The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-04-14
L0Np0N'S obj CORNERS.
HELEN CAMPBELL TELLS ALL ABOUT
BsLlN'S MONUMENT.
Its Location Is Not to he Found on the
Pages of Any Guide Book. but Ii IL
. Very Interesting Link with the Past,
Nevertheless.
Special Correspondence

Special Correspondence
LONDON March 22-You may look in vain
in guide book or on map for anything bearing
Mch title as heads the search OF today. Yet
It stands plain to see, and if Belin's name is
missing, and no inscription craven by hand
Of man holds it here, or in the Abbey or
Tower, or any spot most given over to in
scriptions, that is by no means the fault OF
Belin. He, worthy soul, did his best to per-
petuate such memory rs might be, and died
certain, as other worthy souls have been be-
fore, that immortality was secure Why not,
when he had built a water cato at the point
where we are standing, and dying, com
manded that the ashes of his mortal body
should be placed in a vessel of brass on a high
pinnacle of stone over the said gate! The
rest is silence. Gate and pinnacle and ashes
alike have vanished, and Belins name il
known only to the antiquary, and barely to
him, since all this happened just 400 a. d.
and the history of England was still in
embryo. A thousand years was to pass be-
fore the same spot should have other water
gates, whose purpose, nominally ignoble,
might after all serve mankind more truly
than Belin or any chief of his order had ever
done or could do.
Billingsgate has for centuries been the syn
onym of all the opprobrium and unsavory
meaning that English speech can hold, and
the pilgrim who seeks practical knowledge of
tho strange life TO be seen in and about it
thinks of this Alone and asks no questions as
to origin. Yet it is here that Belin's gate
once more asserts its claim to memory and
that III those dim hours of earliest morning
IN. ,,,l, boz o., H., l.
known at all, his shade wanders well pleased
under the arches and among tributary boats
from Holland and countries whose name,
even, he never heard Who gave the name
history saith not. All we know is that at this
spot, in 1851, the fishing boats suddenly
elected to most congregate and that from
that day to this it has been the source Of such
fish supply us London demands. Fishing
boats alone are there today, but in 1851, and
from that time for some centuries on, Bill
hngsgate was, according to one of the old
shroniclers, only "a large water gate post
or Marlborough for ships and boats COM
monty arriving there with fish, both salt and
fresh, shell fish, salt, oranges, onions and
other fruits and roots; wheat, rye and grain
Of divers sorts for the service of the city and
the parts Of this realm adjoining"
Those were the days when penny had
some meaning and shilling did the work of
Va guinea today. In the reign of Edward /,
after infinite squabbling, prices were fixed
The best soles were three pennies dozen, the
best turbot sixpence each, picked herrings
Of the choicest were penny score and the
best eels twopence quarter hundred, while
oysters were twopence gallon. No fish
monger was allowed a profit of over a penny
oil Iualn 10 tbn Oh
mongers' company, and there must be no
monopoly, but fair chance for all, the poor
persons who bought to cry in the streets not
being hndered. By 100 fish alone had place
here, but no building beyond the wretched
sheds that even twenty years ago made up
the market, with the novels of one sort and
another doing duty as inns and homes for
tho men whose business lay here.
There is a picture made a century and a
half ago, by daring explorer, who shared
the general conviction that to attempt en-
trance here was foolhardy to a degree, but
who found it loss fraught with adventure
than he had been taught to expect He came
secretly armed, and with companion whose
fists were strong, but found no occasion for
either arms or fists, and made the tour of the
foul, evil smelling place with a wonder how
anything proceeding from it could be eata-
BILE. There was another wonder also, shared
by us today, as to what necessary connection
exists between the handling of fish and q
type of language which we may call, at
least, vvacious, and the thought of which
alone is sufficient to deter all but the most
venturesome from more than an outside look
at quar- ters where it is most in vogue Times
have changed since this explorer saw, STAT,
motherly fiat caps with fish baskets hanging
ever their heads instead of riding hoods"
with silver rings on their thumbs, alderman
fashion, smoking pipes filled with "mundun.
gus" whatever that may be, sitting on in
verted eel baskets, and arranging new com
binations of English for present and future
use. Like the fish women OF Paris, the
danes de la Halle" they were all Amazons,
and match ut any moment for a too pre-
sumptuous dealer or buyer, and they are
Amazons today. 1t was one of these matrons
that DR.. Johnson silenced by calling her in
his most ponderous tone "a truculent paral-
telegram" and much tho same story is told
Of Daniel O'Connell, who quieted too volu-
bic Irish market woman by calling her "a
grabbed old hypothenuse."
There is no necessity today for either term.
It is not as buyer, but as locker on, that the
slippery pavement is crossed and the iron |
gates entered. II Is Friday when the rush is
greatest, for the fast day of the myriad |
Catholics, Irish and otherwise, calls for the |
"bit of fish that will be bought from the |
costers barrow, and here are the costers in !
force, who wait for their turn in the proceed |
iugs Eight auctioneers, or fish statesmen, are |
attached to the market, the gates of which |
are opened ut 5 a IN. But an hour before |
this the eight have met at tho principal pub
bic house and talked over the quantity and
the quality of that days wares A storm
may delay the ell boats from Holland or
trouble waters nearer bone A hundred
causes affect the supply, and are all to be
taken into consideration before each one Of
the eight makes his way to his appointed place
in the market and ascend5 his box Below
him are forms or "bulks," and on these are
piled the doubles Of soleS, haddock and all
the rest, double" being an obong basket,
tapering to the bottom and holding three or
four dozen fish. Baskets of ''otfal" fill all
the spaces, "offal" in market parlance being
merely odd lots Of small fish, but all fresh
and desirable
A.