The drover with his goad is forcing the cattle into the smal_Curiosities of Civilization

compass, and a little further on half a dozen men are making desperate

efforts to drag refractory oxen up to the rails with ropes. In the scuffle

which ensues the slipping of the ropes often snaps the fingers of the

persons who are conducting the operation, and there is scarce a drover in

the market who has not had some of his digits broken. The sheep, squeezed

into hurdles like figs into a drum, lie down upon each other, "and make no

sign;" the pigs, on the other hand, cry out before they are hurt. This

scene, which has more the appearance of a hideous nightmare than a weekly

exhibition in a civilised country, is accompanied by the barking of dogs,

the bellowing of cattle, the cursing of men, and the dull blows of

sticks--a charivari of sound that must be heard to be appreciated. The

hubbub gradually abates from twelve o'clock at night, the time of opening,

to its close at 3 P.M. next day; although during the whole period, as

fresh lots are "headed up," individual acts of cruelty continue. Can it

excite surprise that a state of things, the worst details of which we have

suppressed, because of the pain which such horrors excite, sometimes so

injures the stock that, to quote the words of one of the witnesses before

the Smithfield Commission, "a grazier will not know his own beast four

days after it has left him?" The meat itself suffers in quality; for

anything like fright or passion is well known to affect the blood, and

consequently the flesh. Beasts subjected to such disturbances will often

turn green within twenty-four hours after death. Mr. Slater, the

well-known butcher of Kensington and Jermyn-street, states that mutton is

often so disfigured by blows and the goad, that it cannot be sold for the

West-end tables. Many of the drovers we doubt not are ruffians, but we

believe the greater part of this cruelty is to be ascribed to the

market-place itself, which, considering the immense amount of business to

be got through on Mondays and Fridays, is absurdly and disgracefully

confined. According to the official account, the number of live stock

exhibited in 1853 was--

Oxen. Sheep. Calves. Pigs. Total.

