[193]. The minister of Birsay in 1627 says:—“There is likewise ane litill holm within the sea callit the Brughe of Birsay, quhilk is thocht be the elder sort to have belongit to the reid friaris, for there is the foundation of ane kirk and kirkyard there as yet to be seen.”—Peterkin’s Rentals, No. III., p. 98.
[194]. Low’s Tour through Orkney and Zetland, MS. in the possession of David Laing, Esq.
[195]. See the article on “The Twin-towered Churches of Denmark,” by J. Kornerup, in the Aarboger for Nordisk Oldkindighed for 1869, p. 13.
[196]. Detailed accounts of the excavation, with translations and facsimiles of the inscriptions of Maeshow, have been given in a privately-printed work by Mr. Farrer, and in a work published by the late Mr. John Mitchell. An account of the structure of Maeshow, with notices of the inscriptions, is given by Dr. John Stuart, secretary to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, in their Proceedings, vol. v. p. 247. A notice, with readings of the inscriptions, by Dr. Charlton, is given in Archæologia Æliana, vol. vi. p. 127 (1865). See also the splendid work on The Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, by Professor George Stephens, Copenhagen, 1866-68.
[197]. Hogboy is the Norse word Haug-bui, the tenant of the haug, how, or tomb—a hoy-laid dead man, or the goblin that guards the treasures buried in the how. (Ordbog det Norske Gamle Sprog, sub voce.)
[198]. The leading specific feature of the Orkney group of chambered cairns is the formation of small cells or loculi off the principal chamber. The Caithness group is distinguished by the tricameration of the chamber, and the Clava group by having a circular or oval chamber undivided and unfurnished with loculi.
[200]. The first par of the word seems analogous to the last part of our own Carling-wark, indicating astonishment at the amount of labour required for the rearing of such a structure.
[201]. In his recent work on Rude Stone Monuments of all Countries (London: John Murray, 1872), Mr. Ferguson suggests that Maeshow may have been erected for Earl Havard, who fell at Stennis about A.D. 970. But apart from its Celtic structural character, if it had been Earl Havard’s tomb his countrymen could scarcely have so completely forgotten the fact in the short space of 200 years.
[202]. The most detailed account of these is to be found in an elaborate paper on the Celtic Antiquities of Orkney, by Captain F. W. L. Thomas, R.N., in the Archæologia, vol. xxxiv.