94 A CLYDE SEAMAN'S CHANTEY 



1708 as resembling the Jerusalem artichoke, though 

 not so good or wholesome, but possibly useful for feed- 

 ing pigs. Nearly fifty years later, in 1754, Philip 

 Miller wrote that potatoes 'are despised by the rich 

 and deemed only proper for the meaner sort of persons.' 

 By that time, however, the potato had become estab- 

 lished as a regular crop in Lancashire ; its cultivation 

 rapidly spread to other districts, until in 1846 the 

 destruction of the crop by disease in Ireland brought 

 about political consequences of the gravest character. 



XXII 



Seafaring men, those at least of the coastwise and 

 A C1 de fisherman class, are not commonly credited 

 seaman's with much refinement. Having spent much 



n ey of my holidays as a boy, and leisure as a young 

 fellow in their society, fishing in the Bay of Luce and 

 elsewhere, I take this occasion to record that I can 

 remember nothing said or done by any one of them 

 that the most anxious mother would object to being 

 said or done in the presence of her boy. Nay, for that 

 matter, there was no reason why I should not have 

 taken one of my sisters with me on these excursions. 



These men, as a class, were God-fearing and reverent 

 according to their lights. They never discussed religious 

 matters in my presence ; on the other hand, they never 

 referred to them with disrespect. There was a story 

 told of two of them, Sannie Coid and another whose 

 name I forget, who were overtaken by a furious squall 

 when in an open boat in the Bay. The squalls were 



