aborigines of these countries ; 
 but were they so ? That has never been proved. There is. 
 on the contrary, reason for thinking that the Celts were 
 intruders on a more ancient people ; and to this early race, 
 of whom all tradition has vanished, we may venture to refer 
 those wonderful circles, such as Stonehenge and Stennis, 
 also those artificial mounds containing vaulted chambers, 
 exemplified in several places in England and Ireland, and at 
 Maeshowe in Orkney. What has considerably mystified the 
 origin of these old structures is, that on many of them have
 
 TOO My Second Holiday. 
 
 been found Runic or Norse inscriptions, and also Christian 
 symbols, of a date not earlier than the middle ages; but 
 archaeologists are now beginning to understand that, these 
 carvings were executed long after the structures were raised, 
 and by a class of persons who knew as little of their origin 
 as we do. Having, two years ago, been bewildered with 
 the gigantic dimensions of Stonehenge, I was prepared for 
 the less imposing circle of Stennis ; having, candle in hand, 
 groped my way into a massive underground structure at 
 Xewgrange, on the banks of the Boyne, near Drogheda, it 
 was not likely I would be greatly astonished at the sight of 
 Maeshowe. Though ardently desirous of seeing Steunis and 
 Maeshowe, I did not, like most of those who accompanied 
 me, anticipate the pleasure of a new sensation. 
 
 Skirting the Bay of Kirk wall on the right, and with 
 Whiteford Hill, now agriculturally enclosed and improved, 
 on our left, we drove along a road of singularly good con- 
 struction ; for independently of its commodious width, it i* 
 rendered as nearly level as circumstances admit, by cutting 
 through the hillocks and filling up the hollows; and it 
 possesses the additional recommendation of being free of the 
 abomination of toll-bars. Turning the high ground on our 
 left, and with faces directed westward to Stromness, we 
 reach Maeshowe, at the distance of nine miles from Kirkwall. 
 It is situated in a heathy spot on our right, and quitting 
 the carriage, we get at it by crossing a field. Outwardly, 
 there is little to be seen only a circular grassy tumulus, or 
 barrow, as it is called by antiquaries, measuring 36 feet high, 
 and about 92 feet in diameter at the base, at which a luw 
 door presents itself. Made aware of our errand, a girl from 
 the neighbouring farmhouse arrives with the key of the 
 door, a couple of candles, and a box of lucifer-matche*. "We
 
 My Second Holiday. 
 
 101 
 
 have also bits of candles with us ; aiid with the whole 
 lighted, we enter the aperture, crouching as we advance 
 along a passage varying from a width of 2 feet 4 inches at 
 the entrance to 3 feet 4 inches, at the opening into the 
 interior chamber. The height, low at first, expands to 4 
 feet 8 inches. The passage is formed by slabs of stone, 
 
 Maesliowe : Exterior View, from a photograph by Mr Manvict. 
 
 above, below, and along the sides. On issuing into the 
 central chamber, our candles at first feebly enable us to com- 
 prehend its dimensions. These we at length discover. We 
 are in a vault built of slabs of stone, measuring 15 feet 
 square, except at the corners where there are buttresses. 
 The height is 13 feet. On each of the sides, except that 
 with the entrance, at a height of 3 feet from the floor, there 
 is a square opening to a cell or recess, the largest of which is 
 7 feet in length by 4 feet 6 inches in breadth. The roof of the 
 
 vault had originally been constructed with slabs advancing 
 
 E 2
 
 102 My Second Holiday. 
 
 successively layer above layer to the centre; but as n 
 result of recent repairs, when the structure was cleared out 
 and restored to something like its former condition, the roof 
 is now partly composed of arched masonry, with an apertun- 
 for ventilation. 
 
 As can be easily supposed, this strange subterranean 
 chamber is cold and clammy. The slabs of stone are wet 
 
 Maeshowe : Ground-plan. 
 
 tvith damp, and nothing induces a protracted stay but the 
 wish to examine certain Runic inscriptions and emblematic 
 or fanciful figures carved on a few of the stones. These 
 carvings were discovered only at the opening and repairing 
 the chamber, an operation undertaken at the instance of Mr 
 James Farrer, M.P., a learned and enthusiastic antiquary. 
 In a privately circulated work on Maeshowe, by Mr Fairer, 
 and also in a. work by Mr J. M. Mitchell, the carvings have 
 been explained partly through the assistance of Norwegian 
 scholars. All refer to Vikings and other Scandinavian heroes.
 
