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diff --git a/37817.txt b/37817.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..30426cc --- /dev/null +++ b/37817.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3796 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cries of London, by John Thomas Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cries of London + Exhibiting Several of the Itinerant Traders of Antient and Modern Times + +Author: John Thomas Smith + +Release Date: October 22, 2011 [EBook #37817] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRIES OF LONDON *** + + + + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + Vagabondiana; + + OR, + ANECDOTES OF + ITINERANT TRADERS + THROUGH THE STREETS OF + LONDON, + IN ANTIENT AND MODERN TIMES. + + + VOLUME II. + + + BY + JOHN THOMAS SMITH. + + + London: + J. B. NICHOLS AND SON. + + 1839. + + + + +Printed by J. B. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament-street. + + + + + THE CRIES OF LONDON: + + EXHIBITING SEVERAL OF THE + ITINERANT TRADERS OF ANTIENT AND MODERN TIMES. + COPIED FROM RARE ENGRAVINGS, OR DRAWN FROM THE LIFE, + + + BY JOHN THOMAS SMITH, + LATE KEEPER OF THE PRINTS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. + WITH A MEMOIR AND PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR. + + + LONDON: + JOHN BOWYER NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET. + + 1839. + + + + +Printed by J. B. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament-street. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + + +The present work was some years since prepared for the press by its late +ingenious author, who engraved all the plates for it himself, thirteen of +which are copied from early prints, and the rest sketched from the life. +It will easily be perceived how much superior the latter are to the +former. + +The descriptions of the plates were also prepared by Mr. Smith, and had +the benefit of revision by the late Francis Douce, Esq. F.S.A. + +These spirited etchings having become the property of the present Editor, +they are now for the first time submitted to the public; who will, it is +hoped, consider this volume an appropriate companion to Mr. Smith's +"Vagabondiana; or, Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the Streets of +London," which work was honoured by a masterly Introduction from the pen +of Mr. Douce. + +The Editor has taken the liberty, occasionally, to adapt the letter-press +to the present day; but the reader will kindly bear in mind that the work +was written several years since; and that in the interval many changes +have taken place, which it was not thought necessary to point out. + +J. B. NICHOLS. + +_May_, 1839. + + + + +CONTENTS, AND LIST OF PLATES. + + + Page + + MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, with a Portrait ix + + INTRODUCTION 1 + + Plates. ANTIENT TRADES. + + I. WATCHMAN, from a rare woodcut temp. James I. 13 + + II. BELLMAN, from a work entitled "Villanies discovered by + Lanthorne and Candle Light" 14 + + III. BILL-MAN, from a print published by Overton, temp. + Charles II. 16 + + IV. WATER-CARRIER, from a print published by Overton 17 + + V. CORPSE-BEARER, in the time of a plague at London 20 + + VI. HACKNEY-COACHMAN, from a print published by Overton 25 + + VII. JAILOR, from a tract, entitled "Essayes and Characters + of a Prison and Prisoners, by Geffray Mynshul, 1638" 27 + + VIII. PRISON BASKET-MAN, from a print published by Overton, + temp. Charles II. 30 + + IX. RAT-CATCHER 33 + + X. MARKING-STONES, from a rare woodcut, temp. James I. 37 + + XI. BUY A BRUSH, OR A TABLE BOOK, from a print published + by Overton 39 + + XII. FIRE-SCREENS, from a print published by Overton 42 + + XIII. SAUSAGES, from a print temp. Charles II. 44 + + + MODERN TRADERS. + + XIV. NEW ELEGY 47 + + XV. ALL IN FULL BLOOM 50 + + XVI. OLD CHAIRS TO MEND--Portrait of Israel Potter 53 + + XVII. THE BASKET OR PRICKLE MAKER 55 + + XVIII. THE POTTER 58 + + XIX. STAFFORDSHIRE WARE 61 + + XX. HARD METAL SPOONS--Portrait of William Conway 63 + + XXI. DANCING DOLLS 65 + + XXII. SPRIG OF SHILLELAH AND SHAMROCK SO GREEN--Portrait + of Thomas McConwick, the dancing ballad singer 67 + + XXIII. GINGERBREAD NUTS, OR JACK'S LAST SHIFT--Portrait of + Daniel Clarey 69 + + XXIV. CHICKWEED--Portrait of George Smith 73 + + XXV. BILBERRIES 75 + + XXVI. Three female SIMPLERS 77 + + XXVII. WASHERWOMAN, CHAR-WOMAN, and STREET NURSES 81 + + XXVIII. SMITHFIELD BARGAINS--Saloop 85 + + XXIX. SMITHFIELD-PUDDING 88 + + XXX. THE BLADDER-MAN--Portrait of Bernardo Millano 92 + + POSTSCRIPT, by the Editor 96 + + + + +[Illustration: JOHN THOMAS SMITH, + +Late Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum. + +Author of Nollekens and his Times, Antient Topography, &c. &c. + +Engraved by W. Skelton, from an Original Drawing by J. Jackson, Esqr. +R.A. + +Published by J. B. Nichols & Son, May 1st, 1839.] + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. + + +John Thomas Smith was the son of Nathaniel Smith, sculptor, and afterwards +a well-known printseller, living at Rembrandt's Head, 18 Great +May's-buildings, St. Martin's-lane; and we have his own authority, written +in the album of Mr. Upcott of Upper Street, Islington, for stating, he was +literally "born in a hackney coach, June 23, 1766, on its way from his +uncle's old Ned Tarr, a wealthy glass-grinder, of Great Earl Street, Seven +Dials, to his father's house in Great Portland-street, Oxford Street; +whilst Maddox was balancing a straw at the Little Theatre in the Hay +Market, and Marylebone Gardens re-echoed the melodious notes of the famed +Tommy Lowe." + +He was christened John, after his grandfather (a simple Shropshire +clothier, and whose bust was the first model _publicly_ exhibited at +Spring Gardens), and Thomas, after his great uncle Admiral Smith, better +known under the appellation of "Tom of Ten Thousand" (who died in 1762), +and of whom Mr. Smith had a most excellent portrait painted by the +celebrated Richard Wilson, the landscape painter, before that artist +visited Rome, and of which there is a good engraving by Faber. The +original Painting has lately been purchased by an honourable Admiral, to +be presented by him to the Naval Gallery at Greenwich Hospital. + +His father, Nathaniel Smith, was born in Eltham Palace, and was the +playfellow of Joseph Nollekens, R.A. They both learned drawing together at +William Shipley's school, then kept in the Strand, at the eastern corner +of Castle-court, the house where the Society of Arts held its first +meetings. + +On the 7th August, 1755, Nathaniel Smith was placed with Roubiliac, and +had the honour of working with him on some of the monuments in +Westminster Abbey; Nollekens was put, in 1750, under the instruction of +Scheemakers. These young sculptors, about 1759 and 1760, carried off some +of the first and best prizes offered by the Society of Arts. Smith settled +himself in Great Portland-street; and his friend Nollekens in +Mortimer-street, Cavendish-square, where he resided till his death. + +Three of the heads of River Gods that adorn the arches of Somerset House, +designed by Cipriani, were carved by Mr. N. Smith. Many proofs of his +genius are recorded in the "Transactions of the Society of Arts." In 1758, +for the best model in clay, 5_l._ 5_s._; in 1759, for the best drawing +from a plaster cast, 5_l._ 5_s._; and for the first best drawing of +animals, 3_l._ 3_s._; in 1760, for the first best model of animals, 9_l._ +9_s._ (this model is in the possession of Viscount Maynard); in 1761, for +the first best model, in clay, of the Continence of Scipio, 15_l._ 15_s._ +(in the possession of the Marquis of Rockingham); in 1762, for the first +best model in clay, 21_l._--the subject, Coriolanus supplicated by his +Mother. Mr. N. Smith died in 1811. There is a portrait of him, etched by +De Wilde; and a small painting on panel by the same artist, is also +preserved. Three portraits of him by Howard are now in the family; as is +also a fine portrait of his sister, by Cotes. + +The friendship between Nollekens and Nath. Smith naturally introduced +young Smith, the author of this work, to the notice of that celebrated +sculptor. Whilst a boy, his intercourse