Part 31

The street trade in live poultry is not considerable, and has become less considerable every year, since the facilities of railway conveyance have induced persons in the suburbs to make their purchases in London rather than of the hawkers. Geese used to be bought very largely by the hawkers in Leadenhall, and were driven in flocks to the country, 500 being a frequent number of a flock. Their sale commenced about six miles from town in all directions, the purchasers being those who, having the necessary convenience, liked to fatten their own Christmas geese, and the birds when bought were small and lean. A few flocks, with 120 or 150 in each, are still disposed of in this way; but the trade is not a fifth of what it was. As this branch of the business is not in the hands of the hawkers, but generally of country poulterers resident in the towns not far from the metropolis, I need but allude to it. A few flocks of ducks are driven in the same way.

The street trade in live poultry continues only for three months--from the latter part of June to the latter part of September. At this period, the hawkers say, as they can’t get “dead” they must get “live.” During these three months the hawkers sell 500 chickens and 300 ducks weekly, by hawking, or 10,400 in the season of 13 weeks. Occasionally, as many as 50 men and women--the same who hawk dead game and poultry--are concerned in the traffic I am treating of. At other times there are hardly 30, and in some not 20 so employed, for if the weather be temperate, dead poultry is preferred to live by the hawkers. Taking the average of “live” sellers at 25 every week, it gives only a trade of 32 birds each weekly. Some, however, will sell 18 in a day; but others, who occasionally resort to the trade, only a dozen in a week. The birds are sometimes carried in baskets on the hawker’s arm, their heads being let through network at the top; but more frequently they are hawked in open wicker-work coops carried on the head. The best live poultry are from Surrey and Sussex; the inferior from Ireland, and perhaps more than three-fourths of that sold by the hawkers is Irish.

The further nature of the trade, and the class of customers, is shown in the following statement, given to me by a middle-aged man, who had been familiar with the trade from his youth.

“Yes, sir,” he said, “I’ve had a turn at live poultry for--let me see--someways between twenty and twenty-five years. The business is a sweater, sir; it’s heavy work, but ‘live’ aint so heavy as ‘dead.’ There’s fewer of them to carry in a round, that’s it. Ah! twenty years ago, or better, live poultry was worth following. I did a good bit in it. I’ve sold 160 fowls and ducks, and more, in a week, and cleared about 4_l._ But out of that I had to give a man 1_s._ a day, and his peck, to help me. At that time I sold my ducks and chickens--I worked nothing else--at from 2_s._ to 3_s._ 6_d._ a piece, according to size and quality. Now, if I get from 14_d._ to 2_s._ it’s not so bad. I sell more, I think, however, over 1_s._ 6_d._ than under it, but I’m perticler in my ‘live.’ I never sold to any but people out of town that had convenience to keep them, and Lord knows, I’ve seen ponds I could jump over reckoned prime for ducks. Them that keeps their gardens nice won’t buy live poultry. I’ve seldom sold to the big houses anything like to what I’ve done to the smaller. The big houses, you see, goes for fancy bantems, such as Sir John Seabright’s, or Spanish hens, or a bit of a game cross, or real game--just for ornament, and not for fighting--or for anything that’s got its name up. I’ve known young couples buy fowls to have their breakfast eggs from them. One young lady told me to bring her--that’s fifteen year ago, it is so--six couples, that I knew would lay. I told her she’d better have five hens to a cock, and she didn’t seem pleased, but I’m sure I don’t know why, for I hope I’m always civil. I told her there would be murder if there was a cock to every hen. I supplied her, and made 6_s._ by the job. I _have_ sold live fowls to the Jews about Whitechapel, on my way to Stratford and Bow, but only when I’ve bought a bargain and sold one. I don’t know nothing how the Jews kills their fowls. Last summer I didn’t make 1_s._ 6_d._ a day; no, nor more than three half-crowns a week in ‘live.’ But that’s only part of my trade. I don’t complain, so it’s nothing to nobody what I makes. From Beever (De Beauvoir) Town to Stamford Hill, and on to Tottenham and Edmonton, and turning off Walthamstow way is as good a round as any for live; it is so; but nothing to what it was. Highgate and Hampstead is middling. The t’other side the water isn’t good at all.”

[Illustration: THE WALLFLOWER GIRL.

