Music Of The Waters - online book

Sailors' Chanties, Songs Of The Sea, Boatmen's, Fishermen's,
Rowing Songs, & Water Legends with lyrics & sheet music

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	Music of the Waters.              123
	The " Shares o' caller ling," on the contrary, is given much sharper, and repeated very frequently.
	They have furthermore been immortalized in verse. I am not very certain that the following is correct, but at least it is one version of the poem :— THE CULLERCOATS FISHWIVES. " The Cullercoats fishwives so cosy and free, They live in their cottages close by the sea,— And they sell their fine fish To the poor and the rich ! Will ye buy ? will ye buy ? Will ye buy my fine fish ? " The old cry of the herring-sellers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne was a much more lengthy one, and sometimes con­sisted of a set of doggerel verses which, if they were approved by the good people of the " canny toon," in those bygone days, they must have been scarcely as sensitive and refined as one would like to imagine the ancestors of the present generation of Novocastrians. " 'Ere's yer caller herrin' ! 'Ere's yer caller fresh herrin'! 'Ere's yer 'resh heerin' ! 'Resh heerin'! Fower a penny, hinny ! Fower a penny ! Fower a penny ! Caller heerin' ! " Any one who is acquainted with the city on the coaly Tyne will recognize in the " Fower a penny " the vernacular of the vendors of oranges, who line the streets during the winter season, and whose harsh, discordant voices, though they may, being so thoroughly Newcastle, be affectionately associated with the place in the minds of the natives, will