> Danny Spooner > Songs > Culler Herrin’

Caller Herring

[ Roud 18353 ; Ballad Index RcSilHer ; Folkinfo 418 ; DT CALLRHRN ; Mudcat 570 ; trad. / Lady Nairne]

Jean Redpath sang Caller Herring on her 1977 BBC Television Series album Ballad Folk and in 1986 on her Philo album of the songs of Lady Nairne, Lady Nairne, on which she noted:

Lady Nairne wrote this “towards the end of the 18^th century to a published harpsichord composition by Nathaniel Gow, and it first saw the light of day as a printed song, to be sung in the fashionable Edinburgh drawing-rooms. It should perhaps more property be called ‘national’, for neither the words nor the tune are traditional. Nevertheless, as Gow’s harpsichord piece is based on the traditional street cry of the Newhaven fisher lassies calling their wares in the streets of Edinburgh, there is perhaps sufficient of the traditional element for the song to qualify for that label” [Francis Collinson: The Traditional and National Music of Scotland, Vanderbilt University Press 1966]

The song was written for the benefit of Nathaniel Gow (1785-1831, son of Niel and father [of] Niel, junior) who had fallen an hard times. The manuscript was conveyed to Gow by Lady Nairne’s Edinburgh correspondent (in a borrowed hand), and in a letter to that lady the authoress wrote:

If it is to be of any use to Nathaniel, perhaps it should be dedicated to the Duchess of Athole.

The advice was followed.

Cilla Fisher sang Caller Herrin’ on her 1983 album Songs of the Fishing.

Tony Cuffe recorded the tune Caller Herrin’ in 2001 a short time before his untimely death. This was released in 2003 on his posthumous Greentrax CD Sae Will We Yet. Stuart Eydmann noted:

Nathaniel Gow, son of the great fiddler Niel, composed this miniature tone poem for harpsichord around 1798 to capture the traditional cries of the Edinburgh fishwives heard against the carillon of a city church. Lady Nairne (Carolina Oliphant, 1766-1845) added verses in the 1820s and donated proceeds from its publication to Gow who was by then bankrupt.

Danny Spooner sang Culler Herrin’ on his 2002 CD Launch Out on the Deep and, in a July 2002 live recording, on the 2004 anthology of the Douarnenez Harbour Festival, Douarnenez port de fête. He commented in his CD’s liner notes:

I first heard this from a friend of my mother’s, a Mrs McColl (no relation to Ewan). It is said that the words are by Lady Nairne and reflect her great regard for the Scottish fisher-folk. “Culler herrin’” or fresh herring was the cry of the fisher women as they paraded the day’s catch for sale.

John Morran sang Caller Herring in 2024 on the 250^th anniversary tribute album, Robert Tannahill Songs Volume CCL.

Lyrics

Danny Spooner sings Culler Herrin’

Chorus (after each verse):
Buy my culler herrin’
They’re bonny fish and halesome farin’
Buy my culler herrin’
Fresh ta’en frae the Forth

When you’re sleepin’ on your pillow
Think ye ought o’ our brave fellows
Darkling on the stony billows
A’ to fill their woven willows?

When the bonny creel it passes
Ladies dressed in silks and laces
Gather up their fine pelisses
Turn their heads and screw their faces

Now neighbour’s wives content me tellin’
When the bonny fish you’re sellin’
At your word be all you’re dealin’
Truth will stand when all things fallin’

Buy my culler herrin’
They’re no’ brought here without brave darin’
Buy my culler herrin’
Ye dinna ken their worth