102 HERRING. 



this more rapidly than the Herring. When alarmed the rush 

 of the Mackarel is much further than either of these fishes. 



There is proof that this fish was from the earliest times in 

 estimation as food by the highest orders of society, as well as 

 by the lowest; while in its salted or smoked condition it was 

 among the principal of the stores which necessity compelled 

 them to lay in for their winter stock of provisions; and the 

 smoke of their dwellings, before the common use of chimneys, 

 however irksome in other respects, afforded an important conve- 

 niency for the last-named process of preserving the fish. There 

 were not only religious considerations that demanded the frequent 

 use of fish as food, but it was also a variation from the diet 

 of salted flesh, in times when the scarcity of fodder compelled 

 even the richest persons to kill and salt their cattle at the 

 approach of winter; at which season, from defective cultivation, 

 they were only able to keep alive so many as would secure 

 the stock for the succeeding year. As an instance of the ordinary 

 use of the Herring in a noble family, we are told in the 

 Northumberland Family Book, that there was appointed for the 

 breakfast for the Earl and his Lady, besides other things, as a 

 quart of beer and a quart of wine, two pieces of salt fish, six 

 baconed Herrings, four White Herrings, or a dish of Sproits; 

 these baconed Herrings, no doubt, being what we now know 

 as smoked or red Herring. And in the time of Henry the 

 Third, when the Princess Margaret was married to the Duke 

 of Brabant, and the royal couple were about to sail to that 

 country, among the other provisions furnished to the ships were 

 ten thousand six hundred and fifty-two Herrings, with two 

 hundred and ninety-two Cods and two barrels of Sturgeon. 

 Again, in the year 1429, the Duke of Bedford sent five hundred 

 carts loaded with Herrings to victual the army which was 

 besieging Orleans and the neighbouring towns; and when the 

 French attacked this convoy they were defeated. 



In Ochlanschloeger's poem, "The Gods of the North," the 

 following reward is offered by Skerner to the ferryman to carry 

 him across a river: — 



"If tliou wilt ferry me o'er tlie wave, 

 I'll give thee oat-cakes and Herrings beside.' 