[_From a Daguerreotype by_ BEARD.]]

Fancy chickens, I may add, are never hawked, nor are live pigeons, nor geese, nor turkeys.

The hawkers’ sale of live poultry may be taken, at a moderate computation, as 6,500 chickens, and 3,900 ducks.

OF RABBIT SELLING IN THE STREETS.

Rabbit-selling cannot be said to be a distinct branch of costermongering, but some street-sellers devote themselves to it more exclusively than to other “goods,” and, for five or six months of the year, sell little else. It is not often, though it is sometimes, united with the game or poultry trade, as a stock of rabbits, of a dozen or a dozen and a half, is a sufficient load for one man. The best sale for rabbits is in the suburbs. They are generally carried slung two and two on a long pole, which is supported on the man’s shoulders, or on a short one which is carried in the hand. Lately, they have been hawked about hung up on a barrow. The trade is the briskest in the autumn and winter months; but some men carry them, though they do not confine themselves to the traffic in them, all the year round. The following statement shows the nature of the trade.

“I was born and bred a costermonger,” he said, “and I’ve been concerned with everything in the line. I’ve been mostly ‘on rabbits’ these five or six years, but I always sold a few, and now sometimes I sell a hare or two, and, if rabbits is too dear, I tumble on to fish. I buy at Leadenhall mainly. I’ve given from 6_s._ to 14_s._ a dozen for my rabbits. The usual price is from 5_s._ to 8_s._ a dozen. [I may remark that the costers buy nearly all the Scotch rabbits, at an average of 6_s._ the dozen; and the Ostend rabbits, which are a shilling or two dearer.] They’re Hampshire rabbits; but I don’t know where Hampshire is. I know they’re from Hampshire, for they’re called ‘Wild Hampshire rabbits, 1_s._ a pair.’ But still, as you say, that’s only a call. I never sell a rabbit at 6_d._, in course--it costs more. My way in business is to get 2_d._ profit, and the skin, on every rabbit. If they cost me 8_d._, I try to get 10_d._ It’s the skins is the profit. The skins now brings me from 1_s._ to 1_s._ 9_d._ a dozen. They’re best in frosty weather. The fur’s thickest then. It grows best in frost, I suppose. If I sell a dozen, it’s a tidy day’s work. If I get 2_d._ a-piece on them, and the skins at 1_s._ 3_d._, it’s 3_s._ 3_d._, but I dont sell above 5 dozen in a week--that’s 16_s._ 3_d._ a week, sir, is it? Wet and dark weather is against me. People won’t often buy rabbits by candlelight, if they’re ever so sweet. Some weeks in spring and summer I can’t sell above two dozen rabbits. I have sold two dozen and ten on a Saturday in the country, but then I had a young man to help me. I sell the skins to a warehouse for hatters. My old ’oman works a little fish at a stall sometimes, but she only can in fine weather, for we’ve a kid that can hardly walk, and it don’t do to let it stand out in the cold. Perhaps I may make 10_s._ to 14_s._ a week all the year round. I’m paying 1_s._ a week for 1_l._ borrowed, and paid 2_s._ all last year; but I’ll pay no more after Christmas. I did better on rabbits four or five year back, because I sold more to working-people and small shopkeepers than I do now. I suppose it’s because they’re not so well off now as they was then, and, as you say, butchers’-meat may be cheaper now, and tempts them. I do best short ways in the country. Wandsworth way ain’t bad. No more is parts of Stoke-Newington and Stamford-hill. St. John’s Wood and Hampstead is middling. Hackney’s bad. I goes all ways. I dont know what sort of people’s my best customers. Two of ’em, I’ve been told, is banker’s clerks, so in course they is rich.”

There are 600,000 rabbits sold every year in the streets of London; these, at 7_d._ a-piece, give 17,500_l._ thus expended annually in the metropolis.

OF THE STREET SALE OF BUTTER, CHEESE, AND EGGS.

