Shetland: Descriptive and Historical; and Topographical Description of that Country |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Aithsting amongst ancient Balta Balta Sound Bigton Bixter boats Bressay Sound building burgh Burra Burravoe Busta carried chapel Church cliffs coast crew district Dunrossness Dutch Earl east entrance erected extensive Fair Isle farm Faroe feet fertile Fetlar fishermen fishing Foula Gifford harbour head Hibbert's Zetland hills Hillswick Holm hundred inhabitants inlet island laird land last century late Laxfirth Lerwick lighthouse Linga Loch lofty Lunna Mainland manse miles minister narrow native Ness Northmavine Noss ocean Olnafirth Orkney Papa Papa Little parish peat peat-moss ponies population portion present pretty proprietor Quendale Reawick residence road rocks Roeness round sailing Sand Scalloway Scotland season sheep Shet Shetland ship shores side Sinclair Skerries stands stone Sumburgh summer Symbister Tangwick Thule Tingwall town Tresta Unst Uyea Ve Skerries vessels Walls Wesleyan whales Whalsey winter Yell
Popular passages
Page 196 - There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep Sea, and music in its roar: I love not Man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, •To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean— roll!
Page 91 - That part of the island we had landed on was a narrow ridge, not above musket-shot across, bounded on one side by the sea, and on the other by a creek, extending upwards of a mile inland, and nearly communicating with the sea at its head.
Page 218 - Like some tall cliff that rears its awful form, Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm; Though round its base the lowering clouds may spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.
Page 24 - I went up the castle-hill ; the town consists chiefly of three nearly parallel streets, almost a mile long ; except these, all the other houses seem as if they had been dancing a country-dance, and were out : there they stand back to back, corner to corner, some up hill, some down, without intent or meaning.
Page 17 - Burgh was beset with troops, but so impregnable was its construction, that the assaulter found he had no chance of reducing it but by cutting off all supplies of food, and by this means waiting the result of a tedious siege. And now turn we to the gentle pair in the fortress, that we may speak of what pain they must there endure, what cold, what hunger, and what thirst. In such a, dog-hole ' a conjuror's circle gives content above it ; a hawk's mew is a princely palace to it.
Page 17 - I've wrought ill else. [Exeunt. SCENE II. — An ordinary Apartment. Enter PEREZ. Per. Shall I Never return to mine own house again ? We're lodg'd here in the miserables! dog-hole, A conjuror's circle gives content above it ; A hawk's mew is a princely palace to it...
Page 33 - AM, the morning revellers put off their coarse garments — well begrimed by this time — and in their turn become guizards. They assume every imaginable form of costume — those of soldiers, sailors, Highlanders, Spanish Chevaliers, &c. Thus disguised, they either go in pairs, as man and wife, or in larger groups, and proceed to call on their friends, to wish them the compliments of the season. Formerly, these adolescent guizards used to seat themselves in crates, and accompanied by fiddlers,...
Page 128 - Europe was devouring herself, the sound of a drum had not been heard in Unst, scarcely in Lerwick ; during twenty-five years the door of the house I inhabited had remained open day and night. In all this interval of time, neither conscription nor press-gang had troubled or afflicted the poor but tranquil inhabitants of this little isle. The numerous reefs which surround it, and which...
Page 33 - louder horns." The tar barrel simply consists of several — say from four to eight — tubs filled with tar and chips, placed on a platform of wood. It is dragged by means of a chain, to which scores of jubilant youths readily yoke themselves. They have recently been described by the burgh officer of Lerwick as "fiery chariots, the effect of which is truly grand and terrific.
Page 17 - Harold needs follow them, his hostile barque sailing in pursuit as fast as if all the winds of heaven had driven them ; and then, anon, fled the Dame Margareta and Erlend into the fort, within the dark recesses of which they nestled like two pigeons in a dove-cot. The Burgh was beset with troops, but so impregnable was its construction, that the assaulter found he had no chance of reducing it but by cutting off all supplies of food, and by this means waiting the result of a tedious siege. And now...