with Nollekens was frequent, who +often took him to walk with him in various parts of London, and seemed to +feel a pleasure in pointing out curious remains and alterations of +buildings to his notice, as well as shewing him some remarkable vestiges +of former times. Perhaps these communications gave the first impetus to +that love for metropolitan antiquities which he continued unabated through +life. Upon the death of his mother in 1779, young Smith was invited into +the studio of Mr. Nollekens, who had seen and approved of some of his +attempts in wax-modelling. At that time Nathaniel Smith was Nollekens's +principal assistant; and there his son was employed in making drawings +from his models of monuments, assisting in casting, and finally, though +with little talent, in carving. Whilst with Nollekens, young Smith often +stood to him as a model, but left him after three years. He then became a +student in the Royal Academy, and was celebrated for his pen and ink +imitations of Rembrandt and Ostade's etchings; he copied several of the +small pictures of Gainsborough, by whom he was kindly noticed. He +afterwards was placed by his honoured friend Dr. Hinchliffe, then Bishop +of Peterborough, as a pupil to John Keyse Sherwin, the celebrated +engraver; but appears for a time to have given up the burin for the +pencil, and was for many years a drawing master, and at one time resided +at Edmonton. At the early age of 22 he married "the girl of his heart," +Miss Anne Maria Pickett (of the respectable family of Keighley, at +Streatham, in Surrey), who, after a union of 45 years, was left his widow. + +The name of John Thomas Smith will descend to posterity connected with the +Topographical History of the Metropolis. His first work, published in +numbers, was entitled, "Antiquities of London and its Environs; dedicated +to Sir James Winter Lake, Bart. F.S.A.; containing Views of Houses, +Monuments, Statues, and other curious remains of antiquity, engraved from +the original subjects, and from original drawings communicated by several +members of the Society of Antiquaries." There was no letter-press +description of these plates; but under the subjects were engraved copious +"Remarks, and References to the Historical Works of Pennant, Lysons, Stow, +Weever, Camden, and Maitland." The publication commenced in January 1791. +About this period it became the fashion to illustrate with prints the +pleasant "Account of London," by Mr. Pennant; and Mr. Smith's series of +plates was a great acquisition to the collector. This work was ten years +in progress, and finally consisted of twelve numbers and ninety-six +plates; for a list of them, see Upcott's Bibliographical Account of +English Topography, vol. ii. p. 886. + +In June, 1797, Mr. Smith published "Remarks on Rural Scenery; with twenty +Etchings of Cottages, from Nature; and some Observations and Precepts +relative to the Picturesque." The etchings were chiefly of cottages in the +neighbourhood of the metropolis. + +In June, 1807, Mr. Smith published "Antiquities of Westminster; the old +Palace; and St. Stephen's Chapel (now the House of Commons); containing +246 Engravings of Topographical Objects, of which 122 no longer remain. +This work contains copies of MSS. which throw new and unexpected light on +the ancient History of the Arts in England." This history appears to have +been determined on in the year 1800: when, on occasion of the Union with +Ireland, it becoming necessary to remove the wainscotting for the +enlargement of the House of Commons, some very curious paintings were +discovered on the 11th of August in that year. The next day Dr. Charles +Gower and Mr. Smith visited the paintings: when the latter immediately +determined to publish engravings from them; and on the 14th, permission +having been obtained, Mr. Smith commenced his drawings. It was his custom +to go there as soon as it was light, and to work till nine o'clock in the +morning, when he was obliged to give way to the workmen, who often +followed him so close in their operations, as to remove, in the course of +the day on which he had made his sketch, the painting which he had been +employed in copying that very morning. Six weeks, day by day, was Mr. +Smith thus occupied in making drawings and memoranda from the pictures +themselves, scrupulously matching the tint of the different colours on the +spot. On the 26th of September, the permission which had been granted to +him was withdrawn (on Mr. Robert Smirke, the more favoured draughtsman, +undertaking to make drawings for the Society of Antiquaries); but +fortunately by that time Mr. Smith had completed details of every thing he +wished. An opinion having been entertained that Mr. Smith's work was +intended as a rival to the one published by the Society of Antiquaries, +from Mr. Smirke's drawings, the transaction was explained in some letters +to the Gentleman's Magazine from Mr. J. Sidney Hawkins, Mr. Smith, and Mr. +Smirke. See vol. LXXIII. pp. 32, 118, 204, 318, 423. + +The description of the Plates was begun by John Sidney Hawkins, Esq. +F.S.A., who wrote the preface and the first 144 pages, besides other +portions, as enumerated in Mr. Smith's advertisement to the volume; but an +unfortunate dispute arising between these gentlemen (a circumstance much +to be regretted) the work was completed by the latter. Mr. Hawkins wrote +and published a pamphlet in answer to Mr. Smith's Preface; this produced a +"Vindication," in reply, which is occasionally to be found bound at the +end of the volume. Before this "Vindication" was published, a fire at Mr. +Bensley's printing office destroyed 400 remaining copies of the work, with +5,600 prints, 2000 of which were coloured and elaborately gilt by Mr. +Smith and his wife. By this fire Mr. Smith sustained a severe loss +(estimated at L3,000) as the work was his entire property, having been +published at his sole expense, aided by an unusually liberal subscription; +Mr. Hawkins having no further interest or concern in it than furnishing +gratuitously the greater portion of the descriptions. Mr. Smith afterwards +published "Sixty-two additional Plates" to his "Antiquities of +Westminster;"[1] but without any description, or even a list of them; for +which however see Upcott's Account of English Topography, vol. ii. p. 839. + +The "Antiquities of London, &c." was followed by another work on the same +subject, in a larger and more splendid quarto, entitled, "Ancient +Topography of London, embracing specimens of sacred, public and domestic +Architecture, from the earliest period to the time of the great Fire, +1666. Drawn and etched by John Thomas Smith, intended as an Accompaniment +to the celebrated Histories of Stow, Pennant, and others." This work was +begun in October 1810, and completed in 1815, when the title was altered +as follows: "Ancient Topography of London; containing not only Views of +Buildings which in many instances no longer exist, and for the most part +were never before published, but some Account of Places and Customs either +unknown or overlooked by the London Historians." He was assisted in the +descriptions by Francis Douce, Esq. F.S.A. and other friends. This volume +consists of 32 Plates, boldly and masterly etched by Mr. Smith, much in +the style of Piranesi, and explained in 82 pages of letter-press. To the +subscribers Mr. Smith intimated his intention to extend his work to 100 +pages, with several other plates; but this was never executed; he at the +same time solicited communications for his intended "Account of the Parish +of St. Paul, Covent Garden." The Manuscript is still possessed by his +widow. + +Mr. Smith happily escaped the necessity and drudgery of continuing his +labours as an artist, being appointed in 1816, Keeper of the Prints and +Drawings in the British Museum. + +In 1817 he published "Vagabondiana; or, Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers +through the Streets of London; with Portraits of the most remarkable, +drawn from the life;" preceded by a masterly introduction, from the pen of +Francis Douce, Esq. The present Volume, which was prepared for the press +by Mr. Smith, but never before published, may be considered as a +continuation of the same subject. + +In 1828 Mr. Smith published two volumes, entitled, "Nollekens and his +Times; comprehending a Life of that celebrated Sculptor; and Memoirs of +several contemporary Artists, from the time of Roubiliac, Hogarth, and +Reynolds, to that of Fuseli, Flaxman, and Blake," 2 vols. 8vo. These +volumes abound with anecdotes of his venerable master, his wife, and their +connexions, and of many of the artists of the last century. The +publication passed through two editions.