290 " FINNAN HADDOCKS." [CHAP. vn. 



of fresh haddocks may in some degree be accounted for by the 

 immense quantities which are converted into "Finnan haddies" 

 a well-known breakfast luxury no longer confined to Scot- 

 land. It is difficult to procure genuine Finnans, smoked in 

 the original way by means of peat-reek ; like everything else 

 for which there is a great demand, Finnan haddocks are now 

 "manufactured" in quantity ; and, to make the trade a profit- 

 able one, they are cured by the hundred in smoking-houses 

 built for the purpose, and are smoked by burning wood or saw- 

 dust, which, however, does not give them the proper gout. 

 In fact the wood-smoked Finnans, except that they are fish, 

 have no more the right flavour than Scotch marmalade would 

 have were it manufactured from turnips instead of bitter 

 oranges. Fifty years ago it was different ; then the haddocks 

 were smoked in small quantities in the fishing villages between 

 Aberdeen and Stonehaven, and entirely over a peat fire. The 

 peat-reek imparted to them that peculiar flavour which gained 

 them a reputation. The fisher-wives along the north-east coast 

 used to pack small quantities of these delicately-cured fish 

 into a basket, and give them to the guard of the "Defiance" 

 coach, which ran between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and the 

 guard brought them to town, confiding them for sale to a 

 brother who dealt in provisions ; and it is known that out of 

 the various transactions which thus arose, individually small 

 though they must have been, the two made, in the course of 

 time, a handsome profit. The fame of the smoked fish rapidly 

 spread, so that cargoes used to be brought by steamboat, and 

 Finnans are now carrried by railway to all parts of the country 

 with great celerity, the demand being so great as to induce 

 men to foist on the public any kind of cure they can manage to 

 accomplish ; indeed smoked codlings are extensively sold for 

 Finnan haddocks. Good smoked haddocks of the Moray Firth 

 or Aberdeen cure can seldom now be had, even in Edinburgh, 

 under the price of sixpence per pound weight. 



