Carding and Spinning 137 “Leading” Home the Peats 138 Dutch Fishing Fleet in Lerwick Harbour 140 Steam Drifters and Fish Market, Lerwick 141 Shoal of Whales 143 A Busy Day at Victoria Pier, Lerwick 144 Broch of Mousa 147 Ground Plan, Broch of Mousa 148 Sectional Elevation, Broch of Mousa 149 Gold Armlet (Norse) from Isle of Oxna 150 Bressay Stone. Obverse and Reverse 151 Sandstone Slab with Ogham Inscription from Cunningsburgh 151 Lunnasting Stone 152 Burra Stone 152 Scalloway Castle 153 Muness Castle, Unst 154 Town Hall, Lerwick (Midnight, June) 155 Arthur Anderson 158 Anderson Institute, Lerwick 159 Lerwick, North and South 162 Scalloway 163 Diagrams 164 The illustrations on pp. 104, 112, 113, 118, 119, 162, are from photographs by Mr J. D. Ratter, Lerwick; those on pp. 117, 121, 123, 126, 132, 138, 140, 141, 143, 144, 147, 153, 154, 155, 159, 163, by Mr R. H. Ramsay, Lerwick; that on p. 137 by Valentine & Sons, Ltd., those on pp. 148, 149, 152, are from Tudor’s _Orkney and Shetland_ by permission of Edward Stanford, Ltd., and that on p. 158 by permission of Mr J. Nicolson of Glenmount, Lerwick. ORKNEY By J. G. F. MOODIE HEDDLE PREFACE I WISH to thank Captain Malcolm Laing of Crook for the photograph from Sir Henry Raeburn’s portrait of Malcolm Laing, the historian; Andrew Wylie, Esquire, Provost of Stromness, for the portraits of Dr Rae and David Vedder; and J. A. Harvie-Brown, Esquire, Dunipace House, Stirlingshire, for the photograph of the Great Auk’s resting-place. J. G. F. M. H. ORKNEY 1. County and Shire The word _shire_ is of Old English origin, and meant charge, administration. The Norman Conquest introduced an alternative designation, the word _county_—through Old French from Latin _comitatus_, which in mediaeval documents stands for shire. _County_ denotes the district under a count, the king’s _comes_, the equivalent of the older English term _earl_. This system of local administration entered Scotland as part of the Anglo-Norman influence that strongly affected our country after 1100.