Wife selling in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage that probably began in the late 17th century, when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthiest. After parading his wife with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, a husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder. Wife selling provides the backdrop for Thomas Hardy's 1886 novel "The Mayor of Casterbridge", in which the central character sells his wife at the beginning of the story, an act that haunts him for the rest of his life, and ultimately destroys him.