h 



HERRINGS BOILED IN SALT WATER 127 



"nicked" and boiled in salt water ^ for the 

 Duke's breakfast. The Duke said he had never 

 had herring before for that meal — a point in 

 which, as we shall see, the national habits 

 underwent a remarkable change in the course of 

 the century— but only for dinner and supper. 

 He ate two herrings cooked hi each way, 

 however, and was so impressed with the 

 possibilities of the herring as a source of excel- 

 lent food that he forwarded its interests when- 

 ever possible during the few remaining years 

 of his life. Unless the Duke's experience 

 was very exceptional, a remarkable change 

 must have come over Scottish habits in the 

 next half-century, when herrings were the 

 usual Scottish breakfast dish. In Miss Ferrier's 

 " Marriage " (1818, but written earlier), the 

 fashionable London beauty who, having eloped 

 with a young Highland soldier, returns with 

 him to the paternal seat, cries out when the 

 Laird laid a large piece of herring on her plate : 

 " What am I to do with this ? Do take it away, 

 I shall faint," to which the good old aunt 

 replies : "I declare ! Pray was it the sight or 

 the smell of the beast that shocked you so 

 much, my dear lady Juliana ? " 



Returning to the eighteenth century we 



* Fishermen near Beachy Head have told roe that they consider 

 boiling freshly caught herring in salt water the best way to bring 

 out the full delicacy of the fish, and I have found this to be true. 

 The salt water sharpens and improves the palate, ver^ much as a 

 Spanish olive, pickled in brine, improves the palate for wine and 

 tobacco. But the Duke was not brought up on the Yarmouth bloater, 

 or I am confident that he would have preferred one caught just after 

 Michaelmas and grilled, to any other form of herring. — A. M. S. 



