considerable extent. Until, as nearly as I can ascertain, between
twenty and thirty years back, butter was brought from Epping, and
other neighbouring parts, where good pasture existed, and hawked in
the streets of London, usually along with poultry and eggs. This trade
is among the more ancient of the street-trades. Steam-vessels and
railways, however, have so stocked the markets, that no hawking of
butter or eggs, from any agricultural part, even the nearest to London,
would be remunerative now. Eggs are brought in immense quantities from
France and Belgium, though thirty, or even twenty years ago the notion
having of a good French egg, at a London breakfast-table, would have
been laughed at as an absurd attempt at an impossible achievement. The
number of eggs now annually imported into this kingdom, is 98,000,000,
half of which may be said to be the yearly consumption of London. No
butter is now hawked, but sometimes a few “new laid” eggs are carried
from a rural part to the nearest metropolitan suburb, and are sold
readily enough, if the purveyor be known. Mr. M’Culloch estimates the
average consumption of butter, in London, at 6,250,000 lbs. per annum,
or 5 oz., weekly, each individual.
The hawking of cheese was never a prominent part of the street-trade.
Of late, its sale in the streets, may be described as accidental. A
considerable quantity of American cheese was hawked, or more commonly
sold at a standing, five or six years ago; unto December last, and for
three months preceding, cheese was sold in the streets which had been
rejected from Government stores, as it would not “keep” for the period
required; but it was good for immediate consumption, for which all
street-goods are required. This, and the American cheese, were both
sold in the streets at 3_d._ the pound; usually, at fair weights, I am
told, for it might not be easy to deceive the poor in a thing of such
frequent purchase as “half a quarter or a quarter” (of a pound) of
cheese.
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 1_s._ 9_d._ each 437
20,000 partridges, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 1,500
12,000 pheasants, at 3_s._ 6_d._ 2,100
5,000 snipes, at 8_d._ 166
20,000 hares, at 2_s._ 3_d._ 2,250
600,000 rabbits, at 7_d._ 17,500
500,000 fowls, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 37,500
20,000 geese, at 2_s._ 6_d._ 2,500
80,000 ducks, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 6,000
30,000 turkeys, at 3_s._ 6_d._ 5,250
10,000 live fowls and ducks, at 1_s._ 6_d._ 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, 80,000_l._ 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.
The street-sellers of cut flowers present characteristics peculiarly
their own. This trade is mostly in the hands of girls, who are of two
classes. This traffic ranks with the street sale of water-cresses and
congreves, that is to say, among the lowest grades of the street-trade,
being pursued only by the very poor, or the very young.
OF THE QUANTITY OF SHRUBS, “ROOTS,” FLOWERS, ETC., SOLD IN THE STREETS,
AND OF THE BUYERS.
The returns which I caused to be procured, to show the extent of the
business carried on in the metropolitan markets, give the following
results as to the quantity of trees, shrubs, flowers, roots, and
branches, sold wholesale in London, as well as the proportion retailed
in the streets.
TABLE SHOWING THE QUANTITY OF TREES, SHRUBS, FLOWERS, ROOTS, AND
BRANCHES SOLD ANNUALLY, WHOLESALE, AT THE METROPOLITAN MARKETS, AND
THE PROPORTION RETAILED IN THE STREETS.[6]
-------------------+----------------+-----------+---------+---------------
| Covent Garden. |Farringdon.| Total. |Proportion sold
| | | | to Costers.
-------------------+----------------+-----------+---------+---------------
TREES AND SHRUBS. | | | |
Firs | 400 doz. roots| 400 | 800 | One-third.
Laurels | 480 „ | 480 | 960 | One-third.
Myrtles |1,440 „ | 1,120 | 2,560 | One-fourth.
Rhododendrons | 288 „ | 256 | 544 | One-ninth.
Lilac | 192 „ | 192 | 384 | One-sixth.
Box | 288 „ | 192 | 480 | One-sixth.
Heaths (of all | | | |
kinds) |1,600 „ | 1,440 | 3,040 | One-fifth.
Broom and Furze | 544 „ | 480 | 1,024 | One-fourth.
Laurustinus | 400 „ | 320 | 720 | One-fourth.
Southernwood | | | |
(Old Man) | 960 „ | 480 | 1,440 | One-half.
| | | |
FLOWERS (IN POTS).| | | |
Roses (Moss) |1,200 doz. pots | 960 | 2,160 | One-half.
