THE class who sell game and poultry in the public thoroughfares of the metropolis are styled hawkers, both in Leadenhall and Newgatemar- ket. The number of these dealers in London is computed at between and . Of course, legally to sell game, a license, which costs yearly, is required; but the street-seller laughs at the notion of being subjected to a direct tax; which, indeed, it might be impossible to levy on so "slippery" a class.

The sale of game, even with a license, was not legalised until ; and, prior to that year, the mere killing of game by an "unqualified" person was an offence entailing heavy penalties. The "qualification" consisted of the possession of a freehold estate of a year, or a leasehold for years of a year! By an Act, passed in the year of George III., it was provided that a certificate (costing ) must be taken out by all qualified persons

Both sexes carry on the trade in gamehawk- ing, but there are more than thrice as many men as women engaged in the business, the weight occasionally carried being beyond a woman's strength. The most customary dress of the game or poultry-hawker is a clean smock-frock covering the whole of his other attire, except the ends of his trousers and his thick boots or shoes. Indeed he often, but less frequently than was the case years ago, assumes the dress of a country labourer, although he may have been for years a resident in London. About years ago, I am informed, it was the custom for countrymen, residing at no great distance, to purchase a stock of chickens or ducks; and, taking their places in a wagon, to bring their birds to London, and hawk them from door to door. Some of these men's smock-frocks were a convenient garb, for they covered the ample pockets of the coat beneath, in which were often a store of partridges, or an occasional pheasant or hare. This game, illegally killed—for it was all poached— was illegally sold by the hawker, and illegally bought by the hotel-keepers and the richer tradesmen. informant (an old man) was of opinion that the game was rarely offered for sale by these countrymen at the West-end mansions of the aristocracy. "In fact," he said, "I knew country fellow—though he was sharp enough in his trade of game and poultry-selling—who seemed to think that every fine house, without a shop, and where there were livery servants, must needs be inhabited by a magistrate! But, as the great props of poaching were the rich—for, of course, the poor couldn't buy game—there was, no doubt, a West-end as well as a City trade in it. I have bought game of a country poultry-hawker," continued my informant, "when I lived in the City at the beginning of this century, and generally gave a brace for partridges. I have bid it, and the man has left, refusing to take it; and has told me afterwards, and, I dare say, he spoke the truth, that he had sold his partridges at or or more. I believe a brace wa no uncommon price in the City. I have given as much as for a pheasant for a Christmas supper. The hawker, before offering the birds for sale, used to peer about him, though we were alone in my counting-house, and then pull his partridges out of his pockets, and say, 'Sir, do you want any very young chickens?'—for so he called them. Hares he called 'lions;' and they cost often, enough, each of the hawker. The trade had all the charms and recommendations of a mystery and a risk about it, just like smuggling."

The sale of game in London, however, was not confined to the street-hawkers, who generally derived their stock-in-trade immediately from the poacher. Before the legalisation of the sale, the trade was carried on, under the rose, by the salesmen in Leadenhall-market, and that to an extent of not less than a of the sale now accomplished there. The purveyors for the London game-market—I learned from leading salesmen in Leadenhall—were not then, as now, noble lords and honourable gentlemen, but peasant or farmer poachers, who carried on the business systematically. The guards and coachmen of the stage-coaches were the media of communication, and had charge of the supply to the London market. The purchasers of the game thus supplied to a market, which is mostly the property of the municipality of the City of London, were not only hotel-keepers, who required it for public dinners presided over by princes, peers, and legislators, but the purveyors for the civic banquets—such as the Lord Mayor's dinner, at which the Ministers of State always attended.

This street-hawking of game, as far as I could ascertain from the best-informed quarters, hardly survived the year of the legalised sale.

The female hawkers of game are almost all the wives of the men so engaged, or are women living with them as their wives. The trade is better, as regards profit, than the costermonger's ordinary pursuits, but only when the season is favourable; it is, however, more uncertain.

There is very rarely a distinction between the hawkers of game and of poultry. A man will carry both, or have game day and poultry the next, as suits his means, or as the market avails. The street-sellers of cheese are generally costers, while the vendors of butter and eggs are almost extinct.

Game, I may mention, consists of grouse (including black-cocks, and all the varieties of heath or moor-game), partridges, pheasants, bustards, and hares. Snipe, woodcocks, plovers, teal, widgeons, wild ducks, and rabbits are not game, but can only be taken or killed by certificated persons, who are owners or occupiers of the property on which they are found, or who have the necessary permission from such persons as are duly authorised to accord it. Poultry consists of chickens, geese, ducks, and turkeys, while some persons class pigeons as poultry.

Birds are dietetically divided into classes: () the white-fleshed, as the common fowl and the turkey; () the dark-fleshed game, as the grouse and the black-cock; and () the aquatic (including swimmers and waders), as the goose and the duck; the flesh of the latter is penetrated with fat, and difficult of digestion.