The fishery (mainly consisting of herrings and oysters) and the harbour were the points that differentiated Lynton from the surrounding parishes, and their history is to a great extent the history of the parish, and they, too, owed their development to their connexion with the Abbey of Ford, which owned the whole of the coastline in the two parishes of Lynton and Countisbury. The abbey had, or claimed to have, very extensive rights of fishery both by sea and land, for according to the statement made by the Wichehalse family in commencing an action in the Court of the Exchequer :

The Abbots of Ford did possess and enjoy and did claim and entitle themselves to have the sole right of fishing within the river of Severne adjoining unto the coasts and shores of Lynton and Countisbury by such person or persons only to whom they granted licences. And this royalty has been always known to extend from Leymouth, being the most westward point of Lynton Mannor, there contiguous with Mattinhoe Lordshipp all along the shore and coast of Lynton, and thenceforth spreading to the middle current or thred of water, running or flowing in the River Severne and ebbing there vice versa, running up the said Channel soe far as to be opposite the most extream eastern part of Countisbury mannor and so far into the breadth of the channel from Countisbury shore or coast as to be half-way between Lynton and Countisbury aforesaid and Wales in direct opposition fronting the aforesaid premises.

This was a claim going far beyond the old manorial one, which was for the shore so far seaward as a horsed knight could at low-water springs reach with his lance. Beyond this was the king's, and all the subjects of the king had a right to fish in the sea with hooks and nets and other movable appliances, but a right to exclude the public can be supported by immemorial usage that is to say, of a grant by the Crown made before Magna Charta. And the Wichehalses claimed that the abbots of Ford, and they as their successors in their rights and franchises, had from time immemorial this royalty, or franchise, or liberty of fishing in the river of Severn adjoining the shores and coasts of Lynton and Countisbury, which was a very valuable one. For formerly it was a noted resort of herrings, and as such is mentioned by Westcote and others, and from a very early date there were on both the Lynton and Countisbury sides of Lynmouth or Leymouth, as it is always called in all old documents, cellars and curing-houses called the Red-herring houses, all the buildings then existing at

LYNTON.-To face p. 126.

Lynmouth being of this class, the only access to them being by a zigzag path down the steep, which was called Mer Hill or the Sea Hill; in later documents Merrill, and now by an absurd corruption Mars Hill. These Red-herring houses were close to the beach, and, unprotected by any seawall, were continually being washed away by storms and high tides. A great storm in 1607 swept away a whole row on the east or Countisbury side and changed the course of the river. The old bed and weir can still be seen to the west of present river-bed. At times the herrings forsook the shore. A similar thing has happened at various parts of England, and everywhere local traditions give the same reason—either that the parson vexed the people for extraordinary tithe, and so the herrings left to avoid contentions, or that the herrings were so plentiful that they were used for manure, which so insulted the fish that they would not come again. During these times the curing-pits were suffered to fall into decay, and were repaired and rebuilt on the herrings returning. About A.D. 1750 most of these Red-herring houses were sold by Mr. Short, then lord of the manor, and turned by the new owners into cottages. Since then there has been only one period in which the industry flourished, A.D. 1787 to 1797, and from that time -with the exception of two years, 1811 and 1823-there have been no visits of large shoals. The export of Limmouth oysters, however, continued up to the beginning of the last century.

The herring fishery and curing industry led to a certain amount of trade with Bristol and Scotland, and the settlement of a Scotch family or two at Lynmouth-the Fergusons for one-and to attempts to make the mouth of the stream into a kind of haven. In the Exchequer Bill I quoted from before it is stated that

The Lords of the lordships of Lynton and Countisbury did always for the security of the vessells to ride, anchor, more, and keel in the harbour formed by Leymouth river set up posts of great substance, to which posts such barks and vessels are moored and tyed with ropes to save them from the ground sea very rowleing and dangerous there. Without which posts being on both sides it is impossible that any vessell lying in there should escape from being wrecked.

But after the departure of the Wichehalse family from Lynton the haven or harbour fell into disrepair. The disputes and litigation between Wichehalse and Short, the mortgagee,

went on for nearly twenty years. John Wichehalse had no money to spend on it, and Short, of course, would not till his position was secure; and so what repairs were necessary had to be done by the fishermen and herring curers themselves; and acting on the advice of Mr. Popham, of East Lyn, in whose hands the trade principally was, they refused to pay any more for fishery licences, and spent the money on repairing the mooring posts. On the lawsuits. terminating in favour of Mr. Short, he was of opinion that enough had been spent in law over Lynton Manor without throwing more into the sea; and so matters drifted on till A.D. 1740, when the Rev. Edward Nicholls was appointed curate - in - charge. He had married the widow of Mr. Richard Knight, of West Lyn, and soon became the leading man in parish affairs. He took up the cause of the fishermen, and represented their case so strongly that the lord of the manor ordered his receipts from fishery, keelage, and mowage to be spent on the repairs. The fishermen acknowledged their obligations to Mr. Nicholls by subscribing for a silver cup to be presented to him, but after 1750 the receipts fell to such small amounts by the failure of the fishery as to be entirely insufficient, and the mariners and fishers had to repair as best they could. But the dangers to the quay were not only seawards, but also landward. The gradients on the stream are very steep, and after heavy rains it comes down at times a foaming torrent, rolling great boulders along, and destroying all in its course. Such a fresh in 1769 did great destruction. The seamen got up a petition to the lord, which was signed by nearly every inhabitant, entitled :

"The humble petition of the seamen of Limmouth on behalf of themselves and other inhabitants of Linton and Limmouth." It stated that

The river at Limouth by the late rain rose to such a degree as was never known by the memory of any man now living, which brought down great rocks of several ton each and choked up the harbour, broke one boat to pieces and was driven to sea, and another boat was driven on the rocks, which cost upward of £12 in repairing, and had all the rest been there some of them must have been broken to pieces, etc. . . . and also carried away the foundation under the Kay on that side against the river six foot down and ninety feet long, and some places two feet under the Kay, which stands now in great danger of falling. And had it not been for a new Kay adjoining to the head of the other of seventy feet long and four feet high made last year with large