taste in this respect. West Smithfield is our
largest cattle market, but for meat you must
go to St. Nicholas flesh-shambles bv Newgate,
or to the Stokkes market near the Poultry.
Beef, mutton, veal, pork, and venison, may there
be had. If you are a sportsman at home, you
will be horrified to hear that we eat the latter
as often salted as fresh, and pay so little regard
to season as to kill all the year round, save only in
the fence-month, or fawning-time, which lasts
from fifteen days before to fifteen days after
Midsummer.

Of poultry and game you will find in our
markets nearly all the kinds prized in your
country—turkeys being the chief exception.
We eat also several kinds that you either have
not, or do not value—such as peacocks, esteemed
with us a royal delicacy, swans, cranes, herons,
curlews, bitterns, thrushes, and finches. So
with fish. We think delicious several species
which you despise such as whale, sturgeon,
porpoise, grampus, sea-calf, sea-wolf (or
dog-fish as you call it), and conger while we care
very little for your favourite lobsters, crabs, and
shrimps. The chief landing-places for fish are
Queenhythe and Billingsgate, and its regular
markets the Stokkes, Old and New Fish Streets.
From Prussia we import stock-fish, the sale of
which is a special trade. Scotland sends us
salmon and cured cod. There are several
regulations of the fish trade, with which it would be
very tedious to acquaint you. One of them only
may be mentioned, as being for the benefit of
the poor; prohibiting whelks, mussels, and such
common fish from being regrated, so that
the price may not be heightened by a double
profit.

Of minor articles of food you can obtain all
you want at the various markets. Butter we
hold in slight esteem. It is more thin and
watery than that which is made in your country,
so much so that we sell it by liquid measure.
Cheese is made in the country, but also largely
imported by the French and Hanse merchants.
That of Brie is as great a favourite with us as
with you. The French merchants of Amiens,
Corby, and Nesle, also bring us onions and
garlic. You can obtain here most of the common
groceries and spices to which you are
accustomed: sugar (which we import from
Alexandria and Sicily), pepper, ginger, cannel (your
cinnamon), caraway, liquorice, mastic, cubebs,
cardamums, anise, rice, cloves, mace, muscads
(as we call your nutmegs), and olive oil. Salt we
obtain from the Cinque Ports chiefly. Besides
native fruits, you may purchase the following
imports: figs, almonds, dates, raisins, currants,
prunes, damascenes (damsons in your tongue),
and occasionally oranges, and pomegranates.

Wine is the ordinary drink of the middle
classes with us, and is imported in large quantities
from France, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
The sale of sweet wine is a special trade, and
there are only three taverns in the City where it
is allowed to be sold. Of this sort, Malvesie, a
Greek wine (your Malmsey), and Claire, a
French wine boiled and sweetened, are chiefly
in demand. Of wines without sweetness, the
white wine of Gascony, the red of Bordeaux,
Lepe (made in the neighbourhood of Cadiz),
and Rhenish, are much drunk. You will recognise
the ordinary wine tavern by a pole which
projects from the gable, and has a bush or
bunch of leaves at its extremity. Ale is sold at
separate taverns. It is made from either
barley, wheat, or oats. Though a favourite
beverage with us, it may not be to your taste, on
account of its sweetness and heat. Instead of
hops our brewers mingle honey, pepper, and
spices with the malt liquor. As, uniike you, we
prefer new ale to old, it is usual for the
customer to send his vessel to the brewery at night
and call for it in the morning, that the ale may
have time to work. Cider is made from
pearmain apples, in Yorkshire, Norfolk, and other
counties; mead is a common drink in the
Welsh marches; but neither is much known in
London.

We must add a few general words respecting
the coinage current amongst us, and the average
prices at which the commodities we have
mentioned are sold. In theory, our monetary system
is the same as your own, the pound being divided
into twenty shilling parts, of twelve
penny-weights each. In practice, we differ widely, as
our money is thrice as heavy as yours; we have
no coins answering to your pound and shilling,
and no copper coinage at all. With us, the
pound is of twelve ounces of silver, and equal to
three pounds of your money. We reckon not
only by pounds, shillings, and pence, but by the
mark. No such coin is now in circulation, but
its representative value is thirteen shillings and
fourpence, or two pounds of your money. Our
highest gold coin is the half-mark or noble.
There are also half and quarter nobles of gold.
Besides these, we have the gold florin, so called
from its Florentine coiners, worth about six
shillings (between eighteen and nineteen
shillings of your money); the half and the quarter
florin. These pieces, not being thought
convenient, are being withdrawn from circulation.
The Royal Mint, in the Tower, has also issued
of late years a large silver piece, called, from its
size, a groat (gros), and legally worth fourpence;
but not being equal in weight to four pennies ster-
ling, the price of commodities sold by it has been
generally raised. The word sterling we derive
from the Easterlings, or East German traders,
whose money has always been noted for its
special fineness. The silver penny is now about
eighteen grains in weight. We have also the
halfpenny, and quarter, or farthing. Pieces to
that value are now generally coined, but the
broken halves and quarters of pennies were not
long since in common use. Certain foreign
coins still circulate amongst us. The bezant of
Constantinople is no longer to be found, but the
French florin of three shillings and fourpence,
the crown of six shillings and eightpence, which,
from the shield on its face, is called a " schelde,"
and the piece of five shillings, termed, from the
Agnus Dei upon it, a " mouton," are legally
current. The Genoese coins known as Jane, or