October 7, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICULTDBB AND COTTAGE GARDE NEB. 



331 



those initiated in market lore can oatch the full significance. 

 Covent Garden, like the Cattle Market, Smithfield Meat 

 Market, Billingsgate Fish Market, and Leadenhall Market, 

 has a language of its own. What with the throwing down of 

 huge piles of Cabbages, and crates and boxes, the fillings of 

 baskets, and the rushing of everyone to and fro, unpacking 

 from laden vehicles and repacking in empty ones, the storing 

 in shops and cellars, the depositing of produce on the flagged 

 areas, the incessant endeavours of drivers of vehicles to make 

 headway or to retreat from their positions, the exclamations 

 and objurgations from the hundreds upon hundreds moving 

 in a labyrinth of wheels and hoofs, the cries of the porters in 

 the crowd to clear the way, the excitement of the scene is all 

 but bewildering. Amidst all this uproar one hears ia every 

 direction the chink of money. The negotiations are carried 

 on with marvellous rapidity — each seller seems to deal with 

 half a dozen persons at once ; yet buyer and seller, such is the 

 throng and the number of counter currents, are like persons 

 bargaining in a heady stream, sometimes in the very act borne 

 out of sight of each other. Thousands of pounds are changing 

 hands ; the produce of hundreds of acres being bartered away 

 whilst we gaze. A moment suffices for the bargaining of the 

 retail dealer, and, in fact, with so many competitors he has 

 no choice but to be " sharp and quick." Equally prompt are 

 those who purchase on a wholesale scale, these frequently, 

 through the advantages of capital and the terms they can 

 obtain, supplying the shops of large districts, and this 

 promptly. Thus one man has secured almost the monopoly 

 of the Watercresses by greengrocers in the western central 

 district, being able to obtain them on better terms than 

 they could themselves, not to speak of the saving of time. 

 A large assortment of vegetables and fruit will be selected, 

 purchased, and carried off by a vendor in less than a quarter 

 of an hour. 



Up to nine o'clock a. jr. the price of produce of the same 

 description is uniform, as fixed by the market dealer.^. To 

 this price all purchasers must conform ; and thus business is 

 facilitated — a consideration to buyers who have little time to 

 spare. The early part of the day is necessarily that most 

 convenient to a large number of greengrocers and other retail 

 dealers. They are supplied before the local trade has well- 

 nigh commenced, and the prices charged by them tociistomers 

 fluctuates, as a matter of course, with the terms they have 

 been able to secure. It does not follow that this early pricing 

 is satisfactory to the market purveyors or dealers. It is 

 largely influenced by the state of the weather and the general 

 amount of current supplies. If it is desirable to move off a 

 large quantity of any produce, the terms will be lower than 

 otherwise. It would scarcely be interesting to our readers to 

 give particulars of the conclave which result in the determina- 

 tion of the figures to be demanded up to nine o'clock ; nor 

 need we explain the interest all dealers have in uniformity. 

 In addition, through custom and common interest, it is a 

 regulation which none dare break. In this period many of 

 the costers as well as shopkeepers are supplied, and pur- 

 chases are made for the country, to be carried off by early 

 trains. 



After nine o'clock all dealers are free to name their own 

 prices, and no one can have visited Covent Garden without 

 noticing the variation in ticketed figures in different locahties 

 of fruits of the same quality. SimOarly a variation necessarily 

 extends to the sales in larger quantities, whether by private 

 arrangement or by auction. Auction sales are frequently held 

 by various dealers throughout the day. The early sales will, 

 to some extent, have fixed metropolitan prices, and the object 

 of buyers now is to make good bargains. Every regular 

 frequenter is known to the several classes of purchasers, and 

 it is a prime consideration with costers and others to wait 

 the thinning of competitors. The departure of a score of 

 well-to-do greengrocers will accordingly be patiently awaited, 

 in the knowledge that their presence serves to keep prices up, 

 and that they cannot afford to stay. It is a sort of time duel 

 that is being fought, for on neither side can the holding-off 

 be kept up for ever. Many of these auction sales are adver- 

 tised by slates hung up against a pillar, or in the case of the 

 shipment of foreign fruit being telegraphed a day or two 

 before the stock arrives. There is, in addition, a sort of free- 

 masonry among those interested in market sales, by which 

 information as to goods to be disposed of would seem, without 

 any formal previous notice, to become common property. At 

 these auction sales the produce, as we have stated, is frequently 

 sold in the street waggons as it stands ; while of stored fruit 



I and vegetables opportunity is given for previous inspection, 

 whether above ground or in the subterranean caverns. With 

 foreign and home-boxed fruit all the boxes are sometimes 

 opened as offered for sale ; and so, at times, with hampers, &c. 

