THE *' HERRING POET" 133 



find all our expectations a herring fishery." 

 The secretary and laureate of the company 

 was John Lockman, known then as the " Her- 

 ring Poet." In Hogarth's "Beer Street," 

 1751, the fishwomen are shown singing one of 

 Lockman's ballads on the herring fishery. 

 The ballad was then exceedingly popular at 

 Vauxhall Gardens. The "Herring Poet" 

 translated many French works, among them 

 the " Henriade." 



By Acts of 1750, 1753, 1755, the Govern- 

 ment paid a bounty of 3 per cent, on capital 

 subscribed by the Society of Free British 

 Fisheries, but the restrictions as to the modes 

 of using salt and the kinds of salt continued 

 to be a source of difficulty. 



A supplemental Act in 1753 varied the 

 amount of the bounty, but permitted vessels 

 to put in to any port in Great Britain or 

 Ireland, between the interval of the Shetland 

 and the Yarmouth fishing, in order to prepare 

 for the latter. The fleets of nets might be of 

 any depth not under five fathoms, but the 

 rendezvous was changed to Kirkwall in the 

 Orkneys, Bressy, Bressay, Brassey or Bressa 

 Sound, now Lerwick Harbour, being often 

 mentioned about this date. 



In October, 1771, a bounty of 30^. a ton for 

 seven years was granted to all decked vessels 

 of from 20 to 80 tons of British origin and 

 ownership engaged in the herring fishery. The 

 Statute appointed that the vessels should meet 