294,571 1,518,040 36,791 29,593 1,893,888

But this is far from giving a true idea of the whole amount brought into

London. Much stock arrives in the capital which never enters the great

mart. For example, Mr. Slater, who kills per week, on the average, 200

sheep and from 20 to 25 oxen, says, in his evidence before the Smithfield

Commission, that he buys a great deal of his stock from the graziers in

Norfolk and Essex. Again, "town" pigs are slaughtered and sent direct to

the meat market, while many sheep are bought from the parks, where they

have been temporarily placed till they find a purchaser. A much more

correct estimate of the flocks and herds which are annually consumed in

London may be gathered from a report of the numbers transmitted by the

different lines of railway, compiled from official sources by Mr. Ormandy,

the cattle-traffic manager of the North-Western Railway. From this able

pamphlet we extract the following table:--

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

| | | | | |for 1853.|

| |-------|---------|-------|-------|---------|

|By Eastern Counties | 81,744| 277,735| 3,492| 23,427| 386,398|

| " L. & N. Western | 70,435| 248,445| 5,113| 24,287| 348,280|

| " Great Northern | 15,439| 120,333| 563| 8,973| 145,308|

| " Great Western | 6,813| 104,607| 2,320| 2,909| 116,649|

| " L. & S. Western | 4,885| 100,960| 1,781| 516| 108,142|

| " South Eastern | 875| 58,320| 114| 142| 59,451|

| " L. & B. & S. Coast | 863| 13,690| 117| 54| 14,724|

| England and Scotland | 14,662| 11,141| 421| 3,672| 29,896|

| " Sea from Ireland | 2,311| 3,472| 21| 5,476| 11,280|

|Imported from the Continent| 55,065| 229,918| 25,720| 10,131| 320,834|

| the neighbourhood of the | 69,096| 462,172| 62,114| 48,295| 641,647|

| |-------|---------|-------|-------|---------|

|Total |322,188|1,630,793|101,776|127,852|2,182,609|

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

These numbers show at a glance what a part the railway plays in supplying

animal food to the metropolis, and how trifling in comparison is the

amount that travels up on foot. The Eastern Counties lines, penetrating

and monopolizing the rich breeding and fattening districts of Norfolk and

Essex, bring up the largest share. Many of the little black cattle, that

tourists see in Scotland climbing the hills like cats, come directly from

these counties, having some months before been sent thither from their

native north to clothe their bones with English substance. By the same

line we receive a fair portion of that great foreign contribution to our

larders, the mere shadow of which so frightened our graziers some years

ago, principally Danish stock, which finds its way from Tonning to

Lowestoff, a route newly opened up by the North of Europe Steam-ship

Company. The North-Western is next in rank as a carrier of live stock.

This line takes in the contributions from the Midland Counties, and, by

way of Liverpool, abundance of Irish and Scotch cattle. The Great Northern

is perhaps destined to surpass both in the quantities of food it will

eventually pour into London, running as it does through the northern

breeding districts, and receiving at its extremity the herds which come

from Aberdeen and its neighbourhood.

The foreign supply last year of cattle, sheep, pigs, and calves, was more

than a seventh of the entire number sent to London. The daily bills of

entries at the Custom House furnishes us with a valuable indication of the

fields from which we have already received, and may in future expect to

receive still further additions of what Englishmen greatly covet--good

beef and mutton at a moderate price. The arrivals by steam in the port of

London in 1853 were as follows:--

+----------------------------------------------------------------+

|-----------------|-------|----------|----------|-------|--------|

|Holland | 40,538| 172,730| 24,280| 9,370| 246,918|

|Denmark | 9,487| 7,515| 60| .. | 17,062|

|Hanseatic Towns | 4,366| 37,443| 1| 632| 42,442|

|Belgium | 449| 12,006| 1,244| .. | 13,699|

|France | 105| 224| 135| 129| 593|

|Portugal | 100| .. | .. | .. | 100|

|Spain | 17| .. | .. | .. | 17|

|Russia | 3| .. | .. | .. | 3|

| |-------|----------|----------|-------|--------|

|Total | 55,065| 229,918| 25,720| 10,131| 320,834|

-----------------------------------------------------------------+

Holland, Denmark, and the Hanseatic Towns, it will be seen, were the

principal contributors. A more striking example of the influence of the

legislation of one country in modifying the occupations of the people of

another could not be cited, than the manner in which Sir Robert Peel's

tariff revolutionized the character of Danish and Dutch farming. Before

1844 the pastures of the two countries, more especially the rich marshes

of Holland, were almost exclusively devoted to dairy purposes: the

abolition of the duty on live stock in that year quickly introduced a new

state of things. The farmers began to breed stock, and consequently

turnips and mangel-wurzel have been creeping over fields, where once the

dairy-maid carried the milking-pail, as gradually as one landscape

succeeds another in the Polytechnic dissolving views. We get now from both

countries excellent beef, especially from Jutland, whose lowing herds used

formerly to go to Hamburg--and who has not heard of the famous Hambro'

beef? We may expect in time to receive still finer meat from this quarter,

for the Danes have been sedulously improving their breed, and

agriculturists, who saw the beasts which were sent over to the last

Baker-street show, admitted that they were in every respect equal to our

own short-horns. It is gratifying to note how ready the world is to follow

our lead in the matter of stock-breeding. Bulls are bought up at fabulous

prices by foreigners, and especially by our cousins on the other side of

the Atlantic, for the purpose of raising the indigenous cattle to the

British standard. An American, for instance, purchased, for 1,000_l._, a

celebrated bull bred by Earl Ducie, though unfortunately the animal broke

his neck on his passage out. Another noble specimen was secured, we have

heard, for the same quarter, for 600_l._

The supply of sheep and lambs has, during the last twenty years, stood

nearly still; for in 1828 there were brought to market 1,412,032, and in

1849 but 1,417,000, or only an extra 4,000 for the 500,000 mouths which

have been added to the metropolis between these two periods. That London

has of late years abjured mutton, as our immediate ancestors appear to

have done pork, the evidence of our senses denies. How, then, are we to

explain this stagnation in the Smithfield returns? By the fact that a new

channel has been found in the rapid rise of Newgate market, the great

receptacle of country-killed meat brought up to town by the railways.

