Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 15, NIC-PAR

O R K [ 464 ]
Orkney, eoniiclering the art that muft have been ufed to bring where
fueh unwieldy mafles together in this order. They
were probably temples and places of facrifice ufed in
times of pagan fuperftition j and feem to bear a great
affinity with the celebrated monument called Stonehenge,
on Saliffiury Plain in England. In one of the mounts,
at the north end of the caufeway, the natives found nine
Jibuhe, or clafps of filver, formed into a circle, and re-
fembling a horfe ffioe. In many different places of the
Orkneys we find rude obelilks or Angle ftones of a great
height, fet up either as memorials of battles, treaties, or
the deceafe of remarkable perfonages. In Roufay, be¬
tween two high mountains, there is a place which the
natives diftinguiffi by the appellation of the camp of
Jupiter Fring : but the meaning of this name, handed
down by tradition, is not known. At the weft end of
the Mainland, near Skeal, we find a furprifing caufe¬
way, above a quarter of a mile in length, on the fummit
of high hills, compofed of reddilh ftones of different
magnitudes, impreffed with various figures both on the
upper and under furface. Some gentlemen in the neigh¬
bourhood have carried oft’ the moft beautiful of thefe
ftones, to be fet in their chimneys by wray of ornament,
like the painted tiles of Holland, This country pro¬
duces many fepulchres of different nations. In the plains
or links of Skeal, the fand being blowm away from the
furface of the ground, feveral fquare catacombs appear,
built of ftones well cemented together, containing ibme
parcels of black earth, and each fecured by a large ftene
at the mouth. Sepulchres of the fame kind are found
at Roufum in Stronfa; which is likewife remarkable for
a different kind of monument, confifting of one entire
ftone cylinder hollowed, with a bottom like that of a
barrel, and a round ftone to fill up the entrance j above,
the ftone was fharpened into an edge-, within were found
fome burned bones and red clay, and over it was placed
a large flat ftone for the prefervation of the whole.
Thefe, in all probability, w’ere Roman catacombs. In
Weftra divers Daniffi graves have been difcovered: in
one of thefe appeared the Ikeleton of a man, with a
fword on one fide and a Danifli axe on the other. Some
have been found buried with dogs, combs, knives, and
other utenfils. In many places of the country we find
round hillocks or barrows, hefe known by the name
of brogh, fignifying, in the Teutonic language, burying
place, fuppofed to have been the cemeteries of the an¬
cient Saxons. In different parts of thefe iflands we fee
the remains of great buildings, believed to have been
fortreffes erefted by the Danes or Norwegians when
they poffeffed the country. One of thefe, in the ifle of
Wyre, called the cafle of Coppi-row, fignifying a town
of fecurity, is furrounded by a foffe, and the firft floor
ftill remains above ground, a perfect fquare of ftone
wall, very thick, ftrongly built, and cemented with lime,
the area within not exceeding ten feet in length. Of
this Coppi-row the common people relate many idle
fables. In the chapel of Clet, in the ifle of Sanda, there
is a grave 19 feet long, in which was found part of a
man’s back bone larger than that of a horfe. Human
bones of nearly the fame fize, have been dug up in
Weftra } and indeed this country is remarkable for pro¬
ducing men of a gigantic ftature. Within the ancient
fabric of Lady Kirk in South Ranalftmv, there is a
ftone four feet long and two feet broad, on Which the
prints of two feet are engraven, fuppofed to be the place
O R K
in times of popery, penitents ftood to do public
penance. The cathedral of Kirkwall, the capital of the ^
Orkneys, is a fine Gothic building, dedicated to St
Magnus, but now- converted into a parilh church. Its
roof is fupported by 14 pillars on each fide j and its
fteeple, in which is a good ring of bells, by four large
pillars. The three gates of the church are chequered
with red and white polilhed ftones, emboffed and ele¬
gantly flowered.
Campbell, in his Political Survey, fuggefts two im¬
provements in the Orkneys : 1. The eredting an uni-
verfity ; of wffiich he recapitulates the probable advan¬
tages arifing from their centrical fituation : And, 2.
Allow-ing the Eaft India Company to ere£t a fpacious
magazine in one of thefe iflands j where alfo a colleft-
or, and a fufficient number of king’s officers, ftiould re-
fide, to receive the duties of fuch Eaft India commodi¬
ties as might be taken off by Britilh fubjetls. Thefe
he propofes for the Orkneys in particular, and in addi¬
tion to improvements propofed for the v'hole iflands in
general.
The following table exhibits a view- of the population
of the parifties of Orkney and Shetland, at two periods.
Orkney.
10
15
Parifhes.
Orkney.
Crofs, Burnefs, &c,
Dearnefs and St Andrews
Evie and Rendall
Firth and Stennefs
Harray and Birfay
Holm
Hoy and Graemfay
Kirkwall
Ladykirk
Orphir
Roufay and Eglilhay
Shapinffiay
South Ronaldffiay, &c.
Stromnefs and Sandwuck
Stronfay and Eday
Walls and Flota
Weftray and Papa Weftray
Total, Orkney
Shetland.
Breffay and Burray
Delting
Dunroffnefs
Fitlar and North Yell
Lerwick
Nefting
Northmaving
Sandfting
South and Mid Yell
Tingwall
Unft
29 Walls and Sandnefs
Total, Shetland
Orkney
Total
Population in
I7SS-
Population in
I7J>°—DS8,
125O
1650
i798
I108
2200
1185
520
1089
75°
855
_978
642
1996
2677
M93
1000
1290
23>381
1389
J335
i564
1186
2013
702
410
2550
803
826
1072
730
J954
3012
887
991
1629
23>°53
20
25
1098
I 221
2295
IO98
JI93
1169
1009
911
986
1412
1368
1450
1225
I5C4
3327
1346
1259
I535
1786
1.285
1422
1786
1988
1723
15,210
23.381
20,186
23.053
38.591
43.239
37.591
Increafe
4648
But