Ditto (China) |1,200 „ | 960 | 2,160 | One-half.
Fuchsias |1,200 „ | 960 | 2,160 | One-half.
| | | |
FLOWER ROOTS. | | | |
Primroses | 600 doz. roots| 400 | 1,000 | One-half.
Polyanthus | 720 „ | 720 | 1,440 | One-half.
Cowslips | 720 „ | 480 | 1,200 | One-half.
Daisies | 800 „ | 600 | 1,400 | One-half.
Wallflowers | 960 „ | 960 | 1,920 | One-half.
Candytufts | 720 „ | 480 | 1,200 | One-half.
Daffodils | 720 „ | 480 | 1,200 | One-half.
Violets |1,200 „ | 1,200 | 2,400 | One-third.
Mignonette |2,000 „ | 1,800 | 3,800 | One-sixth.
Stocks |1,600 „ | 1,280 | 2,880 | One-sixth.
Pinks and | | | |
Carnations | 480 „ | 320 | 800 | One-half.
Lilies of | | | |
the Valley | 144 „ | 144 | 288 | One-fourth.
Pansies | 600 „ | 480 | 1,080 | One-fourth.
Lilies and Tulips | 152 „ | 128 | 280 | One-ninth.
Balsam | 320 „ | 320 | 640 | One-sixth.
Calceolarii | 360 „ | 240 | 600 | One-ninth.
Musk-plants |5,760 „ | 4,800 |10,560 | One-half.
London Pride | 400 „ | 320 | 720 | One-third.
Lupins | 960 „ | 640 | 1,600 | One-third.
China-asters | 450 „ | 400 | 850 | One-sixth.
Marigolds |5,760 „ | 4,800 |10,560 | One-eighth.
Dahlias | 80 „ | 80 | 160 | One-ninth.
Heliotrope | 800 „ | 480 | 1,280 | One-sixth.
Michaelmas | | | |
Daisies | 216 „ | 216 | 432 | One-third.
| | | |
FLOWERS (CUT). | | | |
Violets |1,440 doz. | 1,280 | 2,720 | One-half.
| bunches | | |
Wallflowers |3,200 „ | 1,600 | 4,800 | One-half.
Lavender (green | | | |
and dry) |1,600 „ | 1,200 | 4,120[7]| One-half.
Pinks | 720 „ | 600 | 1,320 | One-third.
Mignonette |2,000 „ | 1,600 | 3,600 | One-half.
Lilies of | | | |
the Valley | 180 „ | 160 | 340 | One-tenth.
Moss Roses |2,000 „ | 1,600 | 3,600 | One-third.
China ditto |2,000 „ | 1,600 | 3,600 | One-third.
Stocks | 800 „ | 480 | 1,280 | One-third.
| | | |
BRANCHES. | | | |
Holly | 840 doz. | 720 | 1,640[7]| One-half.
| bundles | | |
Mistletoe | 800 „ | 640 | 1,560[7]| One-half.
Ivy and Laurel | 360 „ | 280 | 740[7]| One-half.
Lilac | 96 „ | 64 | 150 | One-half.
Palm | 12 „ | 8 | 28[7]| One-half.
May | 30 „ | 20 | 70[7]| One-half.
-------------------+----------------+-----------+---------+---------------
[6] The numbers here given do not include the shrubs, roots, &c.,
bought by the hawkers at the nursery gardens.
[7] These totals include the supplies sent to the other markets.
Perhaps the pleasantest of all cries in early spring is that of “All
a-growing--all a-blowing” heard for the first time in the season. It is
that of the “root-seller” who has stocked his barrow with primroses,
violets, and daisies. Their beauty and fragrance gladden the senses;
and the first and, perhaps, unexpected sight of them may prompt hopes
of the coming year, such as seem proper to the spring.
Cobbett has insisted, and with unquestioned truth, that a fondness
for bees and flowers is among the very best characteristics of the
English peasant. I consider it equally unquestionable that a fondness
for in-door flowers, is indicative of the good character and healthful
tastes, as well as of the domestic and industrious habits, of the city
artizan. Among some of the most intelligent and best-conducted of these
artizans, I may occasionally have found, on my visits to their homes,
neither flowers nor birds, but then I have found books.
