which men in the humble sphere of fishermen were enabled to become the proprietors of their own craft: A shipmaster supplied the vessel on the understanding that £100 was deposited at once, and the remainder paid by quarterly instalments, no insurance being asked for or proffered regarding risk. The arrangement entered into by the smack-owners for the conveyance of fish to shore, when they were engaged out at sea in their calling was most simple and business-like. The boats kept company during fishing, and on a certain signal being given one of the number, according to a previous agreement, received the whole of the fish so far caught by her fellow craft and returned home, for which service her men were paid 2s. each by the other crews, who continued their occupation and arrived in harbour generally on Friday. For the next week another smack was selected, and thus all in turn performed the mid-week journey. At present there are no less than eighty-four sloops belonging to this port, pursuing the business of fishing, and the arrangements both for their purchase and the landing of the captured fish have undergone a revolution. All boats are now paid for when they leave the shipbuilder’s yard, and the former custom of a mid-week relief, has been relinquished, each sloop returning and discharging as occasion requires. A fishing boat’s crew usually consists of four men and a boy. In conclusion it should be noticed that a special warehouse, about 90 feet long, was erected in 1859, solely for the use of the fishermen and agents, or dealers, connected with the trade. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. THORNTON, CARLETON, MARTON, AND HARDON-WITH-NEWTON. Torentum, or Thornton, was estimated in the time of William the Conqueror to contain six carucates of land fit for the plough, but this computation was exclusive of Rossall and Burn, which were valued at two carucates respectively, so that the whole townships held ten carucates, about one thousand acres of arable soil, or farming land, a large amount for those days, but insignificant indeed when we recall the nine thousand seven hundred and thirty acres embraced by the township at present, either in use for grazing and agricultural purposes, or forming the sites of town and village buildings. Thornton was held immediately after the Conquest by Roger de Poictou, and subsequently by Theobald Walter, after whose death it passed to the crown.