The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-20 00:00:00

BILLINGSOATE FISIIMARKET.

(From a Correspondent.)
The architectural part of the building of this mark?
is now finished, sufficiently so, at least, to show what it
is going to be.
The eight-arched roof of fluted galvanised iron, sup-
ported on 42 iron pillars, and studded with glass
sky-
lights ; the noble looking front that faces the river,
with spire and glass clock dials looking in the direction
of each cardinal point of the compass ; the gilded flying fish
for a vane ; the superb front that faces Lower Thames-
street ; the beautiful water fountain playing in the mid-
dle of the floor, and the subterranean shell fish market
down stairs, all conspire to give a light and airy appear.
ante to the construction of this building, which brings
back to the mind a peep under the canopy of the Great
Exhibition when all the goods were out.
There is still one very visible drawback, however,
that lessens the pleasures of a visit to Billingsgate Mar-
ket, when the weather is warm, and that is neither
more nor less than the absence of the scrubbing brush,
the broom, the mop, the swab, and the slashing about of
plenty of water.
Now that there is a splendid steam-engine belonging
to the market, that readily pumps up tons of water into
the fountain, I cannot, for the life of me, see where there
can be any excuse that the market does not smell as
sweet daily as there is a possibility for well-cleaned
stones, wood, and iron to be made to do. When the
market is not agreeable to the olfactory nerves, it is not
because there is a scarcity of water ; there is plenty of
that, and close at hand. Where the evil seems to rest is
in the want of system for cleansing out the market.
"Too many cooks are always sure to spoil the broth."
There are too many masters, and wherever that is the
case, there, it will be found, is a lack of discipline.
I have always been of opinion that the system adopted
to wash a ship-of-war's decks is the system that ought
to be adopted to scrub and wash out all public markets.
What they require at Billingsgate is an old boatswain,
invested with powers to see the market properly cleaned,
and a boatswain's mate to show the crew how to do it.
At a stated hour of the day let a shrill whistle be heard
piping, and a gruff voice succeeding it, hallooing out
aloud, " All hands ahoy ! wash decks !" See then how
regularly and systematically the work would go on. In
about half an hour Billingsgate Market would be as clean
as a new pin, and so comfortable that a person might sit
at any point of it and sup a jelly or an ice cream, or
enjoy a perfumed cigar. It is quite possible that the
authorities are only waiting until the market be entirely
finished, when some such measures as those suggested
for cleansing the market will be enforced. It is to be
hoped such is the case, as any wholesome example set
at Billingsgate for cleanliness and purity will, doubtless,
be followed by all other officials of public wholesale fish
4.; I markets throughout the country.

SOUTHAMPTON, June 19.—The United States' mail
steamship Hermann, Lieutenant Higgins, United States'
Navy, commander, arrived here this morning from Bre-
men, and is appointed to leave for New York on Wed-
nesday next, taking the semi-weekly American mails.
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Com-
pany's ship Valetta, a new and beautiful paddlewheel
steamer of great speed, arrived here to-day, and, after a
trial trip in the Channel, to take place in the course of
next week, is to be despatched to Malta, to run between
that island and Marseilles, with the Indian mail. Ano-
ther vessel, of similar size, is likewise being prepred as
a consort to the Valetta, and those steamers will take
the place of the Sultan and Euxine, now on the Mar
seilles route.
A WOMAN'S NOSE KNOCKED OFF.—A curious appli-
cation was made by a woman to the borough magistrates
a few days since. She complained that her nose had
been knocked off by a man named Charles Crane, and
to convince the magistrate that the complaint was well
founded, she brought her very identical nose, carefully
wrapped up in a silk handkerchief. Upon inquiring
further into the ease, it turned out that the woman,
through a deformity of the face, had been obliged to
procure an artificial nose, which she said had cost her 6/.
Crane owing her a grudge, and being aware that there
was a weak point upon her face, took upon himself to
I assail and knock off the very useful appendage
! luded to. The woman has had the foresight to have a
spare nose made, which she kept in store, and it now
came in very useful, for she was enabled thereby to
restore the "human face divine" to its primitive out-
line.—Leicester Chronicle.