374 AT BILLINGSGATE. [CHAP. vm. 



men have paid 30,000 for brood, in order to keep up the 

 stock of their far-famed oysters. Mr. Hawkins says that he 

 knows a man who is proprietor of only three acres of oyster- 

 layings, and yet from that confined area he annually sells 

 from 1500 to 2000 wash of the best native oysters. 



The chief centre in England for the distribution of oysters 

 is Billingsgate, and the countless thousands of bushels of 

 this molluscous dainty which find their way through 

 "Oyster Street" to this Fish Exchange mark the everlast- 

 ing demand. Oysters are sold by the bushel, and every 

 measure is made to pay a toll of fourpence, and another. 

 sum of a like amount for carriage to the shore. All oys- 

 ters sold at Billingsgate are liable to this eightpenny tax. 

 The London oysters and I regret to say it, for there is 

 nothing finer than a genuine oyster are sophisticated in the 

 cellars of the buyers, by being stuffed with oatmeal till the 

 flavour is all but lost in the fat. The flavour of oysters like 

 the flavour of all other animals depends on their feeding. 

 The fine go&t of the highly-relished Prestonpans oysters is 

 said to be derived from the fact of their feeding on the refuse 

 liquor which flows from the saltpans of that neighbourhood. 

 I have eaten of fine oysters taken from a bank that was visited 

 by a rather questionable stream of water ; they were very 

 large, fat, and of exquisite flavour, the shell being more than 

 usually well filled with " meat." What the London oysters gain 

 in fat by artificial feeding they assuredly lose in flavour. The 

 harbour of Kinsale (a receptacle for much filth) used to be 

 remarkable for the size and flavour of its oysters. The beds 

 occupied the whole harbour, and the oysters there were at 

 one time very plentiful, and far exceeded the Cork oysters in 

 fame (and they have long been famous) ; but they were so 

 overfished as to be long since used up, much to the loss 

 of the Irish people, who are particularly fond of oysters, 

 and delight in their " Pooldoodies " and " Red-banks " as 



