14 Mary Somerville. 



or peasemeal bannock, and then wheeled him to the 

 next door ; and in this way, going from house to 

 house, he obtained a fair livelihood. 



My brother Sam lived with our grandfather in 

 Edinburgh, and attended the High School, which 

 was in the old town, and, like other boys, he was 

 given pennies to buy bread ; but the boys preferred 

 oysters, which they bought from the fishwives, the 

 bargain being, a dozen oysters for a halfpenny, and 

 a kiss for the thirteenth. These fishwives and their 

 husbands were industrious, hard-working people, 

 forming a community of their own in the village of 

 Newhaven, close to the sea, and about two miles 

 from Edinburgh. The men were exposed to cold, 

 and often to danger, in their small boats, not always 

 well-built nor fitted for our stormy Firth. The 

 women helped to land and prepare the fish when 

 the boats came in, carried it to town for sale in the 

 early morning, kept the purse, managed the house, 

 brought up the children, and provided food and 

 clothing for all. Many were rich, lived well, and 

 sometimes had dances. Many of the young women 

 were pretty, and all wore and, I am told, still wear 

 a bright-coloured, picturesque costume. Some 

 young men, amongst others a cousin of my own, 

 who attempted to intrude into one of these balls, 

 got pelted with fish offal by the women. The village 



