Dean Swift, "the Tale of a Tub." I was surprised to find that any one could possibly undertake to criticise upon a book, without having first read its preface.

Being a person of few words, I have taken the liberty of transcribing the two first paragraphs of the preface, which I hope will show how much he was mistaken in supposing the author had written it Tail of a Tub.

"The wits of the present age being so very numerous and penetrating, it seems the grandees of church and state, begin to fall under the horrible apprehensions lest these gentlemen, during the intervals of a long peace, should find leisure to pick holes in the weak sides of religion and government. To prevent which, there has been much thought employed of late upon certain projects, for taking off the force and edge of those formidable enquirers from canvassing and reasoning upon such delicate points. They have at length fixed upon one which will require some time as well as cost to perfect meanwhile, the danger hourly increasing, by new levies of wits, all appointed, as there is reason to fear, with pen, ink and paper, which may, at an hour's warn ing, be drawn out into pamphlets and other offensive weapons ready for immediate execution; it was judged of absolute necessity that some expedient be thought upon, till the main design can be brought to maturity. To this end, at a grand committee some days ago, this important discovery was made by a curious and refined observer, That seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale, to throw out an emp ty tub, by way of amusement, to divert him from laying violent hands on the ship. This parable was immediately mythologized; the whale was interpreted to be Hobbes's Leviathan, which tosses and plays with all schemes of religion and government, whereof a great many are hollow, and dry, and empty, and wooden, and given to rotation; this is the leviathan from whence the

terrible wits of our age are said to borrow their weapons. The ship in danger is easily understood to be its old anti-type the commonwealth. But how to analize the tub was a matter of difficulty; when after long enquiry and debate the literal meaning was preserved, and it was decreed, that in order to prevent these leviathans from tossing and sporting with the commonwealth, which of itself is too apt to fluctuate, they should be diverted from that game by a Tale of a Tub, and my genius being conceived to be not unhappily that way, I had the honour done me to be engaged in the performance.

"This is the sole design of publishing the following treatise, which I hope will serve for an interim of some months, to employ their unquiet spirits till the perfecting that great work."

Querist says, that he has had several arguments respecting his opinion; and, says he, "what is worse, I never could convince a single op ponent so as to bring him over to my opinion." This sufficiently proves that neither he nor his opponents had ever read the preface to "this incomparable satire," as he terms it.

It is much to be regretted that prefaces are to seldom read, as they never fail to show the views of the author in writing, or in giving his title to a work of this kind.

J. W. P.

For the Literary Magazine.

ACCOUNT OF THE ORKNEY ISLANDS.

THESE islands are situated in the Northern Ocean, between Caithness and Shetland, from the former of which they are distant about four, and from the latter near twenty leagues. The latitude of Kirkwall, the centre, is fifty-nine degrees and nine minutes north, and the longitude two degrees and thirty minutes west, from the meridian of Greenwich. Their surface is high and precipitous towards the west, but

which only twenty-nine are inhabited. The remaining thirty-eight, called Holms, are small, and have always been appropriated to pasturage. There are several others which are overflowed at high water, have scarcely any soil, and are called Skerries, which indicates sharp, ragged rocks. Most of the names of these islands terminate in a, ay, or ey, which denoted an island of large extent; while Holm implied one that was smaller, and only fit for pasturage. Holm also means hollow or flat land.

The islands have been immemorially divided into north and south isles, from their position in respect of the mainland, or more probably of Kirkwall, which, for many ages, has been considered as their capital. The sonorous name of Pomona affixed to the largest island or mainland, as it is called, is compounded of two Icelandic words, which signify Greatland; and this name is very applicable, if a comparison be made between it and the other is lands. From east to west this island extends not less than thirty English miles; but its figure and breadth are extremely irregular. From Scalpa bay to Kirkwall, it is intersected by a hollow valley, of not more than a mile from sea to sea, which divides the island into two peninsulas. Its breadth on the west side is nearly sixteen miles; on the east it does not exceed five or six.

