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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
“The Horse-World of London” (1893): the end of London’s asses’ milk trade
In 1893 the journalist W. J. Gordon described the London donkey market in Islington and the trade in milch asses. Asses’ milk had once been a favourite with physicians, he wrote, but since the rise of advertised patent foods the business had almost died out.
- Author
- W. J. Gordon (William John Gordon), London non-fiction writer and journalist
- Work
- The Horse-World of London, London: The Religious Tract Society 1893
- Passage
- Chapter XIV “The Donkey Mart”, pp. 174–175
- Time & place
- 1893 · London
- Type of source
- Non-fiction (reports on London’s working animals)
In the original words
What the original says
Asses' milk was at one time a favourite with physicians. Being more sugary and less cheesy than that of the cow, it was well suited for weaklings and invalids of a consumptive turn, and a fairly large business was done in it.
Asses’ milk was once a favourite with physicians. Being sweeter and less cheesy than cow’s milk, it was considered [according to Gordon] well suited to weaklings and invalids inclined to consumption, and a fairly large trade was done in it.
But the patent foods came in with their voluminous advertisements, and the trade has almost died out.
But then the patent foods arrived with their voluminous advertising, and the trade has almost died out.
If there are fifty milch asses in London it is as much as there are, the oldest firm at work being that of Dawkins, of Bolsover Street, which has been selling asses' milk ever since 1780,
There are at most fifty milch asses in London; the oldest firm still at work is Dawkins of Bolsover Street, which has been selling asses’ milk since 1780,
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
A look at the original
What the passage looks like
Page 175 of the first edition (London 1893), chapter “The Donkey Mart”: the decline of the asses’ milk trade and the London firm of Dawkins.
The page comes from a freely accessible digitised copy. Click to open the passage at the library.
Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine (Tufts University), Digitalisat via Internet Archive; gemeinfrei
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
“The Horse-World of London” was published in 1893 by the Religious Tract Society, which besides religious works also issued popular non-fiction and the magazine “The Leisure Hour”. W. J. Gordon wrote several books for this publisher on everyday life and work in London. The book devotes a chapter to each type of working horse, from the omnibus horse to the coal horse.
Chapter XIV is about the donkey. For it Gordon visits the London donkey market, held on Friday afternoons at the Islington Cattle Market. According to the text, about 3,000 donkeys changed hands there each year, mainly draught animals for costermongers and organ-grinders. In passing he mentions a special branch of the trade: milch asses.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
According to Gordon, milch asses were bought for seven to eight pounds, sometimes for as much as twelve, and resold after six months for two to three pounds. Asses’ milk had once been popular with physicians: sweeter and less cheesy than cow’s milk, and therefore recommended for weaklings and consumptives.
Then, he writes, the patent foods arrived with their massive advertising, and the trade almost vanished. It could still be seen during the season in one or two West End squares, where a jenny with a goat in the cart went round in the morning to be milked. In all of London there were at most fifty milch asses.
As the oldest firm Gordon names Dawkins of Bolsover Street, which had sold asses’ milk since 1780 and hired out jennies, with printed milking instructions, to families in the country. A jenny yielded about a quart a day, so the whole London supply would fit into a single churn. Donkey milk is not a substitute for breast milk or infant formula; infant feeding belongs in medical hands.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Timeline
Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk
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Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Source value
A contemporary report, verifiable page by page as a scan. Gordon was on the spot but gives prices and quantities without evidence; the figure of fifty jennies is an estimate. The claim that Dawkins had traded since 1780 probably comes from the firm itself.
A trade in decline
Unlike earlier sources, Gordon describes asses’ milk not at its height but in decline. As the cause he names competition from industrially produced, heavily advertised patent foods, which changed food for invalids and children towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Today’s assessment
The passage is a document of economic history on the London asses’ milk trade. Its statements about suitability for invalids reflect the opinion of the time and are no evidence of any effect.
Our assessment
Gordon’s short passage shows that by 1893 the London asses’ milk trade was almost a thing of the past. We are interested in the concrete figures: prices, daily yield and a firm that had been hiring out jennies for over a hundred years.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceW. J. Gordon, The Horse-World of London, London: The Religious Tract Society 1893, chapter XIV “The Donkey Mart”, p. 174 (Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, copy in the Internet Archive)
https://archive.org/details/horseworldoflond00gord/page/n177/mode/1up - SupplementaryContinuation of the passage on p. 175 (decline of the asses’ milk trade, the firm of Dawkins, hiring out of milch asses)
https://archive.org/details/horseworldoflond00gord/page/n178/mode/1up
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.