Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-12-20

DackgrOunu, the Dutcn plcluEt Wouiu De
complete. 1t is only two hundred and fif-
ty to three hundred years old, but it looks
vastly older, and wriggles and twists along
its crescent shore in the quaintest archi-
tectural composites. 1t is the northern
most town in Great Britain, and derives
its names, as well as that of its lovely bay,
from the Morse leir, clay, and rik, bay
or harbor. 1t has population of five
thousand souls, doubled every year during
the herring and tourist season; but one /
feels that the life and activity that hustle
in the little place are wholly new, or at
least different from that of the old north
ern sea-kings who made the port their ha-
ven of piracies and their retreat for orgy, |
revel and feast. If you could rehabilitate |
the people, take away the emblems of Brit |
ish rule from up there about Fort Char |
lotte, built by Cromwell, where the Coast |
Guard are, and fill again the harbor and
pier with Dutch herring -busses and ample
breeched traders, every nook, corner and
Granny would have its Amsterdam flavor
and Rembrandt effects. Indeed the mark
of those sturdy old fishers and traders
upon Lerwick is so universal that one
comes to resent its present occupancy by
another race, even though it's people are
hospitable as the Irish, stolid and energet-
ic as the English and thrifty and canny as
remarkable composite.
Architecturally Lerwick is as odd town
as you will find in all Europe 1t is built
on the face of brae, and the morning
sun, when itgets around far enough north
to shine at all in this region, looks over
Bressay Island and peers squarely into its
rough old face. tumble upon tumble it
straggles around to the southeast and the
northeast for good mile, in all manner of
curious groups and piles; just as though,
upon a time, it had been leisurely built
on the edge of the hill above, and then the
hill had gently shook itself and everything
had quietly slid down its side, and finally
got comfortably settled, fronts, rears and
gables, all inextricably yet satisfactorily
aszew. One recalls Gray's description of
Kendall: ''They (the houses) seem as
| though they had been dancing a country
dance and were out. They stood back to
back, corner to corner, some up hin, some
| down. But Lerwick is delieiously more
SO. 1t is up hill, down hill and all around
| itself. Yet there is some little method in
it all. For it is all alongshore, and all
| upon, over, under and near, a delightful
| ly crooked and shadowy thoroughfare fol-
lowing the vagarous sinuosities of the
shore, and q modern street, or road, that
| at last was beaten along the top of the
hill, where the more pretentious, but alto
| gether uninteresting new town lies. Con
Meeting these two thoroughfares are nu-
merous lanes from three to seven fee;
wide, at an angle of thirty-five degrees
These with no end of still narrower wynds
and closes give one a longing for a game
of "hide-and-seek," and recall a few of the
shadowy old ways at Mayence on th,
Rhine, and the weird, sunless, silent ave
nues of Old Town, in Algiers. Oddel
than oil else are the old houses, now
reaching to the waters edge and, in form
er times, standing out into and above tn,
writer. The ancient burghers could no
| only fish out of their back windows, bu
fome houses were so constructed that
yawl-load of smuggled goods could, in cas-
of pursuit, be shot into convenient open
ings, and the latter as instantly closed
Numbers of buildings had secret apart
ments, and You may still find structures
| at some distance from the shore, to whicl
spacious subterranean passages lead from
, the bay. The simple Dutch traders o
those olden times knew how to fear Go,
and thrive.
Two of the most interesting, thougl
somewhat grewsome, objects Of interest il
the little islands are the Pictish Tower O
} Mousa and Fitful Head, of both of whie
you have caught glimpses from you
b steamer Inc SueIlttllu fnalEfsanNl, IN IL
; | general conformation, extends north an
, south in a narrow strip of land about sey
, enty miles long, and from three to fiv
miles wide, with an arm, perhaps twelv
miles long, extending westward from ii
, center, something in the form of Gree
, cross, with its eastern arm Topped of
Lerwick and harbor are located where tn
eastern arm would fit into the socket; ant
about midway from Lerwick to Sumburgl
Head, the islands southern extremity, o.
