ers and their
families herd in its few huts; in the graveyard pieces of wreck-wood
stand for monuments; there is nowhere a more inhospitable spot.
_Belle-Isle-en-Mer_--Fair-Isle-at-Sea--that is a name that has always
rung in my mind's ear like music; but the only "Fair Isle" on which I
ever set my foot was this unhomely, rugged turret-top of submarine
sierras. Here, when his ship was broken, my lord Duke joyfully got
ashore; here for long months he and certain of his men were harboured;
and it was from this durance that he landed at last to be welcomed (as
well as such a papist deserved, no doubt) by the godly incumbent of
Anstruther Easter; and after the Fair Isle, what a fine city must that
have appeared! and after the island diet, what a hospitable spot the
minister's table! And yet he must have lived on friendly terms with his
outlandish hosts. For to this day there still survives a relic of the
long winter evenings when the sailors of the great Armada crouched about
the hearths of the Fair-Islanders, the planks of their own lost galleon
perhaps lighting up the scene, and the gale and the surf that beat about
the coast contributing their melancholy voices. All the folk of the
north isles are great artificers of knitting: the Fair-Islanders alone
dye their fabrics in the Spanish manner. To this day, gloves and
nightcaps, innocently decorated, may be seen for sale in the Shetland
warehouse at Edinburgh, or on the Fair Isle itself in the catechist's
house; and to this day, they tell the story of the Duke of Medina
Sidonia's adventure.

It would seem as if the Fair Isle had some attraction for "persons of
quality." When I landed there myself, an elderly gentleman, unshaved,
poorly attired, his shoulders wrapped in a plaid, was seen walking to
and fro, with a book in his hand, upon the beach. He paid no heed to our
arrival, which we thought a strange thing in itself; but when one of the
officers of the _Pharos_, passing narrowly by him, observed his book to
be a Greek Testament, our wonder and interest took a higher flight. The
catechist was cross-examined; he said the gentleman had been put across
some time before in Mr. Bruce of Sumburgh's schooner, the only link
between the Fair Isle and the rest of the world; and that he held
services and was doing "good." So much came glibly enough; but when
pressed a little further, the catechist displayed embarrassment. A
singular diffidence appeared upon his face: "They tell me,"