Kirkwall

“ She had been wearing a hoop all winter in Edinburgh, but she was quite sure she would be the first “hooped lady” to appear in Kirkwall town. Thora might wear the bride veil, with its wreath of myrtle and rosemary, but she had a pleasant little laugh, as she mentally saw herself in the balloon of white and gold shot silk, walking majestically up the nave of St. Magnus. It was so long since hoops had been worn. None of the present generation of Kirkwall women could ever have seen a lady in a hoop, and behind the present generation there was no likelihood of any hooped ladies in Kirkwall. ”

“ Kirkwall belongs to the Wick district group of parliamentary burghs, the others being Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch and Tain.
KIRRIEMUIR, a police burgh of Forfarshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) , 4096. It is situated on a height above the glen through which the Gairie flows, 61⁄4 m. N.W. of Forfar by a branch line of the Caledonian railway of which it is the terminus. There are libraries, a public hall and a park. The staple industry is linen-weaving. The hand-loom lingered longer here than in any other place in Scotland and is not yet wholly extinct. ”

“ Kirkwall, Orkney 4 Oct. 1780; ed. at Edinb. univ. to 1800; ensign royal staff corps 26 Sep. 1805, served in the Peninsula, sold out 1809; manager of mines at Wanlock head, Scotland 1809; organised herring fisheries in the Orkneys 1818; succeeded to Strynzia estate, Kirkwall on death of his brother Malcolm 6 Nov. 1818; provost of Kirkwall some years; engaged in the kelp trade, in which he lost his money 1834; contested Orkney and Shetland 1832; author of Journal of a residence in Norway 1834–36, 1836; A tour in Sweden 1839 ”

“ Robertson wished to give me letters to some gentleman at Edinburgh. I, however, begged leave to be excused, saying that I wished to get home, as, indeed, I do, for my mind is wearied by seeing so many strange places. On my way to Kirkwall I saw the stones of Stennis—immense blocks of stone standing up like those p. 35of Salisbury Plain. All the country is full of Druidical and Pictish remains. It is, however, very barren, and scarcely a tree is to be seen, only a few dwarf ones. Orkney consists of a multitude of small islands, the principal of which is Pomona, in which Kirkwall is. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of this castle, Jarl Thorfin built a church, called Christ Church, in which both he and Jarl Magnus were buried. The latter, however, being afterwards canonized, his body was taken to Kirkwall. In the twelfth century, Bishop Wilhelm, the first bishop of the Orkneys, had his throne in this church. In Orphir (“Orfjara”) , on the south coast of the island, was another castle where the jarls usually dwelt, until, together with the bishops, they fixed their abode at Kirkwall. ”

“ The castle of Kirkwall was built by the St Clairs, while Earls of Orkney. It was dismantled by the Earl of Caithness about 1615, having been garrisoned against the government by Robert Stewart, natural son to the Earl of Orkney. ”

“ These are all the names I know or can hear of in Orkney. I wrote to Mr. Moodie Heddle of Cletts on the subject, as I knew him to take a great and intelligent interest in all such topics; and I have a most interesting letter from him, of which I shall give you the gist. He says he has no doubt that the origin of the names is that which you suggest, though some of the names do not at first sight appear to bear this out. Kirkwall 'Starlings' are easily accounted for, assuming that there have always been as many starlings about Kirkwall [Pg 298] as there are now. ”

“ The night was now intensely black, but the darkness of the beach was partially dispelled by the blaze of ten or twelve torches, which were upheld by the retainers of the Baron of Noltland, who hastened to the pier to receive the Earl.
Sir Gilbert Balfour of Westeray, who, to the office of master of the household to Queen Mary, united the captaincy of the royal castle of Kirkwall, was a man above the middle height, strongly made, powerfully limbed, and well browned by constant exposure to the weather. ”

“ We see the steeple and church of Kirkwall across the island very distinctly. Getting out of the Sound of Holm, we stand in to the harbor or roadstead of Widewall, where we find seven or eight foreign vessels bound for Ireland, and a sloop belonging to the lighthouse service. These roadsteads are common all through the Orkneys, and afford excellent shelter for small vessels. The day is pleasant and sunny, but the breeze is too high to permit landing at the Skerries. Agree, therefore, to stand over for the mainland of Scotland, and visit Thurso. ”