[2] + +Mr. Smith had been employed on a work, which he intended to call "Walks +through London;" and in which he was to describe the Residences, with +anecdotes of eminent persons. He announced a "History of his own Life and +Times," the materials for which have been purchased by Mr. Bentley. He had +also at one time a very extensive and curious illustrated series of the +Royal Academy Catalogues. The greater part of his collection of Autographs +and Letters was purchased a few years since by Mr. Upcott; and it is +believed others were sold by Mr. Christie. His remaining collection of +pictures, books, models, and casts in terra-cotta and plaster, were sold +at his house, 22, University-street, Tottenham Court Road, on Tuesday the +23d of April, 1833. + +Mr. Smith was very generally known, both from the importance of his +publications and the public situation he held at the British Museum, where +he evinced much cordiality of disposition. Many an instance might be +mentioned of his charitable and friendly assistance to young artists who +sought his advice. He had good judgment to discover merit where it +existed, inherent good feeling to encourage it in a deserving object, and +sufficient candour to deter from the pursuit where he found there was no +indication of talent. In short, he was a very warm and sincere friend; and +has been greatly regretted by many who had enjoyed his good-humoured +conversation and ever amusing fund of anecdote; more particularly by the +frequenters of the print-room of the Museum, where his unremitting +attentions ensured for him the regard and respect of some of the first +characters of the country. + +In Mr. Upcott's album he wrote a playful account of himself, in which is +the following paragraph. "I can boast of seven _events_, some of which +_great_ men would be proud of. I received a kiss _when a boy_ from the +beautiful Mrs. Robinson,--was patted on the head by Dr. Johnson,--have +frequently held Sir Joshua Reynolds's spectacles,--partook of a pot of +porter with an elephant,--saved Lady Hamilton from falling when the +melancholy news arrived of Lord Nelson's death,--three times conversed +with King George the Third,--and was shut up in a room with Mr. Kean's +lion."[3] + +Mr. Smith's last illness, an inflammation of the lungs, was but of one +week's duration. He was fully conscious of his approaching dissolution, +and died in the possession of all his faculties, surrounded by his family, +on the 8th of March 1833, at No. 22, University Street, Tottenham Court +Road. He was privately interred on the 16th in the burial ground of St. +George's Chapel, near Tyburn Turnpike, attended to the grave by a few old +friends and brother artists. + +Besides his widow Mr. Smith left one son, who died at the Cape of Good +Hope three months after his father; and two daughters; one of whom is +married to Mr. Smith, the sculptor; the other to Mr. Fischer, the +miniature-painter, a native of Hanover. + +Of Mr. Smith there is a three-quarters portrait by J. Jackson, R.A.; and +also a drawing of him by the same artist, from which the engraving given +in this work, by Skelton, is copied. + +J. B. NICHOLS. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +There are few subjects, perhaps, so eagerly attended to by the young as +those related by their venerable parents when assembled round the +fire-side, but more particularly descriptions of the customs and habits of +ancient times. Now as the Cries of London are sometimes the topic of +conversation, the author of the present work is not without the hope of +finding, amongst the more aged as well as juvenile readers, many to whom +it may prove acceptable, inasmuch as it not only exhibits several +Itinerant Traders and other persons of various callings of the present +day, but some of those of former times, collected from engravings executed +in the reigns of James I., Charles I. and during the Usurpation of Oliver +Cromwell, and which, on account of their extreme rarity, are seldom to be +seen but in the most curious and expensive Collections. + +In the perusal of this volume the collector of English Costume, as well as +the Biographer, may find something to his purpose, particularly in the +old dresses, as it was the custom for our forefathers to wear habits +peculiar to their station, and not, as in the present times, when a +linen-draper's apprentice, or a gentleman's butler, may, in the boxes of +the theatre, by means of his dress, and previously to uttering a word, be +mistaken for the man of fashion. + +Of all the itinerant callings the Watchman, the Water Carrier, the Vender +of Milk, the Town Crier, and the Pedlar, are most probably of the highest +antiquity. + +When the Suburbs of London were infested with wolves and other +depredators, and the country at large in a perpetual state of warfare, it +was found expedient for the inhabitants to protect themselves, and for +that purpose they surrounded their city by a wall, and according to the +most ancient custom erected barbicans or watch-towers at various +distances, commanding a view of the country, so that those on guard might +see the approach of an enemy. This is an extremely ancient custom, as we +find in the Second Book of Kings, chapter ix. verse 17, "And there stood a +watchman on the Tower in Jezreel." + +With respect to water, it is natural to suppose that before conduits were +established in London, the inhabitants procured it from the River Thames, +and that infirm people, and the more opulent citizens, compensated others +for the trouble of bringing it. + +This must have also been the practice as to milk, in consequence of the +farm-houses always being situated in the suburbs for the purpose of +grazing the cattle. Stowe, the historian, has informed us that in his +boyish days he had his three quarts of milk hot from the cow for his +halfpenny. + +The Water Carrier will be described and delineated in the course of this +work. + +As the city increased in population, a Town Crier became expedient, so +that an article to be sold, or any thing lost, might be in the shortest +possible time made known to the inhabitants of the remotest dwelling. +Shakspeare has marked the character of a Crier of his time in Hamlet, Act +iii. scene 2, "But if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as +lieve the Town-crier spoke my lines." Lazarello de Tormes, in the very +entertaining history of his life, describes his having been a Crier at +Madrid, and that by blowing a horn he announced the sale of some wine. + +Sometimes the criers of country towns afford instances of the grossest +flattery and ignorance. We have an instance in the Crier of Cowbridge, +Glamorganshire, who, after announcing the loss of an "all black cow, with +a white face and a white tail," concluded with the usual exclamation of +"God save the King and the Lord of the Manor!" adding, "and Master Billy!" +well knowing that the Lord of the Manor or his Lady would remember him for +recollecting their infant son. + +It may be inferred from an ancient stained glass picture of a pedlar with +his pack at his back, still to be seen in a South-east window of Lambeth +Church,[4] a representation of which has been given by the author in a +work entitled, "Antiquities of London," that itinerant trades must have +been of long standing. + +It appears from the celebrated Comedy of Ignoramus, by George Ruggle, +performed before King James the First on March the 8th, 1614, of which +there is an English translation by Robert Codrington, published 1662, that +books were at that period daily cried in the streets. + +In the third scene of the second act, _Cupes_ the itinerant Bibliopole +exclaims, + + Libelli, belli, belli; lepidi, novi libelli; belli, belli, libelli! + + _Trico._ Heus, libelli