I could almost have fancied that there was some truth in Ike's
declaration about old Basket or Bonyparty, as he called him, for
certainly he seemed to quicken his pace as we drew nearer; and so it was
that, as we turned into the busy market, and the horse made its way to
one particular spot at the south-east corner, Ike triumphantly pointed
to the church clock we had just passed.
"What did I tell yer?" he exclaimed with a grim smile of satisfaction on
his countenance; "he picked up them lost ten minutes, and here we are--
just four."
What a scene it seemed to me. The whole place packed with laden cart,
wagon, and light van. Noise, confusion, and shouting, pleasant smells
and evil smells--flowers and crushed cabbage; here it was peas and mint,
there it was strawberries; then a whole wagon announced through the
sides of its piled-up baskets that the load was cauliflowers.
For a time I could do nothing but gape and stare around at the bustling
crowd and the number of men busily carrying great baskets on the top of
porters' knots. Women, too, in caps, ready to put the same great pad
round forehead and make it rest upon their shoulders, and bear off great
boxes of fruit or baskets of vegetable.
Here I saw a complete stack of bushel baskets being regularly built up
from the unloading of a wagon, to know by the scent they were early
peas; a little farther on, some men seemed to be making a bastion for
the defence of the market by means of gabions, which, to add to the
fancy, were not filled with sand, but with large round gravel of a pale
whitish-yellow, only a closer inspection showed that the contents were
new potatoes.
The strawberries took my attention, though, most, for I felt quite a
feeling of sorrow for Old Brownsmith as I saw what seemed to me to be
such a glut of the rich red fruit that I was sure those which we had
brought up would not sell.
How delicious they smelt in the old-fashioned pottles which we never see
now--long narrow cones, with a cross-handle, over which, when filled, or
supposed to be filled, for a big strawberry would block up the narrow
part of the cone at times, a few leaves were placed, and then a piece of
white paper was tied over with a bit of bast. Nowadays deep and shallow
punnets are the order of the day, and a good thing too.
Flowers! There seemed to me enough to last London for a month; and I
was going, after a look round, to tell Ike that I was afraid we should
have to take our load back, when I felt a heavy thump on the back of my
head, which knocked off my cap.