HISTORY 15 



marauders, and with fire and sword they 

 continually ravaged the coast districts, 

 where they finally made settlements. 

 Many of the Lincolnshire place-names 

 testify to their occupation. Scores of 

 names of villages in the East of England 

 have exactly the same pronunciation and 

 meaning as those to be found in Norway 

 and T)enmark : the " bys," " thorpes," 

 " tofts/' and "wicks " are still the termina- 

 tion of many of the names of our fish- 

 ing towns and villages : Grimsby, Whitby, 

 Lowestoft, Cleethorpes are all of Danish 

 or Norwegian origin, and probably the 

 inhabitants of these fishing ports derive 

 much of their love and skill for a seafaring 

 life from their Norse ancestors. 



Later, there is little evidence of any 

 other than shore and river fishing 'on a 

 small scale for white fish, although the 

 herrings could not fail to attract attention, 

 for .the huge dimensions of the shoals and 

 the ease with which the fish could be 

 captured offered a settled occupation to the 

 people of Yarmouth, where herring fishing 

 was carried on as far back as the period 

 of the Saxons. In the Middle Ages the 



