302 NEWHAVEN FISHWIVES. 



excuse for a dance. On the wedding-niglit the old folks sit 

 and .enjoy themselves with a bowl of punch and a smoke, 

 talking of old times and old fishiog adventures, storms, miracu- 

 lous hauls, etc. ; in short, like old military or naval veterans, 

 they have a strong penchant " to fight their battles o'er again." 

 The fun grows fast and furious with all concerned, till the tired 

 body gives warning that it is time to desist, and by and by 

 all retire, and life in the fishing village resumes its old jog- 

 trot. 



It would take up too much space, and weary the reader 

 besides, were I to give in detail an account of all the fishing 

 places I have visited. My purpose will be amply served by a 

 glance at a few of the Scottish fishing villages, which, with 

 the information I can interpolate about the fisher-folks of the 

 coast of France, and the eel-breeders of Comacchio, not 

 to mention those of Northumberland and Yorkshire, will be 

 quite sufficient to give the general reader a tolerable idea 

 of this interesting class of people j and to suit my own 

 convenience I wiU begin at the place where I witnessed the 

 marriage. 



Newhaven is most celebrated for its " fishwives,'' who were 

 declared by King George IV. to be the handsomest women he 

 had ever seen, and were looked upon by Queen Victoria with 

 eyes of wonder and admiration. The Newhaven fishwife must 

 not be confounded by those who are unacquainted in the locality 

 with the squalid fish-hawkers of Dublin ; nor, although they 

 can use strong language occasionally, are they to be taken as 

 examples of the gmus peculiar to Billingsgate. The Newhaven 

 women are more like the buxom dames of the market of Paris, 

 though their glory of late years has been somewhat dulled. 

 There is this, however, to be said of them, that they are as 

 much of the past as the present ; in dress and manners they are 

 the same now as they were a hundred years ago ; they take a 

 pride in conserving all their traditions and characteristics, so 

 that their customs appear unchangeable, and are never, at any 

 rate, influenced by the alterations which art, science, and 

 literature produce on the country at large. Before the railway 

 era, the Newhaven fishwife was a great fact, and could be met 

 with in Edinburgh in her picturesque costume of short but 

 voluminous and gaudy petticoats, shouting " Oa;ller herrings ! " 

 or " Wha'll buy my caller cod ! " with all the energy that a 

 strong pair of lungs could supply. Then, in the evening, there 



