SALT 137 



hater — makes Mr. MacQuedy say in " Crotchet 

 Castle," in a discussion on breakfasts : — 



'' Well, Sir, and what say you to a fine fresh trout, 

 hot and dry, in a napkin, or a herring out of the 

 water into the frying-pan, on the shore of Loch 

 Fyne ? " 



to which the Reverend Dr. FoUiott classically 

 and characteristically replies : — 



" Sir, I say every nation has some eximious virtue ; 

 and your country is pre-eminent in the glory of fish 

 for breakfast." 



Going back to the reign of George II. from 

 which the question of bounties led us to violate 

 chronology, we find in the Dutch herring 

 industry of 1750 a melancholy contrast to the 

 English. Ever on the look-out to improve their 

 processes, the Dutch made even stricter regula- 

 tions concerning the quality of salt to be used 

 for herrings, no Spanish or Portugal salt being 

 permitted in herring casks before the curing 

 master had examined it. Only Spanish or 

 Portugal salt was to be taken to sea for the 

 herring fishing by the vessels of Holland and 

 West Friesland, the use of French salt from St. 

 Martins, Olderdame, the South of France, the 

 West Indies, and other places being prohibited 

 under pain of forfeiture of the catch. After 

 St. James's Day and Bartholomew-tide, how- 

 ever, the fishermen were allowed to salt the fish 

 with fresh salt, boiled with sea water, according 

 to agreement with the City of Cologne.^ 



1 Cf. pp. 103 and 146. 



II 