All these commodities used to be hawked in the streets, and to a considerable extent. Until, as nearly as I can ascertain, between twenty and thirty years back, butter was brought from Epping, and other neighbouring parts, where good pasture existed, and hawked in the streets of London, usually along with poultry and eggs. This trade is among the more ancient of the street-trades. Steam-vessels and railways, however, have so stocked the markets, that no hawking of butter or eggs, from any agricultural part, even the nearest to London, would be remunerative now. Eggs are brought in immense quantities from France and Belgium, though thirty, or even twenty years ago the notion having of a good French egg, at a London breakfast-table, would have been laughed at as an absurd attempt at an impossible achievement. The number of eggs now annually imported into this kingdom, is 98,000,000, half of which may be said to be the yearly consumption of London. No butter is now hawked, but sometimes a few “new laid” eggs are carried from a rural part to the nearest metropolitan suburb, and are sold readily enough, if the purveyor be known. Mr. M’Culloch estimates the average consumption of butter, in London, at 6,250,000 lbs. per annum, or 5 oz., weekly, each individual.

The hawking of cheese was never a prominent part of the street-trade. Of late, its sale in the streets, may be described as accidental. A considerable quantity of American cheese was hawked, or more commonly sold at a standing, five or six years ago; unto December last, and for three months preceding, cheese was sold in the streets which had been rejected from Government stores, as it would not “keep” for the period required; but it was good for immediate consumption, for which all street-goods are required. This, and the American cheese, were both sold in the streets at 3_d._ the pound; usually, at fair weights, I am told, for it might not be easy to deceive the poor in a thing of such frequent purchase as “half a quarter or a quarter” (of a pound) of cheese.

The total quantity of foreign cheese consumed, yearly, in the metropolis may be estimated at 25,000,000 lbs. weight, or half of the gross quantity annually imported.

The following statement shows the quantity and sum paid for the game and poultry sold in London streets:

£ 5,000 grouse, at 1_s._ 9_d._ each 437 20,000 partridges, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 1,500 12,000 pheasants, at 3_s._ 6_d._ 2,100 5,000 snipes, at 8_d._ 166 20,000 hares, at 2_s._ 3_d._ 2,250 600,000 rabbits, at 7_d._ 17,500 500,000 fowls, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 37,500 20,000 geese, at 2_s._ 6_d._ 2,500 80,000 ducks, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 6,000 30,000 turkeys, at 3_s._ 6_d._ 5,250 10,000 live fowls and ducks, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 750 ------- £75,953

In this table I do not give the _refuse_ game and poultry, bought sometimes for the mere feathers, when “undressed;” neither are the wild ducks nor woodcocks, nor those things of which the costers buy only exceptionally, included. Adding these, it may be said, that with the street sale of butter, cheese, and eggs, 80,000_l._ are annually expended in the streets on this class of articles.

OF THE SELLERS OF TREES, SHRUBS, FLOWERS (CUT AND IN POTS), ROOTS, SEEDS, AND BRANCHES.

The street-sellers of whom I have now to treat comprise those who deal in trees and shrubs, in flowers (whether in pots, or merely with soil attached to the roots, or cut from the plant as it grows in the garden), and in seeds and branches (as of holly, mistletoe, ivy, yew, laurel, palm, lilac, and may). The “root-sellers” (as the dealers in flowers in pots are mostly called) rank, when in a prosperous business, with the highest “aristocracy” of the street-greengrocers. The condition of a portion of them, may be characterised by a term which is readily understood as “comfortable,” that is to say, comparatively comfortable, when the circumstances of other street-sellers are considered. I may here remark, that though there are a great number of Scotchmen connected with horticultural labour in England, but more in the provincial than the metropolitan districts, there is not one Scotchman concerned in the metropolitan street-sale of flowers; nor, indeed, as I have good reason to believe, is there a single Scotchman earning his bread as a costermonger in London. A non-commissioned officer in an infantry regiment, a Scotchman, whom I met with a few months back, in the course of my inquiries concerning street musicians, told me that he thought any of his young countrymen, if hard pushed “to get a crust,” would enlist, rather than resort, even under favourable circumstances, to any kind of street-sale in London.

The dealers in trees and shrubs are the same as the root-sellers.

The same may be said, but with some few exceptions, of the seed-sellers.

The street-trade in holly, mistletoe, and all kinds of evergreens known as “Christmas,” is in the hands of the coster boys more than the men, while the trade in may, &c., is almost altogether confined to these lads.

The root-sellers do not reside in any particular localities, but there are more of them living in the outskirts than in the thickly populated streets.

