by Walter Scott
CHAPTER I.
The storm had ceased its wintry roar, Hoarse dash the billows of the sea; But who on Thule's desert shore, Cries, Have I burnt my harp for thee?
MACNIEL.
That long, narrow, and irregular island, usually called the mainland ofZetland, because it is by far the largest of that Archipelago,terminates, as is well known to the mariners who navigate the stormyseas which surround the Thule of the ancients, in a cliff of immenseheight, entitled Sumburgh-Head, which presents its bare scalp and nakedsides to the weight of a tremendous surge, forming the extreme point ofthe isle to the south-east. This lofty promontory is constantly exposedto the current of a strong and furious tide, which, setting in betwixtthe Orkney and Zetland Islands, and running with force only inferior tothat of the Pentland Frith, takes its name from the headland we havementioned, and is called the Roost of Sumburgh; _roost_ being the phraseassigned in those isles to currents of this description.
On the land side, the promontory is covered with short grass, and slopessteeply down to a little isthmus, upon which the sea has encroached increeks, which, advancing from either side of the island, gradually worktheir way forward, and seem as if in a short time they would form ajunction, and altogether insulate Sumburgh-Head, when what is now acape, will become a lonely mountain islet, severed from the mainland, ofwhich it is at present the terminating extremity.
Man, however, had in former days considered this as a remote or unlikelyevent; for a Norwegian chief of other times, or, as other accounts said,and as the name of Jarlshof seemed to imply, an ancient Earl of theOrkneys had selected this neck of land as the place for establishing amansion-house. It has been long entirely deserted, and the vestiges onlycan be discerned with difficulty; for the loose sand, borne on thetempestuous gales of those stormy regions, has overblown, and almostburied, the ruins of the buildings; but in the end of the seventeenthcentury, a part of the Earl's mansion was still entire and habitable. Itwas a rude building of rough stone, with nothing about it to gratify theeye, or to excite the imagination a large old-fashioned narrow house,with a very steep roof, covered with flags composed of grey sandstone,would perhaps convey the best idea of the place to a modern reader. Thewindows were few, very small in size, and distributed up and down thebuilding with utter contempt of regularity. Against the main structurehad rested, in former times, certain smaller co-partments of themansion-house, containing offices, or subordinate apartments, necessaryfor the accommodation of the Earl's retainers and menials. But these hadbecome ruinous; and the rafters had been taken down for fire-wood, orfor other purposes; the walls had given way in many places; and, tocomplete the devastation, the sand had already drifted amongst theruins, and filled up what had been once the chambers they contained, tothe depth of two or three feet.
Amid this desolation, the inhabitants of Jarlshof had contrived, byconstant labour and attention, to keep in order a few roods of land,which had been enclosed as a garden, and which, sheltered by the wallsof the house itself, from the relentless sea-blast, produced suchvegetables as the climate could bring forth, or rather as the sea-galewould permit to grow; for these islands experience even less of therigour of cold than is encountered on the mainland of Scotland; but,unsheltered by a wall of some sort or other, it is scarce possible toraise even the most ordinary culinary vegetables; and as for shrubs ortrees, they are entirely out of the question, such is the force of thesweeping sea-blast.
At a short distance from the mansion, and near to the sea-beach, justwhere the creek forms a sort of imperfect harbour, in which lay three orfour fishing-boats, there were a few most wretched cottages for theinhabitants and tenants of the township of Jarlshof, who held the wholedistrict of the landlord upon such terms as were in those days usuallygranted to persons of this description, and which, of course, were hardenough. The landlord himself resided upon an estate which he possessedin a more eligible situation, in a different part of the island, andseldom visited his possessions at Sumburgh-Head. He was an honest, plainZetland gentleman, somewhat passionate, the necessary result of beingsurrounded by dependents; and somewhat over-convivial in his habits, theconsequence, perhaps, of having too much time at his disposal; butfrank-tempered and generous to his people, and kind and hospitable tostrangers. He was descended also of an old and noble Norwegian family; acircumstance which rendered him dearer to the lower orders, most of whomare of the same race; while the lairds, or proprietors, are generally ofScottish extraction, who, at that early period, were still considered asstrangers and intruders. Magnus Troil, who deduced his descent from thevery Earl who was supposed to have founded Jarlshof, was peculiarly ofthis opinion.
