There are small pig-dealers, in almost every village, on the lookout for bargains, and very cute men they generally are.  One of these well-known at Aldington, though nearly blind, could tell the points and value of any pig in a marvellous way almost by intuition; it was said of him that, “though blind, he was a better judge of a pig than most folks with their eyes open.”

At farm and other auction sales there are always anxious buyers who make a practice of trying to depreciate ("crabbing,” as it is called) any article or property they particularly wish to purchase, by making damaging statements or insinuations to anybody whom, they fear, is also a probable buyer.  At a sale of cottage property adjoining a public-house, in a village not far from Aldington, a keen purchaser remarked that there was no water on the premises.  The auctioneer, however, knowing that water was not his man’s strong point, immediately replied, “Oh, never mind the water, sir, there’s plenty of whisky to be had next door.”  At another property sale, the tenant of the house on offer, gratuitously informed me that the roof was in a very bad state; knowing my man, I was not surprised when the house was knocked down to him, but I never saw any repairs to the roof in progress afterwards.

A friend of mine had a caretaker in an empty house, and, finding that no applications to view ever got beyond that stage, called at the house with his wife, ostensibly as intending tenants.  He was not personally known to the caretaker, and on making the usual inquiries, found the man by no means enthusiastic as to the amenities of the place, and particularly doubtful as to the drainage, so much so as to make it plain that any otherwise likely tenant would be repelled.  Knowing that all the sanitary arrangements were in perfect order, he disclosed his identity, much to the dismay of the caretaker who, of course, was dismissed.

The person who asks damaging questions of the auctioneer or solicitor at a property sale, though perhaps not declared the buyer on the fall of the hammer, not infrequently proves later to have been so, having employed an agent to bid for him.

At a sale of farm stock and implements I was examining a waggon practically new, though with no intention of buying, when I was surprised by a cousin of the vendor volunteering the statement that, having lately borrowed the waggon, he noticed one of the wheels giving out a suspicious noise when in use, as if something were wrong.  This was a particularly bad case of “crabbing,” as the man eventually became the purchaser at a high price.

It is an alarming sensation to see one’s name on a waggon for the first time, especially when the vehicle has been wholly repainted in blue or yellow to represent the owner’s supposed political tendencies, for such was the custom in Worcestershire; but perhaps one’s name, address, and crest on a hop-pocket is more alarming still, when we remember that twenty or more of these pockets, all marked alike, will form each of several loads to be carted from a London railway station to the Borough, the seat of the hop-trade, on the way to the factor’s warehouses, for all beholders to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.”