Topographical dictionary of Scotland > Volume 1

B R E S
BRES
valued at £30 per annum. The church is the nave of
the ancient cathedral, and is situated nearly in the
centre of the parish ; it is in good repair, and adapted
for a congregation of 1500 persons. A church contain-
ing 864 sittings, was erected by an act of the General
Assembly, in 1836, for a district of the parish called
East-Church, and the minister derived his income, £150,
from seat-rents and collections. Since the recent se-
cession from the Church of Scotland, however, the
church has ceased to be used in connexion with the
Establishment j and no quoad sacra parish now exists.
Places of worship have been built at different times
for members of the Free Church and the United Seces-
sion, Antiburghers, and members of the Relief Church ;
and an Episcopal chapel, erected about twenty years
since, has been recently enlarged and beautified, and
is a handsome edifice, the western gable of which is
surmounted by a cross, and flanked at the angles with
minarets. There are parochial and burgh schools,
together with a grammar school ; the parochial teacher
has a salary of £34. 4. 4., with fees, and £10 paid by
the magistrates from the burgh funds, in lieu of a house
and garden. The rector of the grammar school is
appointed by the corporation, and is also preceptor
of the hospital of Maison Dieu, of which he enjoys
the revenue, amounting to £50 per annum. There
is a parochial library, containing about 600 volumes;
and circulating libraries are kept by the booksellers in
the town. The hospital, formerly attached to the cathe-
dral establishment, affords weekly a small allowance to
the poor ; there is also a society of ladies, for the
relief of the indigent, and a dispensary was established
some years since, with the proceeds of a bequest by
Mrs. Speid, of Ardovie. Some remains yet exist of the
ancient chapel called Maison Dieu ; and a round tower
nearly adjoining the cathedral, and supposed to be of
Pictish origin, is still entire, and an object of much
interest. It is a lofty slender column of very ancient
character, and in high easterly winds is observed to
vibrate in a slight degree. The remains of the cathedral
consist chiefly of the nave and tower ; the western en-
trance is of beautiful design, and the interior is lighted
by a spacious window above the doorway, and the roof
supported by a range of clustered columns and pointed
arches ; the choir was destroyed at the Reformation.
At the eastern extremity of the parish, is a cemetery,
which is still called St. Magdalen's chapel, the only
memorial, perhaps, of an edifice of that name. Dr.
John Gillies, historiographer for Scotland to His Ma-
jesty ; and his brother, the Honourable Adam Gillies,
one of the senators of the College of Justice, were
natives of the parish, as was also Maitlaud, the labo-
rious historian of London and Edinburgh.
BRESSAY, BURRA, and QUARFF, a parish, in the
county of Orkney and Shetland; containing 1*98
inhabitants, of whom 904 are in the island of Bressay,
and 870 in the late quoad sacra parish of Burra and
Quarff. These three ancient parishes, now united, com-
prehend six islands and a part of the tract called Main-
land ; the district of Bressay is to the east of the main-
land, and consists of the islands of Bressay and Ness,
separated from each other by Ness Sound, and from the
mainland by Bressay Sound. The island of Bressay,
which is nearly six miles long, and varies in breadth
from two to three miles, exhibits a highly-diversified
Vol. I.— 153
surface, especially in the western portion, where the
rugged features of the coast, the tracts of arable land
stretching from south to north, and sloping to the sea,
interspersed with cottages, with lofty hills rising in va-
rious directions, contribute to form a scene marked, to
a considerable extent, by beauty and grandeur. Among
the elevated ridges running in irregular directions
through the island, and the spaces between which are
covered with a mixture of pasture and peat-moss, is a
dorsal eminence, on the eastern side, called St. Andrew's,
or Ander hill, upwards of 400 feet in height. At the
southern extremity, is a lofty elevation called the Ward ;
also Beacon hill, rising 724 feet above the level of the
sea, and which, being covered with peat-moss and vari-
ous kinds of short grass and heath, becomes, on account
of its sable hue and majestic height, a striking object in
the scenery. The coast is everywhere rocky, abounding
with fissures, caverns, and headlands, the last chiefly in
the southern portion of the island ; and there are twelve
lochs, which, however, are of very ipconsiderable dimen-
sions, only two or three having the extent of half a mile
in length or breadth, but some of them are celebrated
for their fine trout.
The parish contains several sounds or channels,
formed by, and taking their names respectively from,
the islands to which they are adjacent ; the chief is
Bressay Sound, long known as a superior harbour, which
expands into a fine bay towards Quarff, on the south,
where its waters deepen, and afford excellent anchorage
for vessels in stress of weather. Many hundreds of
Dutch boats, in time past, resorted hither, to fish for
herrings; but the sound has derived its greatest cele-
brity from the Earl of Bothwell, who, being pursued in
his adversity by Kirkaldy of Grange, with great diffi-
culty escaped, by sailing out at the northern entrance,
in which direction his enemy, attempting to follow
him, was wrecked on a very dangerous rock, since
called the Unicorn, after the name of the ship. The
other channels are, Ness Sound, less than a quarter of a
mile broad, supposed to be about twenty feet deep, and
dangerous to pass with an easterly wind ; Cliff Sound,
not quite half a mile broad, with about nine or ten
fathoms of water, and of difficult navigation in stormy
weather ; and Stream and Burra Sounds, the latter of
which is the safest and most tranquil of the whole, and
peculiarly adapted to small vessels. The quantity of land
under tillage is small, compared with the waste, and
employed chiefly in the cultivation of oats, bear, and
potatoes, the two first being sown in alternate years,
and potatoes once in four or five years. The grounds
are manured with a compost of sea-weed, dung, and
mossy earth, and with the garbage of herrings, the last
being held in high repute for enriching the soil. Some
improvements in agriculture have been made within
these few years, chiefly in rebuilding, in a superior
manner, the farm-cottages ; but various obstacles, the
want of leases, the state of the roads, and especially the
poverty of the inhabitants, and their extensive occupa-
tion in fishing, repress all systematic attempts to esta-
blish agriculture on a good footing. The rateable annual
value of the parish is £1527. The rocks in Bressay
and Ness are the old red sandstone ; in Quarff, clay-
slate and mica-slate ; and in the isles of House, Burra,
and Halvera, of the primitive formation. At Bressay,
flag and slate quarries are in operation, the material of