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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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340 B I0 GRAP €11 C AL SKETCHES. oysters for the evening market-innumerable vessels, with sails set, are courting the light and gentle breeze-while, with fiery speed, the various steamers give life and animation to the picture. Proceeding to the village, the visitor is impressed with the thriving appearance of the place, and the commendable industry of its inhabitants. Most of the women who have remained from market are busily employed out of doors-some in making and mending nets for the approaching herring-season-others are barking sails, while the younger portion are returning with loads of bait for the lines of their fathers or brothers. Though Newhaven is now a place of considerable importance in its way, and can boast of a population greatly exceeding the number employed in fishing, a marked distinction is maintained betwixt the two classes ; and the fishermen pride themselves on the exclusive intercourse which has distinguished their community from time immemorial. The Buckhaven fishermen, on the opposite coast, are said to be the descendants of settlers from the Netherlands ; and even yet they adhere to the wide trousers and long boots of the Dutch ; but there is no reasonable ground for believing that either the fishers of Prestonpans, Fisherrow, or Newhaven, derive their origin from a foreign stock. It is rather curious, in villages so nearly connected by locality and avocation, that any marked difference should be found in manners or habits. This is the case, however, both in regard to dialect, dress, and several other particulars. Thus the Newhaven women are distinguished from those of Fisherrow by the arrangement of their head-dress, particularly in the disposal of their hair. Formerly, and the feeling is not yet entirely extinct, much rivalry prevailed among the various communities of fishermen on the coast. About forty years ago an inveterate feud existed betwixt the Prestonpans and Newhaven men. The bone of contention was the right to certain oyster beds which the latter claimed as the tacksmen of the city of Edinburgh.' Many conflicts resulted from this misunderstanding, as will appear from the following extracts :- "On Wednesday, March 19 [1788], a sharp contest took place at the back of the Black Rocks, near Leith harbour, between a boat's crew belonging to Newhaven and another belonging to Prestonpans, occasioned by the latter dredging oysters on the ground alleged to belong to the former. After a severe conflict of about half an hour, with their oars, boat-hooks, etc., the Newhaven men brought in the Prestonpans boat to Newhaven, after much hurt being received on both sides. This is the second Prestonpans boat taken from them in the same manner by the Newhaven men." " Some time ago five fishermen from Prestonpans were imprisoned for dredging oysters near Newhaven, contrary to an interdict of the Judge-Admiral. In order that the public, particularly the lovers of good oysters, may know the reason of granting this interdict, the following state of facts is submitted :- " For more than a year past a cause has been pending in the Court of Admiralty, between sundry fishermen in Newhaven, aa tacksmen of the town of Edinburgh, and Lady Greenwich, on the one part ; and certain fishermen in Prestonpans, etc., on the other. The point in dispute is certain oyster-scalps, to which each party claims an exclusive right. Accusations of encroachment were mutually given and retorted. At dredging, when the parties met, much altercation The rent then paid by the Newhaven men for the oyster banks was 880.
Volume 9 Page 452
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