CHAPTER XXI.

AN ORCADIAN HAVEN-THE SAILOR'S RETREAT-A WANDERER'S WINTER PREPARATIONS THE HOST'S SANCTUM

DOMICILE

EVENING EXCURSION-SKERRIES-SPORTING INCIDENT-A STAND OF PLOVER-WILD-FOWL SHOOTING-SEA-FISHING-RETURN TO THE MAIN.

THE wind was light, and the main-lug, which we had dispensed with yesterday, was set this morning. I will not bore you, Jack, by telling you the voes we navigated, and the skerries we passed through, until, at the head of a wild inlet, opening directly from the sea, we slipped into a chasm in the cliffs, so steep and narrow, that the helmsman might have touched with the tiller the rocks on either side. Within, the passage widened, and terminated in a natural basin, large enough to allow a fishing-boat to swing, and yet so completely domineered by rocks one hundred feet in height, that a hayband would hold the lugger in a gale of wind. Iron rings were inserted into holes cut in the face of the precipice, to which the mooring ropes

THE SAILOR'S RETREAT.

287

were attached; and, although the tide had ebbed when we entered, there were three fathoms water in the basin. Yet, deep as it was, through the pellucid element the bottom was distinctly visible; the crab was seen moving over the many-coloured pebbles, and quantities of spratsized fishes, played through the tangle which grew from the rocky sides. Leaving the crew to moor the lugger, my host and I landed. He led the way through a fissure in the cliff which trended landwards-and, fifty yards within, we stood in front of one of the most secluded and comfortable cottages, wherein a man who had buffeted the world for forty years, could change the turmoil of adventurous life for peaceful solitude.

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"You are welcome, Colonel," said the Orcadian, as he paused upon the threshold, and took my hand in his. Here, in this sheltered nook, the ocean-child will anchor in his old age. Would that every honest-hearted sailor were moored as snugly as myself!

Colonel-all that you see has been

Look round, my handiwork.

I found here roofless walls; yet within them my infancy was passed, and on the ruins I built the cottage where I intend the evening of my life to close in quiet. Follow me; once more I bid you welcome."

A small porch protected the entrance of the

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A WANDERER'S DOMICILE.

wanderer's domicile from the east wind, and the towering cliffs secured it against "all the rest.” Within, there was a spacious kitchen; it was unceiled, but the spars which bound the woodwork of the roof were crossed with slips of deal, affording a safe and dry depository for nets, lines, and cordage. A plentiful supply of bacon, dried ling and cod-fish, with a few smoked geese, the relics of the former winter, were also pendant from the rafters. Huge balls of spun wool hung from pegs in every corner; while a churn, and the wooden appurtenances for making cheese and butter, showed that the retired mariner enjoyed another source of rustic comfort. An abundant supply of rough furniture and culinary utensils were placed on shelves and dressers, or were suspended over the ample fire-place. A cheerful fire, summer though it was, blazed in the hearth, and completed a picture of the domestic opulence of an of an Orcadian domicile. There were two attendants in this outer chamber -the elder trussing chickens, the younger kneading flour to make bread. Wherever the eye turned, as I looked round, I saw everything that indicated comfort, present and prospective. Lamps, wicks, split rushes, and cakes of tallow, designed for making candles, or lighting with seal-oil the long and dreary nights, gave tacit proof that in that hyperborean climate, timely

WINTER PREPARATIONS.

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preparations should be made for "winter and cold weather;" while, occasionally, a string of men, women, and children passed the windows, carrying baskets on their backs, suited to the respective strengths of the bearers, and filled with hard black peats from a neighbouring moss, which a couple of the boatmen applied themselves to stack against the cliff, that on three sides walled in the little nook, in which the retired mariner had built his abiding place and fenced in a garden. As if to render the comfort of his domicile complete, the essential element, which, through the eloquent preaching of that admirer of "thin potations," Father Mathew, has even become fashionable in St. Giles's, was plentifully supplied. Through a cleft, midway up the shelf of rock, a thread of sparkling water, which a gun-barrel might have vented, issued into light, and fell into an earthen pitcher. That filled, the streamlet crept silently away, irrigated the lawn and garden, and then added its tiny tribute to the boundless masses of the wild Atlantic.

Everybody rides some hobby, Jack; and his domicile and domain were evidently the sailor's. I saw that he felt gratified at the interest with which I viewed his establishment-for, with a satisfied smile, he invited me to enter his state apartment; and, faith! had it been planned by

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THE HOST'S SANCTUM.

a conclave of old bachelors, the thing could not have been more perfect.

Every sight-shower, as you know, keeps his largest lion for the last, as Madame Tussaud reserves her "chamber of horrors" for the Cockney, who, when sick of waxen kings and queens, is delectated with a choice collection of heads reeking from the guillotine, and Burkers large as life, in the identical costume in which they made their parting salaam to an admiring crowd, before the Debtor's door. The effect is superb-and the visitor leaves the exhibition overpowered with pleasure and surprise, and unable to sleep for a fortnight. If, therefore, I was delighted with mine host's outer arrangements, when inducted to his sanctum, was I not enraptured?

The first feeling was one of doubt, as to whether I were actually on sea or land-in the cabin of a ship, or a room on terra firma. To give it a specific name was impossible—it was a dining-room, a sleeping-chamber, a work-shop, and an armoury. In the centre, there was a fireplace, and over it half a dozen stand of arms, from "a birding-piece" to a fen-gun, were suspended; while powder-flasks, shot-belts, washing-rods, and all other appurtenances to fire-arms, studded the adjacent walls. On the opposite side, and above the entrance from the kitchen, there hung