Fashions in the She f lands. 215 



the people living in huts which had to be entered by 

 stooping or crawling on hands and knees, the smoke 

 of the fire having no outlet but by the door, and the 

 thatch in consequence becoming so saturated that it 

 was taken off every year to manure the potatoes. 



On their arrival at Lerwick they were surprised to 

 find that what they saw by no means tallied with 

 this description. The town was neat and clean, the 

 shop-windows gaily 'furnished, and the girls of the 

 place dressed up at least to the same style or fashion 

 as might be seen at this period among the same class 

 in Edinburgh or Glasgow. 



Lerwick being the metropolis for fancy knitting of 

 woollen garments, they wondered to find no part of 

 the women's dress consisting of what was made in 

 the Shetlands, but on inquiry learned that it was 

 thought beneath them to wear any of the goods 

 which they themselves made for sale. This point of 

 honour was doubtless cultivated by the shop-keepers, 

 for as they obtained the knitted work from the girls 

 not so much by money purchase as by barter of 

 clothes and food, it was strongly the storekeepers' 

 interest to decry the use of home-made garments, and 

 to recommend their fashionable London goods as the 

 only wear. 



At the hotel at which the Robertsons put up, 

 rowing boats could come in alongside of a little pier 

 close to the door, which made their getting out and 

 in with their dredging-traps comparatively easy. 



"At this time," Mr. Robertson says, "one of my 

 sons was collecting eggs and the other birds. When 

 we left there were strong entreaties to take the gun 



