set the table in a roar. Pre-eminent among them was the poet Churchill, whose wit in many a dazzling attack or repartee still lives in the memory of the members. The "Liberty," added to the Beef, had probably attracted a descendant of King Charles's stern judge, Bradshaw, to the society, who was always boasting of the connexion. Pursuing one day his usual theme, Churchill remarked, "Ah, Bradshaw, don't crow! The Stuarts have been amply avenged for the loss of Charles's head, for you have not had a head in your whole family ever since." The society, after numerous migrations, as from Covent Garden Theatre to the Bedford Hotel in the square, and from the Bedford to the Lyceum, is now permanently settled in a room attached to the latter, where Rich's original gridiron now presents itself, encircled with its motto, and suspended from the ceiling to every eye which can spare a wandering glance from the beefsteak smoking before it." We conclude these historical notices of Covent Garden with a brief reference to its aspect in the beginning of the last century, when the square was enclosed with rails, and ornamented by a stone pillar on a pedestal, with a curious four-square sun-dial; when the south side lay open to Bedford Garden with "its small grotto of trees most pleasant in the summer season," and in which part alone was then kept the market for fruit, roots, and flowers. On the erection of Southampton and Tavistock Streets, with Southampton Passage, on the site of Bedford House and its parterres, the market was removed farther into the square, to the great annoyance, it seems, of the "persons of distinction" who then resided in it, and who gradually left their houses in consequence. Maitland, referring to this point, in describing the "things remarkable" of Covent Garden, calls the latter "a magnificent square," and then adds, "wherein (to its great disgrace) is kept a herb and fruit-market." If the sage topographer could see the latter now, we wonder whether its increased magnitude would make it seem in his eyes a still more disgraceful affair, or whether that very magnitude, as in a thousand analogous instances, would stamp it as respectable. The contrast is certainly curious between the opinions of the market held by a historian of London only a century or so ago, and the state and reputation of that market now.

The supremacy of Covent Garden as the great wholesale market for vegetables, fruit, and flowers is now undisputed. So early indeed as 1654 proposals were made for establishing a herb-market in Clement's Inn Fields; but, though the population had been fast increasing in that direction of the town during the whole of the century, the Stocks Market and the Honey Lane Market, in the City, were still flourishing, and the interests connected with them too powerful to admit of a rival. With a single bridge over the Thames, leading into the very heart of the City, these ancient markets were most convenient to the market-people, whether their supplies were brought by land-carriage or by the river. A century later the Stocks Market was removed, and Spitalfields and Covent Garden had become markets of great importance. The origin of Covent Garden Market is said to have been casual-people coming and standing in the centre of the square with produce for sale gradually led to the establishment of a regular market. This took place before either Westminster or Blackfriars bridges were erected. A paper, published about the middle of the century,

* Clubs of London, vol. ii. p. 11.

6

entitled, Reasons for fixing an Herb-Market at Dowgate,' appears to have been the last attempt to preserve a great vegetable market in the City. It is stated in this paper, that since the removal of Stocks Market the farmers and gardeners had laboured under very great inconvenience, as they were obliged to take their produce to Spitalfields and Covent Garden, which markets, it is observed, were daily increasing. The establishment of a market at Dowgate would, it was argued, have the effect of bringing back into the City all those who went from Stocks Market to Spitalfields; and, as a large proportion of the supply of vegetables and fruit was either landed at the bridge-foot, or brought over it from Kent and Surrey, the proposition seemed reasonable enough. While Dowgate was only three hundred and sixty-six yards from the bridge, Spitalfields was eighteen hundred yards, and Covent Garden three thousand one hundred and ten. The building of Westminster Bridge, and the continually increasing population, particularly in the western and northern suburbs, settled this question. Honey Lane Market, close to Cheapside, and the Fleet Market remained the only places within the City which were supplied by the producers. The Honey Lane Market is now entirely abolished, and its site occupied by the City of London School. In 1824 an Act was passed authorizing the corporation of the City to remove the Fleet Market, and to provide a new one in its place, now called Farringdon Market, on a site adjoining the western side of the old market. In 1830 a company was incorporated for re-establishing Hungerford Market, which is partly a vegetable market. In the same year an Act was passed for establishing Portman Market, in the parish of Mary-le-bone. Finsbury Market is another of the modern vegetable markets of London. We, however, need only notice those markets where the growers and the retail dealers meet to transact their business; and these are Covent Garden; the Borough Market, near the ancient church of St. Saviour's, Southwark; Spitalfields, chiefly a potato-market; Farringdon Market; and perhaps Hungerford Market.

