example of the Roman colony, may have led them to this branch of business which they still preserve; though they are far from poffeffing the monopoly of greens and garden ftuffs, which they had in more ancient times. The demand for vegetables has increased ten-fold within these 50 years, and horticulture has been fo much encouraged in richer foils near the capital, that all the fuperiority that the gardeners here can now pretend to, is to furnish the earliest crops of pease and beans, &c. for a week or two, as the markets are foon filled from the more luxuriant garden grounds nearer the city. Connoiffeurs in that fort of viand, however, still prefer the produce of the lighter foil, which is lefs impregnated with dung. The whole produce of the gardens, together with falt, and fand for wafhing floors, and other articles, till of late that carts have been introduced, were carried in baskets or creels on the backs of women, to be fold in Edinburgh, where, after they had made their market, it was ufual for them to return loaded with goods, or parcels of various forts, for the inhabitants here, or with dirty linens to be washed in the pure water of the Efk. This employment of women, which has certainly prevailed ever fince Edinburgh became a confiderable city, when joined to that of the fish-wives in Fisherrow, has occafioned a reversal of the state of the sexes in this parish, and has formed a character and manners, in the female fex, which seems peculiar to them, at least in this country *. The carriers of greens, falt, *The women of Bilboa in Spain, according to the account of a traveller, Baron DILLON, (page 174) are even fuperior in ftrength and activity to thofe of Fisherrow. • In other countries,' fays he, ⚫ women are oppressed with the slightest fatigue; here they work as much as the strongest men; unload ships, carry burdens, and do all the bufinefs of porters. The very felons, confined in the mines of Almaden, do nothing in comparison of these females. They go barefooted, and are remarkably active, carrying burdens : falt, &c. are generally the wives of weavers, fhoemakers, tailors, or fievemakers, who, being confined by their employments within doors, take charge of the children and family, while the females trudge to Edinburgh about their feveral branches of business, long before day in winter, and return by mid-day, or later, according to the time spent in felling their commodities. Their ufual daily profits may be computed at from 8 d. to 1 s. 3 d. which, befides the free, focial, and difengaged life which they lead, is a greater addition to the income of the family, than they could earn by any other branch of industry.-The women, who carry fand to Edinburgh, have the hardest labour, and earn least. For they carry their burden, which is not lefs than 200 lb. weight, every morning to Edinburgh, return at noon, and pass the afternoon and evening in the quarry, digging the ftones, and beating them into fand. By this labour, which is inceffant for fix days in the week, they gain only about 5 d. a day. The Fish-wives, as they are all of one clafs, and educated in it from their infancy, are of a character and manners ftill more fingular than the former, and particularly diftinguished by the laborious lives they lead. They are the wives and daughters of fishermen, who generally marry in their own caft, or tribe, as great part of their business, to which they must have been bred, is to gather bait for their husbands, and bait their lines. Four days in the week, however, they carry fish in creels (ofier baskets) to EdinVOL. XVI. burgh; C on their heads, which require two men to lift up. The wife yields not in る 1 burgh; and when the boats come in late to the harbour in the forenoon, so as to leave them no more than time to reach Edinburgh before dinner, it is not unufual for them. to perform their journey of five miles, by relays, three of them being employed in carrying one basket, and shifting it from one to another every hundred yards, by which means they have been known to arrive at the Fishmarket in less than ths of an hour *. While haddocks were in abundance on the coast, great quantities were taken by the feven boats of Fisherrow; though the best fish for many years have been brought three times a-week from Eyemouth on horseback, and unloaded here, to be carried in creels to Edinburgh, by which means the carriers are enabled to reach home the same day. For seven years paft, fince the haddocks have disappeared, and few fish are to be caught by the Fisherrow boatmen, on account of their distance from deep water, where the fish are to be found, it is ufual for them to meet the boats from the east end of Fife, half way down the frith, and to purchase their fish. In the fummer season the boats from that coaft frequently run over to Fisherrow, and fell their cargoes to the fish-women here. This they do rather than run up to Leith, because they can difpofe of their fish immediately, and fail home again to their respective harbours on the fame day, with the ebb tide. The fish-wives who carry to Edinburgh, gain at least 1 s. a-day, and frequently double and triple that fum. From the kind of life these women lead, it may naturally be concluded, that their manners are peculiar, as they certainly are. It is a well attefted fact, that three of them, not many years ago, went from Dunbar to Edinburgh, which is 27 miles, with each of them a load of herrings on her back of 200 lb. in 5 hours. They fometimes carry loads of 250 lb. are. Having fo great a fhare in the maintenance of the family, they have no fmall fway in it, as may be inferred from a faying not unufual among them. When speaking of a young woman, reported to be on the point of marriage, "Hout!" fay they," How can fhe keep a man, "who can hardly maintain herfell?" As they do the work of men, their manners are mafculine, and their strength and activity is equal to their work. Their amusements are of the mafculine kind. On holidays they frequently play at golf; and on Shrove Tuesday there is a standing match at foot-ball, between the married and unmarried women, in which the former are always victors. Their manner of life, and the bufinefs of making their markets, whet their faculties, and make them very dexterous in bargain making. They have likewife a fpecies. of rude eloquence, an extreme facility in expreffing their feelings by words or geftures, which is very impofing, and enables them to carry their points even against the most wary; and they are too well acquainted with the world, to be abashed when they are detected in any of their arts *. It is remarkable, that though a confiderable degree of licentiousness appears in their freedom of fpeech, it does not feem to have tainted their morals, in a point where it might have chiefly been expected; there being no clafs of women, it is believed, who offend lefs against the feventh commandment, excepting in words, than they do. There feems to be no employment, that conduces more to health and good fpirits than theirs. Some of them have been brought to *It is not here meant to impeach their honefty, for which they are on a par with all other fmall traffickers. An eminent merchant of Edinburgh told the writer, that he has often dealt with fome of them to the amount of L. 600 in a season, for falt herrings, without one line of writing, and never loft a farthing by them. to bed, and have gone to Edinburgh on foot with their baskets within the week. It is perfectly well ascertained, that one, who was delivered on Wednesday morning, went to town with her creel on the Saturday forenoon following. There is a charm in the free and active life they lead, which renders them averse to all fedentary employments. They never wear shoes or ftockings but on Sundays, which is not to be attributed to their poverty, but to the nature of their employment. Strangers from the south, disgufted at this practice, which more or lefs prevails among the women of the inferior clafs in this country, and ftill more with the custom of trampling linens in washing tubs, (which is not yet entirely discontinued, though gradually wearing out), cry out against both as shocking pieces of barbarity. It may be remarked, however, in regard to the former practice, that the Greek and Roman women, (even the ladies in the house), wore neither fhoes nor ftockings. From fuch parents, as might be expected, proceeds a race of children, healthy, active, and robuft; and Lord MONBODDO, and the LYCURGUSES of the age, will no doubt look forward with anxiety to the period, when the work that is now done by women, fhall come to be entirely performed by horses and carts. For their confolation, however, it may be obferved, that we perceive at present no difference between the children of Muffelburgh and those of Fisherrow, where the fishers live. Where the labouring poor have enough to feed their children with, there is little doubt, that the race will always prove both ftrong and numerous. Population. The population of this parish has increased confiderably, fince Dr Webster made his computation in 1755, which is chiefly owing to the present thriving state |