Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

SHETLAND
grown up, finding the poor living their native country
was likely to afford them, went abroad, and served in
foreign countries for their bread, and seldom or never
returned : so that these Islands were but thinly in-
habited ' — an excellent lesson this last for the Highland
and Island crofters. After the islands passed under the
sway of the Scottish kings the government was still more
oppressive, as Crown donatory after Crown donatory,
'looking on them as a milch cow to be squeezed for their
own especial benefit,' laid heavier and heavier imposts
on the long suffering people, and it is to this time that
the old hatred of Scotland and the ' ferry -loupin ' Scots
is to be traced. The history during this whole period
and down to 1766, when Shetland was sold by the Earl
of Morton to the ancestor of the Earls of Zetland, is
simply one long tale of oppression (see Scalloway).
During the 18th century the government was based on
a series of ' Country Acts ' applicable to this stewartry,
and passed with consent of the heritors and kirk -session.
They are excellent specimens of good old grandmotherly
legislation, providing among other things that all per-
sons should punctually attend the diets of catechising ;
that no person should ' flight ' with or provoke his
neighbour ; that no servant should disobey his or her
master's or mistress's lawful commands, or use provoking
and unbecoming language towards them ; that no one
should keep more servants than they had absolute need
for ; that none should marry who had not £40 Scots
of free gear to set up house on, or a lawful trade where-
by to subsist, and so on, all the enactments being
enforceable by fine or ' personal punishment ; ' and be-
sides this, the Rancelmen or balifs had the power of
inquiry into all domestic relations, as well as the highly
important duty of finding out all witches and persons
using charms. In 1817 the eminent French savant, M.
Biot, carried on experiments with the pendulum at
Buness, and was much struck by the simplicity of life
and freedom from excitement enjoyed in this northern
land. 'During the twenty-five years,' he says, 'in
which 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 in-
habited 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 render it accessible only at favourable
seasons, serve them for defence against privateers in time
of war ; and what is it that privateers would come to
seek for ? If there were only trees and sun, no residence
could be more pleasant ; but if there were trees and
sun everybody would wish to go thither, and peace
would exist no longer.' In 1818 Captain Eater con-
ducted similar experiments in the same place. The
title of Earl of Zetland in the peerage of the United
Eingdom was granted, in 1S38, to Baron Dundas of
Aske. The present— the third— earl, born in 1844,
succeeded his uncle in 1873, but his estates in Shetland
are not of very large size. His Scottish seats are at
Kerse House, Stirlingshire, and Dunbog, Fifeshire.
The antiquities of the Shetland Islands are numerous
and interesting, and the brochs or burghs, cairns, castles,
and _ old churches will be found noticed either under
the islands or parishes in which they are. Some of the
more important are treated separately.
See also Brand's Brief Description of Orkney, Zetland,
etc. (1683 ; reprinted 1701 ; and again, Edinb. 1883) ;
A _ Voyage to Shetland (1751) ; A True and Exact Des-
cription of the Island of Shetland (Lond. 1753) ; An
Account of the New Method of Fishing practised on the
Coasts of Shetland (Edinb. 1775) ; Weill's Tour through
S/A /** °f 0r/cnc y and Shetland (Edinb.
1806) ; Arthur Edmondston's View of the Ancient and
Present State of the Zetland Islands (Edinb. 1809) ;
Peterkin's Notes on Orkney and Zetland (Edinb. 1822) ;
Hibbert s Description of the Shetland Isles (Edinb. 1822) ;
Sibbald's Description of the Islands of Orkney and Zet-
land, by Robert Monteith of Egilsea and Gairsay in 1633
(iidmb. 1845) j Balfour's Oppressions of the Sixteenth
SHETTLESTON
Century in the Islands of Orkney and Zetland (Banna-
tyne Club, Edinb. 1859) ; two papers on ' Shetland and
the Shetlanders ' by Dr. John Kerr in Good Words for
1866 ; Thos. Edmondston's Shetland Glossary (Edinb.
