88 THE HERRING IN HISTORY 



were fish markets. The measures by which the 

 fish was sold were also fixed, and the barrels 

 were ordered to be branded with a hot iron, 

 the eoopet's mark being set upon each ; if any 

 barrels were unmarked the contents were for- 

 feit, half to the king and half to the town. 



In 1573 herrings were no longer allowed to be 

 sold at sea, but had to be brought to shore, 

 and sold in " burrowes " only. Those who 

 happened to " slay herrings " had to bring them 

 to free ports to be sold to the king's lieges, 

 the measure of every barrel of herrings to be 

 " nine gallons of the striveling measure." 



Abut this time (1575) red herrings were a 

 very common and therefore little appreciated 

 article of food in Scotland, and the poet 

 Montgomerie complains, in the alliterative 

 metre that England had long outgrown : — 



* ' This is no life that I leid up a land 

 On raw reid herring reisted in the reik." 

 These notes on the Scottish fisheries while 

 the northern kingdom was still independent 

 may be concluded by observing that in 1579 

 King James VI., whose comments on fishing 

 have already been quoted, renewed the pro- 

 hibition of the sale of fish *' except they were 

 landed in Scotland," so that the Scots them- 

 selves had an opportunity of buying before 

 the herrings were sold for export. The 

 " slayers of herrings " had to bring them to the 

 nearest " burrowes," or the towns near to the 

 dwellings of the " slayers," and after local 