The present inhabitants of Jarlshof had experienced, on severaloccasions, the kindness and good will of the proprietor of theterritory. When Mr. Mertoun--such was the name of the present inhabitantof the old mansion--first arrived in Zetland, some years before thestory commences, he had been received at the house of Mr. Troil withthat warm and cordial hospitality for which the islands aredistinguished. No one asked him whence he came, where he was going, whatwas his purpose in visiting so remote a corner of the empire, or whatwas likely to be the term of his stay. He arrived a perfect stranger,yet was instantly overpowered by a succession of invitations; and ineach house which he visited, he found a home as long as he chose toaccept it, and lived as one of the family, unnoticed and unnoticing,until he thought proper to remove to some other dwelling. This apparentindifference to the rank, character, and qualities of their guest, didnot arise from apathy on the part of his kind hosts, for the islandershad their full share of natural curiosity; but their delicacy deemed itwould be an infringement upon the laws of hospitality, to ask questionswhich their guest might have found it difficult or unpleasing to answer;and instead of endeavouring, as is usual in other countries, to wringout of Mr. Mertoun such communications as he might find it agreeable towithhold, the considerate Zetlanders contented themselves with eagerlygathering up such scraps of information as could be collected in thecourse of conversation.
But the rock in an Arabian desert is not more reluctant to afford water,than Mr. Basil Mertoun was niggard in imparting his confidence, evenincidentally; and certainly the politeness of the gentry of Thule wasnever put to a more severe test than when they felt that good-breedingenjoined them to abstain from enquiring into the situation of somysterious a personage.
All that was actually known of him was easily summed up. Mr. Mertoun hadcome to Lerwick, then rising into some importance, but not yetacknowledged as the principal town of the island, in a Dutch vessel,accompanied only by his son, a handsome boy of about fourteen years old.His own age might exceed forty. The Dutch skipper introduced him to someof the very good friends with whom he used to barter gin and gingerbreadfor little Zetland bullocks, smoked geese, and stockings of lambs-wool;and although Meinheer could only say, that "Meinheer Mertoun hab bay hisbassage like one gentlemans, and hab given a Kreitz-dollar beside to thecrew," this introduction served to establish the Dutchman's passenger ina respectable circle of acquaintances, which gradually enlarged, as itappeared that the stranger was a man of considerable acquirements.
This discovery was made almost _per force_; for Mertoun was as unwillingto speak upon general subjects, as upon his own affairs. But he wassometimes led into discussions, which showed, as it were in spite ofhimself, the scholar and the man of the world; and, at other times, asif in requital of the hospitality which he experienced, he seemed tocompel himself, against his fixed nature, to enter into the society ofthose around him, especially when it assumed the grave, melancholy, orsatirical cast, which best suited the temper of his own mind. Upon suchoccasions, the Zetlanders were universally of opinion that he must havehad an excellent education, neglected only in one striking particular,namely, that Mr. Mertoun scarce knew the stem of a ship from the stern;and in the management of a boat, a cow could not be more ignorant. Itseemed astonishing such gross ignorance of the most necessary art
oflife (in the Zetland Isles at least) should subsist along with hisaccomplishments in other respects; but so it was.
Unless called forth in the manner we have mentioned, the habits of BasilMertoun were retired and gloomy. From loud mirth he instantly fled; andeven the moderated cheerfulness of a friendly party, had the invariableeffect of throwing him into deeper dejection than even his usualdemeanour indicated.
Women are always particularly desirous of investigating mystery, and ofalleviating melancholy, especially when these circumstances are unitedin a handsome man about the prime of life. It is possible, therefore,that amongst the fair-haired and blue-eyed daughters of Thule, thismysterious and pensive stranger might have found some one to take uponherself the task of consolation, had he shown any willingness to acceptsuch kindly offices; but, far from doing so, he seemed even to shun thepresence of the sex, to which in our distresses, whether of mind orbody, we generally apply for pity and comfort.