United with the fondness for the violet, the wallflower, the rose--is
the presence of the quality which has been pronounced the handmaiden of
all the virtues--cleanliness. I believe that the bunch of violets, on
which a poor woman or her husband has expended 1_d._, rarely ornaments
an unswept hearth. In my investigations, I could not but notice how
the presence or absence of flowers, together with other indications
of the better tastes, marked the difference between the well-paid
and the ill-paid workman. Concerning the tailors, for instance, I
had occasion to remark, of the dwellings of these classes:--“In the
one, you occasionally find small statues of Shakspere beneath glass
shades; in the other, all is dirt and fœtor. The working-tailor’s
comfortable first-floor at the West-end is redolent with the perfume
of the small bunch of violets that stands in a tumbler over the
mantel-piece; the sweater’s wretched garret is rank with the stench of
filth and herrings.” The presence of the bunch of flowers of itself
tells us of “a better state of things” elevating the workman; for,
amidst the squalid poverty and fustiness of a slopworker’s garret, the
nostril loses its daintiness of sense, so that even a freshly fragrant
wallflower is only so many yellow petals and green leaves.
A love of flowers is also observable among men whose avocations are out
of doors, and those whose habits are necessarily those of order and
punctuality.
Among this class are such persons as gentlemen’s coachmen, who
delight in the display of a flower or two in the button-holes of
their coats when out of doors, and in small vases in their rooms in
their masters’ mews. I have even seen the trellis work opposite the
windows of cabmen’s rooms, which were over stables, with a projecting
roof covering the whole, thickly yellow and green with the flowers
and leaves of the easily-trained nasturtium and herb “twopence.” The
omnibus driver occasionally “sports a nosegay”--as he himself might
word it--in his button-hole; and the stage-coachman of old felt he was
improperly dressed if a big bunch of flowers were not attached to his
coat. Sailors ashore are likewise generally fond of flowers.
A delight in flowers is observable, also, among the workers whose
handicraft requires the exercise of taste, and whose eyes are sensible,
from the nature of their employment, to the beauty of colour. To this
class belong especially the Spitalfields’ silk-weavers. At one time
the Spitalfields weavers were almost the only botanists in London, and
their love of flowers is still strong. I have seen fuchsias gladdening
the weaver’s eyes by being placed near his loom, their crimson pendants
swinging backwards and forwards to the motion of the treadles, while
his small back garden has been many-coloured with dahlias. These
weavers, too, were at one time highly-successful as growers of tulips.
Those out-door workmen, whose calling is of coarse character, are never
known to purchase flowers, which to them are mere trumpery. Perhaps no
one of my readers ever saw a flower in the possession of a flusherman,
nightman, slaughterer, sweep, gaslayer, gut and tripe-preparer, or
such like labourer. _Their_ eyes convey to the mind no appreciation of
beauty, and the sense of smell is actually dead in them, except the
odour be rank exceedingly.
The fondness for flowers in London is strongest in the women, and,
perhaps, strongest in those whose callings are in-door and sedentary.
Flowers are to them a companionship.
It remains only for me to state that, in the poorest districts, and
among people where there is no sense of refinement or but a small love
for natural objects, flowers are little known. Flowers are not bought
by the slop-workers, the garret and chamber-masters of Bethnal-green,
nor in the poor Irish districts, nor by the City people. Indeed, as I
have observed, there is not a flower-stand in the city.
It should be remembered that, in poor districts, the first appearance
of flowers conveys to the slop-workman only one pleasurable
association--that the season of warmth has arrived, and that he will
not only escape being chilled with cold, but that he will be delivered
from the heavy burden of providing fire and candle.
A pleasant-looking man, with an appearance which the vulgar
characterise as “jolly,” and with hearty manners, gave me the following
account as to the character of his customers. He had known the business
since he was a boy, his friends having been in it previously. He said:
“There’s one old gentleman a little way out of town, he always gives
1_s._ for the first violet root that any such as me carries there. I’m
often there before any others: ‘Ah!’ he says, ‘here you are; you’ve
come, like Buonaparte, with your violet.’ I don’t know exactly what he
means. I don’t like to ask him you see; for, though he’s civil, he’s
not what you may call a free sort of man--that’s it.” [I explained
to him that the allusion was to Buonaparte’s emblem of the violet,
with the interpretation he or his admirers gave to it--“I come in the
spring.”] “That’s it, sir, is it?” he resumed; “well, I’m glad I know,
because I don’t like to be puzzled. Mine’s a puzzling trade, though.
