THESE appellations are, or have been, used somewhat confusedly in the meat trade. , or , or years ago—for each term was mentioned to me—the butcher in question was a man who went "trotting" on his small horse to the mere distant suburbs to sell meat. This was when the suburbs, in any direction, were "not built up to" as they are now, and the appearance of the trotting butcher might be hailed as saving a walk of a mile, or a mile and a half, to a butcher's shop, for only tradesmen of a smaller capital then opened butcher's shops in the remoter suburbs. For a suburban butcher to send round "for orders" at that period would have occupied too much time, for a distance must be traversed; and to have gone, or sent, on horseback, would have entailed the keeping or hiring of a horse, which was in those days an expensive matter. butcher who told me that he had known the trade, man and boy, for nearly years, said: "As to 'trotting,' a small man couldn't so well do it, for if was offered for a tidy horse in the war time it would most likely be said, 'I'll get more for it in the cavaldry—for it was often called cavaldry then—there's better plunder there.' (, I may explain, is a common word in the horse trade to express ) So it wasn't so easy to get a horse." The trotting butchers were then men sent or going out from the more frequented parts to supply the suburbs, but in many cases only when a tradesman was "hung up" with meat. They carried from to lb. of meat generally in basket, resting on the pommel of the saddle, and attached by a long leathern strap to the person of the "trotter." The trade, however, was irregular and, considering the expenses, little remunerative; neither was it extensive, but what might be the extent I could not ascertain. There then sprung up the class of butchers—or rather the class became greatly multiplied—who sent their boys or men on fast trotting horses to take orders from the dwellers in the suburbs, and even in the streets, not suburbs, which were away from the shop thoroughfares, and afterwards to deliver the orders—still travelling on horseback—at the customer's door. This system still continues, but to nothing like its former extent, and as it does not pertain especially to the street-trade I need not dwell upon it at present, nor on the competition that sprung up as to "trotting butcher's ponies,"—in the "matching" of which "against time" sporting men have taken great interest.

Of "trotting" butchers, keeping their own horses, there are now none, but there are still, I am told, about of the class who contrive, by hiring, or more frequently borrowing, horses of some friendly butcher, to live by trotting. These men are all known, and all call upon known customers—often those whom they have served in their prosperity, for the trotting butcher is a "reduced" man—and are not likely to be succeeded by any in the same line, or— as I heard it called—"ride" of business. These traders not subsisting exactly upon street traffic, or on any adventure depending upon door by door, or street by street, commerce, but upon a remaining from their having been in business on their own accounts, need no further mention.

The present class of street-traders in raw meat are known to the trade as "hawking"

The hawking butcher bought his meat last year at from to the pound, according to kind and quality. He seldom gave , even years ago, when meat was dearer; for it is difficult—I was told by of these hawkers—to get more than per lb. from chance customers, no matter what the market price. "If I ask or ," he said, "I'm sure of answer—'Nonsense!' I never goes no higher nor '" Sometimes—and especially if he can command credit for or days—the hawking butcher will buy the whole carcass of a sheep. If he reside near the market, he may "cut it up" in his own room; but he can generally find the necessary accommodation at some friendly butcher's block. If the weather be "bad for keeping," he will dispose of a portion of the carcass to his brother-hawkers; if cold, he will persevere in hawking the whole himself. He usually, however, buys only a hind or forequarter of mutton, or other meat, except beef, which he buys by the joint, and more sparingly than he buys any other animal food. The hawker generally has his joints weighed before he starts, and can remember the exact pounds and ounces of each, but the purchasers generally weigh them before payment; or, as hawker expressed it, "They goes to the scales before they come to the tin."

Many of these hawkers drink hard, and, being often men of robust constitution, until the approach of age, can live "hard,"—as regards lodging, especially. hawker I heard of slept in a slaughter-house, on the bare but clean floor, for nearly years: "But that was years ago, and no butcher would allow it now."