ife keen enough to sever the hamstring of a
bull, took his stand proudly at the front of his shop, and looked
"lovingly" on the well-fed joints above his head. The gutters before his
door literally ran with blood: pass by whenever you would, there the
crimson current constantly flowed; and the smell the passenger inhaled was
not that of "Araby." A "Whitechapel bird" and a "Whitechapel butcher" were
once synonymous phrases, used to denote a character the very reverse of a
gentleman; but, says a writer of the fifties, "in the manners of the
latter we believe there is a great improvement, and that more than one
'knight of the cleaver' who here in the daytime manufacture sheep into
mutton chops, keeps his country house."

The viands offered for sale augur well for the strength of the stomachs of
the Whitechapel populace. The sheep's trotters look as if they had
scarcely had time enough to kick off the dirt before they were potted; and
as for the ham, it appears bleached, instead of salted; and to look at the
sandwiches, you would think they were anything except what they are
called. As for the fried fish, it resembles coarse red sand-paper; and you
would sooner think of purchasing a penny-worth to polish the handle of a
cricket bat or racket, than of trying its qualities in any other way. The
"black puddings" resemble great fossil ammonites, cut up lengthwise. What
the "faggots" are made of, which form such a popular dish in this
neighbourhood, we have yet to learn. We have heard rumours of chopped
lights, liver, suet, and onions as being the components of these dusky
dainties; but he must be a daring man who would convince himself by
tasting: for our part, it would seem that there was a great mystery to be
unravelled before the innumerable strata which form these smoking hillocks
will ever be made known. The pork pies which you see in these windows
contain no such effeminate morsels as lean meat, but have the appearance
of good substantial bladders of lard shoved into a strong crust, and "done
brown" in a superheated oven.

Such, crudely, is an impression of certain aspects of "trade" in
Whitechapel, but its most characteristic feature outside of the
innumerable hawkers of nearly everything under the sun, new or old, which
can be sold at a relatively low price, is the famous "Rag Fair," a sort of
"old clo's" mart, whose presiding geniuses are invariably of the Jewish
persuasion, either male or female. Rags which may have c