“ These differ very little from many of the subterranean weems, excepting that they are erected on the natural surface of the soil, and have been buried by means of an artificial mound heaped over them. Barry has minutely described one, which he calls an "ancient Pick house," opened at Quanterness, near Kirkwall. [103] Another relic of the same class was explored during the past year by Mr. George Petrie of Kirkwall, to whose valuable communications on kindred subjects I have already had occasion to refer. ”

“ I had occasion to entertain myself at Kirkwall with the melancholic prospect of the ruins of an old castle, the seat of the old Earls of Orkney, my ancestors; and of a more melancholy reflection, of so great and noble an estate as the Orkney and Shetland isles being takne from one of them by James the third for faultrie, after his brother Alexander, Duke of Albany, had married a daughter of my family, and for protecting and defending the said Alexander against the king, who wished to kill him as he had done his youngest brother, the Earl of Mar ”

“ The more modern quarters are built with great regularity and the suburbs contain several substantial villas surrounded by gardens. Kirkwall has very few manufactures. The linen trade introduced in the middle of the 18th century is extinct, and a like fate has overtaken the kelp and straw-plaiting industries. ”

“ Kirkwall is far more interesting than Lerwick because of its historical associations, most of which centre about the Cathedral of St. Magnus. The ancient building looks almost modern as you approach the wide plaza opening out from Broad Street. Although older than Melrose, Dryburgh, Holyrood, and Dunfermline abbeys, all of which are now in ruins, and in spite of the fact that it is built of the soft red and yellow sandstone, it still stands, complete and proudly erect. When Melrose was rebuilt, through the munificence of Robert Bruce in the fourteenth century, the central portions of St. ”

“ Grain and fruit are grown in large quantities, and much coal is mined in the vicinity of Kirksville. Its manufactures are shoes, bricks, lumber, ice, agricultural implements, wagons and handles. Kirksville was laid out in 1842, and was named in honour of Jesse Kirk. It was incorporated as a town in 1857 and chartered as a city of the third class in 1892. In April 1899 a cyclone caused serious damage to the city.
KIRKWALL (Norse, Kirkjuvagr, “church bay”) , a royal, municipal and police burgh, seaport and capital of the Orkney Islands, county of Orkney, Scotland. Pop. ”

“ After the murder of Murray Kirkcaldy ranged himself definitely among the friends of the imprisoned queen. About this time he forcibly released one of his supporters from imprisonment, a step which led to an altercation with his former friend John Knox, who called him a “murderer and throat-cutter.” Defying the regent Lennox, Kirkcaldy began to strengthen the fortifications of Edinburgh castle, of which he was governor, and which he held for Mary, and early in 1573 he refused to come to an agreement with the regent Morton because the terms of peace did not include a section of his friends. ”

“ Calendar passed five fat fingers nervously over his mustache, glanced alertly up at Kirkwood, as if momentarily inclined to question his tone, then again stared glumly into the fire; for Kirkwood had maintained an attitude purposefully colorless. Not to put too fine a point upon it, he believed that his caller was lying; the man's appearance, his mannerisms, his voice and enunciation, while they might have been American, seemed all un-Californian. To one born and bred in that state, as Kirkwood had been, her sons are unmistakably hall-marked.
Now no man lies without motive. ”

“ But there is evidence that he was at St Andrews in the beginning of June. It was there that John Knox first proposed to him that they should endeavour to obtain assistance from Queen Elizabeth. ‘If England would but see her own advantage,’ the Reformer said, ‘Yea, if she would consider the dangers wherein she is standing herself, she would not suffer us to perish in this quarrel; for France hath decreed no less the conquest of England than of Scotland.’ As the result of their ‘long reasoning,’ it was resolved that Kirkcaldy should open negotiations with the English. ”

“ Calendar?"
For a space the quiet was disturbed by harsh breathing; then, in a strained voice, "Good day, Mr. Kirkwood"; and again the sound of departing footfalls.
Kirkwood closed the door and the incident simultaneously, with a smart bang of finality. Laughing quietly he went back to the window with its dreary outlook, now the drearier for lengthening evening shadows.
"I wonder what his game is, anyway. An adventurer, of course; the woods are full of 'em. A queer fish, even of his kind! And with a trick up his sleeve as queer and fishy as himself, no doubt!" ”

