448 FINDON. [CHAP. x. 



are concerned, is generally expected to end, like the third volume 

 of a love-story, in matrimony. 



Taking a jump from Auchmithie, it is desirable to pause a 

 moment at the small fishing village of Findon, in the parish 

 of Banchory-Devenick, in Kincardineshire, in order to say a 

 few words about a branch of industry in connection with the 

 fisheries that is peculiar to Scotland. Yarmouth is famed for 

 its " bloaters," a preparation of herrings slightly smoked, well 

 known over England ; and in Scotland, as has already been 

 mentioned in a previous chapter, there is that unparagoned 

 dainty, the " Finnan haddock," the best accompaniment that 

 can be got to the other substantial components of a Scottish 

 breakfast. Indeed, the Finnan haddock is celebrated as a 

 breakfast luxury all over the world, although it is so delicate 

 in its flavour, and requires such nicety in the cure, that it 

 cannot be enjoyed in perfection at any great distance from 

 the sea-coast. George IV., who had certainly, whatever may 

 have been his other virtues, a kingly genius in the matter of 

 relishes for the palate (does not the world owe to him the dis- 

 covery of the exquisite propriety of the sequence of port wine 

 after cheese ?), used to have genuine Finnan haddocks always 

 on his breakfast-table, selected at Aberdeen and sent express 

 by coach every day for his Majesty's use. Great houses of brick 

 have now been erected at various places on the Moray Firth 

 and elsewhere ; and in these immense quantities of haddocks 

 and other fish are smoked for the market by means of burning 

 billets of green wood. Formerly the fisher-folk used to smoke 

 a few haddocks in their cottages over their peat-fires for family 

 use. I have already described how the fame of the Finnan 

 haddock arose. The trade soon grew so large that it required 

 a collection to be made in the fishing districts in order to get 

 together the requisite quantity ; so that what was once a mere 

 local effort has now become a prominent branch of the fish 

 trade. But it is seldom that the home-smoked fish can be 



