Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-05-26


EDINBuReH, SCOTLAND, May AL have
BEEN much among Scottish fishermen.
both In their homes ashore and in their
cabins at sea; and can never recall them
save in pictures Of vivid and colorful set
ting. simultaneously all these pictures
Dcem too blend in one.
There are the red roofs. the breezy
shores, the cleaning sands and the tossing
spray Of Coldingham and North Berwick,
ground to the south of the mouth of tho
Forth; the snug town and harbor, the
quaint old streets. the luscious tish-dinners
and the screaming fish-wives Of Newhayen;
the almost somber silence ever brooding
Above the piers of Buck Haven; the rocky
gals, the steely blue OF the German Ocean,
he awful storms and the great dingy,
.heerless fishing towns of the east coast
from Aberdeen to Thurso; the brown
crags, the emerald slopings and the
shadowy, moanful assures of the Shet-
land and Orkney shores, with their Dutch
and Morse color in faces and ways the
drear, gray rocks and putin haunted crags
Of the misty Hebrides where the brave.
half-staryed crofter-fisher battles all his
life for mere existence; and the low and
sunny shores of the Solway where at the
very threshold Of Burns land by the song
full NTH, underneath the shadows of hoary
Criffeps rim, the roaring of the approach
ing Solway tide tells the border fishwives
to be alert with their creels for their fisher
husbands coming.
On the east and west, sea-walls of sub
Unity, tide ploughed firths, shore-reaches
of barrenness and desolaton. Sea-gulls
hover and whirl and scream. Skeleton
craft bleach in storm and wind. Every
thing speaks of sea-rage wrath and wreck.
On the north, lands and islands without
forests, split and serrated by the sea. Ire
mendOus precipices everywhere. Shadowy
''hellyers' cut the sea-walls where the tide
Is ever sobbing in its ebb and flow. Here
9, fishing station; there drear hamlet.
Yonder gravelly beach, with tish.curers
and their sodden toll. Beyond weird gio
with u herd of drowsy seals turning their
shining sides to the low, red sun
Over oil, a iilmy, dreamy presence; for
the suns rays in the best of weather filter
through wells and mist upon these shore
side tollers al their simple, slIggard lives
Through all, the cutting of sharp winds,
the driving of almost barbed rain, the
splash and swirl of salty singing spray.
These are the physical features of the
picture. Threading in and through it all
with a sturdy life and coloring are the
fisher men and fisher wives Of Scotland.
j always see these men something after
the mold and figure Of Dickens hero,
Dan'l Peggotty; larger of frame may be;
and in the place of his aspect of benignty
and resolution, q look in their faces of
melancholy and sternness, mingled with a
something which for want of better term
may be called brave and defiant dread.
No drawer folk live. Upon the decks OF
their smacks, schooners or fddle-shaped
'sixerms," their hardhood and daring
upon the stormy German ocean, among
the mist hid dangers of the sounds and
lochs of the Hebrides, or when battling
with the fierce tides of the Orkney, Shet-
land and Farce Islands, often reach posi-
tive sublimity of heroism But l believe
no more restless, unhappy lot ever lived
ashore.
This is on account of those strange, iron
framed, barb-tongued creatures who 'ownn
them the irrepressible, tireless, fadeess
women, who, the moment they become
wives, not only assume all functions of
management and command but who store
and dole out every penny OF the Scottish
fishers earnings to the last ''bawbee;" who
transact all business; originate and assert
all homeside ethics; set the pace in matters
of "kirk" and religion; and whose tongues
from the day of bridal to that of burial are
never silent and are ever more singing
than the lash.
Generally speaking all east and north
coast fisher folk fare better in their homes
than those of the west coast, who chiefly
comprise the crofter-iisher class, barring
the border fishermen of the southwest
from Aver around to Amman along the
Firth of Clyde and on the Solway. The
latter are often cottiers, and have comfort
able homes with well-kept gardens and are
altogether the snuggest and happiest lot of
all.
-Four classes of Scottish fisher homes may
be cited as most typical-those of the New
haven folk, who lind anever-faling market
for their fish here in Edinburgh, as New
haven is practically continuation of the
city east along the south bank Of the Firth
of Forth; of the east coast folk from Aber-
deem north past Peterhead, Fraserburgh,
Banff, Inverness and Wick; of the fishers
of the Orkney, Shetland and Farce isles;
and of the crofter-fishers of Skye. Lewis
and Harris, and of North and South Uist,
in the Hebrides.
Here at Newhaven long, narrow street,
with the oldest of little old houses their
street fronts almost hidden with ram
shackle stairs, creels fishing-gear, grand
ames and lassies batting the lines, runs
parallel with the Forth. Into this, from
the Landslide come scores of other short,
narrow streets, in every one of which the
same mass of lishing-gear, women and
children are found. Here and there tiny
old inns are hidden where the finest fish
dinners in Britain are served.
This principal street. called Main street,
is open TO the harborside, furnishing a
little space in which all the business trans
actions of the Newhaven fishermen have
been carried on for the past 400 years. The
harbor itself is not large. Its each walled
side is but 500 feet long, and it has but one
little entrance. Often you will find it
without single mast silhouette between
you and the horizon-line of the Fifeshre
hills. Again upwards of hundred craft
are rocking idly within the harbor walls.
At these times the fish have been auc-
toned off and the iishwivcs hundreds in
number are away in all haste to supply
the tables of "Auld Reekie." Their creels
or fish-baskets contain from 20 to so
pounds of fish These are carried on their
backs and are held in place by broad
leather straps about tho forehead. The
women have been known to thus carry 100
pounds ON their backs into Edinburgh.
Uncountable are the skirts they wear.
These fall just below the knees and two or
three OF the outer ones are gathered back
over the launches in voluminous puffs.
Stout wooden stockings. stout buckled
Shoes. and stout pea jacket, complete
the raiment save that the married women
wear a handkerchief or ''mutch" cap
upon their heads; while the maiden fish
wives go bareheaded.
While at their labors, every article of
their dress, save cap and shoes, is of coarse
dark blue wooden stuff. When shopping
at Edinburgh or visiting among them
selves, their attire is of wide gorgeous
striped linen petticoat upon petticoat and
their frills, furbelows and jewelry are in
deed startling But of Sunday when at
least 1000 Of the 5000 Newhaven fisher
folk are gathered in the Free Kirk, which
stands oyer against the fish market, their
kirk brats'' or best apparel is of sober
grays and rich black, decorous enough for
any staid and aristocratic community.
There is little that is picturesque about
the Newhaven fisherman when ashore.
Jock or Sandy then sleeps much or sinks
about quietly to escape the various forms
of "henp ecking to which he is generally
n lt.h Aim.