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 1s. 9d. each | 437 |
| 20,000 | partridges, at 1s. 6d. | 1,500 |
| 12,000 | pheasants, at 3s. 6d. | 2,100 |
| 5,000 | snipes, at 8d. | 166 |
| 20,000 | hares, at 2s. 3d. | 2,250 |
| 600,000 | rabbits, at 7d. | 17,500 |
| 500,000 | fowls, at 1s. 6d. | 37,500 |
| 20,000 | geese, at 2s. 6d. | 2,500 |
| 80,000 | ducks, at 1s. 6d. | 6,000 |
| 30,000 | turkeys, at 3s. 6d. | 5,250 |
| 10,000 | live fowls and ducks, at 1s. 6d. | 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, 80,000l. 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.