294 The Herring 



of all proportion to its size, but entirely commensurate 

 with its incalculable multitudes. The Herring fishery 

 has the exceeding merit of antiquity, and the distinction 

 that, as the centuries have rolled by, it has grown in 

 popular favour instead of waning, although it has lost 

 its place at the tables of the wealthy, where ' bacon'd ' 

 Herring used to be accounted a great dainty. The 

 chronicles of Evesham Abbey of the year 709 made 

 mention of the Herring fishery as being even then 

 established, the Herrings, I suppose, being brought 

 from the Bristol Channel by way of the Severn and 

 Avon into the heart of Worcestershire. 



Yarmouth, the Herring metropolis, has been 

 famous for its fishery since the days of Norman William, 

 the shallow sandbanks lining the coasts of Suffolk 

 and Norfolk having ever been a favourite resort of 

 the valuable little fish, and one that, capricious as they 

 often are in their movements, they seldom fail to 

 visit in vast numbers. To-day, although Yarmouth 

 has gradually changed from being one of our principal 

 fishing-ports to the less romantic but far more pro- 

 fitable position of a great favourite seaside resort, 

 during the Herring season it is a scene of the greatest 

 activity, quite an immigration of Scotch lasses, 

 expert at dealing with the Herring in the way of 

 preparing them for curing, taking place. 



Yarmouth, however, can in nowise claim a mo- 

 nopoly of the Herring fishery, for all round our coasts, 

 except Cornwall and Devon, the pleasant fish is found 

 in varying numbers according as they feel inclined 

 to visit this, that, or the other place. The reasons 

 for this capriciousness are not at all understood, 

 whether it is a question of food, or gales, or temperature. 

 But the telegraph keeps the smacksmen advised as to 

 the movements of the fish, and no place can be visited 