Violets have a good sale. I’ve sold six dozen roots in a day, and only
half as many primroses and double-daisies, if half. Everybody likes
violets. I’ve sold some to poor people in town, but they like their
roots in pots. They haven’t a bit of a garden for ’em. More shame too
I say, when they pays such rents. People that sits working all day is
very fond of a sweet flower. A gentleman that’s always a-writing or
a-reading in his office--he’s in the timber-trade--buys something of
me every time I see him; twice or thrice a week, sometimes. I can’t
say what he does with them all. Barmaids, though you mightn’t think
it, sir, is wery tidy customers. So, sometimes, is young women that’s
in an improper way of life, about Lisson-grove, and in some parts near
Oxford-street. They buys all sorts. Perhaps more stocks than anything,
for they’re beautiful roots, and not dear. I’ve sold real beauties for
2_d._--real beauties, but small; 6_d._ is a fair price; one stock will
perfume a house. I tell my customers not to sleep with them in the
room; it isn’t good for the health. A doctor told me that, and said,
‘You ought to give me a fuchsia for my opinion.’ That was his joke.
Primroses I sell most of--they’re not in pots--two or three or four
miles out of town, and most if a family’s come into a new house, or
changed their house, if there’s children. The young ones teases the old
ones to buy them to set in the garden, and when children gets fairly to
work that way, it’s a sure sale. If they can’t get over father, they’ll
get over mother. Busy men never buy flowers, as far as I’ve seen.” [‘In
no thoroughfare in the city, I am assured, is there a flower-stand--a
circumstance speaking volumes as to the habits and tastes of the
people. Of fruit-stalls and chop-houses there are in the neighbourhood
of the Exchange, more than in any other part of London perhaps--the
faculty of perceiving the beauty of colour, form, and perfume, as
combined in flowers is not common to the man of business. The pleasures
of the palate, however, they can all understand.’] “Parsons and doctors
are often tidy customers,” resumed my informant. “They have a good deal
of sitting and reading, I believe. I’ve heard a parson say to his wife,
‘Do, my dear, go and buy a couple of those wallflowers for my study.’ I
don’t do much for working-men; the women’s my best customers. There’s a
shoemaker to be sure comes down sometimes with his old woman to lay out
2_d._ or 3_d._ on me; ‘Let’s have something that smells strong,’ he’ll
say, ‘stronger than cobbler’s wax; for, though I can’t smell that,
others can.’ I’ve sold him musks (musk-plants) as often as anything.
“The poor people buy rather largely at times; that is, many of them
buy. One day last summer, my old woman and me sold 600 penny pots
of mignonette; and all about you saw them--and it was a pleasure to
see them--in the poor women’s windows. The women are far the best
customers. There was the mignonette behind the bits of bars they have,
in the shape of gates and such like, in the front of their windows, in
the way of preventing the pots falling into the street. Mignonette’s
the best of all for a sure sale; where can you possibly have a sweeter
or a nicer penn’orth, pot and all.”
OF THE STREET SALE OF TREES AND SHRUBS.
The street-trade in trees and shrubs is an appendage of “root-selling,”
and not an independent avocation. The season of supply at the markets
extends over July, August, September, and October, with a smaller trade
in the winter and spring months. At the nursery gardens, from the best
data I can arrive at, there are about twice as many trees and shrubs
purchased as in the markets by the costermongers. Nor is this the only
difference. It is the more costly descriptions that are bought at the
nursery grounds.
The trees and shrubs are bought at the gardens under precisely the
same circumstances as the roots, but the trade is by no means popular
with the root-sellers. They regard these heavy, cumbrous goods, as
the smarter costers do such things as turnips and potatoes, requiring
more room, and yielding less profit. “It breaks a man’s heart,” said
one dealer, “and half kills his beast, going round with a lot of heavy
things, that perhaps you can’t sell.” The street-dealers say they must
keep them, “or people will go, where they can get roots, and trees,
and everything, all together.” In winter, or in early spring, the
street-seller goes a round now and then, with evergreens and shrubs
alone, and the trade is then less distasteful to him. The trees and
shrubs are displayed, when the market-space allows, on a sort of
stand near the flower-stand; sometimes they are placed on the ground,
along-side the flower-stand, but only when no better display can be
made.