To these peculiarities Mr. Mertoun added another, which was particularlydisagreeable to his host and principal patron, Magnus Troil. Thismagnate of Zetland, descended by the father's side, as we have alreadysaid, from an ancient Norwegian family, by the marriage of itsrepresentative with a Danish lady, held the devout opinion that a cup ofGeneva or Nantz was specific against all cares and afflictions whatever.These were remedies to which Mr. Mertoun never applied; his drink waswater, and water alone, and no persuasion or entreaties could induce himto taste any stronger beverage than was afforded by the pure spring. Nowthis Magnus Troil could not tolerate; it was a defiance to the ancientnorthern laws of conviviality, which, for his own part, he had sorigidly observed, that although he was wont to assert that he had neverin his life gone to bed drunk, (that is, in his own sense of the word,)it would have been impossible to prove that he had ever resigned himselfto slumber in a state of actual and absolute sobriety. It may betherefore asked, What did this stranger bring into society to compensatethe displeasure given by his austere and abstemious habits? He had, inthe first place, that manner and self-importance which mark a person ofsome consequence: and although it was conjectured that he could not berich, yet it was certainly known by his expenditure that neither was heabsolutely poor. He had, besides, some powers of conversation, when, aswe have already hinted, he chose to exert them, and his misanthropy oraversion to the business and intercourse of ordinary life, was oftenexpressed in an antithetical manner, which passed for wit, when betterwas not to be had. Above all, Mr. Mertoun's secret seemed impenetrable,and his presence had all the interest of a riddle, which men love toread over and over, because they cannot find out the meaning of it.
Notwithstanding these recommendations, Mertoun differed in so manymaterial points from his host, that after he had been for some time aguest at his principal residence, Magnus Troil was agreeably surprisedwhen, one evening after they had sat two hours in absolute silence,drinking brandy and water,--that is, Magnus drinking the alcohol, andMertoun the element,--the guest asked his host's permission to occupy,as his tenant, this deserted mansion of Jarlshof, at the extremity ofthe territory called Dunrossness, and situated just beneathSumburgh-Head. "I shall be handsomely rid of him," quoth Magnus tohimself, "and his kill-joy visage will never again stop the bottle inits round. His departure will ruin me in lemons, however, for his merelook was quite sufficient to sour a whole ocean of punch."
Yet the kind-hearted Zetlander generously and disinterestedlyremonstrated with Mr. Mertoun on the solitude and inconveniences towhich he was about to subject himself. "There were scarcely," he said,"even the most necessary articles of furniture in the old house--therewas no society within many miles--for provisions, the principal articleof food would be sour sillocks, and his only company gulls andgannets."
"My good friend," replied Mertoun, "if you could have named acircumstance which would render the residence more eligible to me thanany other, it is that there would be neither human luxury nor humansociety near the place of my retreat; a shelter from the weather for myown head, and for the boy's, is all I seek for. So name your rent, Mr.Troil, and let me be your tenant at Jarlshof."
"Rent?" answered the Zetlander; "why, no great rent for an old housewhich no one has lived in since my mother's time--God rest her!--and asfor shelter, the old walls are thick enough, and will bear many a bangyet. But, Heaven love you, Mr. Mertoun, think what you are purposing.For one of us to live at Jarlshof, were a wild scheme enough; but you,who are from another country, whether English, Scotch, or Irish, no onecan tell"----
"Nor does it greatly matter," said Mertoun, somewhat abruptly.
"Not a herring's scale," answered the Laird; "only that I like you thebetter for being no Scot, as I trust you are not one. Hither they havecome like the clack-geese--every chamberlain has brought over a flock ofhis own name, and his own hatching, for what I know, and here they roostfor ever--catch them returning to their own barren Highlands orLowlands, when once they have tasted our Zetland beef, and seen ourbonny _voes_ and lochs. No, sir," (here Magnus proceeded with greatanimation, sipping from time to time the half-diluted spirit, which atthe same time animated his resentment against the intruders, and enabledhim to endure the mortifying reflection which it suggested,)--"No, sir,the ancient days and the genuine manners of these Islands are no more;for our ancient possessors,--our Patersons, our Feas, ourSchlagbrenners, our Thorbiorns, have given place to Giffords, Scotts,Mouats, men whose names bespeak them or their ancestors strangers to thesoil which we the Troils have inhabited long before the days ofTurf-Einar, who first taught these Isles the mystery of burning peat forfuel, and who has been handed down to a grateful posterity by a namewhich records the discovery."
