DEMAND FOR OYSTERS. 259 



others of the " parks " at these places, " natives " are grown in 

 perfection. The company' of the burghers of Queenborough 

 grow the fine Milton oyster so well known to the connoisseur,, 

 and the company's beds are well attended to. I may note the 

 Faversham Company, said to be the oldest among the Thames 

 companies, having been in existence for a few centuries. All 

 of these companies grow the " natives," and I may explain that 

 the portion of the beds set aspairt for the rearing of " natives " 

 is as sacred as the waxen cells devoted to the growth of queen 

 bees, and the coarser denizens of the mid-channel are not 

 allowed to be mixed therewith. The management of all the . 

 Kent and Essex oyster companies is pretty much the same, 

 but there are also gentlemen who trade solely upon their own 

 account. 



The demand for native and other oysters by the Londoner^ 

 alone is something wonderful, and constitutes of itself a large 

 branch of commerce — as the numerous shell-fish shops of the 

 Strand and Haymarket abundantly testify. It is not easy to 

 arrive at correct statistics of what Loudon requires in the way 

 of oysters ; but if we set the number down as being nearly 

 1,000,000,000 per annum we shall not be very far wrong. To 

 provide these, the dredgermen or fisher people at Colchester, 

 and other places on the Essex and Kent coasts, prowl about 

 the sea-shore and pick up all the little oysters they can find — ■ 

 these ranging from the size of a threepenny-piece to a shilling ; 

 and persons and companies having layings purchase them to be 

 nursed an^ fattened for the table, as already described. At 

 other places the spawn itself is collected, by picking it from 

 the pieces of stone, or the old oyster-shells, to which it may 

 have adhered ; and it is nourished in pits, as at Bumham, for 

 the purpose of being sold to the Whitstable people, who care- 

 fully lay that brood in their grounds. A good idea of the 

 oyster-traffic may be obtained from the fact that, in some years, 

 the Whitstable men have paid £30,000 for brood, in order to 

 keep up the stock of their far-famed oysters. 



The centre in England for the distribution of oysters is 

 Billingsgate, the chief piscatorial bourse of the great metropolis, 

 and the countless thousands of bushels of this molluscous dainty 

 which find their way through " Oyster Street " to this Fish 

 Exchange mark the everlasting 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. 



