Show IN ENGLAND San S n Francisco Fifty years ears ago writes a reader of a London paper pa r is by b no means the most recent date dat of in England for even as late as the eighties such cases were by no means Infrequent and the thing given ghen an almost Judicial air by the care with which the vender was sup supposed supposed supposed posed to observe three conditions First that wife could not be sold twice second that the price must exceed one shilling and nd third that she must be delivered to her purchaser with a halter round her neck Thomas Hardy however who has made the sale safe of a wife the theme of his novel The Mayor of ot Caster bridge says noth nothIng lag Ing ng of any such conditions As late as 1887 1881 a wife ife was sold In a halter at Wake Wakefield Wakefield Wakefield field for half halt a guinea while three years before two cases were reported from York In the same week As a general rule It was wu only the poor and Ignorant who fol fot followed followed lowed this practice but at least one case cases Is s on record in which the wife duly halt haltered red ered and her husband drove up to Smith Smithfield Smithfield field in a coach and the price reached the record figure of fifty guineas and a handsome horse hone I sell my wife at pot of ot beer was the Ignorant Frenchmans view of English And he was 7 not so far wrong f |