THE ORKNEYS AXD SHETLAXDS 



217 



ing to pieces the fine old abbeys of Scot- 

 land, St. Magnus was not only protected 

 by the people of Kirkwall, but was im- 

 proved by the addition of some of its 

 finest details. It did receive some harsh 

 treatment about this time at the hands of 

 the Roundheads, and a little later, in 

 1671, what was once a handsome spire 

 was destroyed by lightning. The attract- 

 iveness of the building is now greatly 

 marred by a stumpy little tower. 



The interior is distinguished by some 

 massive round pillars, seven on each side, 

 in the Xorman style, built of red and 

 yellow sandstone, and a multiplicity of 

 curious old tombstones. Although Earl 

 Rognvald lies buried there, his saintly 

 uncle, in whose memory the Cathedral 

 was built, was not so honored. 



The floors of the nave and aisles were 

 formerly paved with tombstones, the old- 

 est of which seems to be dated 1582. 

 Among them is one in memory of a cer- 

 tain Villiam-Vrving. who must have died 

 a violent death, "Being Schot out of ye 

 Castel." This good man, who passed out 

 of this life in September, 1614. the month 

 when the Earl of Caithness was besieging 

 Robert Stewart in the castle, was doubt- 

 less an ancestor of our own Washington 

 Irving, whose father was born in the 

 island of Shapinsay, across the sound 

 from Kirkwall, and emigrated to New 

 York in 1763. 



The tombstones no longer pave the 

 Cathedral, but many of them have been 

 set up along the walls. They are fre- 

 quently decorated with the skull and 

 cross-bones, the skulls being invariably 

 greatly enlarged on the left side, because 

 of the Orcadian belief that the spirit took 

 its departure through the left ear. A 

 typical stone has the following inscrip- 

 tion: 



P. P. M. G. 



Hier rests the corps 

 of Patrick Prince mer 

 Chand in Kirkwall 

 Sometime espoused to 

 Margaret Groat who 

 Left with her Eward 

 Harie Magnus Helen 

 & Catherine Princess 



This monument 

 Doth heir present 

 A subject to your eye 

 For Patrick Prince 

 Is now «one hence 



And so above did flye 

 He left behind 

 5 Children Kynde 

 withall a mother deare 

 To him and them 

 It well become 

 A mother and a pheare 

 Obiit 9 March 1673 

 Aetatis 31 



It is difficult to tell what is meant by 

 a "pheare," unless it was put in to rhyme 

 with "deare." The picture represents 

 Death breaking the urn of Life with an 

 arrow. A flame bursts forth from the 

 punctured vessel, from the tip of which 

 the soul flies away in a northwesterly 

 direction. An hour-glass with the sand 

 run out, a sun-dial, two spades, and a 

 coffin complete the doleful ideogram (see 

 illustration, page 205). 



Across the street from the Cathedral 

 are the remains of the Bishop's Palace, a 

 building with a large hall and a great 

 round tower. The latter was built in 

 1540, but the hall is much older, for here 

 Hakon, the last of the great sea-kings of 

 Norway, died in 1263. 



This event occurred just after the bat- 

 tle of Largs, on the coast of Scotland, 

 which, though a mere skirmish, was fate- 

 ful because it gave to Scotland her first 

 claim to the islands, resulting two cen- 

 turies later in their annexation. Hakon. 

 sick and weary, came to Kirkwall hoping 

 to be restored to health by St. Magnus ; 

 but the saint did not intervene and 

 Hakon's body was temporarily interred 

 in the choir of the Cathedral. 



BLACK PATE, THE GREATEST TYRANT OE 

 THE ISLAXDS 



Near by is the Earl's Palace, built by 

 Patrick Stewart, known as ''Black Pate." 

 the greatest tyrant the islands ever knew, 

 worse even than his father, Robert, who 

 invented new ways of plundering the 

 people, such as the old Norse earls never 

 practiced. 



In 1564 Lord Robert Stewart, an 

 illegitimate son of King James A", ob- 

 tained through Mary Queen of Scots 

 the grant of all the crown lands of 

 Orkney and Shetland, and in addition 

 (what Mary did not own and therefore 

 had no right to bestow) the lands and 

 services of the free land-owners. 



As this could not be- immediately acted 