 My Second Holiday. 103 
 
 or to transactions in the middle ages. The adjoining cut 
 represents one of these inscriptions. According to Mr 
 Farrer's interpretation, it signifies : ' Molf Kolbainson carved 
 these Eunes to Ghaut' Ghaut being possibly a comrade 
 who fell in battle. Mr Mitchell's translation runs thus : 
 ' Tholfe Kobainsson cut these Eunes (on) this cave.' Such is 
 
 Runes, interior of Maeshowe. 
 
 a pretty fair specimen of the interpretations of the. different 
 inscriptions ; scarcely two persons agreeing in the significa- 
 tion. Several purport to refer to hidden treasure, a circum- 
 stance which throws a degree of ridicule over the whole, for 
 no one carves inscriptions on stones telling the world where 
 money is secretly deposited. Of the emblematic or fanciful 
 figures, nothing can be made. One is a figure of a horse 
 with an animal like an otter in its mouth, a second is a 
 winged dragon, and a third is a worm knot. These figure? 
 may represent the names of ships, or may be whimsicalities 
 signifying nothing. 
 
 There is nothing in these Eunes to explain the origin or 
 nse of the structure. We are left to conjecture that it 
 was erected as a sepulchral vault in extremely remote times ; 
 and being opened by Scandinavian rovers, in the hope of 
 discovering hidden treasure, they used it as a resort or 
 hiding-place, and carved the inscriptions which still remain 
 to attest their visit*. Obviously, the building and the
 
 104 My Second Holiday. 
 
 passage communicating with it were erected on the open 
 plain, and then covered with the earth which forms the 
 tumulus. There is at some distance an environing mound 
 and ditch, still pretty entire. 
 
 The whole structure bears a resemblance to the vaulted 
 tumuli in other parts of the Eritish Islands. I observed that 
 at Newgrange the walls are composed of tall blocks set on 
 end; whereas, at Maeshowe, the slabs are built one above 
 another (without mortar), as in an ordinary wall. This 
 general resemblance points to a common origin. We have 
 yet to learn, however, why this part of Orkney should be so 
 rich in memorials of an extreme antiquity. Was it one of 
 the last refuges of the race who constructed Stonehenge ? 
 Certainly, at all events, the circles of stone, wherever 
 situated, were the work of a kindred people. 
 
 Looking .westwards from Maeshowe, we observe, at the 
 distance of a mile and a half, on a heathy tongu<>. of land 
 projected between two lochs, all that remains of the great 
 stone circle of Stennis. In walking thither, we have occasion 
 to pass three slabs stuck on end, and one or two fallen, 
 being what had formed part of a circle of limited radius 
 the remainder of the group having been, a number of years 
 ago, ruthlessly destroyed, and carted off for building purposes. 
 Quitting these, we pass two detached stones standing gauntly 
 by the wayside ; and, according to all accounts, various 
 others have fallen down and been removed. For the 
 disappearance of one stone we may feel a special regret. It 
 was the upright pillar perforated by a circular hole, through 
 which loving couples were wont to join hands when they 
 took the Promise of Odin, as is referred to by Sir Walter 
 .Scott, in the Pirate. The whole of the detached stones 
 appear to be the relics of a kind of avenue between the lesser
 
 My Second Holiday. 105 
 
 and the larger circle. One of these vertical slabs stands at 
 the commencement of a causeway which crosses a channel 
 between the two contiguous lochs, and underneath which 
 the tide is suffered to flow through conduit-like apertures. 
 By this causeway, designated the Bridge of Brogar, w- 
 reach the tongue of land on which the circle of Stenuis is 
 situated. 
 
 Occupying an elevated piece of ground, with an inclination 
 towards us, the circle stands well out, and we at once recog- 
 nise its general appearance. A few paces up the ascent from 
 the road along the side of the inner loch, bring us to it ; 
 but it is environed by a sunk ditch, that is to be crossed 
 before we get within the circle. I have no difficulty iu 
 perceiving that it is inferior in several important particulars 
 to Stonehenge, which, as is well known, comprised two 
 circles, one within the other; the outer one, consisting of 
 thirty upright blocks, being connected together by squared 
 .slabs laid horizontally along the top, so as to form a complete 
 ring. We have no such artistic traces at Stennis. The 
 stones are unshapely slabs, stuck in the ground just as they 
 had been excavated from the quarry, and there has been no 
 connecting ring of stones around the top of the circle. 
 Comparatively inferior as it may be, the circle of Stennis is 
 nevertheless a remarkably interesting relic of antiquity ; it 
 may be fairly styled the Stonehenge of Scotland, and is 
 exceedingly worthy of a visit. 
 
