IT WAS a novel way to pay off an old debt, involving herrings but not of the red variety.

A quiet day at court in 1844 was enlivened by the appearance of a small bald-headed man who made his salaam to Southampton magistrates with considerable reverence and humility.

He was seeking advice.

“Could you please assist me in how to relieve myself from a dilemma in which I have been placed by a hard-hearted and unrelenting creditor?”

He then went on relate that he was a stranger to the town and had brought herrings with him, which he sold with ease by the hundred, but then a man to whom he owed money suddenly approached and took away 300 of the fish, which he said would do just as well as the money.

“Is this a robbery?” the man asked.

“Well,” said chairman E H Hulton. “It is certainly a very audacious trespass, but as this not being a felony, we have no power to deal with the case.”

The old man’s attitude abruptly changed.

“I’ll carry it to some other magistrates where I shall get justice.”

Huilton chided him: “You may carry it wherever you please but you will still get the same answer.”

The applicant complained of “high dudgeon”, complaining the fish was not of his own but he had been selling them on behalf of other parties.

And with that he left, somewhat disgruntled.