An old ship's bell outside Cunningham's Oyster Bar on Mayfair's Curzon Street clanged brassily last week for the opening of the oyster season, but it rang for few Britons. In the days of Charles Dickens oysters cost a penny a dozen and Sam Weller could comment truthfully on the "wery remarkable circumstance,' sir, that poverty and oysters always seem to go together." Today only the rich can afford oysters. The best Colchesters cost 16s. ($3.20) a dozen, Whitstable natives IDS. to 125. ($2 to $2.40), imported oysters from Holland and Brittany 8s. to 10s. ($1.60 to $2).
Total catch of oysters this...
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