YARMOUTH HERRING FAIR 71 



worth one-twentieth part of an ounce of silver. 

 By the Statute of Herrings, more than a cen- 

 tury later (1357), the highest legal price was 40 

 shillings per last of 10,000 herrings, i.e., twenty- 

 five for one penny ; but the penny of 1357 

 contained much less silver than that of 1238. 



The price of herrings is mentioned in the Parlia- 

 mentary records of Scotland in 1240 ; they are 

 referred to as dried, as opposed to smoked, or 

 salted ; no packings or barrels are mentioned, 

 and no tax or toll was levied on them. In the 

 same year the Earl of Albemarle granted to the 

 monks of Meaux half an acre of land of the burgh 

 of Odd at the mouth of the Humber, on which to 

 build storehouses for herring and other fish. 



In 1270 the Herring Fair was held at Yar- 

 mouth for forty days, and the barons of the 

 Cinque Ports sent their officers to Yarmouth 

 to keep the peace, as they did till the fair 

 ceased in the eighteenth century, the privilege 

 being productive of more disputes than peace- 

 making throughout the period. 



The number of fishermen employed in the 

 herring fishery during this reign is shown by 

 the complaint made by the commissioners 

 engaged in negotiating a treaty with Flanders 

 on behalf of King Edward I. in 1274, that some 

 Flemish armed vessels put to sea and killed 

 1,200 English fishermen. 



In the Edict of Edward I., for the Fair of 

 1277, there is a passage in Norman French of 

 which the following is a translation : — 



