YARMOUTH. 



.inptJcJ, or at Icaft JiverU-a, the courfe of the Yare, was 

 iiifficiently confolidatcd, habitations were formed on it by 

 the finiermcn who reforted to the coaft. By the influx of 

 torcj^rners for the purchafe and fale of fi(h the town in- 

 creafed, fo as to become the moft confiderablc port on the 

 tad coaft of England. To provide for its fecunty, 

 Henry III. granted to the inhabitants pcrmiflion to inclofc 

 the town with a moat and walls ; works which, however, do 

 not appear to have been commenced until 1285, the thir- 

 teenth year of his fuccellbr, Edward I. But when war with 

 France broke out in 1545, an additional rampart was thrown 

 up towards the fea, and further extended in 1587. _ In the 

 following year, to guard againtl the Spauifh invafion, out- 

 works were conllrufted, the fouth mount was raifed and 

 planted with camion, and a boom was laid acrofs the entrance 

 of the harbour. Coeval with the firft fortificalioii of Yar- 

 mouth was probably the caftle, in the centre of the town. 

 It ftrved for fome years as a prifon ; but in 1621 the whole 

 was demolished. In 1642 the inhabitants of Yarmouth de- 

 clared for the parliament ; but it was only after the inde- 

 pendents had gained an afcendancy in the Hate that a garri- 

 fon was admitted here. During the American war, forts and 

 batteries were conftriifted, and barracks for a confiderablc 

 body of troops were ereaed for the defence of the place. 

 Indebted for its original exiftence, and fubfequcnt increafe to 

 the firtiery, Yarmouth very early poffeffed a very numerous 

 lliipping. In the fummer of 1310, when Edward II. or- 

 dered the feveral ports of England to fend (hips to Dublin, 

 to convey troops over to Scotland, Yarmouth furnithed fix, 

 while even Briftol and Gloucelter, although fo conveniently 

 fituated for that objeft, furnifhcd only two between them. 

 To form a fleet to be employed in the fiege of Calais, in 

 1346, under Edward III., Yarmouth fent out forty-three 

 veflels, carrying 1095 mariners ; a number of men far ex- 

 ceeding thofe furnifhed by any other port in the kingdom ; 

 for London itfelf was called on for only twenty-five veflels, 

 containing 662 mariners. 



In 1797, when men for the navy were required in pro- 

 portion to the tonnage of each port, Yarm.outh was the 

 ninth in order ; but according to the Cuftom-houfe books 

 of 1 800 it had advanced to be the eighth, the fhips of the 

 port being 375, the tonnage 32,957, navigated by 2442 

 men, while Briftol potfelTed 186 fhips, carrying 26,193 ^°"^ 

 and 1674 men. Yarmouth was early diflinguifhed, and ftill 

 remains unrivalled, for the herring-fifhcry. About 1220 the 

 abbot of St. Alban's purchafed a large houfe in Yarmouth, 

 " in order to lay up fifh, cfpecially herrings, which were 

 bought in by his agents at the proper feafon, for the ufe of 

 his abbey." Prior to 1238, the people of the oppofite 

 coaft of Europe were in the habit of reforting to Yarmouth 

 for a fupply of lierrings. Thefe and other recorded facls 

 fhew that the method of preferving that fifh, probably by 

 fait, muft have been known in En^^land more than 200 years 

 before the pretended invention of Beukels in Flanders, from 

 whom picilin? is faid to have had its name. (See Herring- 

 Fi/hery.) The herrings ufually appear on the eaft coaft of 

 England about September, when the grand fifhing feafon 

 commences. The boats fitted out for the fifhcry are decked, 

 and average from forty to fifty tons burthen, with a crew of 

 eleven or twelve men to each. The veffels, with fome tons 

 of fait on board, proceed from four to twelve leagues out 

 to fea. Each boat is provided with eighty or a hundred 

 nets, twenty-one yards in length, and eight and a half in 

 depth ; all of which, fattened to a long rope, are let down into 

 the fea at dufk, and drawn up at day-hght. When falted, 

 the fifh are hung up in lofty buildings, and expofed, with 



fmall intermifTions, for about a month, to the fraoke of a 

 wood fire, and thus become red-herrings. Two centuries 

 ago the fifhery was alfo carried on in fummer ; but in the 

 prefent times no herrings are found on the coatl in that fea- 

 fon. In the interval of the fifhery, the boats are employed 

 in catching mackarel and cod. Yarmouth trades very 

 largely in the export of corn and malt, and in the woollen 

 ftulTs of Norwich. Timber, iron, and hemp, are imported 

 from the Baltic, and ihip-building is carried on at this place 

 to a confiderablc extent. 