 It is at these sales the costers mainly buy ; as in the city, bo 

 here, they constitute an important class of purchasers, being 

 the virtual purveyors of two-fifths of the metropolitan popu- 

 lation. It is to be remembered, too, that they buy some of 

 the best fruit and vegetables in the market. These sales give 

 occasion for abundant displays of character, though they are 

 conducted on the whole with a quietness foreign to the city 

 fruit and vegetable sales. Each sale has different stages. 

 There is the reserve price with which it sets out, and which, 

 as soon as demand flags, is sure to be abated. Then again, 

 the best lots are, as a rule, sold first. 



The most amusing sales, those which differ in character 

 from all the others, are the latest. What is sold must, as a 

 rule, be sold, whetlier to clear stock, and so make way for 

 to-morrow's arrivals, or "sorted out" because the " signs of 

 decay" or just "going off" have become apparent. For the 

 first reason we have seen the choicest of Apricots, Plums, 

 and foreign Cherries, Green Gages, and other fruits thus 

 disposed of. A mixed company assembles, including costers, 

 who operate on their own account, and others who hold money 

 for investment that has been clubbed together by half a dozen 

 others, with fruiterers of poor neighbourhoods, whose business 

 will be carried far into the night, and whose customers are 

 not too particular for quality, so that they get cheapness and 

 quantity. The buyers have not a penny to lose ; the costers 

 particularly are a shrewd set, capital judges of what suits 

 them, and well capable of " sorting stock." Hemmed-in by 

 heaps of "empties" that serve as tea-tables or smoking 

 couches to a number of wearied market servitors who have 

 borne the burden and heat of the day, we join, not without 

 some hesitation, the aforesaid group, which clusters on the 

 flagged area by one of the closed shop windows. From below 

 the shutters a long narrow panel is removed, showing three 

 grim faces belonging to men whose business is evidently 

 subterranean. The conversation is the genuine staple market 

 talk, a compound of business hints, suggestions, and assevera- 

 tions as to current prices and qualities of fruit, interspersed 

 with rough social amenities, such as hearty slaps on each 

 others' shoulders and backs, the utterance of broad jokes, 

 followed by loud shouts of laughter at the expense of some 

 butt of their rude wit. Such as it is, there appears to reign a 

 general good-fellowship. 



Presently a small thick-set man, brown-coated and grey- 

 trousered, with felt hat of the Vandyke style, mounts a box, 

 memorandum book and pencil in hand. Instanter the three 

 heads at the panel disappear, and from the dark cavernous 

 mouth three boxes of Cherries are pushed out on the pave- 

 ment. 



" Now, what's the bid ? " asks the auctioneer, " see, they're 

 prime." One of the boxes is open and a good look ia taken. 



" Three — four — five — six" (meaning Gs. for a given number 

 of boxes) , come like a rattling volley. 



Auctioneer gives a hard defiant look, but the fates have 

 ordained that nothing more shall be offered, and the entry of 

 the name of the successful bidder in the auctioneer's memo- 

 randum book is followed by successive acceptances of like lots 

 at the same figure. 



With small as with large auction sales excitement is apt 

 to grow, chiefly evinced in the sarcasms passed on the condi- 

 tion of the fruit by artful bidders desirous of checking the bids 

 of others, in conflicting claims for the last bid, and sundry 

 personal remarks, which assume, by their pointedness, that 

 the speakers have an intimate acquaintance with each other's 

 domestic and business affairs. To represent the wordy con- 

 flicts whilst the auction goes on, we would have to be aided 

 by as many stenographers a?, according to Dean Stanley, 

 attended on St. Anthony. In some of these conflicts each 

 unit of the lot seems to become judge and witness when two 

 contestants claim to have bought each the same lot, stretching 

 their necks like cranes towards the auctioneer and vociferating 

 till they are hoarse. 



The auctioneer, careful to offend none, looks at all, hears 

 all, and apparently believes none. To carry conviction pro 

 or con, the buttons of his coat are laid hold of, his arms are 

 pulled by huge brawny hands, whilst ever anon a palm floats 

 over his book to prevent him making an entry before he 

 hears the full case out. In the end the contestants divide 

 the spoils. 



