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Rh the most easterly parish in Pomona, were buried zoo Covenanters, taken prisoners at the battle of Bothwell Brig. They were carried to Barbados, to be sold as slaves for the plantations, when the ship foundered in Deer Sound, and all were drowned. In Sandside Bay, in the same parish, the fleet of Malcolm Canmore was defeated by that of Jarl Thorfinn; and at Summersdale, towards the northern base of the hills of Orphir, Sir James Sinclair, governor of Kirkwall, vanquished Lord Sinclair and 500 Caithness men in 1 529.

The antiquities of Pomona are of great interest. The examples of Pictish remains include brochs or round towers, chambered mounds, or buildings of .stone covered in with earth, and weems, or underground dwellings afterwards roofed in. At Saverock, on the west wing of Kirkwall Bay, a good specimen of an earthf house will be found, and at Quanterness, 1 m. to the west of it, a. chambered mound, containing seven rooms with beehive roofs. Farther west and 5 m. by road north-east of Stromness, and within a mile of the stone circles of Stenness, stands the great barrow or chambered mound of Maeshowe. The tumulus has the form of a blunted cone, is 36 ft. high, 300 ft. in circumference and 92 ft. in diameter, and at a distance of go ft. from its base is encircled by a moat 40 ft. wide and from 4 ft. to 8 ft. deep. The ground-plan shows that it was entered from the west by a passage, 54 ft. long, from 2 ft. to 3 ft. wide and from 2% it. to 4% ft. high, which led to a central apartment about 15 ft. square, the walls of which ended in a beehive roof, the spring of which began at a height of 13 ft. from the floor. This room and the passage are built of undressed blocks and slabs of sandstone. About the middle of each side of the chamber, at a height of 3 ft. from the floor, there is an entrance to a small cell, 3 ft. high, 4% ft. wide and from 5% ft. to 7 ft. long. Mr James Farrer explored the mound' in 1861, and discovered on the walls and certain stones rude drawings of crosses, a winged dragon. and a serpent curled round a pole, besides a variety of Runic inscriptions. One of these inscriptions stated that the tumulus had been rifled by Norse pilgrims (possibly crusaders) on their way to Jerusalem under Jarl Rognvald in the 12th century. There can be little doubt but that it was a sepulchral chamber. Joseph Anderson ascribes it to the Stone Age (that is, to the Picts), and James F ergusson to Norsemen of the 10th century. »

The most interesting of all those links with a remote past are the stone circles forming the Ring of Brogar and the Ring of Stenness, often inaccurately described as the Stones of Stenness. The Ring of Brogar is situated to thenorth-west and the Ring of Stenness to the south-east of the Bridge of Brogar, as the narrow causeway of stone slabs is called which separates Loch Harray from Loch Stenness. The district lies some 4% m. north-east of Stromness. T he Ring of Brogar, once known as the Temple of the Sun, stands on a raised circular platform of turf, .340 ft. in diameter, surrounded by a moat about 6 ft. deep, which in turn is invested by a grassy rampart. The ring originally comprised 60 stones, set up at intervals of 17 ft. Only 13 are now erect. Ten, still entire, lie prostrate, while the stumps of I3 others can yet be recognized. The height of the stones varies from 9 ft. to 14 ft. The Ring of Stenness-the Temple of the Moon of local tradition—is of similar construction to the larger circle, except that its round platform is only 104 ft. 'in diameter. The stones are believed to have numbered' 12, varying in height from IS ft. to 17 ft. but only two remain upright. In the middle of the ring may be seen the relic of what was probably the sacrificial altar. The Stone of Odin, the great monolith, pierced by a hole at a height of 5 ft. from the ground, which .figures so prominently in Scott's Pirate, stood 150 yds. to the north of the Ringtof Stenness. The stones of both rings are of the native Old Red Sandstone.

POMPADOUR, JEANNE ANTOINETTE POISSON LE NORMANT D'ÉTIOLES, ; (1721-1764), mistress of Louis XV., was born in Paris on the 29th of December 1721, and baptized as the legitimate daughter of François Poisson, an officer in the household of the duke of Orleans, and his wife, Madeleine de la Motte, in the church of St Eustache; but she was suspected, as well as her brother, afterwards marquis of Marigny, to be the child of a very wealthy financier and farmer-general of the revenues, Le Normant de Tournehem. He at any rate took upon himself the charge of her education; and, as from the beauty and wit she showed from childhood she seemed to be born for some uncommon destiny, he declared her “un morceau de roi, ” and specially educated her to be a king's mistress. This idea was confirmed in her childish mind by the prophecy of an old woman, whom in after days she pensioned for the correctness of her prediction; In 1741 she was married to a nephew of her protector and guardian, Le Normant d'Étioles, who was passionately in love with her, and she soon became a queen of fashion. Yet the world of the financiers at Paris was far apart from the court world, where she wished to reign; she could get no introduction at court, and could only try to catch the king's eye when he went out hunting. But Louis XV. was then under the influence of Mme de Mailly, who carefully prevented any further intimacy with “ la petite Étioles," and it was not until after her death that the king met the fair queen of the financial world of Paris at a ball given by the city to the dauphin in 1744, and he was immediately subjugated. She at once gave up her husband, and in 1745 was established at Versailles as “ maîtresse en titre.” Louis XV. bought her the estate of Pompadour, from which she took her title of marquise (raised in 1752 to that of duchess). She was hardly established firmly in power before she showed that ambition rather than love had guided her, and began to mix in politics. Knowing that the French people of that time were ruled by the literary kings of the time, she paid court to them, and tried to play the part of ai Maecenas. Voltaire was her poet in chief, and the founder of the physiocrats, Quesnay, was her physician. In the arts she was even more successful; she was herself no mean etcher and engraver, and she encouraged and protected Vanloo, Boucher, Vien, Greuze, and the engraver Jacques Guay. Yet this policy did not prevent her from being lampooned, and the famous poissardes against her contributed to the ruin of many wits suspected of being among the authors, and notably of the Comte de Maurepas. The command of the political situation passed entirely into her hands; she it was who brought Belle-Isle into office with his vigorous policy; she corresponded regularly with the generals of the armies in the field, as her letters to the Comte de Clermont prove; and she introduced the Abbé de Bernis into the ministry in order to effect a very great alteration of French politics in 1756. The continuous policy of France since the days of Richelieu had been to weaken the house of Austria by alliances in Germany; but Mme de Pompadour changed this hereditary policy because Frederick the Great wrote scandalous verses on her; and because Maria Theresa wrote her a friendly letter she entered into an alliance with Austria. This alliance brought on the Seven Years' War, with all its disasters, the battle of Mosbach and the loss of Canada; but Mme de Pompadour persisted in her policy, and, when Bernis failed her, brought Chisel into office and supported him in all his great plans, the Pacte de Familie, the suppression of the Jesuits, and the peace of Versailles. But it was to internal politics that this remarkable woman paid most attention; no one obtained office except through her; in imitation of Mme de Maintenon, she prepared all business for the king's eye with the ministers, and contrived that they should meet in her room; and she daily examined the letters sent through the post office with Janelle, the director of the post, office. By this continuous labour she made herself indispensable to Louis. Yet, when after a year or two she had lost the heart of her lover, she had a difficult task before her; to maintain her influence she had not only to save the king as much trouble as possible, but to find him fresh pleasures. When he first began to weary of her she remembered her talent for acting and her private theatricals at Étioles, and established the “ théâtre des petits cabinets," in which she acted with the greatest lords about the court for the king's pleasure in tragedies and comedies, operas and ballets. By this means and the “ concerts spirituels ” she kept in favour for a time; but at last she found a