Esoteric London

Fleet Road, London, NW3. Photo © Roger Dean 2012

Lights and Shadows of London Life, Volume II – James Payn, 1867:

A friend of mine had bought a Shetland pony at the Battersea Cattle-show; after he had paid for it, the salesman coolly informed him that he must catch it himself out of the drove. The majority of purchasers would have shrunk from completing the transaction, but my friend was muscular, and of a determined mind. He strode in among the Liliputian throng, and after two or three hours of distracting pursuit, he secured his shaggy steed, and carried it out under his arm like a toy-horse. The jeering crowd advised him to enter the little animal for the Derby, but he had gone through too much already to be moved by mere satire; and having once got his property off the premises, he suffered it to find its legs, and clutching a handful of its tossing mane, led it home as though it were a dog.