The street-sellers of cut flowers present characteristics peculiarly their own. This trade is mostly in the hands of girls, who are of two classes. This traffic ranks with the street sale of water-cresses and congreves, that is to say, among the lowest grades of the street-trade, being pursued only by the very poor, or the very young.

OF THE QUANTITY OF SHRUBS, “ROOTS,” FLOWERS, ETC., SOLD IN THE STREETS, AND OF THE BUYERS.

The returns which I caused to be procured, to show the extent of the business carried on in the metropolitan markets, give the following results as to the quantity of trees, shrubs, flowers, roots, and branches, sold wholesale in London, as well as the proportion retailed in the streets.

TABLE SHOWING THE QUANTITY OF TREES, SHRUBS, FLOWERS, ROOTS, AND BRANCHES SOLD ANNUALLY, WHOLESALE, AT THE METROPOLITAN MARKETS, AND THE PROPORTION RETAILED IN THE STREETS.[6]

-------------------+----------------+-----------+---------+--------------- | Covent Garden. |Farringdon.| Total. |Proportion sold | | | | to Costers. -------------------+----------------+-----------+---------+--------------- TREES AND SHRUBS. | | | | Firs | 400 doz. roots| 400 | 800 | One-third. Laurels | 480 „ | 480 | 960 | One-third. Myrtles |1,440 „ | 1,120 | 2,560 | One-fourth. Rhododendrons | 288 „ | 256 | 544 | One-ninth. Lilac | 192 „ | 192 | 384 | One-sixth. Box | 288 „ | 192 | 480 | One-sixth. Heaths (of all | | | | kinds) |1,600 „ | 1,440 | 3,040 | One-fifth. Broom and Furze | 544 „ | 480 | 1,024 | One-fourth. Laurustinus | 400 „ | 320 | 720 | One-fourth. Southernwood | | | | (Old Man) | 960 „ | 480 | 1,440 | One-half. | | | | FLOWERS (IN POTS).| | | | Roses (Moss) |1,200 doz. pots | 960 | 2,160 | One-half. Ditto (China) |1,200 „ | 960 | 2,160 | One-half. Fuchsias |1,200 „ | 960 | 2,160 | One-half. | | | | FLOWER ROOTS. | | | | Primroses | 600 doz. roots| 400 | 1,000 | One-half. Polyanthus | 720 „ | 720 | 1,440 | One-half. Cowslips | 720 „ | 480 | 1,200 | One-half. Daisies | 800 „ | 600 | 1,400 | One-half. Wallflowers | 960 „ | 960 | 1,920 | One-half. Candytufts | 720 „ | 480 | 1,200 | One-half. Daffodils | 720 „ | 480 | 1,200 | One-half. Violets |1,200 „ | 1,200 | 2,400 | One-third. Mignonette |2,000 „ | 1,800 | 3,800 | One-sixth. Stocks |1,600 „ | 1,280 | 2,880 | One-sixth. Pinks and | | | | Carnations | 480 „ | 320 | 800 | One-half. Lilies of | | | | the Valley | 144 „ | 144 | 288 | One-fourth. Pansies | 600 „ | 480 | 1,080 | One-fourth. Lilies and Tulips | 152 „ | 128 | 280 | One-ninth. Balsam | 320 „ | 320 | 640 | One-sixth. Calceolarii | 360 „ | 240 | 600 | One-ninth. Musk-plants |5,760 „ | 4,800 |10,560 | One-half. London Pride | 400 „ | 320 | 720 | One-third. Lupins | 960 „ | 640 | 1,600 | One-third. China-asters | 450 „ | 400 | 850 | One-sixth. Marigolds |5,760 „ | 4,800 |10,560 | One-eighth. Dahlias | 80 „ | 80 | 160 | One-ninth. Heliotrope | 800 „ | 480 | 1,280 | One-sixth. Michaelmas | | | | Daisies | 216 „ | 216 | 432 | One-third. | | | | FLOWERS (CUT). | | | | Violets |1,440 doz. | 1,280 | 2,720 | One-half. | bunches | | | Wallflowers |3,200 „ | 1,600 | 4,800 | One-half. Lavender (green | | | | and dry) |1,600 „ | 1,200 | 4,120[7]| One-half. Pinks | 720 „ | 600 | 1,320 | One-third. Mignonette |2,000 „ | 1,600 | 3,600 | One-half. Lilies of | | | | the Valley | 180 „ | 160 | 340 | One-tenth. Moss Roses |2,000 „ | 1,600 | 3,600 | One-third. China ditto |2,000 „ | 1,600 | 3,600 | One-third. Stocks | 800 „ | 480 | 1,280 | One-third. | | | | BRANCHES. | | | | Holly | 840 doz. | 720 | 1,640[7]| One-half. | bundles | | | Mistletoe | 800 „ | 640 | 1,560[7]| One-half. Ivy and Laurel | 360 „ | 280 | 740[7]| One-half. Lilac | 96 „ | 64 | 150 | One-half. Palm | 12 „ | 8 | 28[7]| One-half. May | 30 „ | 20 | 70[7]| One-half. -------------------+----------------+-----------+---------+---------------

