wife for sale

 for sale, by auction: One wife

Sometimes, it just
doesn't work out. The
spark goes, the flame
flickers, the fire dies -
whichever combustible
cliche you favour, love
has a regrettable habit
of fizzling out.
But for everyone bar
the wealthiest men in
Victorian Britain,
divorce was out of the
question. That may explain, if not excuse, why a
navvy in Stacksteads, Lancashire who'd grown
tired of married life, reverted to an old English
custom.
He offered up his wife for auction to the highest
bidder, staging the sale - as an additional insult -
at the home they'd shared together.
"Despite Solomon's testimony as to a woman
being more precious than rubies, and
notwithstanding that the spectators were
numerous, the highest offer was only 4d," said the
Sheffield and Rotherham Independent in 1879.
"The seller wanted to 'throw in' three children, but
the buyer objected, and the bairns were left on
hand. The wife, however, went joyfully to the home
of her new owner, and seemed to be quite glad to
get away from her late liege lord as he was to part
with her."