belli. + + _Cupes._ O Trico, mox tibi operam do. Ita vivam, ut pessimi sunt + libelli. + +In the time of Charles II. ballad singers and _sellers of small books_ +were required to be licensed. John Clarke, bookseller, rented the +licensing of all ballad-singers of Charles Killigrew, Esq. master of the +revels, for five years, which term expired in 1682. "These, therefore, are +to give notice (saith the latter gentleman in the London Gazette) to all +ballad-singers, that they take out licenses at the office of the Revels at +Whitehall, for singing and selling of ballads and small books, according +to an antient custom. And all persons concerned are hereby desired to take +notice of, and to suppress, all mountebanks, rope-dancers, prize-players, +ballad-singers, and such as make shew of motions and strange sights, that +have not a license in red and black letters, under the hand and seal of +the said Charles Killigrew, Esq. Master of the Revels to his Majesty; and +in particular, to suppress one Mr. Irish, Mr. Thomas Varney, and Thomas +Yeats, mountebank, who have no license, that they may be proceeded against +according to law." + +The Gazette of April 14, 1684, contains another order relative to these +licenses: "All persons concerned are hereby desired to take notice of and +suppress all mountebanks, rope-dancers, ballad-singers, &c. that have not +a license from the Master of his Majesty's Revels (which, for this present +year, are all printed with black letters, and the King's Arms in red) and +particularly Samuel Rutherford and ---- Irish, mountebanks, and William +Bevel and Richard Olsworth; and all those that have licenses with red and +black letters, are to come to the office to change them for licenses as +they are now altered." + +The origin of our early cries might be ascribed to the parent of +invention. An industrious man finding perhaps his trade running slack, +might have ventured abroad with his whole stock, and by making his case +known, invited his neighbours to purchase; and this mode of vending +commodities being adopted by others, probably established the custom of +itinerant hawkers, to the great and truly serious detriment of those +housekeepers who contributed to support their country by the payment of +their taxes. An Act was passed in the reign of James the First, and is +thus noticed in a work entitled, "Legal Provisions for the Poor, by S. C. +of the Inner Temple, 1713." "All Pedlars, Petty-chapmen, Tinkers, and +Glass-men, _per Statute_ 21 _Jac._ 28, _abroad_, especially if they be +unknown, or have not a sufficient testimonial, and though a man have a +certain habitation, yet if he goes about from place to place selling small +wares, he is punishable by the 39 Eliz." + +Hawkers and Pedlars are obliged at this time, in consequence of an Act +passed in the reign of King George the Third, to take out a license. + +Originally the common necessaries of life were only sold in the _streets_, +but we find as early as the reign of Elizabeth that cheese-cakes were to +be had at the small _house_ near the Serpentine River in Hyde Park. It is +a moated building, and to this day known under the appellation of the +"Queen's Cheese-cake House."[5] There were also other houses for the sale +of cheese-cakes, and those at Hackney and Holloway were particularly +famous. The landlord of the latter employed people to cry them about the +streets of London; and within the memory of the father of the present +writer an old man delivered his cry of "Holloway Cheese-cakes," in a tone +so whining and slovenly, that most people thought he said "All my teeth +ache." Indeed among persons who have been long accustomed to cry the +articles they have for sale, it is often impossible to guess at what they +say. + +An instance occurs in an old woman who has for a length of time sold +mutton dumplings in the neighbourhood of Gravel Lane. She may be followed +for a whole evening, and all that can be conjectured from her utterance is +"Hot mutton trumpery." + +In another instance, none but those who have heard the man, would for a +moment believe that his cry of "Do you want a brick or brick dust?" could +have been possibly mistaken for "Do you want a lick on the head?" + +An inhabitant of the Adelphi, when an invalid, was much annoyed by the +peevish and lengthened cry of "Venny," proceeding every morning and +evening from a muffin-man whenever he rang his bell. + +Many of the old inhabitants of Cavendish Square must recollect the +mournful manner in which a weather-beaten Hungerford fisherman cried his +"Large silver Eels, live Eels." This man's tones were so melancholy to the +ears of a lady in Harley Street that she allowed the fellow five shillings +a week to discontinue his cry in that neighbourhood; and there is at the +present time a slip-shod wretch who annoys Portland Place and its vicinity +generally twice, and sometimes three times a day, with what may be +strictly called the braying of an ass, and all his vociferation is to +inform the public that he sells water-cresses, though he appears to call +"Chick-weed." Another Stentorian bawler, and even a greater nuisance in +the same neighbourhood, seems to his unfortunate hearers to deal in +"Cats'-meat," though his real cry is "Cabbage-plants." + +The witty author of a tract entitled, "An Examination of certain Abuses, +Corruptions, and Enormities, in the City of Dublin," written in the year +1732, says, "I would advise all new comers to look out at their garret +windows, and there see whether the thing that is cried be _Tripes_ or +_Flummery_, _Buttermilk_ or _Cowheels_; for, as things are now managed, +how is it possible for an honest countryman just arrived, to find out what +is meant, for instance, by the following words, '_Muggs, Juggs, and +Porringers, up in the Garret, and down in the Cellar?_' I say, how is it +possible for a stranger to understand that this jargon is meant as an +invitation to buy a farthing's worth of milk for his breakfast or supper?" + +Captain Grose, in his very entertaining little work, entitled "An Olio," +in which there are many interesting anecdotes, notices several perversions +of this kind, particularly one of a woman who sold milk. + +Farthing mutton pies were made and continued to be sold within the memory +of persons now living at a house which was then called the "Farthing Pie +House," in Marylebone Fields, before the New Road was made between +Paddington and Islington, and which house remains in its original state at +the end of Norton Street, New Road, bearing the sign of the Green Man. + +Hand's Bun House at Chelsea was established about one hundred and twenty +years since, and probably was the first of its kind. There was also a +famous bun-house at the time of George the Second in the Spa Fields, near +the New River Head, on the way to Islington, but this was long since +pulled down to make way for the sheep-pens, the site of which is now +covered with houses. + +The first notice which the writer has been able to obtain of the hot +apple-dumpling women is in Ned Ward's very entertaining work, entitled +"The London Spy," first published in 1698. He there states that Pancakes +and "Diddle, diddle dumplings O!" were then cried in Rosemary Lane and its +vicinity, commonly called Rag Fair. The representation of a +dumpling-woman, in the reign of Queen Anne, is given by Laroon in his +Cries of London, published 1711.[6] + +With respect to hot potatoes, they must have been considerably more +modern, as there are persons now living who declare them to have been +eaten with great caution, and very rarely admitted to the table. The +potatoe is a native of Peru in South America; it has been introduced into +England about a century and a half; the Irish seem to have been the first +general cultivators of it in the western parts of Europe. + +Rice milk, furmety, and barley-broth were in high request at the time of +Hogarth, about 1740. Boitard, a French artist, who was in England at that +time, has left us a most spirited representation of the follies of the day +in his print entitled "Covent Garden Morning Frolic," in which the +barley-broth woman is introduced. Without detracting from the merit of the +immortal Hogarth, this print, which is extremely rare, exhibits as much +humour as any of his wonderful productions. A copy of this engraving with +an explanatory account of the portraits which it exhibits, will be given +by the author in his Topographical History of Covent Garden, a work for +which he has been collecting materials for upwards of thirty years.