OR KUN; Tf. E:S. 
any worthy friend, Edward King, Efq; for his moft elaborate hiftory of Enaglif 
caftles*. The plates, with explanatory accounts, fhall fupply what farther can 
elucidate thefe curious antiquities. 
After the expulfion of the Norwegians, the coafts of Scotland, which they 
poffeffed, were ftill prote&ted by caftles; many of which, fuch as Oldwick, ex- 
hibit very fmall improvements on the model left by the antient Scandinavian 
architects : a few deviated from the original manner, were fquare, had great thick- 
nefs of wall, furnifhed with cells like thofe in the round towers or burghs. 
Borve caftle, in Cathnefi, is a little more advanced. This was the refidence of 
Thorkel, a famous freebooter in the tenth century. It is a {mall fquare building, 
on a rock projecting into the fea, adjoined to the main land by an ifthmus not ten 
feet wide ; and beneath the caftle is a magnificent paflage for boats, which pierces 
the rock from fide to fide, and is covered by a matchlefs natural arch, 
I cannot but revert to the former fubjeét, to mention the Sxaburgh in Tet- 
lor, one of the moft remote of the Schetland ifles. It is inthe form of a Roman 
camp; and when entire, had in the middle a re€tangular area furrounded by a 
wall, and that by an earthen rampart of the fame figure, at fome diftance from 
it. Two fides of the walled area have the additional defence of another rampart 
of earth; which commences on the infide of one of the narrower fides, and, 
preferving the fame diftance from the lefler area as the two other fides of the 
outward fence do, terminates at the latter, near an artificial well. That this was 
Raman, I greatiy fufpect. The care for water was a peculiar objeé& with thae 
wife nation ; but neglected by. barbarians. This is inclofed within the rampart, 
and at a fmall diftance on the outfide, had the protetion of a mount, which once 
probably had its caftellet, garrifoned for the further fecurity +. The regular 
porte are wanting ; in other refpects it refembles a Roman camp. The fea, over 
which it impends, has deftroyed one half: the entire part is given in the plate, 
and the reft fupplied with dotted lines. 
I know but of two periods in which the Romans vifited thefe iflands: one at 
the time when the fleet of Agricola fubdued them ; the other, when the fleet of 
Hlonorius defeated the Saxons in the feas of Orkney. A copper medal of Ve/- 
pafian, with Fudea devidta t on the reverfe, was found on the fouth fide of 
Main-land, probably loft there by the firft invaders, who might venerate Ve/pafian, 
under whom many of them had ferved, and who might naturally carry with them 
fuch honorable memorials of his reign. The only antiquities found near 
* See his curious account of Coning /horough caftle, which he jultly compares to the Scotti/h Duns 5 
and judicioufly afcribes to it a very early date. Archeologia, vi. 234. tab, xxiii. 
} Vegetins de re Milit. \ib. iv.c.10. } Mr. Low. 
€ ths 
KXKIIT 
Borve Caste. 
Roman Came et 
