54 THE SILVERY HOSTS OF THE NORTH SEA. 



disc in it that is in especial request, and vendable in 

 all places, and that is more excellent there than in 

 any place whatever; as cloves in Moluccas, salt in 

 Cyprus, wine in France, wool in England, velvet in 

 Genoa, cloth of gold and silver in Milan, scarlet in 

 Venice, and herrings in Yarmouth ; where they be so 

 excellently and artificially handled, dressed, and 

 trimmed, as not in any other place of the world. 

 What huge multitudes of people from all parts of 

 England, France, Holland, and Zealand resort thither, 

 and what store of herrings is here bought and sold in 

 that season ! Wherefore, concerning ' the herrings 

 there taken from the ist of September until the last 

 of November, which, swarming in sculls about the 

 shores, they are there garbaged, salted, hanged, and 

 dried, and by infinite numbers transported into the 

 Levant and Mediterranean seas, where they be very 

 good chaffer, and right welcome merchandise." 



The site upon which the town of Great Yarmouth 

 stands was originally a sandbank, washed by the 

 waves of the sea, extending north and south parallel 

 to the mainland, from which it is divided by the 

 river Yare. This bank was first known as " Cerdick 

 Sand," from Cerdick, the Saxon having landed upon 

 it in the year 495, about which time the herring 

 fishery is supposed to have commenced. 



Camden, as cited by Swinden, says : " Cerdick, a 

 warlike Saxon, landed here* ; whence the place at this 

 day is called by the inhabitants ' Cerdick sand,' and 

 by historians ' Cerdick shore.' When he had harassed 

 the Iceni with a very grievous war, he sailed thence 