[7] + +The use of saloop is of very recent date. It was brought into notice, and +first sold in Fleet Street one hundred years ago, at the house now No. +102, where lines in its praise were painted upon a board and hung up in +the first room from the street, a copy of which will precede a print +representing a saloop stall, given in this work. + +Formerly strong waters were publicly sold in the streets, but since the +duty has been laid on spirits, and an Act passed to oblige persons to take +out a license for dealing in liquors, the custom of hawking such +commodities has been discontinued. + +The town, from the vigilance of the Police, has fortunately got rid of a +set of people called Duffers, who stood at the corners of streets, +inviting the unsuspicious countryman to lay out his money in silk +handkerchiefs or waistcoat pieces, which they assured him in a whisper to +have been smuggled. A notorious fellow of this class, who had but one eye, +took his stand regularly near the gin-shop at the corner of Hog Lane, +Oxford Street. The mode adopted by such men to draw the ignorant higgler +into a dark room, where he was generally fleeced, was by assuring him that +no one could see them, and as for a glass of old Tom, he would pay for +that himself, merely for the pleasure of shewing his goods. + +Though this custom of accosting passengers at the corners of streets is +very properly done away with, yet the tormenting importunities of the +barking shopkeeper is still permitted, as all can witness as they pass +through Monmouth Street, Rosemary Lane, Houndsditch, and Moorfields. The +public were annoyed in this way so early as 1626, as appears from the +following passage in "Greene's Ghost:" "There are another sort of +Prentices, that when they see a gentlewoman or a countriman minded to buy +any thing, they will fawne upon them, with cap in hand, with 'What lacke +you, gentlewoman? what lacke you, countriman? see what you lacke.'" + + + + +[Illustration: _"Watchman"_] + +[Illustration: _"Bellman & Billman"_] + +[Illustration: _"Watchman"_] + + +WATCHMAN, BELLMAN, and BILLMAN. + +PLATES I. II. III. + + +It has been observed in the Introduction, that of all the callings, that +of the Watchman is perhaps of the highest antiquity; and as few writers +can treat on any subject without a quotation from honest John Stowe, the +following extract is inserted from that valuable and venerable author: + +"Then had yee, besides the standing watches, all in bright harnesse, in +every ward and streete of this citie and suburbs, a marching watch that +passed thro' the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the Little +Conduit by Paule's gate, thro' West Cheape, by the Stocks, thro' +Cornehill, by Leadenhall to Aldgate, then backe downe Fen-church Street, +by Grasse Church, about Grasse-church Conduit, and by Grasse Church +Streete into Cornehill, and through it into Cheape again, and so broke up. +The whole way ordered for this marching watch extended to 3200 taylors +yards of assize. For the furniture thereof with lights there were +appointed 700 cressets, 500 of them being found by the Companies, and the +other 200 by the Chamber of London.[8] Besides the which lights, every +Constable in London, in number more then 240, had his cresset; the charge +of every cresset was in light two shillings and four pence, and every +cresset had two men, one to beare or hold it, another to beare a bagge +with light, and to serve it; so that the poore men pertaining to the +cressets, taking wages, besides that every one had a strawne hat, with a +badge painted, and his breakfast in the morning, amounted in number to +almost 2000. The marching watch contained in number 2000 men, part of them +being old souldiers, of skill to be captaines, lieutenants, serjeants, +corporals, &c. Wiflers, drummers, and fifes, standard and ensigne bearers, +sword-players, trumpeters on horsebacke, demilaunces on great horses, +gunners with hand-guns, or halfe hakes, archers in coates of white +fustian, signed on the breast and backe with the armes of the City, their +bowes bent in their hands, with sheafes of arrowes by their sides, pikemen +in bright corslets, burganets, &c. holbards, the like Billmen in Almaine +rivets, and apernes of mayle, in great number."[9] + +Mr. Douce observes, that these watches were "laid down 20 Henry VIII.;" +and that "the Chronicles of Stow and Byddel assign the sweating sickness +as a cause for discontinuing the watch." + +"Anno 1416. Sir Henry Barton being maiar, ordained lanthorns and lights to +be hang'd out on the winter evenings, betwixt Alhallows and Candlemas." + +Mr. Warton, in his notes to Milton's Poems, observes, that anciently the +Watchmen who cried the hours used the following or the like benedictions, +which are to be found in a little poem called "The Bellman," inserted in +Robert Herrick's Hesperides: + + "From noise of scare-fires rest ye free, + From murder, Benedicite. + From all mischances, that may fright + Your pleasing slumbers in the night; + Mercie secure ye all, and keep + The goblin from ye while ye sleep." 1647. + +The First Plate of the Watchman, introduced in this work, is copied from +a rare woodcut sheet-print engraved at the time of James the First, +consisting of twelve distinct figures of trades and callings, six men and +six women. Under this Watchman the following verses are introduced, but +they are evidently of a more modern date than that of the woodcut: + + "Maids in your smocks, look to your locks, + Your fire and candle light; + For well 'tis known, much mischief's done + By both in dead of night. + Your locks and fire do not neglect, + And so you may good rest expect." + +Under another Watchman, in the same set of figures, are the following +lines, of the same type and orthography as the preceding: + + "A light here, maids, hang out your light, + And see your horns be clear and bright, + That so your candle clear may shine, + Continuing from six till nine; + That honest men that walk along, + May see to pass safe without wrong." + +There were not only Watchmen, but Bellmen and Billmen. These people were +armed with a long bill in case of fire, so that they could, as the houses +were mostly of timber, stop the progress of the flames by cutting away +connections of fuel. + +Of this description of men, the Second Plate, copied from a rare print +prefixed to a work, entitled, "Villanies discovered by Lanthorne and +Candle-light,"[10] by T. Deckar, or Dekker, 1616, is given as a specimen. +The Bellman is stiled "The Childe of Darkness, a common Night-walker, a +man that had no man to waite uppon him, but onely a dog, one that was a +disordered person, and at midnight would beate at men's doores, bidding +them (in meere mockerie) to look to their candles when they themselves +were in their dead sleeps, and albeit he was an officer, yet he was but of +light carriage, being knowne by the name of the Bellman of London." + +In Strype's edition of Stowe's London, 1756, (vol. ii. 489,) it is +observed, "Add to this government of the nightly watches, there is +belonging to each ward a Bellman, who, especially in the long nights, +goeth thro' the streets and lanes, ringing a bell; and when his bell +ceaseth, he salutes his masters and mistresses with some rhimes, suitable +to the festivals and seasons of the year; and bids them look to their +lights. The beginning of which custom seems to be in the reign of Queen +Mary, in January 1556; and set up first in Cordwainer-street Ward, by +Alderman Draper, Alderman of that ward; then and there, as I find in an +old Journal, one began to go all night with a bell; and at every lane's +end, and at the ward's end, gave warning of fire and candle, and to helpe +the poor, and pray for the dead." + +It appears from the Bellman's Epistle, prefixed to the London Bellman, +published in 1640, that he came on at midnight, and remained ringing his +bell till the rising up