University of Virginia Library

OF THE "ARISTOCRATIC" VEGETABLE-SALE.

In designating these dealers I use a word not
uncommon among the costermongers. These
aristocratic sellers, who are not one in twenty,
or perhaps in twenty-five, of the whole body of
costermongers, are generally men of superior
manners and better dressed than their brethren.
The following narrative, given to me by one of
the body, shows the nature of the trade: —

"It depends a good deal upon the season and
the price, as to what I begin with in the `haris-
tocratic' way. My rounds are always in the

[Description: 915EAF. Page 093.]

suburbs. I sell neither in the streets, nor squares
in town. I like it best where there are detached
villas, and best of all where there are kept mis-
tresses. They are the best of all customers to men
like me. We talk our customers over among
ourselves, and generally know who's who. One
way by which we know the kept ladies is, they
never sell cast-off clothes, as some ladies do, for
new potatoes or early peas. Now, my worst
customers, as to price, are the ladies — or gentle-
men — they're both of a kidney — what keeps
fashionable schools. They are the people to
drive a bargain, but then they buy largely.
Some buy entirely of costermongers. There's
one gent. of a school-keeper buys so much and
knows so well what o'clock it is, that I'm satis-
fied he saves many a pound a year by buying of
us 'stead of the greengrocers.

"Perhaps I begin the season in the haristo-
cratic way, with early lettuces for salads. I
carry my goods in handsome baskets, and some-
times with a boy, or a boy and a girl, to help
me. I buy my lettuces by the score (of heads)
when first in, at 1s. 6d., and sell them at 1½d. each, which is 1s. profit on a score. I have sold
twenty, and I once sold thirty score, that way
in a day. The profit on the thirty was 2l. 5s., but out of that I had to pay three boys, for I
took three with me, and our expenses was 7s. But you must consider, sir, that this is a pre-
carious trade. Such goods are delicate, and
spoil if they don't go off. I give credit some-
times, if anybody I know says he has no change.
I never lost nothing

"Then there's grass (asparagus), and that's
often good money. I buy all mine at Covent-
garden, where it's sold in bundles, according to
the earliness of the season, at from 5s. to 1s., containing from six to ten dozen squibs (heads).
These you have to take home, untie, cut off the
scraggy ends, trim, and scrape, and make them
level. Children help me to do this in the court
where I live. I give them a few ha'pence,
though they're eager enough to do it for nothing
but the fun. I've had 10s. worth made ready
in half an hour.

"Well, now, sir, about grass, there's not a
coster in London, I'm sure, ever tasted it; and
how it's eaten puzzles us." [I explained the
manner in which asparagus was brought to
table.] "That's the ticket, is it, sir? Well, I
was once at the Surrey, and there was some
macaroni eaten on the stage, and I thought
grass was eaten in the same way, perhaps;
swallowed like one o'clock," [rather a favourite
comparison among the costers.]

"I have the grass — it's always called, when
cried in the streets, `Spar-row gra-ass' — tied up
in bundles of a dozen, twelve to a dozen, or one
over, and for these I never expect less than 6d. For a three or four dozen lot, in a neat sieve, I
ask 2s. 6d., and never take less than 1s. 3d. I
once walked thirty-five miles with grass, and
have oft enough been thirty miles. I made 7s. or 8s. a day by it, and next day or two perhaps
nothing, or may-be had but one customer. I've
sold half-crown lots, on a Saturday night, for a
sixpence; and it was sold some time back at
2d. a bundle, in the New Cut, to poor people.
I dare say some as bought it had been maid-
servants and understood it. I've raffled 5s. worth of grass in the parlour of a respectable
country inn of an evening.

"The costers generally buy new potatoes at
4s. to 5s. the bushel, and cry them at `three-
pound-tuppence;' but I've given 7s. a bushel,
for choice and early, and sold them at 2d. a
pound. It's no great trade, for the bushel may
weigh only 50 lb., and at 2d. a pound that's
only 8s. 4d. The schools don't buy at all until
they're 1d. the pound, and don't buy in any
quantity until they're 1s. 6d. the 25 lb. One
day a school 'stonished me by giving me 2s. 6d. for 25 lb., which is the general weight of the
half bushel. Perhaps the master had taken a
drop of something short that morning. The
schools are dreadful screws, to be sure.

"Green peas, early ones, I don't buy when
they first come in, for then they're very dear, but
when they're 4s. or 3s. 6d. a bushel, and that's
pretty soon. I can make five pecks of a bushel.
Schools don't touch peas `till they're 2s. a bushel.

"Cowcumbers were an aristocratic sale. Four
or five years ago they were looked upon, when
first in, and with a beautiful bloom upon them,
as the finest possible relish. But the cholera
came in 1849, and everybody — 'specially the
women — thought the cholera was in cowcumbers,
and I've known cases, foreign and English, sent
from the Borough Market for manure.

"I sell a good many mushrooms. I some-
times can pick up a cheap lot at Covent Garden.
I make them up in neat sieves of three dozen to
eight dozen according to size, and I have sold
them at 4s. the sieve, and made half that on
each sieve I sold. They are down to 1s. or 1s. 6d. a sieve very soon.

"Green walnuts for pickling I sell a quantity
of. One day I sold 20s. worth — half profit — I
got them so cheap, but that was an exception.
I sold them cheap too. One lady has bought a
bushel and a half at a time. For walnut
catsup the refuse of the walnut is used; it's
picked up in the court, where I've got children
or poor fellows for a few ha'pence or a pint of
beer to help me to peel the walnuts."