Few places could be more disgraceful to a great city than the incommodious state and mean appearance of Covent Garden Market about thirteen years ago, when it was partially covered with open sheds and wooden structures, running from east to west. What it was seventy years ago we know from Hogarth's print; and the late Mr. Walker, a metropolitan police magistrate, referred to it just previous to its alteration, as an instance of the pernicious effect of neglect and filth on public taste and morality in a spot where large numbers of people daily congregate. "The evil here," he says, "lies in the bad contrivance and arrangement of their places of public concernment. It is surely a great error to spend nearly a million of money on a penitentiary, whilst the hotbeds of vice from which it is filled are wholly unattended to. What must necessarily be the moral state of the numerous class constantly exposed to the changes of the weather, amidst the mud and putridities of Covent Garden? What ought it to be, where the occupation is amongst vegetables, fruits, and flowers, if there were well-regulated accommodations?" Fortunately the kind of deteriorating causes here spoken of have been now removed. In 1827 the Duke of Bedford obtained an Act for rebuilding the market, and the irregular combination of sheds and standings began to be removed in 1828, and in due time the present buildings were completed. The new pile consists of a colonnade on the exterior, running

round the north, east, and south sides, under which are the shops, each with a sleeping-room above. Joined to the back of these is another row of shops, facing the inner courts, and through the centre runs an arched passage, sixteen feet wide and open to the top, with shops on each side. This passage is the favourite promenade of those who visit the market after the rougher business of the morning is over. Forced fruits and culinary vegetables, and rare flowers constitute the great attraction. The effect of the seasons is set at nought. In January forced rhubarb is exhibited, and French beans at 3s. a hundred, hot-house grapes at 25s. a lb.; in February, cucumbers at 2s. 6d. to 4s. each; and strawberries Is. an ounce; in March, new potatoes at 2s. and 2s. 6d. a lb. ; in April, peaches and nectarines at 2s. each, and cherries at 25s. a lb., or perhaps 30s.; at the end of the month peas at 9s. per dozen; early in May, green gooseberries at 7s. or 8s. per half-sieve of 3 gallons; and all the greatest results of artificial horticulture in every month of the year. In January, bouquets of geraniums, chrysanthemums, euphorbia, and other flowers, may be had at 2s. 6d. to 5s. each; bunches of violets at 6d. each; sprigs of sweet-briar, also the Persian lilac, mignonette, &c. Very extensive cellarage for storing bulky articles is excavated under ncarly the whole area of the market. There are cellars with conveniences for washing potatoes. Great attention has been paid to the forming of capacious sewers, and every precaution taken to ensure the most perfect cleanliness. Water is furnished by an Artesian well, two hundred and eighty feet deep, which supplies sixteen hundred gallons an hour, and the whole market can be inundated and washed in a few minutes. Over the eastern colonnade, the principal entrance, there are two light and elegant conservatories, rented by two eminent nurserymen, for the sale of the more scarce and delicate species of plants and flowers. They are fifteen feet broad and fifteen feet high, and occupy a third of the terrace, the remaining part forming a promenade, and being also used for the display of the more hardy plants. A handsome fountain throws up a refreshing shower, and adds very much to the beauty of the conservatories. The view from the terrace into the principal passage below, and towards the eastern side of the market, is animated, if not picturesque. We shall return to Covent Garden after a brief description of two other of the metropolitan vegetable markets.

First in extent, so far as the building is concerned, is Farringdon Market. It occupies the sloping surface on which Holborn Hill and Fleet Street stand, and is, in fact, the ancient bank of the river Flect. This inclination of the surface is remarkably favourable to the drainage, and the market is not only well supplied with water, but is well lighted when the market is open. The area occupies about one acre and a half, in the form of a parallelogram, surrounded on two sides by buildings 41 feet high and 48 broad, and measuring along the middle about 480 feet long. On the above sides are the shops of the butchers and poulterers. The third side consists of a spacious covered space, 232 feet long, 48 feet broad, and 41 feet high, for the fruiterers and dealers in vegetables, and it opens on the central area by an arcade at several points. The south side is open to the street, but separated from it by a long iron palisading, in which there are two entrances for waggons. The number of shops is seventy-nine. Altogether the quadrangular area with the buildings covers 3900 square yards,

being 232 feet by 150 feet. Two of the largest provincial markets are St. John's Market, at Liverpool, 183 feet by 45; and one at Birmingham, 120 feet by 36. The cost of building Farringdon Market was 30,000l., but the purchase of the site, the buildings which stood upon it, and the rights of the occupiers, cost the city about 200,000l. Hungerford Market was erected by the architect of Covent Garden Market, but it is not confined to the sale of articles of food only. The Borough Market is of tolerable size, but altogether destitute of architectural pretensions; and, if possible, Spitalfields and the other markets are still less distinguished in this way.