Those who remember the place forty years ago state that there were not

then twenty salesmen, and now there are two hundred. This enormous

development is due to steam, which bids fair to give Newgate, in the cold

season at least, the lead over Smithfield. The new agent has more than

quadrupled the area from which London draws its meat. Twenty years ago

eighty miles was the farthest distance from which carcases ever came; now

the Great Northern and North-Western railways, during the winter months,

bring hundreds of tons from as far north as Aberdeen, whilst some are

fetched from Hamburgh and Ostend. Country slaughtering will in time, we

have little doubt, deliver the capital from the nuisances which grow out

of this horrible trade. Aberdeen is in fact becoming little else than a

London _abattoir_. The style in which the butchers of that place dress and

pack the carcases leaves nothing to be desired, and in the course of the

year mountains of beef, mutton, pork, and veal arrive the night after it

is slaughtered in perfect condition. According to returns obligingly

forwarded to us by the different railway companies, we find that the

following was the weight of country-killed meat by the undermentioned

lines:--

Tons.

Eastern Counties 10,398

North-Western 4,602

Great Western 5,200

Great Northern 13,152[23]

South-Eastern 1,035

South-Western 2,000

Brighton and South Coast 100

------

36,487

Thus no less than 36,487 tons of meat are annually "pitched" at Newgate

and Leadenhall markets. As the Scotch boats convey about 700 tons more, we

have at least 37,187 tons of country-killed meat brought into London by

steam, and these immense contributions are totally independent of the

amount slaughtered at Smithfield, which is estimated to average weekly

1,000 oxen, 3,000 sheep and lambs, and 400 calves and pigs. We have given

the average supply; but on some occasions the quantity is enormously

increased. The Eastern Counties line during one Christmas week deposited

at Newgate about 1,000 tons of meat; and the weight sent by other

companies on the same day would be proportionately large. No less than

forty waggons were waiting on one occasion to discharge their beef and

mutton into the market. And what does our reader imagine may be the area

in which nine-tenths of this mass of meat are sold? Just 2 roods 45

perches, having one carriage entrance, which varies from 14 to 18 feet in

width, and four foot entrances, the widest of which is only 16 feet 6

inches, and the narrowest 5 feet 8 inches. No wonder that, as we are

informed by more than one of the witnesses before the Smithfield Inquiry

Commission, there is often not sufficient space to expose the meat for

sale, and it becomes putrid in consequence. Though we have acquired the

fame of being a practical people, it must be confessed that we conduct

many of our every-day transactions in a blundering manner, when we cannot

provide commodious markets for perishable commodities, or even turn out an

omnibus that can be mounted without an effort of agility and daring.

Mr. Giblett, the noted butcher, late of Bond Street, calculates that the

amount of meat brought by the railways into Newgate is three times that

supplied by the London carcase butchers, who annually send 52,000 oxen,

156,000 sheep, 10,400 calves, and 10,400 pigs. Taking this estimate, and

applying it also to the Leadenhall market, we shall have at

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

|----------------------------|---------|---------|---------|--------|

|Newgate, meat | 156,000 | 468,000| 31,200 | 31,200|

|Leadenhall, ditto | 5,200 | 41,600| .. | .. |

| |---------|---------|---------|--------|

| | 161,200 | 509,600| 31,200 | 31,200|

|Live stock brought to London| 322,188 |1,630,793| 101,776 | 127,852|

| |---------|---------|---------|--------|

|Total supply of live stock }| | | | |

| and meat to London }| 483,388 |2,140,393| 132,976 | 159,052|

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

This we are convinced is still below the truth, for we have not included

the country-killed meat sold at Farringdon and Whitechapel markets.[24]

The total value of this enormous supply of flesh cannot be much less than

fourteen millions annually.

