54 THE OYSTER. 



CHAPTER YII. 



THE OYSTER AT ITS JOrRXEY's END. 



Oyster Stalls ; How to Open the Oyster ; an Oyster Supper ; 

 Beer, "Wines, and Spirits ; Roasted, Fried, Stewed, and Scol- 

 loped Oysters ; Oyster Soup, and Oyster Sauce ; Broiled 

 Oysters ; Oyster Pie ; Oyster Toast ; Oyster Patties ; Oyster 

 Powder ; Pickled Oysters ; Oyster Loaves ; Oyster Omelet ; 

 Cabbage, Larks, and Oysters ; and Progs and Oysters. 



" If where Fleet Ditch with muddy cm-rent flows 

 You chance to roam, where oyster-tubs in rows 

 Are ranged beside the posts, there stay thy haste. 

 And with the savomy fish indulge thy taste." — Gay. 



IA^ writing for the Million, and the least the Million 

 can do in return is every one to buy a copy of my book, 

 and bid everybody to recommend everybody to do the 

 same. The Fleet Ditch, which was once in the centre 

 of the old Fleet Market, has disajDpeared since Gay wrote 

 the lines I have just quoted, and now forms the great 

 sewer of Farringdon Street ; but with the Ditch have 

 not disappeared the oyster- stalls ; they have only 

 changed their locality, and, like the "Wandering Jew, 

 have turned up in the most out-of-the-way places, 

 where nobody would expect to find them. I know 

 what stall-oysters are; for when I was a school-boy 

 many and oft is the time I spent my pennies, on the sly, 

 at a stall behind the old cathedral that just abutted the 

 ancient Market Cross. The maiden that opened them 