The supply of a population amounting to nearly two millions with articles of such general and necessary consumption in every family as culinary vegetables and fruit, involves of course a very extensive and comprehensive system of cooperation, and in this and every other department connected with the provision of food to the inhabitants of London there is that perfect working to each other's hands amongst the several branches of those immediately or remotely employed by which alone the final result is so successfully accomplished. In vegetable food and fruit the demand cannot at all times keep pace with the immense supply which is poured in by steam-boats, sailing-boats, and boats conducted by a pair of oars, by the railways, and by land-carriage, from the metropolitan counties, from every part of England and parts of Scotland, and from the continent. It is nearly half a century since Middleton, in his 'Agricultural Survey of Middlesex,' estimated the value of the vegetables annually consumed in London at 645,000l., and of fruit at 400,000l., making together a sum exceeding one million sterling (1,045,000.), and this exclusive of the profits of any other class besides the growers. The total amount paid by the consumer would of course very much augment the above large sum. Middleton gives an instance in which the marketgardener received 451. per acre for turnips, while the consumer was paying at the rate of 150/., the former selling bunches at three halfpence each, which were sold in the retailer's shop at fivepence. This of course was not the general course of the trade, for though the retail dealer has, generally speaking, to pay a heavy rent, and is subject to other great expenses and bad debts, the difference of the wholesale and retail price was in this case disproportionate. There are perhaps more cases of garden-farmers or market-gardeners making handsome fortunes by production than amongst the class who sell the same articles by retail. Middleton speaks of a person who grew at Sutton eighty acres of asparagus, and the cost of forming the beds was estimated at 100l. per acre. Another grower had sixty acres of his own land under this crop. The market-gardeners, he says, on five acres of the best land, or nine acres of a secondary quality, or on twenty acres of inferior land, at that time provided as well for their families as an ordinary farmer on one hundred and fifty or two hundred acres. He calculated that, for the supply of London with vegetables, there were 2000 acres cultivated by the spade, and 8000 partly by the spade but chiefly by the plough: the gross annual produce varied from 2001. to 50l. an acre. There were besides the fruit gardeners, who, in 1795, had three thousand acres under cultivation in Middlesex alone, the "upper crop" consisting of apples, pears, cherries, plums, walnuts, &c., and the "under crop" of gooseberries, raspberries, currants, strawberries, and other bearing trees which would grow

well under the shade of the larger ones. Peaches, nectarines, and similar fruits were trained against the walls. In the height of the season Middleton supposed that each acre of these gardens gave employment to thirty-five persons, amongst whom were many women, chiefly from Wales, part of whose time was employed in carrying baskets of fruit to town on their heads. The vegetable gardeners also gave employment to great numbers of persons in the busiest season. The gathering of a crop of peas required forty persons for every ten acres, the "podders" being paid at the rate of fourpence a bushel in 1795. After peas succeeded turnips, and these as well as carrots are washed and tied in bunches before being sent to market. The cutting and packing of waggon loads of cabbages or whatever other vegetables may be in season cannot be done without the services of a number of persons besides the labourers actually engaged in their cultivation. Since Middleton's work was published the population of the metropolis has just doubled, and it probably will not be far wrong to double his estimates: the mode of cultivation and of preparing the produce for market remains much in the same state as it was fifty years ago. Two centuries ago, Samuel Hartlib, author of several works on agriculture, writing in 1650, states that some old men recollected" the first gardener who came into Surrey to plant cabbages, cauliflowers, and to sow turnips, carrots, and parsnips, to sow carlyripe peas, all which at that time were great wonders, we having few or none in England but what came from Holland and Flanders." Twenty years before, he tells us, that so near London as Gravesend, "there was not so much as a mess of peas but what came from London." In our day we have pea salesmen in London, and in a single day one grower will send to one firm about four hundred sacks of twelve and sixteen pecks each, besides from three to five hundred sieves (of seven gallons each) of those of a superior kind; and the same grower will in the same way send seven or eight waggon loads of cabbages, each load averaging one hundred and fifty dozen cabbages; at another season, from the same farm, fourteen or fifteen hundred baskets of" sprouts" will be sent in one day, and in the course of the year from five to six thousand tons of potatoes. If we look at the immense quantity and variety of vegetables and fruits which are sent to London in the present day, it is easier to perceive the great change which has taken place in the diet of the people than to imagine how they could do without that varied supply of vegetable food which is now considered indispensable.

The market-days at Covent Garden are Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, the last being by far the most important. There is no particular hour for commencing business, but it varies at different seasons, and by day break there are always a few retail dealers present. Waggons and carts have been arriving for some time before, and porters are busied in transferring their contents to the different stations of the salesmen while the dawn is yet grey. The houses of refreshment around the market are open at half-past one in summer; and little tables are set out against the pillars of the piazzas by the venders of tea and coffee. Here the porters and carters can obtain refreshment without needing to resort to exciting liquors; and few greater benefits have been conferred on the laborious classes whose occupation is in the public markets than that of substituting tea and coffee for ardent spirits. There is some separation of the