THE RAW MATERIAL 



the view left out of count the multitude of fishing- 

 places on inhospitable coasts to which romantic visi- 

 tors rarely went ; and it did not include even a vague 

 impression of the deep sea fishermen. Nor could it 

 do so, for the poetic trifier at a Cornish haven pro- 

 bably had no knowledge of the Dogger, and had 

 doubtless never heard of Grimsby, except to shudder 

 and dismiss the sordid vision which the mention of 

 the port aroused. Visitors to a place like Scar- 

 borough could see something of the deep sea men, 

 but rarely did the fashionable lady jeopardise her 

 loveh- dress or risk offending her dainty nose by 

 going to look at the old town or the harbour where 

 the fishing craft were moored. Yet from the Spa 

 it all looked so romantic, especially on a moonlight 

 night, with the soft summer breeze coming in from 

 the sea, the Spa brilliantly illuminated, and the 

 band playing delightful music. Here, again, the 

 fishing element added to the picturesqueness and 

 romance, and pretty heads were not troubled by 

 thoughts of fishers who in winter gales had been 

 dashed to death by monstrous seas on the deadly 

 rocks on the Spa beach and on the very sea wall of 

 the Spa itself. 



That there; were, on such a great extent of coast- 

 line as the shores of Great Britain afforded, a very 

 large number of men and boys engaged in fishing 

 was obvious to the most unobservant seaside visitor, 

 but of the fishers little was really known, and there 

 was a general and profound ignorance of the lives 

 of the deep sea men, especially those who ranked as 



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