The trade in oysters is unquestionably one of
the oldest with which the London -- or rather
the English -- markets are connected; for oysters
from Britain were a luxury in ancient Rome.

   Oysters are now sold out of the smacks at
Billingsgate, and a few at Hungerford. The
more expensive kind such as the real Milton,
are never bought by the costermongers, but they
buy oysters of a "good middling quality." At
the commencement of the season these oysters
are 14s. a "bushel," but the measure contains
from a bushel and a half to two bushels, as it is
more or less heaped up. The general price,
however, is 9s. or 10s., but they have been 16s. and 18s. The "big trade" was unknown until
1848, when the very large shelly oysters, the fish
inside being very small, were introduced from
the Sussex coast. They were sold in Thames-
street and by the Borough-market. Their sale
was at first enormous. The costermongers distin-
guished them by the name of "scuttle-mouths."
One coster informant told me that on the Satur-
days he not unfrequently, with the help of a boy
and a girl, cleared 10s. by selling these oysters
in the streets, disposing of four bags. He thus
sold, reckoning twenty-one dozen to the bag,
2,016 oysters; and as the price was two for a
penny, he took just 4l. 4s. by the sale of oysters
in the streets in one night. With the scuttle-
mouths the costermonger takes no trouble: he
throws them into a yard, and dashes a few pails
of water over them, and then places them on his
barrow, or conveys them to his stall. Some of
the better class of costermongers, however, lay
down their oysters carefully, giving them oat-
meal "to fatten on."

   In April last, some of the street-sellers of this
article established, for the first time, " oyster-
rounds." These were carried on by coster-
mongers whose business was over at twelve in
the day, or a little later; they bought a bushel
of scuttle-mouths (never the others), and, in
the afternoon, went a round with them to poor
neighbourhoods, until about six, when they
took a stand in some frequented street. Going
these oyster-rounds is hard work, I am told,
and a boy is generally taken to assist. Monday
afternoon is the best time for this trade, when
10s. is sometimes taken, and 4s. or 5s. profit
made. On other evenings only from 1s. to 5s. is taken -- very rarely the larger sum -- as the
later the day in the week the smaller is the
receipt, owing to the wages of the working
classes getting gradually exhausted.

   The women who sell oysters in the street, and
whose dealings are limited, buy either of the
costermongers or at the coal-sheds. But nearly
all the men buy at Billingsgate, where as small
a quantity as a peck can be had.

   An old woman, who had "seen better days,"
but had been reduced to keep an oyster-stall,
gave me the following account of her customers.
She showed much shrewdness in her conversa-
tion, but having known better days, she declined

Column 2

to enter upon any conversation concerning her
former life: --

   "As to my customers, sir," she said, "why,
indeed, they're all sorts. It's not a very few
times that gentlemen (I call them so because
they're mostly so civil) will stop -- just as it's
getting darkish, perhaps, -- and look about them,
and then come to me and say very quick:
`Two penn'orth for a whet.' Ah! some of 'em
will look, may be, like poor parsons down upon
their luck, and swallow their oysters as if they
was taking poison in a hurry. They'll not touch
the bread or butter once in twenty times, but
they'll be free with the pepper and vinegar, or,
mayhap, they'll say quick and short, `A crust
off that.' I many a time think that two pen-
n'orth is a poor gentleman's dinner. It's the
same often -- but only half as often, or not half
-- with a poor lady, with a veil that once was
black, over a bonnet to match, and shivering
through her shawl. She'll have the same. About
two penn'orth is the mark still; it's mostly two
penn'orth. My son says, it's because that's the
price of a glass of gin, and some persons buy
oysters instead -- but that's only his joke, sir.
It's not the vulgar poor that's our chief cus-
tomers. There's many of them won't touch
oysters, and I've heard some of them say: `The
sight on 'em makes me sick; it's like eating
snails.' The poor girls that walk the streets
often buy; some are brazen and vulgar, and
often the finest dressed are the vulgarest; at
least, I think so; and of those that come to
oyster stalls, I'm sure it's the case. Some are
shy to such as me, who may, perhaps, call their
own mothers to their minds, though it aint
many of them that is so. One of them always
says that she must keep at least a penny for gin
after her oysters. One young woman ran away
from my stall once after swallowing one oyster
out of six that she'd paid for. I don't know
why. Ah! there's many things a person like
me sees that one may say, `I don't know why'
to; that there is. My heartiest customers, that
I serve with the most pleasure, are working
people, on a Saturday night. One couple -- I
think the wife always goes to meet her husband
on a Saturday night -- has two, or three, or four
penn'orth, as happens, and it's pleasant to
hear them say, `Won't you have another,
John?' or, `Do have one or two more, Mary
Anne.' I've served them that way two or three
years. They've no children, I'm pretty sure,
for if I say, `Take a few home to the little
ones,' the wife tosses her head, and says, half
vexed and half laughing, `Such nonsense.' I
send out a good many oysters, opened, for
people's suppers, and sometimes for supper
parties -- at least, I suppose so, for there's five
or six dozen often ordered. The maid-servants
come for them then, and I give them two or three
for themselves, and say, jokingly-like, `It's no
use offering you any, perhaps, because you'll have
plenty that's left.' They've mostly one answer:
`Don't we wish we may get 'em?' The very poor never buy of me, as I told you. A penny

   The number of oysters sold by the coster-
mongers amounts to 124,000,000 a year. These,
at four a penny, would realise the large sum of
129,650l. We may therefore safely assume that
125,000l. is spent yearly in oysters in the streets
of London.