CHAP, ii.] HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 49 



the people of Comacchio will be found detailed under the title 

 of " The Fisher Folks" in another part of this volume. The 

 engraving represents one of the fishing-places of the lagoon. 



No country has, taking into account size and population, 

 been more industrious on the seas than Scotland the most 

 productive fishery of that country having been the herring. 

 There is no consecutive historical account of the progress of 

 the herring-fishery. The first really authentic notice we have 

 of a trade in herrings is nine hundred years old, when it is 

 recorded that the Scots sold herrings to the people of the 

 Netherlands, and we have some indications that even at that 

 early period a considerable fishery for herrings existed in 

 Scotland ; and even prior to this time Boethius alludes to 

 Inverlochy as an important seat of commerce, and persons of 

 intelligence consider that town to have been a resort of the 

 French and Spaniards for the purchase of herring and other 

 fishes. The pickling and drying of herrings for commerce were 

 first carried on by the Flemings. This mode of curing fish is 

 said to have been discovered by William Benkelen of Biervlet, 

 near Sluys, who died in 1397, and whose memory was held in 

 such veneration for that service that the Emperor Charles V. 

 and the Queen of Hungary made a pilgrimage to his tomb. 

 We have also incidental notices of the herring-fishery in the 

 records of the monastery of Evesham, so far back as the year 

 709, and the tax levied on the capture of herrings is noticed 

 in the annals of the monastery of Barking as herring-silver. 

 The great fishery for herrings at Yarmouth dates from the 

 earliest Anglo-Saxon times, and at so early a period as the 

 reign of Henry I. it paid a tax of 10,000 fish to the king. 

 We are told that the most ancient records of the French 

 herring-fishery are not earlier than the year 1020, and we 

 know that in 1088 the Duke of Normandy allowed a fair to be 

 held at Fecamp during the time of this fishery, the right of 

 holding it being granted to the Abbey of the Holy Trinity. 



