CHAP, vi.] EXCITEMENT ON THE COAST. 247 



The scene along the seabord from Buckhaven on the Firth 

 of Forth to Buckle on the Firth of Moray is one of active pre- 

 paration, and all concerned are hoping for a "lucky" fishing ; 

 " winsome" young lassies are praying for the success of their 

 sweethearts' boats, because if the season turns out well they 

 will be married women at its close. Curers look sanguine, 

 and the owners of free boats seem happy. The little children 

 too those wonderful little children one always finds in a 

 fishing village, striving so manfully to fill up " daddy's" old 

 clothes participate in the excitement : they have their win- 

 ter's " shoon" and " Sunday breeks" in perspective. At the 

 quaint village of Gamrie, at Macduff, or Buckie, the talk of 

 old and young, on coach or rail, from morning to night, is of 

 herrings. There are comparisons and calculations about 

 " crans" and barrels, and " broke" and " splitbellies," and 

 " full fish" and " lanks," and reminiscences of great hauls of 

 former years, and much figurative talk about prices and 

 freights, and the cost of telegraphic messages. Then, if the 

 present fishery be dull, hopes are expressed that the next one 

 may be better. " Ony fish this mornin' ?" is the first saluta- 

 tion of one neighbour to another : the very infants talk about 

 "herrin' ;" schoolboys steal them from the boats for the pur- 

 pose of aiding their negotiations with the gooseberry woman : 

 while wandering paupers are rewarded with one or two broken 

 fish by good-natured sailors, when "the take" has been so 

 satisfactory as to warrant such largess. At Wick the native 

 population, augmented by four thousand strangers, wakens 

 into renewed life ; it is like Doncaster on the approach of the 

 St. Leger. The summer-time of Wick's existence begins with 

 the fishery : the shops are painted on their outsides and are 

 replenished within ; the milliner and the tailor exhibit their 

 newest fashions ; the hardware merchant flourishes his most 

 attractive frying-pans ; the grocer amplifies his stock ; and so 

 for a brief period all is eouleur de rose. 



