94 QUEENSFERRY TO MUSSELBURGH.
despondency and fear that this sacred fabric found its origin. It was dedicated
to St. Mary, and hence the little haven itself was sometimes called
* Our Lady’s Port of Grace.’
For many generations Newhaven was little else than a colony of fishers,
having no dealings with the outside world further than in a mere commercial
capacity. This exclusiveness, however, has long ago all but disappeared, and
they now freely mingle with other people, between whom and them frequent
intermarriages take place.
The village, too, in appearance and comfort, has of late greatly improved.
Besides being now well paved, well lighted, and much more cleanly kepf,
many houses of a large and substantial character have been erected in it ;
while away to the west and north of it again there are rows and streets of
villas and mansions, with terraces and crescents of the most handsome and
imposing architecture. TRINITiYs a delightful place. Pleasantly situated on a
broad fertile plateau overlooking the Fhth, and commanding a fine view of the
estuary to the east, as well as of the city westwards to the Pentland and Corstorphine
Hills, it forms one of the quietest and most agreeable places of residence
we have the pleasure of knowing. The dwellers in this particular quarter of the
district are almost all of the wealthy and more influential class ; many of them
retired merchants, and W.S.’s from the city, with a goodly sprinkling of rich
and genteel families from many other places and countries.
‘ The fisherwomen of Newhaven have long been famed for the picturesqueness
of their dress. It consists mainly of a voluminous and truly Flemish
quantity of petticoats, one or two of them of striped stuffs of very fast colours,
with a jerkin sometimes of blue cloth and sometimes of variedly-hued calico.
With the exception of the more matronly among them, who wear a sort of
plain muslin cap or cockernony, they have no head-dress ; but their hair, in
which they seem to have some pride, is in general very neatly and tastefully
put up. It certainly is a very pretty sight to witness them in full costume,
as they move onwards through our streets, or linger in our squares or
crescents, singing out in their fine, rich, musical tones their usual cries of
‘ Caller haddies,’ ‘ Caller hemn’,’ or ‘ Caller ou’.’
Inside their dwellings likewise considerable care and tidiness are manifested.
Their hygienic creed is not that of Maggie Mucklebackit, as put by the
pedantic but kind-hearted Mr. Oldbuck,--‘ the clartier the cosier.’ On the
contrary, they are a cleanly people; and although their dwellings, like the
village itself, do smell rather strongly, for the delectation or comfort of a
delicate nasal organ, of fish and mussel-bait, yet that is unavoidable to their
