282 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



infant Queen of Scotland from her Norwegian sire, were 

 herrings, and these, of course, were cured. In the time of 

 Edward III. mention is made of some white herrings 

 found in vessels captured by the Cinque Ports ; and in 

 the same reign red herrings are also specified by name, 

 so that both sorts of curing were practised before the time 

 of William Berkelszoon, of Biervliet, in Flanders (he died 

 1 397), who has been credited with the distinction of intro- 

 ducing them. There is, however, no doubt that he greatly 

 improved the methods he found in use by curing the fish 

 in small kegs instead of piling them in heaps, which so 

 extended the trade in them that Charles V. erected a statue 

 to his memory, and, with his sister, visited his tomb, and 

 offered up prayers for his soul ; while Mary of Hungary, 

 during her visit to the Low Countries, paid a more 

 characteristic tribute to his memory, namely, that of eating 

 a salt herring on his sepulchre. 



In our own country the herring fishery certainly 

 flourished in the twelfth century, for in 1195, according to 

 historians, the town of Dunwich, in Suffolk, was obliged 

 to furnish the king with twenty-four thousand herrings. 

 Mention is also made of the herring fishery in a chronicle 

 of the monastery of Evesham in 709. The herring fair in 

 Yarmouth was regulated in the reign of Edward III. by 

 the Statute of Herrings. On the old arms of the town 

 were figured what are proverbially known as " Yarmouth 

 capons," az., three herrings, arg. 



In 1563 green or fresh herrings were so scarce, that at 

 Yarmouth, at the great mart, they sold at an unusually 

 high rate ; a last, or eighty bushels, brought 9. 



In France, until the close of the seventeenth century, 

 fish diet was scrupulously observed on fast days. Thi- 

 baut VI., Count de Blois, gave annually (by charter, 1215) 