These figures demonstrate that the falling off of sheep sent to London is

solely because they now come to town in the form of mutton. It is sent to

a much greater extent than beef, in consequence of its arriving in finer

condition, being more easily carried, and better worth the cost of

conveyance on account of the larger proportion of prime joints. Indeed,

the entire carcase of the oxen never comes, since the coarse

boiling-pieces would have to pay the same carriage as the picked

"roastings." Newgate, be it remembered, is eminently a West End market,

and fully two-thirds of its meat find its way to that quarter of the town.

Accordingly, most of the beef "pitched" here consists of sirloins and

ribs; and, in addition to whole carcases of sheep, there are numerous

separate legs and saddles of mutton. This accounts for a fact that has

puzzled many, namely, how London manages to get such myriads of chops. Go

into any part of the metropolis, and look into the windows of the thousand

eating-houses and coffee-shops in the great thoroughfares, and in every

one of them there is the invariable blue dish with half a dozen juicy,

well-trimmed chops, crowned with a sprig of parsley. To justify such a

number, either fourfold the supply of sheep must come to London that we

have any account of, or in lieu of the ordinary number of vertebræ they

must possess as many as the great boa. When the prodigious store of

saddles which the country spares the town have once been seen the wonder

ceases. "Sometimes I cut 100 saddles into mutton-chops to supply the

eating-houses," says Mr. Banister, of Threadneedle Street.

The weather preserves a most delicate balance between Newgate and

Smithfield. Winter is the busy time at the former market, when meat can be

carried any distance without fear of taint. As soon as summer sets in,

Smithfield takes its turn; for butchers then prefer to purchase live

stock, in order that they may kill them the exact moment they are

required. Sometimes as many as 1,200 beasts and from 12,000 to 15,000

sheep are slaughtered in hot weather on a Friday night, in the

neighbourhood of Smithfield, for Saturday's market. Every precaution is

taken on the railways to keep the meat sweet. The Eastern Counties Company

provide "peds," or cloths cut to the shape of the carcase or joint, for

the use of their customers, and sometimes it is conveyed from the north in

boxes. When, in spite of care, it turns out to be tainted, the salesman to

whom it is consigned calls the officer of the market, by whom it is

forthwith sent to Cow Cross, and there burnt in the nacker's yard.

According, however, to a competent witness--Mr. Harper--bad meat in any

quantity can be disposed of in the metropolis to butchers living in low

neighbourhoods, who impose it upon the poor at night. "There is one shop,

I believe," he says, "doing 500_l._ per week in diseased meat. This firm

has a large foreign trade. The trade in diseased meat is very alarming,

and anything in the shape of flesh can be sold at about 1_d._ per pound or

8_d._ per stone."

If the reader is not already surfeited with the mountains of meat we have

piled before his eyes, let us beg his attention for a few minutes to game

and poultry, which we bring on in their proper course. Leadenhall and

Newgate, as all the world knows, are the great metropolitan depôts for

this class of food, especially the former, which receives perhaps

two-thirds of the entire supply. The quantities of game and wild birds

consigned to some of the large salesmen almost exceeds belief. After a few

successful battues in the Highlands, it is not at all unusual for one firm

to receive 5,000 head of game, and as many as 20,000 to 30,000 larks are

often sent up to market together. All other kinds of the feathered tribe

which are reputed good for food are received in proportionate abundance.

If it were not for the great salesmen, many a merry dinner would be

marred, for the retail poulterers would be totally incapable of executing

the constant and sudden orders for the banquets which are always

proceeding. The good people at the Crystal Palace have already learned to

consume, besides unnumbered other items, 600 chickens daily; and from this

we may guess how vast the wants of the entire metropolis. The sources from

which game and poultry are derived are fewer than might be imagined. The

Highlands and Yorkshire send up nearly all the grouse; and scores of

noblemen, members of Parliament, and other wealthy or enthusiastic

sportsmen, who are at this present moment beating over the moors, and

walking for their pleasure twenty-five miles a day, assist to furnish this

delicacy to the London public at a moderate rate.