“ Peter Kirkstone, her brother, is a murderer, a cold-blooded murderer. And only Miriam Kirkstone and your humble servant, Prince Kao, know his secret. And to buy my secret, to save his life, the golden-headed goddess is almost ready to give herself to me—almost, John Keith. She will decide tonight, when you go to her. She will come. Yes, she will come tonight. I do not fear. I have prepared for her the candles, the bridal dais, the nuptial supper. Oh, she will come. For if she does not, if she fails, with tomorrow's dawn Peter Kirkstone and John Keith both go to the hangman! ”

“ The day that the new Regent was elected, there occurred another important event, which was destined to exercise great influence on Kirkcaldy’s fate. On that same 24th of November, John Knox died in Edinburgh, to which he had returned shortly before in a sinking condition. As he lay on his death-bed he desired his friend, David Lindsay, the minister of Leith, to take a message from him to the Laird of Grange. “‘Go, I pray you,’ he said, ‘and tell him that I have sent you to him yet once to warn him; and bid him, in the name of God, leave [142] that evil cause, and give over that Castle. ”

“ Once again Sir James Kirkcaldy figures in connection with the sovereign whom his advice, had it not been so petulantly neglected, might have saved from the closing disaster of his career. After the ill-fated battle of Solway Moss, when King James wandered aimlessly and hopelessly into Fifeshire, ashamed to look any man in the face, it was to Halyards, one of the Laird of Grange’s estates, that he came for rest and shelter. ”

“ A great deal of interest has centred round an Anglo-Saxon cross-slab built into the west wall of Kirkdale church. At the time of its discovery the late Rev. Daniel H. Haigh1 tells us that a runic inscription spelling Kununc Oithilwalde, meaning "to King Æthelwald," was quite legible. This would seem to indicate that the founder of Lastingham monastery was buried at Kirkdale, or that the site of Bede's, "Læstingaeu" was at Kirkdale if the stone has not been moved from its original position.
1 Yorkshire Archæological Journal, v. 134. ”

“ From the year 418, when the Romans vacated the island, up to the compilation of the Domesday Book by William the Conqueror in 1080-86, a period of over six and a half centuries, history preserves no record of any matter or event directly connected with the town, as distinct from the Hundred in which it is situated. Nevertheless it is obvious that Kirkham must have sprung into being some time during that protracted era, insomuch as it appears amongst the places existing in Amounderness in the Norman survey just indicated. ”

“ But, ‘though they loved the treachery, they had no great liking for the man.’ And they were anxious to prevent the possibility of his again turning against them, if circumstances should seem to favour the Queen’s party. On the 24th of August, he agreed to deliver the fortress into the Regent’s hands, subject to certain conditions, of which one was that the Laird of Grange should succeed him as Governor and should pledge his word for his safety. When Kirkcaldy returned to Edinburgh, he found himself appointed to the command of what was then one of the most important strongholds in Scotland. ”

“ Kirk Session, an ecclesiastical court in Scotland, composed of the minister and elders of a parish, subject to the Presbytery of the district.
Kirkcaldy (27) , a manufacturing and seaport town in Fifeshire, extending 4 m. along the north shore of the Forth, known as the “lang toon.” It was the birthplace of Adam Smith, and one of the scenes of the schoolmastership period of Thomas Carlyle's life; manufactures textile fabrics and floorcloth; is a busy town.
Kirkcudbright (40) , a Scottish county on the Solway shore between Wigtown and Dumfries, watered by the rivers Nith, Dee, and Cree ”

“ From the commencement of the Norman dominion the history of Kirkham rises out of the mist which has obscured its earlier ages, and we are enabled from the disclosures of ancient documents, to follow out its career in a more satisfactory manner. The church and tithes of Kirkham were presented amongst other possessions, as a portion of the Hundred of Amounderness, by William the Conqueror to the baron Roger de Poictou, and were conferred by that nobleman about the year 1100, on the priory of St. Mary’s, Lancaster, [134] —a monastic institution founded by him from the Abbey of Sees in Normandy. ”