The French widely believed that it was common practice for a man tired of his wife to take her to London's Smithfield to be sold to the highest bidder, but cleric/historian challenged a French cleric who claimed he had read it from a reliable source. He then asked Baring Baring Gould if he knew of the practice, and was forced to admit he had witnessed the sale of the local poet as a child. Despite both the vicar and Justice of the Peace explaining the sale was not legal, the poet insisted it to be so, and they had a happy life together.