Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-07

WhOIc bckdu cOhaluk Will ulCk-u6CkS
and wares and exchanging them for fish.
King Henry III. granted permission for
environing the town with water and
moat, and it was made impregnable to
missile-engines then in use; but it was not
defended by forts until during the Revolu-
ton, when our American privateers were
so lively in their menaces if not attacks
upon British ports. When the Cinque
ports of Dover, Hastings, Heythe, Rom
ney and Sandwich, considered the keys of
the kingdom from being nearest France,
were instituted by William l., in 1918, and
their. jurisdiction vested in baron lord
wardens, such jurisdiction, but not the
title, being abolished as late as 1856, Var
mouth endeavored to attain to the same
dignity, but only secured a sort of munic-
ipal jurisdiction through deputed bailiffs
of the Cinque Ports lord-wardens. But
the city secured better than dignity in
her great annual Free Fairs which
shortly became the headquarters of hordes
of Dutch traders, and eventually made
Yarmouth the greatest herring-mart of
England. Yarmouth furnished forty
three sail and one thousand and seventy
five marines for the memorable siege of
Calais; and it was here that was fitted out
the beautiful ship sent to Norway to bring
to England the kings daughter for mar
riage to Prince Edward, afterwards King
Edward III. Among the strange customs
of the old city none were more curious
than the mode of electing the mayor, high
steward, recorder, sub steward and other
municipal officers, which was only changed
as late as the middle of the present centu-
ry. An inquest of twelve persons was
formed by placing the name of twenty
four freemen into four hats. Then per
son called an Innocent" usually child,
drew three names from each of the four
hats. These twelve persons formed the
inquest; and they were literally incarcera-
ted in the city hall without meat, drink,
fire or CANDLE until nine of them agreed
upon the municipal officers; and there was
no appeal from, or contest arising out of,
this primitive procedure
The Dutch have left their mark plainly
upon old Yarmouth. Indeed one will find
similar traces of continental influences,
though very old and remote, in a number
of the seaports of Great Britain. In Ber-
wick, Scotland, and in many of the fishing
villages of the Firth of Forth, as well as
in old Edinburgh itself, you will find a
type of face, manner, and occasionally
suggestions in ancient architecture, which
point straight and true to progenitors and
builders from the Norman French. At
Plymouth and Penzance, in Cornwall, the
old Hebrew strain is clearly descernable,
though the Jews were never in Cornwall
in numbers less than eight hundred years
ago, when they found a source of wealth
in the tin of the Cornish mines Up in
Aberdeen, Scotland, the Morse blood still
tells marvelously in complexion, hair, fig
ure and in local names of places and men.
Away up in Lerwick, Shetland, all the old
portions of the city are as typically Dutch
as the oldest portions of HARLEM and Am
sterdam. At Cork you will find traces of
the French. Away over at old Galway,
on the west coast of Ireland, the faces and
forms of the Spanish fishermen of BARGE
Iona are reproduced in those of the fish
wives and men of Claddagh; and you will
find bits of arch, column, balcony and tiny
patios or courts, in Galway, as Moorish as
any in Grenada or Seville. In like man.
ner you are continually reminded of Hol-
land in Yarmouth. Amsterdam lies but a
little way distant, straight across the
North Sea. The great Dutch Fairs of
olden times brought hither all the provin-
cial folk of Suffolk and Norfolk and of the
''North Countree." Many Dutch factors
and merchants settled here, married and
became merged with the local population.
Yarmouth herring fishers copied the Dutch
method of taking the fish, and the curers
their process of 'pickling" the herring
The grand plan of the harbor was execu-
| ted under the direction of Joas johnson, a
Dutchman. And everywhere among the
| ancient shops, habitations and fshermen's
| homes of Yarmouth are numberless struc-
| lures, behind which one feels certain must
be found folk with tasseled caps, short
shirts, boddiced waists, wooden shoes and
the marvellous pipes of Holland.
This is nowhere more noticeable than in
| the narrow maze of streets intersecting
| the main thoroughfares from east to west.
| There are nearly two hundred of these.
They are called ''Rows" None of them
| are ten feet in width; the most are less
| than six; and across many friendly hands
| can be shaken. / believe that it was
Dickens himself who in Household Words
| said yarmouth is one vast gridiron, of
| which the bars are represented by the
| rows" AS a rule this portion of the city
houses the lowly. At nearly every door
some indication of the fisherman's life is
apparent. Bits of wreck are lying in this
one to be transformed into Fighters" OF
| kindling. Sinkers and buoys are piled in
| another entrance. Models of anchors,
| smacks and full-rigged ships adorn ground
| floor windows; while from the easements
| and meager balconies above, everything
| that can hang and dry in so little space
| from suit of "oilskins" swaying like q
| fisherman-scarecrow, to a quarter-milt
herring-net in folds, or a mainsail of 6
smack, flaps and slaps the facades on eth
er side in easy and friendly familiarity
| There is but one vehicle in all yarmouth
| which can traverse these shadowy ''rows,
| many of them as close and dim as the sun
less thoroughfares of old Algiers. This il
| called the Yarmouth cart" 1t is a gen
| uine antique, but remains in general use
| because necessary for service in eth,
rows" 1t has but two wheels, low and
heavy. The stout rack or frame which
they support runs rearward and upward
at an obtuse angle, and, to the front, tn.
| same distance, at the same angle along tn,
lower part of the shafts. One horse only
is used. The cartman usually balance,
the cart in loading directly over th'
| wheels, but if not, accomplishes the sam,
by the addition of his own weight. Th,
shafts are of extraordinary length, ik,
those of the curious Cuban yolsnte. Yor
| will frequently find them fully fourteen
feet long from tips to socket, where they
| really begin. 4 cavalcade of these empt,
carts, Gathering down the quaint olC
streets on their homeward way at even
tide, with the dimly-defned perspective o
ancient facade and tower, will easily flasl
into ones fancy the suggestion of pro
cession of chariOts returning from the Ro
man races of old
There is little at Yarmouth and round
about for actual Identification of tn
things and folk Dickens made you fee
were here, save in all the seawiss flavor o
objects and men. In that respect you ca
at once find innumerable families of tn
Peggotys To be sure you can come, as
did, along the level Suffolk highway, owe
the same road on which Dickens, Mar
Lemon and John Leach first travelled dun
ing their famous exploring expedition t
Yarmouth Over there between Yal
mouth and Lowestoft you will find the lii
tie thatched hamlet of Blundeston-th