This was a subject upon which the potentate of Jarlshof was usually verydiffuse, and Mertoun saw him enter upon it with pleasure, because heknew he should not be called upon to contribute any aid to theconversation, and might therefore indulge his own saturnine humour whilethe Norwegian Zetlander declaimed on the change of times andinhabitants. But just as Magnus had arrived at the melancholyconclusion, "how probable it was, that in another century scarce a_merk_--scarce even an _ure_ of land, would be in the possession of theNorse inhabitants, the true Udallers[7] of Zetland," he recollected thecircumstances of his guest, and stopped suddenly short. "I do not sayall this," he added, interrupting himself, "as if I were unwilling thatyou should settle on my estate, Mr. Mertoun--But for Jarlshof--the placeis a wild one--Come from where you will, I warrant you will say, likeother travellers, you came from a better climate than ours, for so sayyou all. And yet you think of a retreat, which the very natives run awayfrom. Will you not take your glass?"--(This was to be considered asinterjectional,)--"then here's to you."
"My good sir," answered Mertoun, "I am indifferent to climate; if thereis but air enough to fill my lungs, I care not if it be the breath ofArabia or of Lapland."
"Air enough you may have," answered Magnus, "no lack of that--somewhatdamp, strangers allege it to be, but we know a corrective forthat--Here's to you, Mr. Mertoun--You must learn to _do so_, and tosmoke a pipe; and then, as you say, you will find the air of Zetlandequal to that of Arabia. But have you seen Jarlshof?"
The stranger intimated that he had not.
"Then," replied Magnus, "you have no idea of your undertaking. If youthink it a comfortable roadstead like this, with the house situated onthe side of an inland voe,[8] that brings the herrings up to your door,you are mistaken, my heart. At Jarlshof you will see nought but the wildwaves tumbling on the bare rocks, and the Roost of Sumburgh running atthe rate of fifteen knots an-hour."
"I shall see nothing at least of the current of human passions," repliedMertoun.
"You will hear nothing but the clanging and screaming of scarts,sheer-waters, and seagulls, from daybreak till sunset."
"I will compound, my friend," replied the stranger, "so that I do nothear the chattering of women's tongues."
"Ah," said the Norman, "that is because you hear just now my littleMinna and Brenda singing in the garden with y
our Mordaunt. Now, I wouldrather listen to their little voices, than the skylark which I onceheard in Caithness, or the nightingale that I have read of.--What willthe girls do for want of their playmate Mordaunt?"
"They will shift for themselves," answered Mertoun; "younger or elderthey will find playmates or dupes.--But the question is, Mr. Troil, willyou let to me, as your tenant, this old mansion of Jarlshof?"
"Gladly, since you make it your option to live in a spot so desolate."
"And as for the rent?" continued Mertoun.
"The rent?" replied Magnus; "hum--why, you must have the bit of _plantiecruive_,[9] which they once called a garden, and a right in the_scathold_, and a sixpenny merk of land, that the tenants may fish foryou;--eight _lispunds_[10] of butter, and eight shillings sterlingyearly, is not too much?"
Mr. Mertoun agreed to terms so moderate, and from thenceforward residedchiefly at the solitary mansion which we have described in the beginningof this chapter, conforming not only without complaint, but, as itseemed, with a sullen pleasure, to all the privations which so wild anddesolate a situation necessarily imposed on its inhabitant.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] The Udallers are the _allodial_ possessors of Zetland, who holdtheir possessions under the old Norwegian law, instead of the feudaltenures introduced among them from Scotland.
[8] Salt-water lake.
[9] Patch of ground for vegetables. The liberal custom of the countrypermits any person, who has occasion for such a convenience, to selectout of the unenclosed moorland a small patch, which he surrounds with adrystone wall, and cultivates as a kailyard, till he exhausts the soilwith cropping, and then he deserts it, and encloses another. Thisliberty is so far from inferring an invasion of the right of proprietorand tenant, that the last degree of contempt is inferred of anavaricious man, when a Zetlander says he would not hold a _plantiecruive_ of him.
[10] A lispund is about thirty pounds English, and the value is averagedby Dr. Edmonston at ten shillings sterling.