[6] The numbers here given do not include the shrubs, roots, &c., bought by the hawkers at the nursery gardens.

[7] These totals include the supplies sent to the other markets.

Perhaps the pleasantest of all cries in early spring is that of “All a-growing--all a-blowing” heard for the first time in the season. It is that of the “root-seller” who has stocked his barrow with primroses, violets, and daisies. Their beauty and fragrance gladden the senses; and the first and, perhaps, unexpected sight of them may prompt hopes of the coming year, such as seem proper to the spring.

Cobbett has insisted, and with unquestioned truth, that a fondness for bees and flowers is among the very best characteristics of the English peasant. I consider it equally unquestionable that a fondness for in-door flowers, is indicative of the good character and healthful tastes, as well as of the domestic and industrious habits, of the city artizan. Among some of the most intelligent and best-conducted of these artizans, I may occasionally have found, on my visits to their homes, neither flowers nor birds, but then I have found books.

United with the fondness for the violet, the wallflower, the rose--is the presence of the quality which has been pronounced the handmaiden of all the virtues--cleanliness. I believe that the bunch of violets, on which a poor woman or her husband has expended 1_d._, rarely ornaments an unswept hearth. In my investigations, I could not but notice how the presence or absence of flowers, together with other indications of the better tastes, marked the difference between the well-paid and the ill-paid workman. Concerning the tailors, for instance, I had occasion to remark, of the dwellings of these classes:--“In the one, you occasionally find small statues of Shakspere beneath glass shades; in the other, all is dirt and fœtor. The working-tailor’s comfortable first-floor at the West-end is redolent with the perfume of the small bunch of violets that stands in a tumbler over the mantel-piece; the sweater’s wretched garret is rank with the stench of filth and herrings.” The presence of the bunch of flowers of itself tells us of “a better state of things” elevating the workman; for, amidst the squalid poverty and fustiness of a slopworker’s garret, the nostril loses its daintiness of sense, so that even a freshly fragrant wallflower is only so many yellow petals and green leaves.

A love of flowers is also observable among men whose avocations are out of doors, and those whose habits are necessarily those of order and punctuality.

Among this class are such persons as gentlemen’s coachmen, who delight in the display of a flower or two in the button-holes of their coats when out of doors, and in small vases in their rooms in their masters’ mews. I have even seen the trellis work opposite the windows of cabmen’s rooms, which were over stables, with a projecting roof covering the whole, thickly yellow and green with the flowers and leaves of the easily-trained nasturtium and herb “twopence.” The omnibus driver occasionally “sports a nosegay”--as he himself might word it--in his button-hole; and the stage-coachman of old felt he was improperly dressed if a big bunch of flowers were not attached to his coat. Sailors ashore are likewise generally fond of flowers.

A delight in flowers is observable, also, among the workers whose handicraft requires the exercise of taste, and whose eyes are sensible, from the nature of their employment, to the beauty of colour. To this class belong especially the Spitalfields’ silk-weavers. At one time the Spitalfields weavers were almost the only botanists in London, and their love of flowers is still strong. I have seen fuchsias gladdening the weaver’s eyes by being placed near his loom, their crimson pendants swinging backwards and forwards to the motion of the treadles, while his small back garden has been many-coloured with dahlias. These weavers, too, were at one time highly-successful as growers of tulips.