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1720
The 'Largest Ox'.
Sold for 100
guineas this animal weighed two hundred and thirty-six stone (over one and a
half tons - market fashion?) and was said to be the largest ox ever sold in
England up to that time. It had been raised on the marshy land known as 'Old
Tun Marsh' (there is a 'Tunmarsh Lane' still in existance in Newham) and was
five and three-quarter years old when killed. It sold for twelve-pence a pound
- 'every bit and bone of him' in London's Leadenhall Market in 1720. The event
was mentioned in Plaistow - a poem, of 1734 published in the 'London Magazine'.
From 'Old Plaistow' 1994.
© Lal Cook.
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