Caller Herrin'

"Caller herrin'" means fresh herring.^[1] It was the traditional cry of Newhaven fishwives, who carried in creels freshly caught herring which they sold from door to door. Gow, a violinist and bandleader of Edinburgh, incorporated this cry, and also the bells of St Andrew's Church, into his composition, written about 1798. It became one of his best-known tunes.^[2][3][4]

Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, was a songwriter, using the pseudonym "Mrs Bogan of Bogan". Attending balls in country houses of Perthshire, she heard the music of Nathaniel Gow, and wrote words for "Caller Herrin'".^[5]

It has been adapted many times. Philip Knapton composed a set of variations of the tune, for piano or harp, which appeared in 1820 and became popular.^[6][7] Joseph Binns Hart (1794–1844) arranged the tune as a quadrille in his 8th Set of Scotch Quadrilles (1827).^[3][8] The song was translated in 1929, both in language and location, by T. Gwynn Jones, a leading Welsh poet and translator. He called it "Penwaig Nefyn" (Nefyn Herrings), as Nefyn at the time hosted a busy herring fishery, and published it, arranged as a duet, in New Song Book for Schools, Part 1, Llyfr Canu Newydd (1929).^[9]

The tune and words of the chorus:

• In The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W. E. Bowman, Constant the Linguist gives a "passionate rendering" of Caller Herrin' to Travis the Seal with devastating results.