, such as I have described them,
the plunder of polished nations. In Zetland, there are several scores of these
Burghs, occupying in every case, capes, headlands, islets, and similar places of
advantage singularly well chosen. I remember the remains of one upon an island
in a small lake near Lerwick, which at high tide communicates with the sea, the
access to which is very ingenious, by means of a causeway or dyke, about three
or four inches under the surface of the water. This causeway makes a sharp angle
in its approach to the Burgh. The inhabitants, doubtless, were well acquainted
with this, but strangers, who might approach in a hostile manner, and were
ignorant of the curve of the causeway, would probably plunge into the lake,
which is six or seven feet in depth, at the least. This must have been the
device of some Vauban or Cohorn of those early times.
The style of these buildings evinces that the architect possessed neither the
art of using lime or cement of any kind, nor the skill to throw an arch,
construct a roof, or erect a stair; and yet, with all this ignorance, showed
great ingenuity in selecting the situation of Burghs, and regulating the access
to them, as well as neatness and regularity in the erection, since the buildings
themselves show a style of advance in the arts scarcely consistent with the
ignorance of so many of the principal branches of architectural knowledge.
I have always thought, that one of the most curious and valuable objects of
antiquaries has been to trace the progress of society, by the efforts made in
early ages to improve the rudeness of their first expedients, until they either
approach excellence, or, as is most frequently the case, are supplied by new and
fundamental discoveries, which supersede both the earlier and ruder system, and
the improvements which have been engrafted upon it. For example, if we conceive
the recent discovery of gas to be so much improved and adapted to domestic use,
as to supersede all other modes of production domestic light, we can already
suppose, some centuries afterwards, the heads of a whole Society of Antiquaries
half turned by the discovery of a pair of patent snuffers, and by the learned
theories which would be brought forward to account for the form and purpose of
so singular an implement.
Following some such principle, I am inclined to regard the singular Castle of
Coningsburgh - I mean the Saxon part of it - as a step in advance from the rude
architecture, if it deserves the name, which must have been common to the Saxons
as to other