[1965:] One of the songs in Herd's collection is the Dreg Song: nonsense verses forming a lengthy version of the half-traditional, half-improvised rowing song of the oyster-fishers of the Firth of Forth. When they were out at sea, the fishers took compass bearings on landmarks along the coast:
Fleemin's inkworks tae the gasworks
Dodge your wheel and fill your creel-a
Katie Bairdie's got a wee lairdie
That they ca' the skipper o' the Row-a ...
The 'New Statistical Account' (1845) tells us that 'long before dawn, in the bleakest season of the year, their dredging song may be heard afar off'. In the grey-shrouded mornings, a mile or two from the coast, the fishers could make out in the distance the huddled contour of Arthur's Seat, with the Newhaven lighthouse blinking nearby.
There's an auld carle sits by the sea
Wi' a white caun'le on his knee ...
The oyster-fishing is over now, but the Dreg Song lives on; in Newhaven, Leith, Portobello, Fisherrow and Musselburgh, detached fragments of it are still spinning like tops among the bairns, in the singing street. (Henderson, Alias MacAlias 6)
Susannes Folksong-Notizen English Notes
