THE trade in hogs'--wash, or in the refuse of the table, is by no means insignificant. The streetbuyers are of the costermonger class, and some of them have been costermongers, and "when not kept going regular on wash," I was told, are "costers still," but with the advantage of having donkeys, ponies, or horses and carts, and frequently shops, as the majority of the wash-buyers have; for they are often greengrocers as well as costermongers.

The hogs' food obtained by these street-folk, or, as I most frequently heard it called, the "wash," is procured from the eating-houses, the coffee-houses which are also eating-houses (with "hot joints from to "), the hotels, the clubhouses, the larger mansions, and the public institutions. It is composed of the scum and less of all broths and soups; of the washings of cooking utensils, and of the dishes and plates used at dinners and suppers; of small pieces of meat left on the plates of the diners in taverns, clubs, or cook-shops; of pieces of potato, or any remains of vegetables; of any viands, such as puddings, left in the plates in the same manner; of gristle; of pieces of stale bread, or bread left at table; occasionally of meat kept, whether cooked or uncooked, until "blown," and unfit for consumption ( man told me that he had found whole legs of mutton in the wash he bought from a great eating-house, but very rarely): of potatopeelings; of old and bad potatoes; of "stock," or the remains of meat stewed for soup, which was not good enough for sale to be re-used by the poor; of parings of every kind of cheese or meat; and of the many things which are considered "only fit for pigs."

It is not always, however, that the unconsumed food of great houses or of public bodies (where the dinners are a part of the institution) goes to the wash-tub. At Buckingham-palace, I am told, it is given to poor people who have tickets for the receipt of it. At Lincoln's-inn the refuse or leavings of the bar dinners are sold to men who retail them, usually small chandlers, and the poor people, who have the means, buy this broken meat very readily at , , and the pound, which is cheap for good cooked meat. Pie-crust, obtained by its purveyors in the same way, is sold, perhaps with a small portion of the contents of the pie, in penny and twopenny-worths. A man familiar with this trade told me that among the best customers for this kind of -hand food were women of the town of the poorer class, who were always ready, whenever they had a few pence at command, to buy what was tasty, cheap, and ready-cooked, because "they hadn't no trouble with it, but only just to eat it."

of the principal sources of the "wash" supply is the cook-shops, or eating-houses, where the "leavings" on the plates are either the perquisites of the waiters or waitresses, or looked sharply after by master or mistress. There are also in these places the remains of soups, and the potato-peelings, &c., of which I have spoken, together with the keen appropriation to a profitable use of every crumb and scrap—when it is a portion of the gains of a servant, or when it adds to the receipts of the proprietor. In calculating the purchase-value of the good--will of an eatinghouse, the "wash" is as carefully considered as is the number of daily guests.

of the principal street-buyers from the eating-houses, and in several parts of town, is Jemmy Divine, of . He is a pig-dealer, but also sells his wash to others who keep pigs. He sends round a cart and horse under the care of a boy, or of a man, whom he may have employed, or drives it himself, and he often has more carts than . In his cart are or tubs, well secured, so that they may not be jostled out, into which the wash is deposited. He contracts by the week, month, or quarter, with hotel-keepers and others, for their wash, paying from to as high as a year, about being an average for well-frequented taverns and "dining-rooms." The wash-tubs on the premises of these buyers are often offensive, sometimes sending forth very sour smells.

In Sharp's-alley, , is another man buying quantities of wash, and buying fat and

The supply from the workhouses is very large. It is often that the paupers do not eat all the rice-pudding allowed, or all the bread, while soup is frequently left, and potatoes; and these leavings are worthless, except for pig-meat, as they would soon turn sour. It is the same, though not to the same extent, in the prisons.

What I have said of some of the larger eatinghouses relates also to the club-houses.

There are a number of wash-buyers in the suburbs, who purchase, or obtain their stock gratuitously, at gentlemen's houses, and retail it either to those who feed pigs as a business, or else to the many, I was told, who live a little way out of town, and "like to grow their own bacon." Many of these men perform the work themselves, without a horse and cart, and are on their feet every day and all day long, except on Sundays, carrying hogs'--wash from the seller, or to the buyer. man, who had been in this trade at Woolwich, told me that he kept pigs at time, but ceased to do so, as his customers often murmured at the thin quality of the wash, declaring that he gave all the best to his own animals.

If it be estimated that there are men daily buying hogs'--wash in London and the suburbs, within miles, and that each collects only pails per day, paying per pail (thus allowing for what is collected without purchase), we find expended annually in buying hogs'--wash.