4 THE ORNITHOLOGIST S GUIDE 



there are also a few neat countrj T -houses in the 

 neighbourhood, belonging to some of the most opu- 

 lent merchants, where, in imitation of their more 

 favoured brethren of the South, they retire and en- 

 joy a relaxation from the toils of business. 



The greater part of the ground in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Lerwick is now in a cultivated 

 state. There are several roads skirting the town, 

 which are kept in tolerably good repair by the in- 

 habitants, each man having either to pay six shil- 

 lings a year or work six days at them. They are 

 at present making a new road to Scalloway ; it ex- 

 tends nearly three miles from Lerwick, and is the 

 longest road in the country; another runs two miles 

 towards Weesdale ; these are the principal ones: 

 others only run behind the town. Lerwick can 

 boast of few ornamental buildings; the chief and 

 most important is the Fort, which Dr. Edmonston 

 states was originally constructed in the time of 

 Cromwell. It was rebuilt by Charles II. in 1665, 

 during his first war with Holland, but both the 

 garrison and the guns were removed at the peace. 

 In the next Dutch war, in the year 1673, an ene- 

 my's frigate entered Bressa Sound when the fort 

 was in this defenceless state, destroyed the prin- 

 cipal place in the garrison, and burnt several houses 

 in the town. It was completely new-modelled in 



