_From the Works of Thomas Nash, 1599._
“It is to bee read, or to bee heard of, howe in the punie shipe or
nonage of Cerdicke sandes, when the best houses and walles there were of
mudde, or canvaze, or poldavies entiltments, a fisherman of Yarmouth,
having drawne so many herrings hee wist not what to do with all, hung
the residue, that hee could not sel nor spend, in the sooty roofe of his
shad a drying; or say thus, his shad was a cabinet in _decimo sexto_,
builded on foure crutches, and he had no roome in it, but that garret in
_excelsis_, to lodge them, where if they were drie let them be drie, for
in the sea they had drunk too much, and now hee would force them doo
penance for it. The weather was colde, and good fires hee kept, (as
fishermen, what hardnesse soever they endure at sea, will make all
smoke, but they will make amends for it when they come to land;) and
what with his fiering and smoking, or smokie fiering, in that his narrow
lobby, his herrings, which were as white as whalebone when he hung them
up, nowe lookt as red as a lobster. It was four or five dayes before
either hee or his wife espied it; and when they espied it, they fell
downe on their knees and blessed themselves, and cride, ‘A miracle, a
miracle!’ and with the proclaiming it among their neighbours they could
not be content, but to the court the fisherman would, and present it to
the King, then lying at Burrough Castle two miles off.”
The same facetious author, in enumerating the excellences of herrings,
says, “A red herring is wholesome in a frosty morning: it is most
precious fish-merchandise, because it can be carried through all Europe.
No where are they so well cured as at Yarmouth. The poorer sort make it
three parts of their sustenance. It is every man’s money, from the king
to the peasant. The round or cob, dried and beaten to powder, is a cure
for the stone. Rub a quart-pot, or any measure, round about the mouth
with a red herring, the beer shall never foam or froath in it. A red
herring drawn on the ground will lead hounds a false scent. A broiled
herring is good for the rheumatism. The fishery is a great nursery for
seamen, and brings more ships to Yarmouth than assembled at Troy to
fetch back Helen.”
At the end of what Nash calls “The Play in Praise of Red Herrings,” he
boasts of being the first author who had written in praise of fish or
fishermen: of the latter he wittily and sarcastically says, “For your
seeing wonders in the deep, you may be the sons and heirs of the prophet
Jonas; you are all cavaliers and gentlemen, since the king of fishes
chose you for his subjects; for your selling smoke, you may be
courtiers; for your keeping fasting days, friar-observants; and, lastly,
look in what town there is the sign of the three mariners, the
huff-capped drink in that house you shall be sure of always.”
Should any one desire to be informed to what farther medicinal and
culinary purposes red herring may be applied with advantage, Dodd’s
Natural History of the Herring may be consulted. If what is there
collected were true, there would be little occasion for the _faculty_,
and cookery would no longer be a science.