University of Virginia Library

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 exclu-
sive 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 ani-
mals, 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 pre-
vious 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	524,000	1,807,000
Poultry.
Domestic Fowls	1,266,000	490,000	1,756,000	One-third.
\s-\\s-\ (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.
\s-\ (alive)	20,000	20,000	40,000	One-tenth.
Turkeys	69,000	55,000	124,000	One-fourth.
Pigeous	285,000	98,000	383,000	None.
	2,808,000	940,000	3,748,000
Game, &c	1,283,000	524,000	1,807,000
	4,091,000	1,464,000	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 Londen will,
I am told, equal that of pheasants (64,000).
The great stock of wild ducks for the Lon-
don 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 Lon-
don. 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 poul-
try sold by the costers, or rather at the money

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value (or price) of what they sell. The most
experienced salesmen agree, that, as to quan-
tity, including everything popularly considered
game (and I have so given it in the return),
they sell one-third. As regards value, how-
ever, 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 pur-
chases in the lower-priced kinds. The others buy
none of the best qualities. The more "aristo-
cratic" 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 Lead-
enhall) 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. Some-
times 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 im-
proves it," said one man; "and the shopkeepers
now and then, does the same. It's a improve-
ment, 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.