subs. phr. (common).—A herring, fresh or salted, of the finest. [From the practice of sending samples to the Baillie of the River for approval.] Also GLASGOW BAILLIE.
1855. STRANG, Glasgow and Its Clubs, p. 235. This Club … better known by the title of the Tinkler’s Club, particularly when the brotherhood changed the hour of meeting … and when the steak was exchanged for a ‘Welsh rabbit’ or ‘GLASGOW MAGISTRATE.’
ENGLISH SYNONYMS (for herrings generally).—Atlantic ranger; Californian; Cornish duck; Digby chicken; Dunbar wether; gendarme; Gourock ham; magistrate; pheasant (or Billingsgate pheasant); reds; sea-rover; soldier; Taunton turkey; two-eye’d steak; Yarmouth capon. Fr.: gendarme.