of the morning. He says, "I will wast out mine +eies with my candles, and watch from midnight till the rising up of the +morning: my bell shall ever be ringing, and that faithfull servant of mine +(the dog that follows me) be ever biting." + +Leases of houses, and household furniture stuff, were sold in 1564 by an +out-cryer and bellman for the day, who retained one farthing in the +shilling for his pains. + +The friendly Mr. George Dyer, late a printseller of Compton-street, +presented to the writer a curious sheet print containing twelve Trades and +Callings, published by Overton, without date, but evidently of the time of +Charles the Second, from which engraving the Third Plate of a Watchman was +copied. + + + + +[Illustration: _"A Tankard Bearer"_] + + +WATER-CARRIER. + +PLATE IV. + + +The Conduits of London and its environs, which were established at an +early period, supplied the metropolis with water until Sir Hugh Middleton +brought the New River from Amwell to London, and then the Conduits +gradually fell into disuse, as the New River water was by degrees laid on +in pipes to the principal buildings in the City, and, in the course of +time, let into private houses. + +When the above Conduits supplied the inhabitants, they either carried +their vessels, or sent their servants for the water as they wanted it; but +we may suppose that at an early period there were a number of men who for +a fixed sum carried the water to the adjoining houses. The first +delineation the writer has been able to discover of a Water-carrier, is in +Hoefnagle's print of Nonsuch, published in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. + +The next is in the centre of that truly-curious and more rare sheet +wood-cut, entitled, "Tittle-Tattle," which from the dresses of the figures +must have been engraved either in the latter part of the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, or the beginning of that of James the First. In this wood-cut +the maid servants are at a Conduit, where they hold their tittle-tattle, +while the Water-carriers are busily engaged in filling their buckets and +conveying them on their shoulders to the places of destination. + +The figure of a Water-carrier, introduced in the Fourth Plate, is copied +from one of a curious and rare set of cries and callings of London, +published by Overton, at the White Horse without Newgate. The figure +retains the dress of Henry the Eighth's time; his cap is similar to that +usually worn by Sir Thomas More, and also to that given in the portrait of +Albert Durer, engraved by Francis Stock. It appears by this print, that +the tankard was borne upon the shoulder, and, to keep the carrier dry, two +towels were fastened over him, one to fall before him, the other to cover +his back. His pouch, in which we are to conclude he carried his money, has +been thus noticed in a very curious and rare tract, entitled, "_Green's +Ghost_, with the merry Conceits of Doctor Pinch-backe," published 1626: +"To have some store of crownes in his purse, coacht in a faire trunke +flop, like a boulting hutch." + +Ben Jonson, in his admirable comedy of "Every Man in his Humour," first +performed in 1598, has made Cob the water-carrier of the Old Jewry, at +whose house Captain Bobadil lodges, a very leading and entertaining +character. Speaking of himself before the Justice, he says, "I dwell, Sir, +at the sign of the Water-tankard, hard by the Green Lattice; I have paid +scot and lot there many time this eighteen years." + +The first notice which the writer has been able to obtain of the +introduction of the New River water into public buildings in London, he +found in the Archives of Old Bethlem, in which it appears, that "on the +26th of February, 1626, Mr. Middleton conveyed water into Bethlem." This +must have been, according to its date, the old Bethlem Hospital that stood +in Bishopsgate-street, near St. Botolph's Church, on the site of the +streets which are at this time under the denomination of Old Bethlem; as +the building lately taken down in London Wall, Moorfields, was begun in +April 1675, and finished in July 1676. It should seem therefore that this +magnificent building, which had more the appearance of a palace than a +place of confinement, most substantially built with a centre and two +wings, extending in length to upwards of 700 feet, was only one year in +building; a most extraordinary instance of manual application. + +In 1698, when Cheapside Conduit was no longer used for its original +purpose, it became the place of call for chimney-sweepers, who hung up +their brooms and shovels against it, and there waited for hire. + +It appears that even in 1711 the New River water was not generally let +into houses; for in Laroon's Cries of London, which were published at that +time, there is a man with two tubs suspended across his shoulders, +according to the present mode of carrying milk, at the foot of which plate +is engraved "Any New River Water, water here."[11] + + + + +CORPS-BEARER. + +PLATE V. + + +Of all the calamities with which a great city is infested, there can be +none so truly awful as that of a plague, when the street-doors of the +houses that were visited with the dreadful pest were padlocked up, and +only accessible to the surgeons and medical men, whose melancholy duty +frequently exposed them even to death itself; and when the fronts of the +houses were pasted over with large bills exhibiting red crosses, to denote +that in such houses the pestilence was raging, and requesting the solitary +passenger to pray that the Lord might have mercy upon those who were +confined within. Of these bills there are many extant in the libraries of +the curious, some of which have borders engraved on wood, printed in +black, displaying figures of skeletons, bones, and coffins. They also +contain various recipes for the cure of the distemper. The Lady Arundell, +and other persons of distinction, published their methods for making what +was then called plague-water, and which are to be found in many of the +rare books on cookery of the time; but happily for London, it has not been +visited by this affliction since 1665, a circumstance owing probably to +the Great Fire in the succeeding year, which consumed so many old and +deplorable buildings, then standing in narrow streets and places so +confined that it was hardly possible to know where any pest would stop. + +Every one who inspects Aggas's Plan of London, engraved in the reign of +Elizabeth, as well as those published subsequently to the rebuilding of +the City after the fire, must acknowledge the great improvements as to +the houses, the widening of the streets, and the free admission of fresh +air. It is to be hoped, and indeed we may conclude from the very great and +daily improvements on that most excellent plan of widening streets, that +this great City will never again witness such visitations. + +[Illustration: _"Corpse Bearer"_] + +When the plague was at its height, perhaps nothing could have been more +silently or solemnly conducted than the removal of the dead to the various +pits round London, that were opened for their reception; and it was the +business of Corpse Bearers, such as the one exhibited in the Fifth Plate, +to give directions to the Car-men, who went through the City with bells, +which they rang, at the same time crying "Bring out your Dead." This +melancholy description may be closed, by observing that many parts of +London, particularly those leading to the Courts of Westminster, were so +little trodden down, that the grass grew in the middle of the streets. Few +persons would believe the truth of the following extract: + +"A profligate wretch had taken up a new way of thieving (yet 'tis said too +much practised in those times), of robbing the dead, notwithstanding the +horror that is naturally concomitant. This trade he followed so long, till +he furnished a warehouse with the spoils of the dead; and had gotten into +his possession (some say) to the number of a thousand winding-sheets." See +Memoirs of the Life and Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, published 1682. + +It is remarkable, and shows the great advantage of our River Thames, that +during the Plague of 1665, according