LON 
dividing the city liberty from the county.—It appears 
that Smithfield took its name from a fmith’s (hop originally 
upon the fpot ; fome authors derive it from the circum- 
flance of the plain being there particularly fmcoth. There 
was formerly a pond in the middle; “ for that men wa¬ 
tered horfes there, and was a great water. In the fixth 
of Henry the Fifth, a new building was made in the welt 
of Smithfield betwixt the faid poole and the river Wells, 
in a place then called the E/mcs, for that there grew many 
elm-trees.” It feems that many encroachments had been 
made upon the place before the time of Stow, who ob- 
ferves, “that whereby remaineth but a fmall portion for 
the old ufes,to wit for markets of horfes and cattell; nei¬ 
ther for military exercifes, as juftings, turnings, and great 
triumphs which have been there performed before the 
princes and nobility both of this realme and foraine coun¬ 
tries.” Then the chronicler relates feveral jufts, among 
which the following is not the lead fingular: “The 48 
of Edw. III. Dame Alice Perrers, or Pierce, (the king’s 
concubine,) as Lady of the Sunne, rode from the Tower 
of London through Cheape, accompanied of many lords 
and ladies, every lady leading a lord by his horfe-bridle, 
till they came into Weft Smithfield, and then began a 
great juft which endured feven days after.” This place 
was not paved all over before the year 1614, juft two hun¬ 
dred years ago; the paving coll fix hundred pounds. 
Having faid thus much upon the ancient appearance of 
this place, w’e muft now confider it as it is. The welt 
fide is, as it was anciently, well furnilhed with inns for 
the accommodation of drovers, horfe-dealers, and others, 
whom the cattle-market, which is held every Monday and 
Friday, calls to the place. The Ram, which is on the 
north fide, is moftly frequented by the higheft ciafs of 
dealers. The form of this market is very irregular; but 
the accefs to it is multifarious.—St.-John-ftreet and Gilt- 
fpur-ftreet, at the oppofite fides, are the mod confiderable-; 
but Cock-lane, Holler-lane, Long-lane, Cow-lane, Duke- 
llreet, and Chick-lane, pour every Sunday and Thurfday 
right immenfe flocks and droves, from all parts of the 
kingdom. The area of the place is interfered by ftand- 
ing pen-folds, where numbers of flieep are divided into 
parcels for lale, and wherein the butchers or falefmen 
^tre admitted in order to examine and feel the flefh they 
intend to purchafe ; whilft cows, oxen, and bulls, their 
heads bent to the furrounding pofts, and their horns 
nearly clofe to the ground, are tied up, or rather down, 
for infpe&ion. It is hardly poflible to convey an idea of 
the buftle and agitation of the whole market on Mon¬ 
day and Friday mornings—the bleating of fheep on the 
weft, the fqueaking of pigs on the eaft, the lowing of cows 
and oxen in the centre; the rattlings of butchers’ carts, the 
barkings of dogs, the chatterings of piemen, the bawlings 
of falefmen, carmen, drovers, and waiters of public houles 
bringing “a drop of the creature” to horfe-mongers, but¬ 
chers, porkmen, and all the reft; b'efides the dult rifing in 
clouds over the fcene on fine days, and, in dirty weather, 
the mud fplaftiingin every direction;—all thele and more 
than thef'e would hardly Iketch on the mind of the reader 
a faint image of Welt Smithfield on a market-day. 
Smithfield is the only public market, within the bills of 
mortality, for the fale of live-cattle—the number of which 
now fent to market is more, by 30,000, than it was twenty- 
five years ago; and of fheep 150,000. And, as it is a 
matter of general notoriety, that the cattle and flieep of 
England have alfo been gradually and progrefiively in- 
creating in their individual weight, owing partly to the at¬ 
tention paid of late years to the improvement of the breed, 
and partly to their being much better fed now than for¬ 
merly, and indeed much better than they could potlibly 
have been before the introduction of turnips and clover ; 
it is not perhaps an unreafonable or unfounded conjec¬ 
ture, to luppofe that the increafe, in point of weight, has 
kept pace with the advance in reipect to numbers, during 
the aforefaid period. If fo, it will follow, that, includ¬ 
ing number and weight, the annual increafe in forty-five 
Vol. XIII. No. 92a. 
