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HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



THE ISLAND OF INCHKEITH. 

 By Chas. Wardingley. 



TO anyone glancing casually at the south-eastern 

 portion of the map of Scotland, the Island of 

 Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth appears so small and 

 insignificant as scarcely to merit any lengthy or 

 serious consideration. Even to many of those who 

 have visited and spent some time in the Forth 

 district the island has presented no special feature of 

 interest or attraction further than that which is 

 possessed by, and is common to, the other small 

 islets which are dotted here and there in the 

 immediate vicinity. Nay, even by the majority of 

 those who have seen it, sailed past it or round it, and 

 by many who have had the privilege of landing 

 upon it, it would be curtly described and as promptly 

 dismissed as " a small island with a lighthouse upon 

 it." There are however exceptions, of which let us 

 give two. Dr. Johnson (in the company of his 

 biographer Boswell) visited it in 1773, and though 

 he remarks that there was "rather a profusion of 

 thistles," acknowledges very frankly that it had its 

 redeeming features. "I'd have this island," he 

 breaks forth; "I'd build a house, make a good 

 landing-place, have a garden, etc.,'' and further 

 avoM's that "a rich man of a hospitable turn would 

 have many visitors." Carlyle visiting it at a later 

 date, describes it as "prettily savage," "barley 

 trying to grow under difficulties," "no inhabitants 

 except seven cows and the lighthouse-keeper and 

 his family," and although he neglects to tell us of the 

 conditions of the kine, he is so far characteristic as to 

 volunteer the information that " the lighthouse- 

 keeper was by far the most life-wearyd-looking mortal 

 I ever saw." 



Neither is the prevailing general indifference shared 

 by the commercial and militaiy naval authorities. 

 To the former it is a source of considerable danger 

 and loss, its position midway in the channel of the 

 Firth, and the presence of sunken rocks which 

 surround it on all sides, only too frequently causing 

 the disablement or wreck of some unlucky vessel, 

 which, driven by stress of weather or a gale from the 

 east, has been compelled to run for shelter into the 

 quieter waters of the estuary. Almost every year, 



" When stormy March has come at last. 

 With winds and clouds and changing skies," 



some craft or other is driven upon and broken to 

 pieces by the rocks bordering this apparently insigni- 

 ficant island. Again, to those having charge of the 

 naval defences of the kingdom, Inchkeith, command- 

 ing as it does the entrance to an extensive stretch of 

 easily accessible coast-line, has been considered of 

 sucli paramount strategic importance as to justify it 

 in being acquired for defensive purposes, and with 

 this object in view it has recently passed into the 

 custody of the War Department. At the present 



time it is being strongly fortified, and will, ere long,, 

 be fully equipped with all the most recent scientific 

 paraphernalia necessary to meet any emergency whicb 

 may arise in time of war. 



But our object just now is not so much to dwell 

 upon its dangerous position or its strategic import- 

 ance, as to place before the land-dwelling, peace- 

 loving reader, a few facts connected with the island, 

 which may be calculated to arouse and partially to 

 satisfy his or her interest and curiosity. 



In Anglo-Saxon times the island appears to have 

 been known as Caer Guidi, or Fort of the River, 

 and under this very appropriate name is mentioned 

 by Bede. In loio Malcolm II. conferred it upon 

 Robert Keith, one of the first Marshals of Scotland; 

 and founder of the Keith family, as a reward for 

 personal courage and political services, and in this 

 way the island acquired its present name. Since then 

 it has been held successively by the Crown, the Lords 

 ofGlammis, and theBuccleuch family, while from the 

 latter it has been obtained for the use of the nation. 

 In the turbulent days of Queen Mary it was fre- 

 quently made a subject of contention, and was in 

 consequence the scene of many a fierce combat. In. 

 1548, the year after the Battle of Pinkie, it was- 

 seized and fortified under the direction of the Lord 

 Protector Somerset, who;placed an English garrison 

 upon it. Two years later this garrison was assaulted 

 and expelled by the Queen Regent's French allies, 

 over three hundred of its defenders being killed or 

 wounded. It was re-garrisoned by the captors, who. 

 held it until the Treaty of Edinburgh, 1560. During 

 this last occupancy a larger and much stronger fort 

 or castle was built, doubtless with a view to future 

 contingencies, but it remained intact only a very 

 brief period, being destroyed by order of the Lords- 

 of Council soon after Mary's surrender in 1567. Its 

 ruins remained until 1803 when they were removed 

 to make way for the erection of the present light- 

 house. 



In 1497 the island was made an asylum to which 

 all persons afflicted with an infectious distemper 

 called " grand-gore " or " gran-gore " were to repair, 

 " and there to remain till God provide for their 

 health." 



Robert Lindesay writing about 1550, chronicles a. 

 curious experiment said to have been made some 

 fifty years earlier by James IV. His Majesty, moved 

 with a laudable spirit for original investigation,, 

 conceived the idea that it might be interesting and 

 possibly profitable to mankind, if he could discover the 

 primitive language of the human race. Accordingly 

 he caused to be taken to Inchkeith " ane dumb woman 

 and two bairns with hir," desiring by thus setting 

 them apart from the rest of their species, "hereby to 

 know what language they had when they cam to the 

 aige of perfyte speech." Details of the experiment 

 are unfortunately not given, but the veracious author 

 with a little commendable hesitation records that. 