| the eastern coast, is the island OF Monsa
3 a good walker can journey from Lerwicl
e | to Fitful Head, opposite Sumbnrgh Head
Z seeing the Tower of Mousa ON the way
e and return in one day; thus inspecting III
t southern nearly half OF Shetland, an
. yet never stand on a single spot wheI
s either the German or Atlantic ocean az
!, not visible.
e The road to Mousa and Fitful Head tn
e verses the township of Fladdabister, whel
d you will fiu early all the .'peerie lairds-
: or little lortls who own their lands in FIRE,
i hold and sulk and strut in poverty and ]
n pride of their pure Morse descent, now t
}, manning in Shetland. 4 boat must
l. hired at Sandlodge, seat of the Shetlar
IS Bruces, to cross the sound to the utter
IT dreary island of Mousa. The broch
7, tower stands at the southwest corner
the island, and is remarkable from an a
N tiquarian standpoint in being the large
g and finest example of the olden Picti
5, towers of defense now remaining in f
is rope They are very numerous in mort
lie ern Scotland and the Orkneys and She
4 land Anderson gives sixty for Suthe
,r landshire, seventy mine in Caithness, Sc
he enty in the orkneys and seventy-five
m Shetland. The Mousa tower has the a
" pearance of gray, ragged and gigani
id dice-boN; is built of uncemented ston
4, like the great Dun A1ngus on the Iri
0. Arran Islands; is about one hundred al
IN sixty feet in circumference; and it is st
he fully forty feet high. The walls, viii
tn are about fifteen feet thick, are really dc
u BILE. or rather consist of two concent
~ circles OF stone five feet thick, with an
It, teryening space of equal width. III
as space, chnmbered by making the floor
he one tier answer for the ceiling of the M
of one below, light and air only being adm
ng ted from the open interior, contained
p'' the barrack accommodation the hardy W
It. riors of old knew how, or cared. to p
wi vide. 4 curious screw-hke stone stairca
ng built into the inner wall, winds arou
.ss within the tower, communicating with
en- tiny stone chambers; and on the grou
ne floor are three large detached chambe
en- fifteen feet long, ten feet high, the wiC
sh of the space between the walls, in VIII
rse sa is a wondrous old relic of Pagan tim
nd Its age is certainly fifteen hundred {
Ire perhaps two thousand years. Stral
en- chronicles flash along the pages of Nc
of history regarding the orgies, sieges ;
er- tragedies known within this ancient TOW
the and we can easily learn that among
90, other uses it was held in high repute
ith thousand years ago by Morse lovers of
ce- BILE blood, as sort of impregnable Gre
ave Green Many Morse Viking has bessie
ne. the sturdy place in vain for daughter,
md sweetheart, who has found protection
ON husband and honeymoon, within its G
ped old walls.
is BY foot-path across the moorland wa
,es, it is but about seven miles to Fitfnl III,
ard 1t is the White Mountain of the No
of men, on account of the lustre of its 5
formation Its highest crag rises f
nd, one Thousand feet above the sea, but
and legendary habitation of Norma, a bold
set most detached, cliff lifting its sea-fl
nth into point as sharp as n church-spire
yal- not more than three-fourths that elevat
on, 1t is quite accessible after rough scr
Dur BILE, and its sides are the haunts of 4
lme lads of sea-fowl Horrible indeed mus
ids. the spot in time of storm But whe
un- had accomplished the task of scaling
the heights nature seemed asleep and drs
tier ing peacefully. Away down there b
all the sea was as calm as a Highland
Ian From the higher headland the who'll
the Shetland Uould be seen with a gla
ing waste, moor, hillock, valley, glen;
ven without forests, split and serrated b.
het- ceaseless gnawings of the sea. Trel
ips' dous precipices rose everywhere. L
rth, and tarns showed without copse or
poll dure. Shadowy "hellyers" cut the
, in walls where the tide is ever at ebb or
res Here fishing station; there dI
and hamlet Yonder grayelly beach,
hou- fish curers and their sodden toll; beyC