CHAPTER XII

CRAIL

RIGHT in the East Neuk of Fife lies the little town of Crail. Of the twelve royal burghs on the north shore of the Forth, Crail is the oldest. It is said to have been made a royal burgh by Malcolm Canmore in the eleventh century, and a charter of David 1. exists, dated 1150, while another was received from Robert the Bruce in 1306.

It would be difficult to find a name spelt in so many different ways as this simple little. word Crail. Caraile, Karall, Karol, Karel, Karile, Carale, Kraol, Karil, Karall, Krell, Crell, Creyle, Creall, Craal, Carreill, Carel, Carole, Carraill, and Craill are some of the forms it assumes in old documents, but the explanation is simple. In the old days spelling was not regarded as the hard-and-fast thing

which it now is. It was more or less phonetic. Men spelt by ear, and were not averse to giving play to their fancy, so that one often finds different spellings of the same word in one document. It was the introduction of printing that fixed spelling, and that in the most haphazard and arbitrary fashion, so that to-day there is a strong tendency to go back to the old phonetic system.

Before the railway came to Crail, a few years ago, it was very much out of the world. Then the chief event of the day was the arrival of the daily coach from Anstruther, and a journey to and from St. Andrews took up the entire day. But it was a busy little place in the old days. "Crail Capons" or dried haddocks were famous Tennant in his Anster Fair writes

"Next from the well-aired town of Crail,

Go out her craftsmen with tumultuous din

Her wind bleached fishers sturdy limbed and hale,
Her in-kneed tailors garrulous and thin:

And some are flushed with horns of pithy ale
While to augment his drouth, each to his jaws,

A good Crail Capon holds, at which he rugs and gnaws.”

And well-aired Crail undoubtedly is, for of all the windy towns on the shores of the Forth it has the distinction of being the coldest.

The east winds pour in from the open sea, and the low-lying land of Fife Ness affords no protection from the north, so the town is swept by all the winds that blow. But worse than the wind is the easterly haar which turns summer to mid-winter.

Here is the diary of a few July days spent in Crail

"Tuesday.-A grey day, windy and cold. The May faintly visible, no sign of the south shore of the Firth.

"Wednesday.-An easterly haar. The East Neuk has bored its nose into it, forms loom up dimly, seeming miles away, not even the May visible. Had a bathe, but the haar thickened and dressing was a 'demmed moist unpleasant' business; walking back, tried a short-cut through the fields. 'Ilka blade o' grass' had much more than 'its ain drap o' dew' and bent under its load, so that from the knees down I was soaked. A nasty cold blight over everything, bleaching and taking all colour, and even light and shade, out of the landscape. The blight of the east wind.

"Thursday.-Morning dull with big white

clouds, but oh, glory! the coast of East Lothian and the ridge of St. Abbs is clear and distinct. The wind has changed during the night. A long walk along the shore; as we turn round Fife Ness and meet the north wind, the sea comes tumbling in, in great rollers. A bathe in the surf is a delight.

"Now at 5 p.m. we sit on a ledge of low shelving rocks by the shore. The clouds have fled all but a low bank out at sea, and the sun beats warm on the rocks. The light greenish blue of the sea deepens at the horizon to a vivid band like the blue of a Hiroshige colourprint, and the pools at our feet are of the deepest sapphire with seaweed fringes of emerald green. The Isle of May to-day is an amethyst, and on its northern shore a line of white breakers gleams in the sun."

Such a difference does a change of wind make to Crail, and, given ordinary conditions, it is a pleasant little town.

The main street is wide and open, with a number of fine old houses and a quaint Tolbooth with its squat tower, on the wall of which is carved the ship which is the coat of

arms of Crail. Past the Tolbooth, the High Street changes to Market Street, recently planted with rows of trees, which one day will afford shelter from the scorching sun which so seldom visits the burgh.

From this main street upon the level a series of short steep streets run down towards the harbour, which lies at the foot of the cliff. Nethergate, Castle Street, Shoregate are the names of some of these, which wind about in picturesque fashion and are lined with harled and red-roofed houses. Every here and there you come on a doorway with an inscription dating from the seventeenth century, which was the period of Crail's greatest prosperity, and therefore the time when the bulk of the town was built. The harbour, towards which the houses seem to come tumbling down the hill pell-mell, is a tiny affair, dry with every tide, and with a very tricky entrance, for reefs of jagged rock abound and the passage is narrow. Upon the top of the cliff are two whitewashed pillars, with a lamp on top, which act as guides by day or night. Keeping these in line, the fisherman is safe.