“The Silver Herring (Caller Herring)”
Description
Peddler's song/street cry: "Who'll buy my silver herrings?/I cry from door to door". Verses tell different ways prepare herring, plus different names. Many enjoy eating herring; more weep for the fishermen who are lost catching them
Long description
Peddler's song/street cry: "Who'll buy my silver herrings?/I cry from door to door". Verses tell different ways to cook and eat herring, plus different names - Yarmouth bloaters or Digby kipper red. Many enjoy eating herring; many more weep for the fishermen who are lost catching them or fear for their loved ones' safety
Notes
If, as I believe, O. J. Abbott's "The Silver Herrings" is a traditional version of Lady Nairne's "Caller Herring," it has a complicated pedigree. Lady Nairne wrote "Caller Herrin'" "toward the end of the 18th century" to help Nathaniel Gow (son of Neil Gow). Nairne set it to a harpsichord piece by the elder Gow, which itself was based on a fish-seller's call.
To make life even more complicated, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) had his own herring cry ("Herrings"; see Kathleen Hoagland, editor, _One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry_ (New York, 1947), p. 324). This has lines such as, "Be not sparing. Leave off swearing. Buy my herring Fresh from Malahide, Better never was tried.... Come, sixpence a dozen, to get me some bread, Or, like my own herrings, I soon shall be dead." Possibly independent, but who knows.... - RBW
Recordings
- O. J. Abbott, "The Silver Herring" (on Abbott1)
References
- DT, CALLHERR
- Roud #3824
- BI, RcSilHer