D O N«' 4J)J 
years is, in neat cattle, upwards of 71 per cent, and in 
lheep near 53. Upon the whole, we may lately affirm, 
that including all the other fupplies of animal food, ‘and 
confidering that they alfo, as well as cattle and lheep, 
come to market much better fed, and confequently much 
increafed in weight, above what they were forty-five years 
ago, the confumption of the metropolis is at this time 
full one-half more than it was then. And, fince this laft 
period, the increafe has gone on in a progreffive man¬ 
ner. 
It is a general opinion among butchers, that they can buy 
live cattle in Smithfield cheaper than at any other place. 
But it muft be obferved, that the cattle expofed for fale 
at this market have been driven tintil they are empty, 
weary, walled, and foot-fore, and confequently (how to at 
great disadvantage; fo much fo, that graziers who have 
followed their cattle, efpecially lheep, to Smithfield, fre¬ 
quently do not know their own (lock; and, when they 
have been Ihown to them, they were (hocked at their de¬ 
teriorated appearance. If they fhould not then be fold 
and llaughtered, the wafting would continue fo much, 
that it would require feveral weeks of rich food to raife 
them to their former fatnefs. The bullocks and fheep 
driven to thefe markets are not only over-heated by the 
journey, but they are alfo often moll cruelly beaten witk 
bludgeons, goaded with darts, and hocked about the leg* 
in the market during perhaps ten hours, and then driven 
to the llaughter-houfe (if they have the good luck to ef- 
cape thieves in the character of bullock-hunters), and 
knocked down while their blood is yet in that inflamed 
Hate, and their flelh bruifed. Such meat muft, it is con¬ 
ceived, be very detrimental to the health of man. Much 
better is that which is killed in the country without driv¬ 
ing, when the animal is in full health, and fent to New¬ 
gate and Leadenhall in clean and cool packages. If this 
could be done by all, it would remove a great nuifance 
from London, would probably improve the health of its 
inhabitants, and certainly prevent many, and fometimes 
fatal, accidents. 
Several attempts have been made to remove this mar¬ 
ket, but all hitherto ineffeftual. A few years ago, a bill 
was brought into parliament for ereCling a market at or 
near Illington, where there is Hill fome open ground very 
fit for the purpofe ; but the meafure was petitioned again ft 
by both parties; i. e. by many houfekeepers in and about 
Smithfield, as well as by thole near whom the market was 
propofed to be removed ; and the bill was of courfe thrown 
out. More recently a bill was brought in for enlarging 
the market; but that was thrown out by the wifdom of 
parliament, from a thorough conviction that no improve¬ 
ment would anfwer the purpofe, and that the parties in- 
terelled ought to be induced, by every means, to remove 
the nuifance altogether. 
The market on Friday is not in general fo crowded with 
horned cattle as that on Monday ; but on the former day 
is added, en revanche , the intolerable and dangerous nui¬ 
fance of a horfe-market. None but thole whole bulinels 
leads them to crofs (or endeavour tocrofs) Smithfield on 
that day, can have an idea of it.—There is alio a market 
for hay on Tuefdays, Thurfdays, and Saturdays; to this 
we have no objeftion ; the 1'mell of hay is at all times 
pleafant, efpecially in a crowded city, where the odour* 
are not all of the fweeteft kind. 
But the time when Smithfield is, or feems to be, at the 
height of its glory, is when Bartholomew Fair lets every 
thing in motion, from the large Twinging-boat to the half¬ 
penny rattle; and afl'umes the appearance of the temple 
of mad he Is.—Compared to this, the market-day, which 
we have been lamenting as a nuifance, is but a lilent me¬ 
lancholy fcene. But, as the pencil of the ablelt artill 
could give but a faint idea of what the votaries of the 
goddeis of Folly achieve there, it is not to be expedled 
that the pen of the hiftorian can be in any degree ade¬ 
quate to the talk. Suffice it to fay, that, if ever pollerity is 
allowed by Providence to be wiier than we are, they will 
6 K fmile 
