Women's hair was a valuable commodity, judging by the following: 'An Oxfordshire Lass was lately courted by a young man of that County, who was not willing to marry her unless her friends could advance £50 for her portion; which they being incapable of doing, the lass came to this City to try her fortune, when she met with a good Chapman in the Strand, who made a purchase of her Hair (which was delicately long and light), and gave her _sixty pounds_ for it, being 20 ounces at £3 _an ounce_; with which money she joyfully returned into the Country and bought her a husband.'[179] Indeed, it was an article of general purchase and sale: 'We came up to the corner of a narrow Lane, where _Money for old Books_ was writ upon some part or other of every Shop, as surely as _Money for Live Hair_, upon a _Barber's_ Window.'[180] [Footnote 179: _Protestant Mercury_, July 10, 1700.] [Footnote 180: _London Spy._] Men used to travel the country on horseback and collect it, and it was not unfrequent for suspected highwaymen, when stopped and brought before the authorities, to declare they were dealers in hair, roaming about, following their avocation--although it could not have been a very remunerative one, if we can believe the advertisements for the apprehension of deserters from the army: 'said he was a dealer in hair' being frequently mentioned. Here is an advertisement which gives a graphic picture of one of these gentry: 'Lost on Tuesday Night last the 14th Instant, about 6 in the Evening, from behind a Gentleman in Piccadilly, a Pair of Bags, in which were three Bladders with Hair in, two Holland Shirts, Neckcloaths, and other Linnen, A Leather Bag with an Iron Instrument and Hair in it, a pair of small Perriwig Cards, with Read the Maker's Name in Flower de Luce Court in Fleet Street, and other small matters beside,'[181] etc.; and we may note that 'At the Sugar Loaf in Bishopsgate Street near Cornhil, is the House of Call, where Perriwig Makers can have Men, and Men may have Masters.'[182] [Footnote 181: _Daily Courant_, Oct. 17, 1712.] [Footnote 182: _Postman_, Nov. 13/16, 1708 (? misprint for 1707).]