PRIMITIVE NORTH SEA MEN 33 



Beating or mending these nets, is. a day, with 

 victuals, or is. 3d. per day, with a break- 

 fast only. 



An " awlne " was a French measure of 5 ft. 7 in. 

 Sixty awlnes made a " dole," or parcel, of shot-nets, 

 and twenty awlnes made a ''dole" of herring-nets. 



The reverend author spoke of the seamen of Thanet 

 as being excellent sailors very bold and dexterous in 

 going off to ships in distress but he deplored their 

 practice of pilfering stranded ships and abusing those 

 who had already suffered so much. The name they 

 gave to the custom was " paultring," but, said the 

 writer, "nothing sure can be more vile and base than, 

 under pretence of assisting the distressed masters and 

 saving theirs and the merchants' goods, to convert them 

 to their own use, by making what they called guile- 

 shares." It became customary from this "paultring" to 

 use the expression " seafaring ways," as indicating the 

 " utmost rudeness and barbarity." A learned antiquary 

 named Twine was accordingly moved to represent the 

 inhabitants of the seacoast as " rude, rough, cruel, 

 given to robbery, and, in one word, the very worst of 

 people." There was no rule, however, without an 

 exception, added the vicar hopefully ; but he did not 

 seem to find it in Thanet. 



There was a rude rhyme which ran 



"Ramsgate capons, Peter's lings, 

 Bradstow scrubs and Margate kings." 



" Capon " signified not a fowl for the table, but red 

 herrings, and the reproach was levelled at Ramsgate, 

 3 