The trees and shrubs sold by the costers are mezereons, rhododendrons,
savine, laurustinus, acacias (of the smaller genera, some being
highly aromatic when in flower), myrtles, guelder-roses (when small),
privet, genistas, broom, furze (when small), the cheaper heaths,
syringas (small), lilacs (almost always young and for transplanting),
southernwood (when large), box (large) dwarf laurels, variegated
laurels (called a _cuber_ by the street-people), and young fir-trees,
&c.
The prices of trees vary far more than flower-roots, because they are
dependent upon _size_ for value. “Why,” said one man, “I’ve bought
roddies, as I calls them (rhododendrons), at 4_s._ a dozen, but they
was scrubby things, and I’ve bought them at 14_s._ 6_d._ I once gave
5_s._ for two trees of them, which I had ordered, and there was a rare
grumbling about the price, though I only charged 7_s._ 6_d._ for the
two, which was 1_s._ 3_d._ a piece for carriage, and hard earned too,
to carry them near five miles in my cart, almost on purpose, but I
thought I was pleasing a good customer. Then there’s myrtles, why I can
get them at 5_d._ a piece, and at 5_s._, and a deal more if wanted.
You can have myrtles that a hat might be very big for them to grow in,
and myrtles that will fill a great window in a fine house. I’ve bought
common heaths at 1_s._ 3_d._ a dozen.”
The coster ordinarily confines himself to the cheaper sorts of plants,
and rarely meddles with such things as acacias, mezereons, savines,
syringas, lilacs, or even myrtles, and with none of these things
unless cheap. “Trees, real trees,” I was told, “are often as cheap as
anything. Them young firs there was 4_s._ 6_d._ a dozen, and a man at
market can buy four or six of them if he don’t want a dozen.”
The customers for trees and shrubs are generally those who inhabit
the larger sort of houses, where there is room in the hall or the
windows for display; or where there is a garden capacious enough for
the implantation of the shrubs. Three-fourths of the trees are sold
on a round, and when purchased at a stall the costermonger generally
undertakes to deliver them at the purchaser’s residence, if not too
much out of his way, in his regular rounds. Or he may diverge, and make
a round on speculation, purposely. There is as much bartering trees
for old clothes, as for roots, and as many, or more, complaints of the
hard bargainings of ladies: “I’d rather sell polyanthuses at a farthing
a piece profit to poor women, if I could get no more,” said one man,
“than I’d work among them screws that’s so fine in grand caps and so
civil. They’d skin a flea for his hide and tallow.”
The number of trees and shrubs sold annually, in the streets, are,
as near as I can ascertain, as follows--I have added to the quantity
purchased by the street-sellers, at the metropolitan markets, the
amount bought by them at the principal nursery-gardens in the environs
of London:
Firs 9,576 roots
Laurels 1,152 „
Myrtles 23,040 „
Rhododendrons 2,160 „
Lilacs 2,304 „
Box 2,880 „
Heaths 21,888 „
Broom 2,880 „
Furze 6,912 „
Laurustinus 6,480 „
Southernwood 25,920 „
THE LONDON FLOWER GIRLS.
It is not easy to arrive at any accurate estimate of the number of
flower-sellers in the streets of London. The cause of the difficulty
lies in the fact that none can be said to devote themselves entirely
to the sale of flowers in the street, for the flower-sellers, when
oranges are cheap and good, find their sale of the fruit more certain
and profitable than that of flowers, and resort to it accordingly.
Another reason is, that a poor costermonger will on a fine summer’s
day send out his children to sell flowers, while on other days they
may be selling water-cresses or, perhaps, onions. Sunday is the best
day for flower-selling, and one experienced man computed, that in the
height and pride of the summer 400 children were selling flowers, on
the Sundays, in the streets. Another man thought that number too low
an estimate, and contended that it was nearer 800. I found more of the
opinion of my last mentioned informant than of the other, but I myself
am disposed to think the smaller number nearer the truth. On week days
it is computed there are about half the number of flower-sellers that
there are on the Sundays. The trade is almost entirely in the hands of
children, the girls outnumbering the boys by more than eight to one.
The ages of the girls vary from six to twenty; few of the boys are
older than twelve, and most of them are under ten.