 The circle, which has a diameter of 366 feet, occupies ;i 
 slope with an inclination to the east ; one side being 6 or 7 
 feet lower than the other. Originally, as is thought, there, 
 had been sixty stones in the circle. In the course of time, a 
 number have been improperly taken away. At present, 
 there are sixteen standing, and about as many lying on the
 
 io6 My Second Holiday. 
 
 Around. As it would be an easy matter to have these raised 
 and stuck iu their former positions, I suggested to Mr 
 Falshaw that we should there and then initiate a public 
 subscription to have the fallen stones raised and set in their 
 places, and also to set securely upright those which were 
 leaning over; a suggestion which instantly met with 
 approval Mr Marwick, who was with us, undertook to 
 bring the subject before the Council of the Society of 
 Scottish Antiquaries, under whose auspices the work should 
 be undertaken, after procuring the concurrence of the pro- 
 prietor, Mr Balfour of Balfour and Treuabie. In carrying 
 out this moderate restoration, it would be proper to clear 
 out the exterior fosse, which is partially grown up, and like- 
 wise to repair some tumuli in the vicinity, that have been 
 left in an odiously defaced condition by explorers. 
 
 On our way back to the carriage, the bailie asked how 
 old I thought the circle was, and what was the purpose of 
 its erection. ' These,' I said, ' are very puzzling questions : 
 if I ventured to say that circles of that kind are thm- 
 thousand years old, I would probably be within the truth as 
 to their antiquity; the purposes of their construction were 
 most likely some kind of pagan religious rites, but after such 
 rites were abandoned, the circles may still have bee used as 
 places of public assemblage.' This, I believe, as the sum 
 and substance of all that can be reasonably said about the 
 circles of Stonehenge, Stennis, Callernish in Lewis, or 
 any similar monument. If they defy our investigation, they 
 at least invite a rational curiosity, and, as relics of long by- 
 past ages, mutely appeal to us for protection. 
 
 From the point where, the cross-road to Stennis joins tin- 
 main thoroughfare, the distance is about five miles t< 
 Strorancss, the approach to which, across a ridge of high
 
 My Second Holiday. 107 
 
 ground, affords a comprehensive view of the lofty island of 
 Hoy, Avith the intermediate low island of Graemsay. Strom- 
 ness, a long straggling town, situated on a well-sheltered 
 bay, had little to interest us. Shortly after we had taken a 
 walk through the place, the Pharos made its appearance in 
 the bay, and making a signal from a slip of quay, a boat 
 was put out to take us on board. With some regret, we 
 now parted with Mr Marwick, who was left to return by the 
 carriage to Kirkwall, where he designed to remain for a 
 few days. 
 
 The bay opposite Stromness is an offshoot of the Sound 
 of Hoy, by which, after an inspection of two light-houses on 
 Graemsay, the vessel pursued its way into the Pentland 
 Firth. I regretted that time and circumstances would not 
 permit our landing on the island of Hoy, the most lofty of 
 the Orkneys, and noted for containing the ' Dwarfie Stone,' 
 a detached block of sandstone, in which, according to Xorse 
 superstitious legend, a dwarfish demon, or Trow, had exca- 
 vated two small apartments as a residence. Leaving this 
 local wonder unvisited, we entered the Pentland Firth in 
 calm and sunshine, which enabled us to see with advantage 
 the Old JVlan of Hoy. This is a tall natural column of red 
 sandstone, detached from the cliff by the action of the sea, 
 and standing well out on the rocky shore. Formerly, it was 
 higher than it is now, and bore that resemblance to the 
 human figure, by which it procured its present designation. 
 Even lessened in dimensions, the column is not unlike a 
 petrified giant, stationed as a sort of out-sentinel of the 
 Orkneys, and we see it for a great distance in crossing the 
 Firth to the coast of Caithness. Fortunately for us, the 
 weather had now become exceedingly pleasant, and still 
 more fortunate, the contending tides of the Firth were at
 
 IOS My Second Holiday. 
 
 rest. Early in the evening, we arrived safely at Scrabster in 
 the Bay of Thurso. 
 
