CLUPID^. 335 



has been neglected nor pains spared ; and if it should ever 

 happen (but it never has nor will) that a bad barrel bore 

 such a sealj the national faith of Holland would be con- 

 sidered irretrievably compromised-. The finest herrings 

 are always those selected for curing, and this curing is 

 of two kinds : the first consists only of a slight salting 

 and subsequent bronzing in the smoke ; in the other 

 more salt is rubbed in, and the smoke employed for the 

 after process is more dense, and continued a much longer 

 time ; during the operation the herrings distil guttatim 

 much phosphorescent fatness.* 



Our English herrings are, we believe, as good as any 

 Dutch ; few equal, and none can surpass in flavour a 

 ' Loch Pine ' fresh ; whilst for those who like savoury 

 salt provisions, surely a Yarmouth bloatert may safely 

 stand comparison with either Dutch or any other foreign 

 bronzed clupean of distinction. 



In heraldry the herring has been borne by the Kent 

 family Herringot on the ancestral seal, as far back as 

 Henry III. Gules cruselly, three herrings hauriant, ar- 

 gent, are the arms of Archbishop Herring, who, to pass 

 from Grave to Gay, preached against the 'Beggars' Opera/ 

 and so added the weight of his opposition to its success. 



* Each herring yields ^ of its weight in oil. Of this oil 

 Commodore Billing says that it is very clear and very sweet, and 

 good to preserve eggs in ; it is commonly clarified and used for 

 lamps, and the residuum employed for manure. Sometimes the 

 whole herring is so used, in which case it cannot be ploughed in 

 too fresh for want of this precaution ; indeed, a whole crop of 

 wheat has turned out so rank and fishy, as to be quite unsaleable. 

 In Cornwall, where the pilchard-herrings are used fresh, the 

 land, however sterile it was, becomes forthwith fertile, and the 

 crops as fine as they are abundant. 



t Yarmouth sends one hundred herrings, says Mr. YarreU, 

 baked in twenty pies or pasties, to the Sheriffs at ITorwich, to be 

 delivered to the clerk of the royal kitchen. The Popes are 

 equally partial to them, and recommend them largely to the 



