There Is No Inn Throughout All The Shetland
Islands, Which Contain About Thirty Thousand Inhabitants, But If Any Of My
Friends should have occasion to visit Lerwick, I can cheerfully recommend
to them the comfortable lodging-house of Mrs. Walker,
Who keeps a little
shop in the principal street, not far from Queen's lane. We made haste to
get ready for church, and sallied out to find the place of worship
frequented by our landlady, which was not a difficult matter.
The little town of Lerwick consists of two-story houses, built mostly of
unhewn stone, rough-cast, with steep roofs and a chimney at each end. They
are arranged along a winding street parallel with the shore, and along
narrow lanes running upward to the top of the hill. The main street is
flagged with smooth stones, like the streets in Venice, for no vehicle
runs on wheels in the Shetland islands. We went up Queen's lane and soon
found the building occupied by the Free Church of Scotland, until a temple
of fairer proportions, on which the masons are now at work, on the top of
the hill, shall be completed for their reception. It was crowded with
attentive worshipers, one of whom obligingly came forward and found a seat
for us. The minister, Mr. Frazer, had begun the evening service, and was
at prayer. When I entered, he was speaking of "our father the devil;" but
the prayer was followed by an earnest, practical discourse, though
somewhat crude in the composition, and reminding me of an expression I
once heard used by a distinguished Scotchman, who complained that the
clergy of his country, in composing their sermons, too often "mak' rough
wark of it."
I looked about among these descendants of the Norwegians, but could not
see any thing singular in their physiognomy; and but for the harsh accent
of the preacher, I might almost have thought myself in the midst of a
country congregation in the United States. They are mostly of a light
complexion, with an appearance of health and strength, though of a sparer
make than the people of the more southern British isles. After the service
was over, we returned to our lodgings, by a way which led to the top of
the hill, and made the circuit of the little town. The paths leading into
the interior of the island, were full of people returning homeward; the
women in their best attire, a few in silks, with wind-tanned faces. We saw
them disappearing, one after another, in the hollows, or over the dark
bare hill-tops. With a population of less than three thousand souls,
Lerwick has four places of worship - a church of the Establishment, a Free
church, a church for the Seceders, and one for the Methodists. The road we
took commanded a fine view of the harbor, surrounded and sheltered by
hills. Within it lay a numerous group of idle fishing-vessels, with one
great steamer in the midst; and more formidable in appearance, a Dutch
man-of-war, sent to protect the Dutch fisheries, with the flag of Holland
flying at the mast-head. Above the town, on tall poles, were floating the
flags of four or five different nations, to mark the habitation of their
consuls.
On the side opposite to the harbor, lay the small fresh-water lake of
Cleikimin, with the remains of a Pictish castle in the midst; one of those
circular buildings of unhewn, uncemented stone, skillfully laid, forming
apartments and galleries of such small dimensions as to lead Sir Walter
Scott to infer that the Picts were a people of a stature considerably
below the ordinary standard of the human race. A deep Sabbath silence
reigned over the scene, except the sound of the wind, which here never
ceases to blow from one quarter or another, as it swept the herbage and
beat against the stone walls surrounding the fields. The ground under our
feet was thick with daisies and the blossoms of the crow-foot and other
flowers; for in the brief summer of these islands, nature, which has no
groves to embellish, makes amends by pranking the ground, particularly in
the uncultivated parts, with a great profusion and variety of flowers.
The next morning we were rowed, by two of Jim Sinclair's boys, to the
island of Bressay, and one of them acted as our guide to the remarkable
precipice called the Noup of the Noss. We ascended its smooth slopes and
pastures, and passed through one or two hamlets, where we observed the
construction of the dwellings of the Zetland peasantry. They are built of
unhewn stone, with roofs of turf held down by ropes of straw neatly
twisted; the floors are of earth; the cow, pony, and pig live under the
same roof with the family, and the manure pond, a receptacle for refuse
and filth, is close to the door. A little higher up we came upon the
uncultivated grounds, abandoned to heath, and only used to supply fuel by
the cutting of peat. Here and there women were busy piling the square
pieces of peat in stacks, that they might dry in the wind. "We carry home
these pits in a basket on our showlders, when they are dry," said one of
them to me; but those who can afford to keep a pony, make him do this work
for them. In the hollows of this part of the island we saw several
fresh-water ponds, which were enlarged with dykes and made to turn grist
mills. We peeped into one or two of these mills, little stone buildings,
in which we could hardly stand upright, inclosing two small stones turned
by a perpendicular shaft, in which are half a dozen cogs; the paddles are
fixed below, and there struck by the water, turn the upper stone.
A steep descent brought us to the little strait, bordered with rocks,
which divides Brassey from the island called the Noss.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 98 of 105
Words from 99109 to 100111
of 107287
