Of the Quantity of Game, Rabbits, and Poultry, sold in the Streets.
It appears from inquiries that I instituted, and from authentic returns which I procured on the subject, that the following is the quantity of game and poultry sold yearly, as an average, in the markets of the metropolis. I give it exclusive of such birds as wild-ducks, woodcocks, &c., the supply of which depends upon the severity of the winter. I include all wild birds or animals, whether considered game or not, and I use round numbers, but as closely as possible.
During the past Christmas, however, I may observe, that the supply of poultry to the markets has been greater than on any previous occasion. The immensity of the supply was favourable to the hawker’s profit, as the glut enabled him to purchase both cheaply and largely. One young poultry-hawker told me that he had cleared 3l. in the Christmas week, and had spent it all in four days—except 5s. reserved for stock-money. It was not spent entirely in drunkenness, a large portion of it being expended in treats and amusements. So great, indeed, has been the supply of game and poultry this year, that a stranger, unused to the grand scale on which provisions are displayed in the great metropolitan marts, on visiting Leadenhall, a week before or after Christmas, might have imagined that the staple food of the London population consisted of turkeys, geese, and chickens. I give, however, an average yearly supply:
| Description. | Leadenhall. | Newgate. | Total. | Proportion sold in the Streets. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game, &c. | ||||
| Grouse | 45,000 | 12,000 | 57,000 | One-eleventh. |
| Partridges | 85,000 | 60,000 | 145,000 | One-seventh. |
| Pheasants | 44,000 | 20,000 | 64,000 | One-fifth. |
| Snipes | 60,000 | 47,000 | 107,000 | One-twentieth. |
| Wild Birds | 40,000 | 20,000 | 60,000 | None. |
| Plovers | 28,000 | 18,000 | 46,000 | None. |
| Larks | 213,000 | 100,000 | 313,000 | None. |
| Teals | 10,000 | 5,000 | 15,000 | None. |
| Widgeons | 30,000 | 8,000 | 38,000 | None. |
| Hares | 48,000 | 55,000 | 102,000 | One-fifth. |
| Rabbits | 680,000 | 180,000 | 860,000 | Three-fourths. |
| 1,283,000 | 525,000 | 1,807,000 | ||
| Poultry. | ||||
| Domestic Fowls | 1,266,000 | 490,000 | 1,756,000 | One-third. |
| —— —— (alive) | 45,000 | 15,000 | 60,000 | One-tenth. |
| Geese | 888,000 | 114,000 | 1,002,000 | One-fifth. |
| Ducks | 235,000 | 148,000 | 383,000 | One-fourth. |
| —— (alive) | 20,000 | 20,000 | 40,000 | One-tenth. |
| Turkeys | 69,000 | 55,000 | 124,000 | One-fourth. |
| Pigeons | 285,000 | 98,000 | 383,000 | None. |
| Game, &c. | 2,808,000 | 940,000 | 3,748,000 | |
| 1,283,000 | 525,000 | 1,807,000 | ||
| 4,091,000 | 1,465,000 | 5,555,000 |
In the above return wild ducks and woodcocks are not included, because the quantity sent to London is dependent entirely upon the severity of the winter. With the costers wild ducks are a favourite article of trade, and in what those street tradesmen would pronounce a favourable season for wild ducks, which means a very hard winter, the number sold in London will, I am told, equal that of pheasants (64,000). The great stock of wild ducks for the London tables is from Holland, where the duck decoys are objects of great care. Less than a fifth of the importation from Holland is from Lincolnshire. These birds, and even the finest and largest, have been sold during a glut at 1s. each. Woodcocks, under similar circumstances, number with plovers (45,000), nearly all of which are “golden plovers;” but of woodcocks the costermongers buy very few: “They’re only a mouthful and a half,” said one of them, “and don’t suit our customers.” In severe weather a few ptarmigan are sent to London from Scotland, and in 1841-2 great numbers were sent to the London markets from Norway. One salesman received nearly 10,000 ptarmigan in one day. A portion of these were disposed of to the costers, but the sale was not such as to encourage further importations.
The returns I give show, that, at the two great game and poultry-markets, 5,500,000 birds and animals, wild and tame, are yearly sent to London. To this must be added all that may be consigned direct to metropolitan game-dealers and poulterers, besides what may be sent as presents from the country, &c., so that the London supply may be safely estimated, I am assured, at 6,000,000.
It is difficult to arrive at any very precise computation of the quantity of game and poultry sold by the costers, or rather at the money value (or price) of what they sell. The most experienced salesmen agree, that, as to quantity, including everything popularly considered game (and I have so given it in the return), they sell one-third. As regards value, however, their purchases fall very short of a third. Of the best qualities of game, and even more especially of poultry, a third of the hawkers may buy a fifteenth, compared with their purchases in the lower-priced kinds. The others buy none of the best qualities. The more “aristocratic” of the poultry-hawkers will, as a rule, only buy, “when they have an order” or a sure sale, the best quality of English turkey-cocks; which cannot be wondered at, seeing that the average price of the English turkey-cock is 12s. One salesman this year sold (at Leadenhall) several turkey-cocks at 30s. each, and one at 3l. The average price of an English turkey-hen is 4s. 6d., and of these the costers buy a few: but their chief trade is in foreign turkey-hens; of which the average price (when of good quality and in good condition) is 3s. The foreign turkey-cocks average half the price of the English (or 6s.). Of Dorking fat chickens, which average 6s. the couple, the hawkers buy none (save as in the case of the turkey-cocks); but of the Irish fowls, which, this season, have averaged 2s. 6d. the couple, they buy largely. On the other hand they buy nearly all the rabbits sent from Scotland, and half of those sent from Ostend, while they “clear the market”—no matter of what the glut may consist—when there is a glut. There is another distinction of which the hawker avails himself. The average price of young plump partridges is 2s. 6d. the brace, of old partridges, 2s.; accordingly, the coster buys the old. It is the same with pheasants, the young averaging 7s. the brace, the old 6s.: “And I can sell them best,” said one man; “for my customers say they’re more tastier-like. I’ve sold game for twelve years, or more, but I never tasted any of any kind, so I can’t say who’s right and who’s wrong.”
The hawkers buy, also, game and poultry which will not “keep” another day. Sometimes they puff out the breast of a chicken with fresh pork fat, which melts as the bird roasts. “It freshens the fowl, I’ve been told, and improves it,” said one man; “and the shopkeepers now and then, does the same. It’s a improvement, sir.”
In the present season the costers have bought of wild ducks, comparatively, none, and of teal, widgeons, wild birds, and larks, none at all; or so sparely, as to require no notice.