70 A VOYAGE TO SPITZBEEGEN. 
We learned afterwards tliat about the year 1600 ? 
Earl Patrick, of Orkney, commenced the erection of 
Scalloway castle, and it is scarcely possible to conceive 
a more flagrant exercise of oppression than that which 
really occurred during the erection of this structure. 
This 
“ Fellow by the hand of nature mark’d, 
Quoted and sign’d, to do a deed of shame,” 
laid a tax upon each parish in the county, obliging 
the Shetlanders to find as many men as were required 
for the building, as well as furnish provisions for the 
workmen. The penalty for not fulfilling this requisi¬ 
tion was forfeiture of property. The building was 
soon perfected ; its turreted walls rising from the 
naked shores of Hialtland with all the feudal haughti¬ 
ness of a regular baronial mansion, appearing to mock 
the humble habitations of the ancient udallers. 
It is said that when the pious minister of the parish 
came to pay his respects to the lord of the new man¬ 
sion, he was called upon for a suitable text to affix to 
the stone forming the frontispiece of the house, and 
without fear, “remembering the sinful enormity of 
that overbearing oppression which had enforced its 
structure,” quoted the parable of the house built on 
a rock, and that constructed on sand, to the dismay of 
his host. At first he resolved to condemn the poor 
