Modern Yarmouth. 27 



and sends them to London by the next train for distribution 

 amongst his friends and clients. The natural inference in 

 town is that he has caught them himself, and as he takes 

 no pains to explain otherwise he is now renowned in club 

 and chambers as the finest long-shore fisherman in the 

 profession. 



The Yarmouth girls engaged in the herring trade work 

 very hard while the season lasts, but they need not swear so 

 much. Some of them, I fear, are a terribly rough set. 

 They are sitting about outside the wharf on barrels, or logs, 

 or baskets, eating their dinner with fishy hands, and shout- 

 ing unrepeatable jokes to the men : coarse in feature, 

 slovenly and dirty in dress, wearing heavily hob-nailed 

 boots, they are a caricature on "the gentler sex." The 

 tavern hard by is full of them drinking at the bar, and who 

 shall blame them when there is no other apparent accom- 

 modation ? It would be a boon in the interests of charity 

 and decency alike to provide in the neighbourhood of this 

 prosperous wholesale fish-market a workwoman's hall, where 

 wholesome food and shelter would be provided for them at 

 a reasonable rate. These women might, of course, take 

 their meals amongst the fish and salt in the sheds where 

 they work, but, as one of them suggested to me, they prefer 

 a change of scene during their dinner hour. But it must 

 not be supposed that this is a fair type of all the women 

 who are employed in the herring trade ; they are only the 

 " residuum." When in full work in the curing sheds, a 

 skilful and industrious woman can earn a pound a week, 

 and many are as respectable in reality as in appearance. 

 On the Denes yesterday there were three or four girls repair- 

 ing nets ; they wore fashionable chignons, black silk dresses, 

 smart hats, and no doubt represented the aristocracy of the 

 Yarmouth workwomen. What a pity it is that these 



