The New Statistical Account of Scotland: Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney, Shetland, General indexW. Blackwood and Sons, 1845 - Scotland |
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Common terms and phrases
abundance acres amount ancient annually appearance Assynt attended average number Birsay boats bolls breadth breed Bressay Brora built Caithness called Castle cattle chapel church coast considerable crops cultivated distance district Dornoch Duke of Sutherland Earl Earl of Sutherland east Eday erected extent farms feet Fetlar fish fisheries Frith Gaelic glebe gneiss Golspie ground Halkirk harbour Helmsdale heritors Highlands hills houses improvement inhabitants island Keiss kelp Kildonan Kirkwall labour lakes late Latheron Lerwick Loch Loth manse miles minister moss mountains nearly ness North Yell oats Orkney parish parish of Wick parochial pasture peat persons poor population potatoes PRESBYTERY present proprietors Pulteneytown quantity Reay rent rish river road rock sandstone Scotland season sheep Shetland shore side Sinclair situated soil Staxigoe stipend stone strath Sutherland Thurso tion town tumuli Ulbster V.-PAROCHIAL ECONOMY whole winter
Popular passages
Page 143 - ... the lord rade, and the foal slade; he lighted, and he righted, set joint to joint, bone to bone, and sinew to sinew, heal in the holy ghost's name!
Page 191 - The road is but narrow, and the descent steep, and if any stumble thereupon, they are in hazard of falling down a precipice into the sea at the bottom of the rock, which is very terrible to behold ; but who pass it for the more security, use to lead their horses to the foot of the hill...
Page 47 - Dr. Clouston thus describes the aspect of an ordinary gale at this spot. " During a storm from the west the scene is awfully grand. The large accumulations of water that then roll after each other, foaming with terrible violence to the shore, impress the mind with irresistible power, and might well give a stranger a feeling of insecurity ; and, when they dash themselves against the precipice, it seems half sunk, for a time, like a wrecked vessel amid the waves ; sheets of spray are thrown far up...
Page 116 - The blides of steinbartes are very abundantly found in Shetland. Not unfrequently, several of them are discovered buried together, thus indicating a little armoury, from which a number of weapons might be distributed on an emergency, by the hand of some chief to a small band of natives met together, on the alarm of common danger. Assemblages of these weapons have been found in the parishes of Walls, of Deltirg, and in the Island of Unst.
Page 203 - Halcro, lawful daughter to the deceased Hugh Halcro, in the isle of Weir, and Margaret Stewart his spouse, hath lived in the parish of Evie from her infancy, in good fame and report; is a discreet, godly young woman, and, to our certain knowledge, free of all scandal, reproach, or blame. As, also, that she is descended, of her father, of the house of Halcro, which is a very ancient and honourable family in the Orkneys — the noble and potent Earl of Early and Lairds of Dun in Angus; and by her mother,...
Page 129 - Observe, that in the year of our Lord 1328, the 25th day of July, did Giafaldr Ivarson of Hialtland, pay to the Reverend Lord Audfin, the Lord Bishop of Bergen, and Swein Sigurdson, Comptroller of the King's household, the tenths due to the Pope, viz.
Page 61 - The following is Lord Byron's version of this touching narrative ; and it will be felt, I think, by every reader, that this is one of the instances in which poetry must be content to yield the palm to prose. There is a pathos in the last sentences of the seaman's recital, which the artifices of metre and rhyme were sure to disturb, and which, indeed, no verses, however beautiful, could half so naturally and powerfully express...
Page 127 - is in his winter or spring garb it is difficult to suppose that his progenitors were the same animals which travellers have described as prancing over the arid tracks of Arabia. The long shaggy hair with which he is clothed has more the appearance of a polar dress, or of some arctic livery specially dispensed to the quadruped retainers of the genius of Hialtland.
Page 143 - This is a thread spun from black wool, on which are cast nine knots, and tied round a sprained leg or arm. During the time the operator is putting the thread round the affected limb,' he says, but in such a tone of voice...
Page 145 - ... operator assures the spectators is the exact form of the patient's heart in its diseased state. The lead is repeatedly melted, and poured through the comb into the water ; every time it is asserted to be more and more like the natural heart and lungs, and the bewitchment, of course, is rendered weaker and weaker. The patient undergoes this three times, with some days between each operation. When the last cast of the lead is over, the operator shews it round, and points out how exactly every part...