Pheasants and partridges mainly come from Norfolk and Suffolk; snipes from

the marshy lowlands of Holland, which also provides our entire supply of

teal, widgeon, and other kinds of wild fowl, with the exception of those

caught in the "decoys" of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. From Ostend

there are annually transmitted to London 600,000 tame rabbits, which are

reared for the purpose on the neighbouring sand dunes. We are indebted to

Ireland for flocks of plovers, and quails are brought from Egypt and the

south of Europe. In most of our poulterers' windows may be seen the long

wooden boxes, with a narrow slit, in which these latter birds are kept

until required for the spit. Not long since upwards of 17,000 came to

London _viâ_ Liverpool, whither they had been brought from the Campagna,

near Rome. Of the 2,000,000 of fowls that every year find a resting-place

_vis-à-vis_ to boiled tongues on our London tables, by far the greatest

quantity are drawn from the counties of Surrey and Sussex, where the

Dorking breed is in favour. Ireland also sends much poultry. No less than

1,400 tons of chickens, geese, and ducks are brought to town annually by

the Great Western Railway, most of which are from the neighbourhood of

Cork and Waterford, whence they are shipped to Bristol. Londoners are

accustomed to see shops of late years which profess to sell "West of

England produce," such as young pork, poultry, butter, and clouted cream.

All these delicacies are brought by the Great Western Railway, and are

principally the contributions of Somersetshire and Devonshire. The bulk of

the geese, ducks, and turkeys, however, come from Norfolk, Cambridge,

Essex, and Suffolk--four fat counties, which do much to supply the London

commissariat, the Eastern Counties Railway alone having brought thence

last year 22,462 tons of fish, flesh, fowl, and good red herrings.

For pigeons we are indebted to "our fair enemy France," as Sir Philip

Sydney calls her, but now we trust our fast friend. They proceed

principally from the interior, and are shipped for our market from

Boulogne and Calais. How many eggs we get from across the Channel we

scarcely like to say. Mr. M'Culloch considers that the capital receives

from 70,000,000 to 75,000,000--a number which we think must be much below

the mark, seeing that the Brighton and South Coast line brings annually

2,600 tons, the produce of Belgium and France. At Bastoign, in the latter

country, there is a farm of 200 acres entirely devoted to the rearing of

poultry and the production of eggs for the supply of London.

No perfectly accurate account can be given of the number per annum of

poultry, game, and wild birds which enter Leadenhall and Newgate markets;

but the following estimate was handed to us by a dealer who turns over

100,000_l._ a year in this trade. As the list takes no account of the

quantity which goes direct to the retailer, nor of the thousands sent as

presents, it must fall short of the actual consumption:--

Grouse 100,000

Partridges 125,000

Pheasants 70,000

Snipes 80,000

Wild Birds (mostly small) 150,000

Plovers 150,000

Quails 30,000

Larks 400,000

Widgeon 70,000

Teal 30,000

Wild Ducks 200,000

Pigeons 400,000

Domestic Fowls 2,000,000

Geese 100,000

Ducks 350,000

Turkeys 104,000

Hares 100,000

Rabbits 1,300,000

---------

Total 5,759,000

In addition to its dead game and wild fowl, Leadenhall market is quite a

Noah's ark of live animals. Geese, ducks, swans, pigeons, and cocks,

bewilder you with their noise. Intermingled with these birds of a feather

are hawks, ferrets, dogs and cats, moving about in their wicker cages, and

almost aggravated to madness by the proximity of their prey. The major

portion of the live stock is designed either for sporting purposes or for

"petting" and breeding, and do not belong to the commissariat department.

Of the dead game and poultry, the seven railways bring to London about

7,871 tons weight in the course of the year.

The drover with his goad is forcing the cattle into the smallest possible