536 THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XXXII. 



grown more abundantly and cheaply than in the country round 

 London, which can pour its produce into the great centre in an 

 hour or two by rail, and yet for the want of spacious markets, and 

 proper regulations, the London public is to a great extent de- 

 priyed of advantages enjoyed by most cities and towns in Europe. 

 As for our chief fruit and vegetable market, it is a disgrace to 

 civilisation. So. long as the largest and richest city in the world 

 depends upon Covent Garden as at present arranged, for its fruits 

 and vegetables, so long must it find them very deficient. The 

 want of room alone is sufficient to frequently make important 

 difierences in the prices, not to speak of the treatment the produce 

 gets at all times, especially in wet weather. What a contrast to 

 the central market in Paris ! 



Can we not secure a good wide market accessible to river, rail, and 

 streets somewhere on the Thames Embankment, and leave Covent 

 Garden to one or two branches of the trade ? Can nothing be done 

 to remedy a state of things which is not only a strong evidence of 

 the want of orderly rule in the management of London, l)ut which 

 must have a bad efi'ect on the supplies of almost every family. 

 The cattle-market at Islington and the meat and poultry market 

 in the City are excellent ; they, like the Thames Embankment, 

 are really worthy of London ; but as yet we do not seem to have 

 moved a step towards the establishment of a garden-market worthy 

 of the town. Were this done with as broad an aim as has been 

 shown in the other markets just named, we should have a feature 

 added to London which would assuredly be of the greatest utility 

 and benefit to the public at large. We should also have an 

 exhibition of the garden-produce of the country around London, 

 presenting new objects of interest every day as the seasons 

 changed. A market fitted to accommodate, from the point of 

 view of buyers and the public as well as the trade, the produce 

 of the market- and fruit-gardens, would be one of the greatest 

 improvements that could be efi'ected in London. 



In the Paris market, in addition to ample provision for whole- 

 sale trade, there are streets of stalls containing everything the 

 purchaser requires, classified so that the market-women who vend 

 the same sorts of produce are brought into proximity and com- 

 petition with one another. The advantages gained by the public 

 are obvious — the housewife has not only the opportunity of pur- 