The united parishes of Kirkwall and St. Ola are nearly in the centre, not only of the mainland but of the whole group. The town of Kirkwall is very ancient; and though built with no great regard to regularity, contains many commodious houses, and some tolerable public buildings. The ruins of the earl's and bishop's palaces are very superb; and the cathedral of St. Magnus, which survived the fury of the reformation, and is still entire, exhibits many features of elegance joined to magnificence. The only circumstance which impairs the grandeur of this building is the meanness of its spire, which, having been

as

The only other town of note is Stromness, west of Pomona, and, as its name imports, on one of the sounds or streams, which intersect these islands. It possesses a commodious and safe harbour, by which alone the town is accessible; most of the houses, like those of Venice, have a quay for the accommodation of boats and vessels, while the streets are generally so narrow and irregular, as not to admit a wheeled carriage. This town has been built by seafaring people, whose sole object has been to make it accessible from the water, without deeming the approach by land as of any importance. Two holms divide this harbour or bay, from that of Kerston, where ships of greater burden, which pass these seas, commonly cast anchor.

The dwarfie stone of Hoy, a large sandstone, in which an apartment and a bed have been cut, has been the cell of a hermit, not, as commonly supposed, the residence of a giant and his wife. Indeed the apartment is not sufficiently large to accommodate people above the ordinary stature.

Waas, or Waes, is the same with Voes, bays, or harbours. In this parish, accordingly, there are several excellent harbours, and particularly the Longhope, which is of easy access from the Pentland Frith, and for safety and conveniency is not surpassed by any in Europe Other commodious harbours occur in almost every island, some of which may rise into importance as fishing stations. This and Stromness are chiefly resorted to by vessels which navigate these seas.

The name is of the same origin

with the Cape Orcas of the ancient geographers, supposed to be Duncansbay-head in Caithness; and both are probably derived from the word ork, or orca, which signifies a whale. These huge animals are still seen in considerable numbers passing through the Pentland Frith. Orkney probably received its first inhabitants from the north of Scotland; they went over, at first, for the purposes of hunting and fishing; and gradually formed permanent settle ments on the different islands.

Cæsar found the Belga in the south of Britain, as well as in part of Gaul, from which they had expelled the Celta. The Belge do not seem to have been of old standing in Britain; and it is probable those whom he calls natos in insula ipsa, were the Celtæ, or first settlers, whom the Belge had previously driven from the continent. It is natural to suppose that the Celta would first pass over from the opposite shores of the channel, where the British coast was constantly in view; the Belge next; and then other tribes from Germany and the north, as the knowledge of navigation was extended, by the voyages of the Phenicians and Carthaginians. When mea live by hunting, it requires a great extent of land to support a few inhabitants. Hence they would spread rapidly over the country, swarm following swarm, till they found themselves confined by an opposite ocean; and then would feel the necessity of betaking themselves to pasturage and agriculture.

That the Celtic language was at one time spoken all over Scotland, is evident from the names of places in every district, derived from that dialect. But who were the Picts? and who were the Caledonians?

The Roman writers uniformly distinguish the inhabitants of Britain by the appellation of Picti Britanni. Painting their bodies seems to have been a process similar to tatooing among savage nations at this day, and its object was to make them appear terrible in battle, or to protect them from the inclemency of the

weather. But the Romans discou raged these practices among those who had submitted to their yoke; and hence a new distinction would arise into Picti Britanni, and non Picti Britanni.

Picti, or Picts, seems then to have been a term of reproach, equivalent to savage, or barbarous, fixed by the provincial Britons, on those who adhered to ancient usages, and refused to submit to the Romans. Hence Picti, or Picts, became the name of those tribes contiguous to the Roman provinces who continued to defy their power.

The Caledonians are evidently the Gael Dun, or the Gael of the mountains. Thus the terms Picts and Caledonians only expressed a distinction, known at this day, between Lowlanders and Highlanders.

