The first place must be given to Arthur Anderson, (1792-1868), who, commencing life as a humble fish-worker at Gremista, near Lerwick, was in 1840 one of the founders of the P. and O. Steamship Company, and ultimately its chairman. Much of his wealth he spent on Shetland. He established the first newspaper in the islands—_The Shetland Journal_; he started the Shetland Fishing Company, which largely helped to emancipate the crofter-fishermen from their bondage to the landlords; he introduced Shetland hosiery to the outside world; he was influential in securing steam communication between the islands and Scotland; and, not to mention more of his benefactions, he founded the Anderson Educational Institute, which is now administered by the Education Authority as a Higher Grade School and Junior Student Centre for the county. Another benefactor was R. P. Gilbertson, a colonial merchant, who presented the Gilbertston Park to Lerwick and founded the Gilbertson Trust for the benefit of Shetlanders. [Illustration: Anderson Institute, Lerwick] The islands boast a goodly array of writers, and among these the Edmonston family stands conspicuous. Dr Arthur Edmonston (1775-1841) wrote _A View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands_; his brother Laurence (1795-1879) was a distinguished Scandinavian scholar and the author of many papers on natural history; Laurence’s son, Thomas, born in 1825, was the discoverer of the Shetland plant _arenaria Norvegica_, and the author of a _Flora of Shetland_. At the age of twenty he was elected Professor of Botany and Natural History in Anderson’s College at Glasgow; but next year he was accidentally shot dead in Peru, while on a scientific expedition to the Pacific; Thomas’s brother, Biot (1827-1906) was joint-author with his sister Mrs Saxby, of _The Home of a Naturalist_. Dr Saxby wrote _The Birds of Shetland_. Thomas Gifford of Busta, who died in 1760, was the author of _Historical Description of the Zetland Isles_; Dr Robert Cowie, of _Shetland: Descriptive and Historical_; Dr Copeland, of _A Dictionary of Medicine_; Miss Spence, of _Earl Rognvald and his Forebears_, and a _Memoir of Arthur Laurenson_, a scholar deeply versed in Scandinavian lore; Gilbert Goudie, of _Antiquities of Shetland_, and other works; and John Spence, of _Shetland Folk Lore_. Of minor poets and vernacular writers we may name Basil R. Anderson; Laurence J. Nicolson, “The Bard of Thule”; George Stewart; T. P. Ollason; and J. B. Laurence. Of men who have risen to distinction in the Government service, the best known is Sir Robert G. C. Hamilton (1836-1895), a son of Dr Hamilton of Bressay. He was at various times Accountant-General of the Navy, Under-Secretary for Ireland, Governor of Tasmania, and Chairman of the Board of Customs. 19. The Chief Towns and Villages of Shetland (The figures in brackets after each name give the population in 1911, and those at the end of each section are references to pages in the text.)