CHAP. x.J PRESTONPANS. 437 



record the following characteristic anecdote : " A clergyman, 

 in whose parish a pretty large fishing- village is situated, in his 

 visitations among the families of the fish-carriers found that 

 the majority of them had never partaken of the sacrament. 

 Interrogating them regarding the reason of this neglect, they 

 candidly admitted to him that their trade necessarily led them 

 so much to cheat and tell lies, that they felt themselves un- 

 qualified to join in that religious duty." It is but justice, 

 however, to add that, when confidence is reposed in them, 

 nothing can be more fair and upright than the dealings of the 

 fisher class ; and, as dealers in a commodity of very fluctu- 

 ating value, they cannot perhaps be justly blamed for endea- 

 vouring to sell it to the best advantage. 



At Prestonpans, and the neighbouring village of Cockenzie, 

 the modern system, as I may call it, for Scotland, of selling 

 the fish wholesale, may be seen in daily operation. When 

 the boats arrive at the boat-shore, the wives of those engaged 

 in the fishing are in readiness to obtain the fish, and carry 

 them from the boats to the place of sale. They are at once 

 divided into lots, and put up to auction, the skipper's wife 

 acting as the George Eobins of the company, and the price 

 obtained being divided among the crew, who are also, gene- 

 rally speaking, owners of the boat. Buyers, or their agents, 

 from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, etc., are 

 always ready to purchase, and in a few hours the scaly 

 produce of the Firth of Forth is being whisked along the rail- 

 way at the rate of twenty miles an hour. This system, which is 

 certainly a great improvement on the old creel-hawking plan, 

 is a faint imitation of what is done in England, where the 

 owners of fishing-smacks consign their produce to a wholesale 

 agent at Billingsgate, who sells it by auction in lots to the re- 

 tail dealers and costermongers. 



Farther along on the Scottish east coast is North Berwick, 

 now a bathing resort, and a fishing town as well ; and farther 



