NEWHAVEN FISHWIVES. 



303 



entered the city the oyster-wench, with her prolonged musical 

 aria of " Wha'll o' caller ou 1 " But the spread of fishmongers' 

 shops and the increase of oyster-taverns is doing away with 

 this picturesque branch of the business. Forty years ago 



KEWHAVEN FISHWIVES. 



nearly the whole of the fishermen of the Firth of Forth, in 

 view of the Edinburgh market, made for Newhaven with their 

 cargoes of white fish j and these, at that time, were all bought 

 up by the women, who carried them on their backs to Edinburgh 

 in creels, and then hawked them through the city. The sight 

 of a bevy of fishwives in the streets of the Modem Athens, 

 although comparatively rare, may still occasionally be enjoyed ; 

 but the railways have lightened their labours, and we do not 



