If those who seek pleasure in gaiety have never visited the market in its
prime, let them journey thither some summer morning, and note how fresh
will seem the air, and how full of life the people, after the languid
waltz in Grosvenor Square. The central alley of the "Garden," as it is
called by the costermongers, is one of the prettiest lounges in town; and,
whether by chance or design, it exhibits, in its arrangement from east to
west, a complete march of the seasons. At the western entrance the visitor
is greeted with the breath of flowers; and there they show in smiling
banks piled upon the stalls, or sorted with frilled edges into ladies'
bouquets. As he proceeds, he comes upon the more delicate spring
vegetables--pink shafts of the oriental-looking rhubarb, delicate cos
lettuce, &c.; still further along the arcade, the plate-glass windows on
either side display delicate fruits, done up in dainty boxes, and set off
with tinted paper shreds. Behind these windows also might be seen those
rarities which it is the pride of London market-gardeners to provide, and
in producing which they all struggle to steal the longest march upon
time--a sieve-full of early potatoes, each as small and costly as the egg
of a Cochin-China fowl--a basin-full of peas, at a guinea a pint--a
cucumber marked 5_s._, and strawberries 18_s._ the ounce.
The market-gardeners of Penzance are beginning to send up many of these
early vegetables, the mildness of the south-western extremity of Cornwall
giving them a wonderful advantage over every other part of the kingdom.
Gentlemen's gardeners also contribute somewhat, by sending to the salesmen
such of the produce of their glazed houses as is not consumed in the
family, and receive articles in return of which they happen to have an
insufficient quantity themselves. These forced vegetables give way, it is
true, as the season advances; but when in, they are always most to be
found at that end of the walk nearest the rising sun. As the year
proceeds, the lustier and more natural fruits are displayed--peaches that
have ripened with blushing cheek to the wind, gigantic strawberries,
raspberries, nectarines, or blooming plums. Feathery pines add their
mellow hue; and when these fail, the colour deepens into amber piles of
oranges, umber filberts, and the rich brown of Spanish chestnuts, the
produce of the waning year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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