438 EYEMOUTH. [CHAP. x. 



east still is Dunbar, the seat of an important herring-fishery 

 grown from a fishing village into a country town, in which 

 a mixture of agricultural and fishing interests gives the place 

 a somewhat heterogeneous aspect ; and between St. Abb's Head 

 and Berwick-on-Tweed is situated Eyemouth, a fishing-village 

 pure and simple, with all that wonderful filth scattered about 

 which is a sanitary peculiarity of such towns. The population 

 of Eyemouth is in keeping with the outward appearance of 

 the place. As a whole, they are a rough uncultivated people, 

 and more drunken in their habits than the fishermen of the 

 neighbouring villages. Coldingham shore, for instance, is 

 only three miles distant, and has a population of about one 

 hundred fishermen, of a very respectable class, sober, well 

 dressed, and " well-to-do." A year or two ago an outburst of 

 what is called "revivalism" took place at Eyemouth, and 

 seemed greatly to affect it. The change produced for a time 

 was unmistakable. These rude unlettered fishermen ceased 

 to visit the public-houses, refrained from the use of oaths, and 

 instead sang psalms and said prayers. But this wave of re- 

 vivalism, which passed over other villages besides Eyemouth, 

 has rolled away back, and in some instances left the people 

 worse than it found them ; and I may perhaps be allowed to 

 cite the fish-tithe riots as a proof of what I say. These riots, 

 for which the rioters were tried before the High Court of 

 Justiciary at Edinburgh, and some of them punished, arose 

 out of a demand by the minister for his tithe of fish. 



Crossing the Firth of Forth, the cost of Fife, from Burnt- 

 island to " the East Neuk," will be found studded at intervals 

 with quaint fishing-villages ; and the quaintest among the 

 quaint is Buckhaven. Buckhaven, or, as it is locally named, 

 Buckhyne, as seen from the sea, is a picturesque group of 

 houses sown broadcast on a low cliff. Indeed, most fishing- 

 villages seem thrown together without any kind of plan. The 

 local architects had never thought of building their villages in 



