Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-08
THE PEGG0TTY HOME.
Wakeman Visits the Scene Of
Dickens David Copperfield.
A QUAINT OLD FlSHERMAN'S TOWN.
Curious Method of Electing Mayor and
other City officers.
A VEHICLE PECULIAR To YARMOUTH
,coRREspoNpExCE OF THE DrspArcH.i

Every nlSnt, SalQ Mr. HegSOttV, as
reg lar as the night comes, the candle must
be stood in its old pane of glass. that if ever
she sho uld see it, it may seem to say, Come
back, my child, come backp If ever there's
knock, Ham (partic'lar soft knock), arter
dark at your aunt's door, doen't you go
nigh it. Let it be her-not you-that sees
my fallen childp'
Thus, poor old broken-hearted Mr.. Peg
gotty, to Ham, Peggotty and Mrs. Gum
midge, as he get forth on his weary search
for the wandering little Emily, after the
pitt episode of her departure from the
Yarmouth boat home with Steerforth. In
the whole range of English fiction there is
nothing to compare with the sweetness
and pathos of the joys and woes of this one
seafaring family, which the master-hand of
Dickens, in David Copperfeld," enduring
ly placed, as type of lowly loyalty and love,
against the perspective of humble toll; just
as Millet has fixed two peasant forms against
one Breton evening cleaning, for an eternal
suggestion of prayer:
Known Only by ITS Bloaters.
Without Dickens David Copperfeld"
ciste in our minds with long reaches of
saud-dunes, bits of wreck, splatches of
ghostly spume and drift of rather dreary
and cruel shore, with steely, measureless
waste beyond, and a very dank and clammy
fsher-town near at hand-Yarmouth would
be unknown to-day, save for the great
plump smoked herrings it sends all over the
world under the name OF yarmouth
bloaters.'
England has two Yarmouths. In my
guide book l saw one named, and set out
from London to see it. There was Var
mouth surely; a staid, prim, pretty place,
with the breath of the sea ever in its win
some face, with the chalk cliffs of England
just across the blue Solent, and serenely
doing in its little nook of beauty and COM
fort, because of the aristocratic facts that
DIR. Robert Hooke, inventor OF the pendu-
lum spring for watches. was born there. and
that, upon time, when Sir Robert Holmes
was Governor of the island, house was
built by him purposely tor the reception of
Charles H., for which loyal act the good Sir
Robert, after death, go. his figure cut in fine
white marble, with some nice Latin cpl
taphs on the pedestal.
But the real Yarmouth, the herringopolis
of England and the home of Dickens Peg
sta nds on a narrow strip of sand between the
mouth of the river Yare and the German
Ocean. 1t houses perhaps 10000 souls.
Hall of these are in some way seafaring
iolk, or exist from some vocation relevant to
seataring, fishing or shipbuilding.
Tragedies of the Sea.
But at best this is wild, wailng, woeful
coast; and Yarmouth, which has furnished
men and masts innumerable as victims to
the fury of all seas, has seemed fated to be
the scene of the oceans saddest tragedies.
In 1862, in one nigh 209 sail and l ,00C souls
were lost bv tempest in the Yarmou n
Roads. In 1544 between so and 100 sail and
their crews were lost in single day. A
still larger number met the same fate in
1890. And only within the decade 4 sim.
liar horror occurred. 1t is regarded by all
seamen az the most dangerous coast in
Britain; and there is only one other spot on
the globe recalling SO many and terrible
ocean catastrophes. That one is Sable
Island, 100 miles south of Nova Scotia,
known to sailors the world over as the
graveyard of the sea-"
Yarmouth never figured greatly in history;
though there are some curious records of its
early days. 1t originated in the early part
of the Anglo Saxon dynasty. 1t was Just
little sandbank then, where the Bure and
the Waveny rivers joined the Tare and to-
gether pushed to the sea. Fishermen ire
quenting the coast built few rude huts on
the strip OF, sand between the mouths OF the
rivers and the ocean. Then the Dutch who
scented trade everywhere began coming
with their nicknacks and wares and ex-
changing them f1r fish. King Henry Ill.
granted permission for enyironing the town
with water and moat, and it was made i'm
pregnable 90 missile engines then in use:
but it was not defended by forts until during
the Revolution, when our american priva-
teers were so lively in their mcnaces if not
attacks upon British ports.
Headquarters of Dutch Traders.
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 Var
mouth the greatest herring mart in England.
Yarmouth furnished 43 sail and 1,075 ma
rines for the memorial 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 marriage to Prince Ed
ward, afterward King Edward II.
Among the strange customs OF the old city |
none were more curious than the mode of |
clectins the Mayor, High Steward, Record |
er, Sub-steward and other municipal officers,
which was only changed as late as the mid
die OF the present century. An inquest of IL |
persons was formed by placing the names OF !
"a freemen into four hats. Then a person
called an "1nnocent," usually a child, drew !
three names IRON each of the four hats |
These u persons formed the inquest: and
they were literally incarcerated in the CITY |
Hall WITHOUT meat, drink, fire or CANDLE |
until nine OF them agreed upon the munich |
pal officers; and there was no appeal from,
or contest arising out of, this primitive pro-
cedure.
HolIanders Left Their Mark.
The Du,ch have left their mark plainly
upon old Yarmouth. Indeed, one will tind
similar traces of continental influence,
though very old and remote, in Il number OF
the old 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 type
of face, manner and occasional suggestions
in ancient architecture, which pont straight
and true to progenitors and builders from
the Norman French. AT Plymouth and
Peuzance, in Cornwall, the old Hebrew
strain is clearly descernable, though the
Hebrews were never in Cornwall in numbers |
less than 800 wears 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, figure 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 Amsterdam. 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 |
Barcelona are reproduced in those of the |
fishwiyes and men of Claddaph. and Won