to a remark made by Lord Clarendon, +not one house standing upon London Bridge was visited by the plague. + +Although the subject of Funerals has been so often treated of by various +authors, yet the following extracts will not, it is hoped, be deemed +irrelevant by the reader. They may serve too as a contrast to the +confusion and mingling of dust which must have taken place during the +plague, in the burial of so many thousands in so short a space of time, +and they may show likewise the vanity of human nature. + +In "Chamberlain's Imitation of Holbein's Drawings," in his Majesty's +collection, is the following passage alluding to the great care Lady Hobye +took as to the arrangement of her funeral. + +"Her fondness for those pompous soothings, which it was usual at that time +for grief to accept at the hands of pride, scarcely died with her; for, a +letter is extant from her to Sir William Dethick, Garter King of Arms, +desiring to know 'what number of mourners were due to her calling; what +number of waiting women, pages, and gentlemen ushers; of chief mourners, +lords, and gentlemen; the manner of her hearse, of the heralds, and +church?' &c. This remarkable epistle concludes thus: 'Good Mr. Garter, do +it exactly, for I find forewarnings that bid me provide a pick-axe,' &c. +The time of her death is not exactly known, but it is supposed to have +been about 1596. She is buried at Bisham, with her first husband.[12] It +was this Lady's daughter, Elizabeth Russell, that was said to have died +with a pricked finger." + +It was usual at funerals to use rosemary, even to the time of Hogarth, who +has introduced it in a pewter plate on the coffin-lid of the funeral scene +in his Harlot's Progress. Shakspeare notices it in Romeo and Juliet, "And +stick your _rosemary_ on this fair corse." "This plant," says Mr. Douce, +in his "Illustrations of Shakspeare and Ancient Manners," page 216, vol. +i. "was used in various ways at funerals. Being an evergreen, it was +regarded as an emblem of the soul's immortality." Thus in Cartwright's +"Ordinary," Act 5, scene 1: + + "----------------If there be + Any so kind as to accompany + My body to the earth, let them not want + For entertainment; pr'ythee see they have + _A sprig of rosemary_ dip'd in common water, + To smell to as they walk along the streets." + +In an obituary kept by Mr. Smith, secondary of one of the Compters, and +preserved among the Sloanian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 886, is the +following entry: "Jan. 2, 1671, Mr. Cornelius Bee, Bookseller in Little +Britain, died; buried Jan. 4, at Great St. Bartholomew's, without a +sermon, without wine or wafers, only gloves and _rosemary_." And Mr. Gay, +when describing Blowselinda's funeral, records that "Sprigg'd rosemary the +lads and lasses bore." + +Suicides were buried on the north side of the church, in ground purposely +_unconsecrated_. + +The custom of burial observed by that truly respectable class of the +community denominated Friends, commonly called Quakers, may be deemed the +most rational, as it is conducted with the utmost simplicity. + +The corpse is kept the usual time; it is then put into a plain coffin +uncovered. Afterwards it is placed in a plain hearse, also uncovered, and +without feathers; the attendants accompanying the funeral in their family +carriages, or hackney coaches. The corpse is then placed by the side of +the grave where sometimes they offer a prayer, or deliver an exhortation, +after which the coffin is lowered, the earth put over it, and thus the +ceremony closes. Should the deceased have been a minister, then the corpse +on the day of its interment is carried into the meeting house, and remains +there in the midst of the congregation during their meditations. + +The orthodox members of this society never wear any kind of mourning. +Relatives are never designedly placed by each other, but are buried +indiscriminately, as death may visit each member. + +They begin at the left hand upper corner, placing them in rows till they +have filled the ground to the lower right hand corner, after which they +commence again as before. They make no distinction whatever between male +and female, nor young and old, nor have they even so much as a +coffin-plate. + +The Jews bury their dead within four and twenty hours, adhering to the +custom of the East, where the body would putrify beyond that time. The +great burial-ground at Mile End was made at the sole expense of the famous +Moses Hart, who, after losing an immense sum in the South Sea bubble, died +worth 5000_l._ _per annum_. This munificent Jew also built the Dutch +Synagogue in Duke's-place. The squib prints of the day designate Moses +Hart by the introduction of the Knave of Hearts. The Knave of Clubs in the +same plate was meant for the ancestor of the Gideon family. The Jews bury +their poor by a collection made at the funerals of the better part of the +community. Several boys go about to the mourners and other Jews assembled +upon the occasion, with tin boxes padlocked up, at the top of which there +is a small slit to admit of the contributions, and every Jew present, +however humble his station, is eager to drop in his mite. + + + + +[Illustration: _"Hackney Coachman"_] + + +HACKNEY COACHMAN. + +PLATE VI. + + +From the writer's extensive knowledge of prints, and his intimate +acquaintance with the various collections in England, he has every reason +to conclude that the original print of a Hackney Coachman, from which this +Plate has been copied, is perhaps the only representation of the earliest +character of that calling. The print from which it was taken is one of a +Set published by Overton, at the sign of the White Horse without Newgate; +and its similarity to the figures given by Francis Barlow in his AEsop's +Fables, and particularly in a most curious sheet-print etched by that +artist, exhibiting Charles the Second, the Duke of York, &c. viewing the +Races on Dorset Ferry near Windsor, in 1687, sufficiently proves this +Hackney Coachman to have been of the reign of that monarch. + +The early Hackney Coachman did not sit upon the box as the present drivers +do, but upon the horse, like a postilion; his whip is short for that +purpose; his boots, which have large open broad tops, must have been much +in his way, and exposed to the weight of the rain. His coat was not +according to the fashion of the present drivers as to the numerous capes, +which certainly are most rational appendages, as the shoulders never get +wet; the front of the coat has not the advantage of the present folding +one, as it is single breasted. + +His hat was pretty broad, and so far he was screened from the weather. +Another convincing proof that he rode as a postilion is, that his boots +are spurred. In that truly curious print representing the very interesting +Palace of Nonsuch, engraved by Hoefnagle, in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, the coachman who drives the royal carriage in which the Queen +is seated, is placed on a low seat behind the horses, and has a long whip +to command those he guides. How soon after Charles the Second's time the +Hackney Coachmen rode on a box the writer has not been able to learn, but +in all the prints of King William's time the Coachmen are represented upon +the box, though by no means so high as at present; nor was it the fashion +at the time of Queen Anne to be so elevated as to deprive the persons in +the carriage of the pleasure of looking over their shoulders. + +Brewer, in his "Beauties of Middlesex," observes in a note, that "It is +familiarly said, that Hackney, on account of its numerous respectable +inhabitants, was the first place near London provided with Coaches for +hire, for the accommodation of families, and that thence arises the term +Hackney Coaches." + +This appears quite futile; the word Hackney, as applied to a hireling, is +traced to a remote British origin, and was certainly used in its present +sense long before that village became conspicuous for wealth or +population. + +In 1637 the number of Hackney Coaches in London was confined to 50, in +1652 to 200, in 1654 to 300, in 1662 to 400, in 1694 to 700, in 1710 to +800, in 1771 to 1000, and in 1802 to 1100. In