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.