The earliest Survey and Valuation of Orkney (1263) was the counterpart—perhaps the pattern—of the AULD EXTENT of Scotland made by Alexander III. somewhat later and subsequently to his intimate relations with Norway. It was to the Islanders an event of such importance, that history and tradition have combined to commemorate its date, place, and circumstances with picturesque minuteness. It was on St. Martin’s day 1263 that Hacon IV., in an upper chamber of Bishop Henry’s palace in Kirkwall, lay down to die of a broken heart and mortified ambition. But the cares of royalty followed him even to his deathbed; his troops and seamen, the relics of the storm and battle at Largs, were starving and houseless; and in the absence of Magnus Jarl III., he issued orders to divide the whole occupied lands of Orkney and Zetland into MARKLANDS containing 8 EYRISLANDS or URISLANDS, each of which should find quarters and supplies for a Hofding and a fixed number of men, probably in proportion to the Skatts formerly paid. In the comparatively fertile and populous Orkneys, more minute subdivision soon became necessary; and some Scottish Jarl divided each Norse Urisland into the Scottish denominations of 18 Pennylands, and each pennyland into 4 Farthings or Merks, or (in some districts) into 6 Uriscops or Mæliscops, and finally into 10 Yowsworths, to suit the excessive partition of Odal heritage. Though the Mark is still the vague denomination of land measure in Zetland, as being sufficiently minute for its large tracts of comparatively valueless waste, even there it has been found convenient to estimate the unequal value of the Markland by Pennies, and to apportion its Skathald, Skatt, and Landskylld to the number of Pennies ascribed to each Mark, an alteration traditionally attributed to English valuators under a commercial Treaty between England and Norway—perhaps that of 1431. From the confusion of terms of value, weight, and size,—of Mark and Merk—of Peningr and Penny—of Urisland and Uriscop—of Marklands in Zetland of 4, 8, and 12 pennies per mark—and of Pennylands in Orkney of 3, 4, 5⅛, and 8 merks to the penny—so many difficulties beset this subject, that I rejoice that I am not required to attempt their solution; for the denominations of land-value still exist as fixed by Hacon’s Survey, practically undisputed by subjects or rulers—neither the ground of oppression nor the cause of complaint.