1866) ; Reid's Art Rambles in Shetland (Edinb. 1869) ;
Saxby's Birds of Shetland (Edinb. 1874) ; Shetland Fire-
side Tales (Edinb. 1877) ; Cowie's Shetland (Aberdeen,
1879 ; 3d ed., 1880) ; Gilford's Historical Description
of the Zetland Islands in the year 1733 (Edinb. 1879) ;
Low's Tour through Hie Islands of Orkney and Shet-
land in 1774 (Kirkwall, 1879) ; articles by Karl Blind
on the Folklore of the Islands in the Nineteenth Century,
in the Contemporary Review, and in the Gentleman's
Magazine for March 1882 ; papers by Dr M. F. Heddle
in the Magazine of the Mineralogical Society, and by
Messrs Peach and Home in the Quarterly Journal of the
Geological Society iot 1879 and 1880, and in the Proceed-
ings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh for 1878-
80 ; Tudor's Orkneys and Shetland (Lond. 1883) ; and
Rampini's Shetland and the Shetlanders (Kirkwall, 1884).
Shettleston, a parish containing a small town of the
same name, in the Lower Ward of Lanarkshire, im-
mediately to the E of Glasgow. It is bounded N and
NE by the parish of Cadder, E by Cadder and Old
Monkland, S by Rutherglen, W by Calton and Barony,
and NW by Springburn. Except on the S, where the
line follows the centre of the Clyde for about 2 miles
downward from the E side of the grounds of Easterhill
House, the boundary is almost entirely artificial. The
greatest length of the parish, from the E end of Bishop
Loch west-south-westward to the western limit of the
parish in the eastern suburbs of Glasgow, is 4J miles ;
the greatest width, from the S corner of the policies of
Easterhill House northward, is 3J miles ; and the area is
5174 '674 acres, of which 123 '710 are water. The surface
is undulating, and the height above sea-level rises from
70 feet in the E to over 300 at a number of places to the
N and E, the highest point, N of Barlanark House, being
337 feet. The soil is mostly a good sound loam, and
the underlying rocks belong to the Coal-measures forming
part of the rich mineral field of Lanarkshire. The
greater part of Frankfield Loch (2x2 furl. ) lies within
the parish on the N, and the whole of Hogganfield Loch
(3x2 furl.) on the NW. The chief mansions are Bar-
lanark House, Cardowan House, Carntyne House, Craig-
end House, Easterhill House, Frankfield House, Gart-
craig House, Garthamlock House, Greenfield House,
Haghill House, Tollcross House, and West-thorn House.
The chief prison for the county of Lanark is at Barlinnie,
in the NW of the parish. Shettleston is traversed by
two of the main roads between Edinburgh and Glasgow,
while the road from Glasgow to Stirling by Cumbernauld
and Denny passes along the north-western border. It
also includes a portion of the sections of the North
British railway system which pass from Glasgow to
Edinburgh, vid Bathgate, and from Glasgow to Both-
well ; and a reach of the Monkland Canal. There is a
station at Parkhead, and another where the two railway
lines branch off at the town of Shettleston. _ Besides the
post-town of the same name the parish contains also part
of the eastern suburbs of Glasgow, the greater part of
the conjoint villages of Millerston and Hogganfield,
almost the whole of Tollcross, and a few small hamlets.
The town of Shettleston, which includes the suburbs of
East Muir and Sandyhill, has a station 3 miles E by
S of Glasgow, and is a somewhat dingy and poor place,
inhabited chiefly by colliers and agricultural labourers.
A water supply was introduced from the Glasgow mains
in 1869. There is a post office under Glasgow, a parish
church, a Free church, a Roman Catholic church, and a
public school, but none of them call for particular
notice. Pop. of town (1861) 1947, (1871) 2418, (1881)
3608, of whom 1753 were males and 1855 females.
Houses (1881) 748 inhabited, 184 uninhabited, and 10
being built. The other villages are separately noticed.
The parish, which was originally a part of Barony
parish from which it was civilly disjoined in 1847, is in
the presbytery of Glasgow and synod of Glasgow and
Ayr, and the living is worth £588 a year. The mission
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