F<)URTP:f,N IH ANNUAL MEETING. 77 



Stow, a very practical writer, after considerable research, 

 comes to the conclusion that a Mr. Beling or Billing, in the time 

 of Elizabeth, had a wharf there. This commencement, though 

 less flavored with romance and more of fish than others, we 

 think more than likely was the beginning of this unpoetical fish 

 mart. The market has been the property of the city of London 

 for centuries, and the revenues derived from it, though no 

 statistics seem to have ever been compiled on the subject, must in 

 the aggregate be enormous. 



Originally the market was very primitive, both in structure 

 and equipments — indeed, until within the memory of those still 

 living, it consisted of "a batch of uncleanly old sheds, reeking 

 with fishy smells, and more or less beset by ruffianly company." 



The language used by those who frequented it has, as is well 

 known, become proverbial for its coarseness. At one time 

 women were engaged in selling fish in the market, and, it is 

 said, were largely instrumental in giving the place the bad name 

 it bore, and though at this time it has entirely changed from 

 what it once was, it still bears the stigma of coarseness in the 

 minds of many, illustrating, says a clever writer, that "as in 

 the case of men, the evil that women do lives after them." 



The old sheds disappeared some years ago, their places being 

 occupied by a building which in turn has given way to the pres- 

 ent market. This structure extends north and south from the 

 Thames river to Thames street, and was built with the idea of 

 having not only ground space, but also space in the basement 

 below and the galleiy overhead. The basement part was in- 

 tended for shellfish dealers. But it was not cjccupied by them 

 long, for being twenty-six feet below the level of the river, it was 

 so dark, damp and disagreeable that few buyers cared to go there. 

 Several deaths also occurred among its occupants, and those re- 

 maining being unwilling to stay longer in the " black hole," it 

 was abandoned, except as a place of storage and for lobster- 

 boiling purposes. The overhead space was for dealers in dried 

 fish, and is connected with the ground fioor both by spacious 

 stairs and elevators. Being sought, however, by few patrons, it 

 was also abandoned, and its occupants went below and squeezed 

 in, as did the shellfish dealers from the basement, so that at this 



