and no sooner carry one cargo of live fish to market than Antiquities. they return for another. For the most part they fish in Pentland Frith during the day-time, and in the evenings return to Scrabster Roads to lie during the night; but sometimes they run as far to the westward as Cape Wrath; and when they do not find it convenient to return to Scrabster Roads, they take shelter in Loch Eribol or Erripool, on the northern coast of Sutherland. The native fishermen at first bore the London smacks no good will, complaining that they carried off the fish which the natives should catch; but the strangers, by degrees, found it necessary to employ northern fishermen as extra hands; which they were tempted to do on account of their accepting lower wages and cheaper provisions than were expected by the English seamen. Groat. Of the antiquities of this county, one that is most ex- Antiquities. tensively known has already been mentioned, John-o- John-ofGroat's House. The traditional history of John-of-Groat is this: In the reign of James the Fourth of Scotland, Malcolm, Gavin, and John de Groat (supposed to have been brothers, and originally from Holland), arrived in Caithness from the south of Scotland, bringing with them a letter written in Latin by that prince, recommending them to the countenance and protection of his loving subjects of the county of Caithness. They purchased or got possession of the lands of Warse or Dungis Bay, lying in the parish of Canisby, on the side of the Pentland Frith; and each of them obtained an equal share of the property they acquired. In process of time their families increased, and there came to be eight different proprietors of the name of Groat, who possessed these lands amongst them; but whether the three original settlers split their property among their children, or whether they purchased for them small possessions from one another, does not ap Antiqiuties pear. These eight families having lived peaceably and comfortably in their small possessions for a number of years, established an annual meeting to celebrate the anniversary of the arrival of their ancestors on that coast. In the course of their festivity on one of these occasions, a question arose respecting the right of taking the door, and sitting at the head of the table, and such like points of precedency (each contending for the seniority and chieftainship of the clan), which increased to such a height as would probably have proved fatal in its consequences to some, if not all of them, had not John de Groat, who was proprietor of the ferry, interposed. He expatiated on the happiness they had hitherto enjoyed since their arrival in that remote corner, owing to the harmony which had subsisted among them. He assured them, that as soon as they began to split and quarrel among themselves, their neighbours, who till then had treated them with respect, would fall upon them, take their property from them, and expel them from the county. He therefore made a proposal to build a house in a particular form, which should be the property of the whole family, and in which every man should find himself the master, and which should sa tisfy them all with respect to precedency, and prevent the possibility of such disputes among them at their future anniversary meetings. They all acquiesced, and departed in peace. In due time, John de Groat, to fulfil his engagement, built a room, distinct by itself, of an octagon shape, with eight doors and windows in it; and having placed in the middle a table of oak of the same shape, when the next anniversary meeting took place, he desired each of them to enter at his own door, and sit at the head of the table, he taking himself the seat that was left unoccupied. By this ingenious contrivance, any dispute in fegard to rank was prevented, as they all found them selves on a footing of equality, and their former harmony Antiquities and good humour was restored. Scattered over the county of Caithness, are still to be Picts hou found a variety of these singular structures denominated ses. by tradition Picts Houses, and by the Highlanders of the west of Scotland Duns. They are considered as the remains of structures erected by the Picts, who inhabited the whole east coast of Scotland, including Caithness and the Orkney and Shetland isles; or to whom belonged, in this district, the whole territory not considered as Highlands, or appropriated to those who speak the Erse language. Sir John Sinclair examined one of these buildings. He remarks, that the foundation of the house was laid with clay; but they seem to have been totally unacquainted with the use of lime as a cement: nor was even clay itself made use of in the upper part of the building. Many of the stones were of an enormous size, and evidently brought from the shore, though the distance is not inconsiderable. They could neither be carried there, nor afterwards made use of, without great strength or ingenious mechanical inventions. Some earthern ware was discovered, very rudely manufactured; a sufficient proof at how low an ebb the arts were in the Pictish nations. A few small copper coins were found in the ruins, but much defaced, and the engraved letters not legible From the number of horns and shells found in the house, it is probable that the principal food of the inhabitants consisted of venison, and the shell-fish called limpets. The bones of cattle were also discovered, which proves that pasturage was not wholly unknown. The Picts seem to have been acquainted with the use of iron, for a knife was found calculated for taking the limpets off the rocks, and such as is in use to this day. Some singular articles made of bone were discovered; the nails by which they Antiquities. were fixed were of bone also, but the use of them is un known. : It may be observed, in general, that in form these buildings are almost without exception of a circular base, rising into the shape of a cone, with its top somewhat blunted; and as they are generally every where in ruins, their outside is covered with a thick sward of fine grass, and on a superficial view they have very much the appearance of large tumuli or barrows. Stones of a convenient form, and of a large size, without any sort of cement, are the materials of which they have been constructed; and, on a more narrow inspection, they appear evidently to be of two kinds, differing from each other both in their structure and dimensions. The smaller, which seems to be the oldest, consist of one thick circular wall, in the inside of which there are sometimes places that might have served for beds and this form, we are told, was agreeable to a mode of building among the people of Iceland and other Scandinavian colonies. In some of them at a greater, and in others at a less height, this wall begins to converge gradually towards the top, till only a small hole remained, which seems to have been either covered with flat stones, or suffered to be open. The larger are far more complicated in their internal structure. Besides the outer wall, which they have in common with the former, they have also an inner one, concentric with and distant about two feet from the other: and these walls are so formed as sometimes to meet at no great height, and thus inclose a space around the bottom of the building. In the form of others of this kind there is still greater variety. Like the the former, they have two walls, but these neither meet nor coverge, but ascend parallel to each other, at the distance of little more than two feet; and this space, which is entered by a door of two feet high from without, is gecupied by a stair, of a winding spiral form, from the Antiquities. bottom to the top of the building. The largest kind, Picts hou which are here, as well as in other places, denominated scs. burghs, are surrounded by a broad deep ditch and a sort of rampart. The walls of these buildings are usually nine or ten feet in thickness. It seems evident that the builders of them knew not how to throw an arch; and they are even perhaps older than that invention. This explains the cause of the narrowness of their cells, and of the walls being made to converge towards each other. It seems probable that these buildings were used as granaries for provisions, or as places into which the women and children retreated when the men were at a distance engaged in war. They sometimes stand on high land near the sea; and several of them here are found in every parish. They are usually placed on the brinks of precipitous rocks, but much oftener on the skirts of sandy bays, and in the vicinity of landing places. They usually stretch, in a chain, from one headlan to another, in full view of the harbour and of the ocean; and have been evidently so arranged as to communicate one with another. Far from being confined to this place, they are found, and that too in similar situations, in the country from which the Picts originally came, as well as in those that constituted their own extensive dominion. In proof of this, it may be observed, that there is a remarkable one of that kind at Snalsburg near Drontheim; another, called the Castle of Ymsburg, in Westrogothia. Many of them are still to be seen on the shores of Caithness, of Sutherland, and of East Ross. The vale of Glenelg, near Bernera, contains no fewer than four. The foundation of several have been discovered on a plain near Perth; and that of Dornodilla, in Strathnaver, is no less distinguished for its structure than the very large one at VOL. V. B |