412 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 182. 



I would suggest for the consideration of your 

 correspondents that the throwing a shoe after a 

 bride was a symbol of renunciation of dominion 

 and authority over her by her father or guardian ; 

 and the receipt of the shoe by the bridegroom, 

 even if accidental, was an omen that that authority 

 was transferred to him. John Thrupp. 



Surbiton. j 



OEKNETS IN PAWN. 



(Vol. vii., pp. 105. 183.) 



That the Orkney and Zetland Islands were 

 transferred by Denmark to Scotland in 1468, in 

 pledge for payment of part of the dower of the 

 Princess of Denmark, who was married to 

 James III., King of Scotland, under right of re- 

 demption by Denmark, is an admitted historic 

 fact ; but it is asserted by the Scottish, and denied 

 by the Danish historians, that Denmark renounced 

 her right of redemption of these Islands. The 

 question is fully discussed, with references to every 

 work and passage treating of the matter, in the 

 first introductory note to the edition of The General 

 Grievances and Oppressions of the Isles of Orkney 

 ctnrf .S'Ae^Zan^f, published at Edinburgh, 1836. And 

 the writer of the note is led to the conclusion that 

 there was no renunciation, and that Denmark still 

 retains her right of redemption. Mr. Samuel 

 Laing, in his Journal of a Residence in Norivay, re- 

 marks, that the object of Torfieus' historical work, 

 Orcades, seu Iterum Orcadensium Histories lihri 

 tres, compiled by the express command of Chris- 

 tian v., King of Denmark, was to vindicate the 

 right of the Danish monarch to redeem the mort- 

 gage of the sovereignty of these Islands ; and he 

 adds, that in 1804, IBonaparte, in a proclamation 

 addressed to the army assembled at IBoulogne for 

 the invasion of England, descanted on the claim of 

 Denmark to this portion of the British dominions. 

 In a note he has the farther statement, that in 

 1549 an assessment for paying off the sum for 

 which Orkney and Zetland were pledged was 

 levied in Norway by Christian III. ( Vide Laing's 

 Norway, 1837, pp.352, 353.) From the preced- 

 ing notice, it would appear, that Denmark never 

 renounced her right of redemption, now merely a 

 matter of antiquarian curiosity. And it is per- 

 tinent to mention, that the connexion of Orkney 

 and Zetland was with Norway, not Denmark. I 

 observe in the Catalogue of MSS., in the Cotto- 

 nian Library in the British Museum (Titus C. VII. 

 art. 71. f 134.), " Notes on King of Denmark's De- 

 mand of the Orcades, 1587-8," which may throw 

 some light on the matter. 



In the historical sketch given by Broctuna, 

 Kenneth II., King of Scotland, is said to have 

 taken the Orkneys from the PIcts a.d. 838 ; and 

 that they remained attached to that kingdom till 



1099, when Donald Bain, In recompense of aid 

 given him by Magnus, King of Norway, gifted all 

 the Scotch Isles, including the Orkneys, to Nor- 

 way. This is not what is understood to be the 

 history of Orkney. 



In the middle of the ninth century, Harold 

 Harfager, one of the regull of Norway, subdued 

 the other petty rulers, and made himself king of 

 the whole country. The defeated party fled to 

 Orkney, and other islands of the west : whence, 

 betaking themselves to piracy, they returned to 

 ravage the coast of Norway. Harold pursued 

 them to their places of refuge, and conquered and 

 colonised Orkney about a.d. 875. The Norwe- 

 gians at that time destroyed or expelled the race 

 then Inhabiting these islands. They are supposed 

 to have been Picts, and to have received Chris- 

 tianity at an earlier date, but It is doubtful if 

 there were Christians in Orkney at that period : 

 however, Depping says expressly, that Earl Segurd, 

 the second Norwegian earl, expelled the Christians 

 from these isles. I may remark, that the names 

 of places In Orkney and Zetland are Norse, and 

 bear descriptive and applicable meanings in that 

 tongue ; but hesitate to extend these names beyond 

 the Norwegian colonisation, and to connect them 

 with the Picts or other earlier Inhabitants. No 

 argument can be founded on the rude and miser- 

 able subterraneous buildings called Picts' houses, 

 which, if they ever were habitations, or anything 

 else than places of refuge, must have belonged to 

 a people m a very low grade of civilisation. Be 

 this as It may, Orkney and Zetland remained 

 under the Norwegian dominion from the time of 

 Harold Harfager till they were transferred to 

 Scotland by the marriage treaty In 1468, a perjod 

 of about six hundred years. What cannot easily 

 be accounted for. Is the discovery of two Orkney 

 and Zetland deeds of the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century prior to the transfer, written not in Norse, 

 but In the Scottish language. R. W. 



HOGARTH S PICTURES. 



(Vol.vli., p. 339.) 



The numerous and Interesting Inquiries of An 

 Amateur respecting a catalogue of Hogarth's 

 works has brought to my recollection the disco- 

 very of one of them, which I was so fortunate as 

 to see In its original situation. About the year 

 1815 I was Invited by a friend, who was an artist, 

 to visit a small public-house in Leadenhall Street, 

 to see a picture by Hogarth : It was " The Ele- 

 phant," since, I believe, pulled down, being in a 

 ruinous condition. In the tap-room, on the wall, 

 almost obscured by the dirt and smoke, and grimed 

 by the rubbing of numberless foul jackets, was an 

 Indisputable picture by the renowned Hogarth. It 

 represented the meeting of the committee of the 



