But  this  is  Billingsgate.  If  you  bap-
pen  to  be  a  Liverpool  man,  jou  will
turn  up  your  nose  with  contempt,  and
invite  us  to  express  our  approbation
of  your  fish-market.  And  so,  with  a
safe  conscience,  we  may ;  for  never
did  we  see  any  piscatory  mart  that
was  notf  to  use  an  expression  lN>r-
rowed  from  Billingsgate,  a  scafy
concern  in  comparison.  But,  my
dear  sir,  recollect  that  Billingsgate  is
not  a  fish-market,  but  a  fish-ware-
house—a place  of  import — a  great
fish  exchange.  The  market  is  in  the
three  thousand  fish  mongers' shops,  (we
have  counted  here  five  hundred  carts
on  one  morning  at  one  time,)  of  every
neighbourhood  in  and  about  the  me-
tropolis ;  yea,  as  far  as  railways  can
carry  the  article  in  a  saleable  condi-
tion«     Business  is  carried  on  here,  as


mutton  !     What  an  undulatory  sea  of  every  where  else  throughout  London,

swine,  tossing  and  tumbling  like  Nep-  where  a  large  amount  of  business  has

tune  in  his  sleep,  though  rather  less  to  be  done  in  a  short  space  of  time —

melodious !     There,  sir,  jou  behold  that  is  to  say,  by  factors,  who  expose

neither  more  nor  less  than  dinner  for  lots  suited  to  the  wants  or  means  of

three — days  of  the  capacious  maw  of  intending  purchasers  by  auction,  which

universal  London.     What  do  we  say?  are  purchased    either  by  the  retail


Where  is  Newgate  market,  mighty  in
butcher  meat? — where  Leadenhall,
tremendous  in  turkeys? — where  Bil-
lingsgate, alive  with  finny  prey  ?  Scaly
reader,  we  have  eaten  nothing,  posi-
tively nothing  ;  let  us  be  ofi^  to  Bil-
lingsgate for  a  fin  of  fish — fake  our
poultry  on  our  way  back  at  Leaden-
hall— spoil  a  baron  of  beef  at  Newgate,
and  consume  at  Coven t  Garden  our
hors  d'oBuv/es  and  desscrf.