The formation and the maintenance of the harbour of 

 Yarmouth have required great exertion, ingenuity, and ex- 

 pence ; for the prefent is the feventh recorded to have been 

 made, and its yearly charge amounts to about 2000/., which 

 fum is defrayed by duties cxafted from goods brought in. 

 The new works were executed by .Toas .lolinfon, a Dutch- 

 man, who had been invited from Holland for the purpofe. 

 The principal or north pier is in length 265 yards, and the 

 fouth pier, which is better conftrufted, 340 yards : the 

 extent of the harbour between thefe piers is 11 1 1 yards ; 

 and the depth of water, in all ftatcs of the tide, being now 

 about twenty-four feet, inftead of three feet, as was the cafe 

 before the ereftion of the piers, veflels can always lie afloat 

 at their moorings. The well-known Yarmouth roads are 

 formed by ranges of fand-banks, lying out parallel to and 

 at no great dillance from the fhore. The channels between 

 the banks, fome of which are dry at low water, and between 

 them and tlie fhore, are in general narrow, but deep enough 

 for fliips of any fize. The roads confequtntly afford moft 

 defirable flicker in ftorniy weather, on a traft of coall pro- 

 jefting a great way into the German oce.in, and peculiarly 

 deftitute of acccffible harbours. But the coiicourfe of fhip- 

 ping in this ftation has, on various occafions, produced 

 dreadful difafters, the veffels being frequently driven from 

 their anchors, and wrecked on the banks or on the fhore. 



The town of Yarmouth is in form an oblong quadrangle, 

 confiftingof four principal ftreets, croffed at right angles by 

 156 lanes, called rows, fo confined in breadth, that for the 

 conveyance of goods through them, the inhabitants have 

 adopted narrow carts, mounted upon low wheels, and drawn 

 by one horfe, the driver ftanding in the front of the cart. 

 The town is inclofed by a wall on the north, eaft, and fouth 

 fides, in length 2240 yards, which, with the wefl fide along 

 the river, 2030 yards, make the circuit two miles and 750 

 yards. Although fo populous a town, Yarmouth forms 

 but one parifh, and, until a century ago, had but one 

 church, that of St. Nicholas, which was erefted by Herbert 

 Lofinga, bifhop of Norwich, in 1123 ; but it was greatly 

 enlarged in 1250. It confifts of a nave, two aifles, and a 

 tranfept, and liad lately a fpire 136 feet high, a diftinguifhed 

 fea-mark in the midft of a long traft of low and dangerous 

 coaft; but in 1803 it was taken down. The other public 

 buildings of Yarmouth arc, the town-hall, ahandfome build- 

 ing, with a Tufcan portico, fituated near the centre of the quay; 

 the council-room, which alfo ferves for affemblies ; the iifher- 

 man's hofpital, a quadrangle, containing twenty rooms on a 

 floor, each intended for an old fifherman and his v/ife ; the 

 hofpital-fchool for maintaining and clothing thirty boys and 

 twenty girls, at the expence of the corporation ; and the 

 charity-fchool for feventy boys and thirty girls, who are 

 clothed and educated. The quay of Yirmcath is juftly the 

 boaft of the town, and is one of the fineft and the mofl ex- 

 tenfive in Europe. Its length from the fouth gate to the 

 bridge is 10 14 yards, beyond which it reaches ioi5 yards 

 farther, making its whole extent a mile and 270 virds. In 

 many places the breadth is 150 yards, and the fputhern part 