The term Scots, or Scuit, seems to have been a term of reproach used by the provincial Britons, both against Picts and Caledonians, when they plundered the Roman provinces. It means wanderers, or rather robbers. Accordingly, we do not hear of the Scots until the decline of the Roman power, when the pro vincial Britons were exposed to their merciless incursions. This name was confined to those tribes which lay contiguous to the province, for in the interior Highlands, the people do not call themselves Scots, but Gael Albinich, or Gauls of Albion. Hence, the Scots could not have ac quired their name in Ireland, and afterwards brought it with them to Argyleshire and the West Highlands; because the immediate descendants of those Irish emigrants, who still continue to speak the same language, never heard of any such name, and make no use of it at this day.

These facts lead us to infer, that the original Picts were tribes of the Gael, or Celta, inhabiting the southern and eastern parts of Scotland; and that the Caledonians were tribes of the same race, inhabiting the mountainous regions. The term Picts was not not known as a national name, till the Romans began

to advance towards the north; nor that of Scots till their power began to decline.

The progress of the Romans first suggested to these tribes, formerly independent, the necessity of uniting under a common chief, and paved the way for the establishment of two monarchies, one of the Picts, on the east, the other of the Caledo nians, afterwards Scots, on the west. A favourable soil, and the resort of strangers from more improved districts, would soon make the Picts understand and practise agriculture; while the Caledonians of the hills would depend chiefly on pasturage and hunting Accordingly, the people of the interior Highlands know no more of the Picts than of the Scots of our antiquaries. The people whom we call Picts, they call Drinnach, labourers; thereby denoting their agricultural occupations. The modern Lowlanders they call Sassanach, Saxons; which shows they do not consider them to be of the same race with the ancient Picts, or Drinnach.

The Peti, in conjunction with the Papæ, were the first inhabitants of Orkney, and were a branch of the Gael, or Celts, who had come thither from Caithness; and many circumstances confirm this opinion. St. Columba, an Irish Celt, and the apostle of the Highlands and isles, is not stated to have used an interpreter when he addressed the Pictish kings, or when he preached the gospel to vast multitudes of their people.

By the Norwegian invasion, 876, these Peti and Papa were utterly extirpated; a circumstance not likely to have happened, had these Peti and Patæ spoken the same language, and been descended from the ancestors of their conquerors. The conquerors naturally proceeded to impose new names, which might recal the objects of affection they had left in their own country, or were descriptive of the local situation of places.

These circumstances will account for so few Gaelic names being found

VOL. VI. NO. XXXVI.

in the Orkneys. Among these few is Mull, undoubtedly Celtic, which is still, in several cases, used instead of ness, nose, to express a promon tory or headland. Skerries, sunken rocks, is also Gaelic.

After the Norwegians acquired possession of the Orkneys, they imposed the name of Pictland Frith, on the sea which separated them from the northern kingdom of the Picts; and they called the nearest point to it Cathness, the nose or promontory of the Catts or Catti. These Catti, or Clan Chatto, as they are sometimes called in Gaelic, were a Celtic tribe which inhabited the northern counties of Scotland, and from whom several Highland chiefs and clans, such as the Macintoshes, Macphersons, &c., at this day claim their descent.

After the Norwegians or Danes got possession of Caithness, they called the land beyond them Suderland, from which Sutherland, its modern name, is derived. But neither Caithness nor Sutherland are called by these names in Gaelic at this day; the people of Sutherland call themselves Catich, and their country Cattey. The Gaelic name of Caithness is Goliu; and, among the Gael, the people are still known by no other name than Golich. then, the first inhabitants of Orkney had come from the opposite shores of Caithness, which is extremely probable, they must have been a colony of the Catti, and hence of Celtic extraction.

If,

This original is also evinced by the religious monuments still remaining in the Orkneys; such as the standing stones of Stennis, which, though much defaced, are clearly of druidical origin, and must have been erected by the Peti, or some other people who possessed these islands before the northern nations subdued them.

Single obelisks may have been erected to commemorate a victory, or some remarkable event, but never to point out the grave of a great man. Such graves are marked out by four or more flat stones set on

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