A. D.I 153- 325 



of which I have found any particular or certain notice fmce the time of 

 the Romans, or at leaft of Bede *. 



It is of more importance to obferve, that in his reign the Firth of 

 Forth was frequently covered with boats manned by EngUfh, Scottifli, 

 and Belgic, fifhermen, who were attraded by the great abundance of fifhi 

 (mofl probably herrings) in the neighbourhood of the ifland of May. 

 [A contemporory zvriter, MS, Bib. Cott. Tit. a, xix, /. 78 b.] This, ifl 

 miltake not, is the very firfl: authentic and pofitive notice of a fifhery, 

 having any claim to confideration as a commercial objecl, upon the 

 North-Britifli coafl f . 



1 1 35-1 1 54 — The miferies of civil war were felt in the greatell extrem- 

 ity in England during the unhappy reign of Stephen. The vafl trea- 

 fures left by his predeceflbr were exhaufled in Supporting the foreign 

 mercenaries, whom he was obliged to employ to refift the claim of the 

 lawful heirs of Henry I, and to crufli the difcontents of the people : 

 and he was driven to the wretched expedient of corrupting and dimin- 

 ifhing the coin, which, however, was afterwards reflored to its due pur- 

 ity and weight. In this difaftrous reign 1,115 new caflles were built 

 in England by the earls and barons ; and there were as many petty ty- 

 rants, as there were caflles, every one of whom exercifed the powers of 

 fovereignty, carried on war, opprefTed the people, and- iflued money of 

 his own coinage. In a word, the miferable people were utterly ruined. 

 \W. Malmjb.f. 105 a. — R. Diceto, col. 528. — W. Newbrig. L. i, c. 22.] 



From the general calamities of England the country north of the 

 Teefe was exempted by being under the mild and prudent adminiftra- 

 tion of David king of Scotland. {Bromton, col, 1036.] 



1 1 54 — Henry II, the new fovereign of England, by his marriage with 

 Eleanor duchefs of Aquitaine (the divorced queen of Louis the Young, 

 king of France) which took place about two years before his acceflion, 

 acquired the bell wine country in France. By that addition to his he- 

 reditary dominions he became nvifter of all the weft fide of that king- 

 dom from the Pyrenaean mountains to Picardy : and confequently, after 



* There feems to have been at Itaft an expefla- have made appear in Geographical lUuJlratioiis of 



tion of finding gold in Fife: for King David gave Scotlj/lj hi/iory, under the articles jingli, Loutlnan, 



a erant to the abbay of Dunfermline of all the Norlhymbra-land, Scotland. — Perhaps this almoft- 



tithes of gold which might accrue to him from unknown paflage may alfo give the people of the 



Fife and Fothiif (or rather Foithrcv, the upper Netherlands the moft anticnt authentic informatioa 



part of the peninfula). \_Chart. qu. in DalrympleU of a diftant fifhery rcforted to by their Bclgic an- 



Annals, V. i, p. ^97.] But, that any gold wr.s ceftors, the fteady and prudent prcfecution of 



ever obtained from a mine in that part of the which made them high and mighty among the na- 



country, does not, I beheve, anywhere appear. tions of Europe. 



f Quere, if it is not alfo the earlicft notice of An account of a Scottifli fifliery, apparently un- 



Englifh filhermen going fo far from their own founded, has already been infeitcd (^. 253) from, 



ports en a fifliing voyage, if they were, indeed, Mr. Anderfon, whofe author I have endeavoured 



fubjefts of England ; for in the age of the writer to difcover. A fifliery in the reign of King Mac- 



here quoted the Scottifli fubjeds on the fnuth fide beth has alfo been prcfumtd (/. 284) upon prob^ 



of the Firth of Forth were called Englifh, as I able grounds. 