 Brought back to the mainland of Scotland, I may ceaso 
 the scribbling of these random notes. Only a few words 
 remain to be added. On Friday, August 2, the Com- 
 missioners visited the light-house on Holburn Head, 
 and then proceeded on their voyage eastward through 
 the Pentland Firth, stopping first at Dunnet Head, a con- 
 spicuous promontory, with a light-house situated on the cliff 
 at the distance of a mile and a half from the landing-place. 
 Thence, the Pharos pursued its way, passing the hamlet 
 of Houna and the adjoining bare grassy knoll popularly 
 known as John o' Groat's House, where no house, as far as 
 can be distinguishable, ever existed. That there may have 
 been a personage of inventive faculties styled John o' Groat 
 is probable enough, for the patronymic belongs to the 
 district ; but the story of this northern genius having built 
 an octagonal house with eight doors, possessing a table with 
 eight sides, so as to lay any question of precedency among 
 eight family claimants, is too like the fable of the Knights 
 of the Round Table to be anything else than a legendary 
 myth. 
 
 Shooting past this spot, the Pharos stopped for a short 
 time at the rocky islets called the Pentland Skerries. 
 Here, at the entrance to the Firth from the east, the tide 
 was exceedingly turbulent ; boiling up furiously in con- 
 sequence of having to force its way between the islands 
 which obstruct the channel. The vessel, however, was 
 able to maintain its course. Such is not always the 
 case. The captain informed me that on one occasion 
 the Pharos was kept three hours in one spot, for the 
 impetus of ten miles an hour given by the paddles was
 
 My Second Holiday. 109 
 
 just equal to the retarding force of the current. Some- 
 times, in spite of all that mariners can do, their ships are 
 carried out of their course by the currents, and dashed to 
 pieces on the coast. At one of our landing-places some few 
 remains of one of these unhappily wrecked vessels were 
 lying on the shore. The Commissioners have done what is 
 in their power to avert such catastrophes and give confidence 
 to those who have to navigate this wild and uncertain sea. 
 They have placed a light-house on each of the following 
 prominent places the Pentland Skerries, Dunnet Head, 
 Jlolburn Head near Scrabster, and Cape Wrath. A noble, 
 object has been nobly effected. I could not help contrasting 
 the present with the past method of crossing this dangerous 
 Firth. In former times the traveller had to be ferried in 
 boats from island to island, and often from stress of Aveather 
 was detained for days at the small inn at Houna. Now, 
 there is a steamer carrying the mails, which courageously 
 crosses daily between Scrabster and Stromness keeping up 
 that communication which is so advantageous to the 
 Orcadians. The easiest way of getting to Orkney from the 
 south is, of course, to proceed by one of the well-appointed 
 steamers from Granton ; but those who have a fancy to 
 see mail-coaches with the red-coated guards of the olden 
 time, may take the route for Thurso and Scrabster through 
 Suthcrlandshire and Caithness ; for there they still flourish 
 in a style which will comfort all, who hating hurry, cherish 
 a detestation of railways. Yet, travellers with old-fash- 
 ioned tastes had better be quick : a railway to Thurso is 
 threatened. 
 
 On Saturday, August 3, stopping at several light-houses en 
 route, and passing through fleets of Wick fishing-boats, the 
 vessel reached Cromarty Firth, where it lay opposite the
 
 no 
 
 My Second Holiday, 
 
 small and very dull town of Oromarty all Sunday. On 
 Monday, it proceeded to Inverness, where the second 
 voyage, with other Commissioners, was to commence. Pressed 
 by public duties, I returned by railway from Invergordon, 
 on the Cromarty Firth, and reached homo on Monday after- 
 noon ; thus concluding My Second Year's Holiday, of which 
 I shall ever retain as pleasant recollections as of the first 
 more particularly retaining a vivid remembrance of the 
 solitary isle of Foula, and the marvellous grandeur of its 
 precipices. 
 
 Island of Fouln. 
 
 K'llnlmrgh : Printed b\ \V. ami R. Chnmbcrx.
 
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