Also a very great quantity of corn is bought up hereabout for
the London market; for I shall still touch that point how all the
counties in England contribute something towards the subsistence of
the great city of London, of which the butter here is a very
considerable article; as also coarse cheese, which I mentioned
before, used chiefly for the king's ships.
Hereabouts they begin to talk of herrings and the fishery; and we
find in the ancient records that this town, which was then equal to
a large city, paid, among other tribute to the government, fifty
thousand of herrings. Here also, and at Swole, or Southole, the
next seaport, they cure sprats in the same manner as they do
herrings at Yarmouth; that is to say, speaking in their own
language, they make red sprats; or to speak good English, they make
sprats red.
It is remarkable that this town is now so much washed away by the
sea, that what little trade they have is carried on by Walderswick,
a little town near Swole, the vessels coming in there, because the
ruins of Dunwich make the shore there unsafe and uneasy to the
boats; from whence the northern coasting seamen a rude verse of
their own using, and I suppose of their own making, as follows,
"Swoul and Dunwich, and Walderswick,
All go in at one lousie creek."
This "lousie creek," in short, is a little river at Swoul, which
our late famous atlas-maker calls a good harbour for ships, and
rendezvous of the royal navy; but that by-the-bye; the author, it
seems, knew no better.
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