imitation of our Hackney +Coaches, Nicholas Sauvage introduced the Fiacres at Paris, in the year +1650. The hammer-cloth is an ornamental covering of the coach-box. Mr. S. +Pegge says, "The Coachman formerly used to carry a hammer, pincers, a few +nails, &c. in a leathern pouch hanging to his box, and this cloth was +devised for the hiding of them from public view." See Pegge's +"Anonymiana," p. 181. + +It is said that the sum of L1500, arising from the duty on Hackney +Coaches, was applied in part of the expense in rebuilding Temple Bar. + + + + +[Illustration: _"Jailor"_] + + +JAILOR. + +PLATE VII. + + +Those persons who remember old Newgate, the Gate House at Westminster, and +other places of confinement, will recollect how small and inconvenient +those buildings were, and must acknowledge the very great improvements as +to the extensive accommodation of all our Prisons, not only in London, but +in almost every county in England; and for these very great improvements +no one could have stood more forward than the benevolent Howard. It is to +him the public owe extensiveness of building, separations in the prisons +for the various criminals, and most liberal supply of fresh water. Since +his time there have been few jail distempers, as the prisoners have +spacious yards to walk in, and by thus being exposed to fresh air are kept +free from fevers and other disorders incidental to places of confinement. +Let any one who recollects old Newgate survey the present structure, and +he will be highly gratified with the respectable order kept up in that +edifice. In some of the counties the jails may be looked upon as asylums, +for neatness and good management, particularly that of Cambridge, where, +instead of the whole of the prisoners for every sort of crime being +huddled together in the tower of the Castle, they have now a building +which affords separate apartments for men, women, and children, and this +on the most elevated spot, commanding views of the adjacent country from +every window. Whoever has visited Chelmsford Jail must have been delighted +with its humane and sensible construction. Those who do not recollect the +old prisons will, upon an inspection of Fox's Book of Martyrs, perceive in +the Prisons of Lambeth Palace, the Bishop of London's House, Aldersgate +Street, &c. how very small and confined those prisons were, having been +not above eight feet square, with low ceilings and hardly an opening to +let in the light. In addition to these miseries each room had its stocks, +in which the prisoners were placed. The residences of our sovereigns in +former days had likewise their prisons. Three of these were in the old +palace of Westminster, viz. Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. Heaven was a +place where, if the prisoners could afford to pay, they had +accommodations. Purgatory was a place with a ceiling so low that they +could not walk without bending the head into the chest; and Hell was a +dungeon with little or no light, where they had only bread and water. The +pump lately standing in the street close by the Exchequer Coffee House, +and now carried to the opposite side of the way, was the pump of this last +prison, and to this day goes under the appellation of "Hell Pump." + +To the credit of present manners, our modern jailors are in general men of +feeling, and wherever it is discovered that they act with cruelty they are +immediately dismissed from their office. This was not the case in former +days, for they were in general the most hard-hearted of men, and callous +even to the distresses of the aged, and crying infant at the breast. + +The following Plate, pourtraying a Jailor of those times, will +sufficiently convey an idea of the morose gluttony of such a character. It +was copied from a rare tract, entitled, "Essayes and Characters of a +Prison and Prisoners, by Geffray Mynshul, of Grayes Inne, Gent. with new +additions, 1638." On the right side of the figure is written, "Those that +keepe me, I keepe; if can, will still." On the left hand, "Hee's a true +Jaylor strips the Divell in ill." The following extracts from this curious +work will shew the estimation in which the author held a Jailor: + +"As soone as thou commest before the gate of the prison, doe but think +thou art entring into Hell, and it will extenuate somewhat of thy misery, +for thou shalt be sure not only to find Hell, but fiends and ugly +monsters, which with continuall torments will afflict thee; for at the +gate there stands Cerberus, a man in shew, but a dogge in nature, who at +thy entrance will fawne upon thee, bidding thee welcome, in respect of the +golden croft which he must have cast him; then he opens the doore with all +gentlenes, shewing thee the way to misery is very facile, and being once +in, he shuts it with such fury, that it makes the foundation shake, and +the doore and windows so barricadoed, that a man so loseth himself with +admiration that he can hardly finde the way out and be a sound man. + +"Now for the most part your porter is either some broken cittizen who hath +plaid jack of all trades, some pander, broker, or hangman, that hath plaid +the knave with all men; and for the more certainty his emblem is a red +beard, to which sacke hath made his nose cousin-german. + +"If marble-hearted Jaylors were so haplesse happy as to be mistaken, and +be made Kings, they would, instead of iron to their grates, have barres +made of men's ribs, Death should stand at doore for porter, and the Divell +every night come gingling of keyes, and rapping at doores to lock men up. + +"The broker useth to receive pawnes, but when he hath the feathers he lets +the bird flye at liberty: but the Jaylor when he hath beene plum'd with +the prisoner's pawnes, detaines him for his last morsell. + +"He feedes very strangely, for some say he eates cloakes, hats, shirts, +beds, and bedsteds, brasse, or pewter, or gold rings, plate, and the like; +but I say he is in his dyet more greedy than Cannibals, for they eate but +some parts of a man, but this devoures the whole body. The tenne-peny and +nine-peny ordinaries should never bee in the Fleet, Gatehouse, or the two +infernal Compters, for Hunger would lay the cloth, and Famine would play +the leane-fac'd serving-man to take away the trenchers." + + + + +A PRISON BASKET-MAN. + +PLATE VIII. + + +This Plate exhibits one of those men who were sent out to beg broken meat +for the poor prisoners. It was copied from one of the sets published by +Overton in the reign of King Charles the Second. This custom, which +perhaps was as ancient as our Religious Houses, has been long done away by +an allowance of meat and bread having been made to those prisoners who are +destitute of support. + +It was the business of such men to claim the attention of the public by +their cry of "Some broken breade and meate for ye poore prisonors! for the +Lord's sake pitty the poore!" This mendicant for the prisoners is also +noticed with the following London Cries, in a play entitled, "Tarquin and +Lucrece," viz. "A Marking Stone." "Breade and Meate for the poor +Prisoners." "Rock Samphire." "A Hassoc for your pew, or a Pesocke to +thrust your feet in." In former days the passenger was solicited in the +most melancholy and piteous manner by the poor prisoners. A tin box was +lowered by a wire from the windows of their prisons into the street, so as +to be even with the eye of the passenger. The confined persons, in hoarse, +but sometimes solemn tones, solicited the public to "Remember the poor +prisoners!" Not many persons can now recollect the tin boxes of this +description, suspended from the Gatehouse at Westminster, and under the +gloomy postern of old Newgate; but the custom was till lately continued at +the Fleet Prison: where a box of the above description was put out from a +grated window, even with the street, where one of the prisoners, who took +it by turns, implored the public to "Remember the poor Insolvent Debtors;" +but as the person was seen, and so near the street, the impression made +on the passenger had not that gloomy and melancholy air of supplication as +when uttered from a hollow voice at a distance, and in darkness; so that +hundreds passed by without attending to the supplicant. + +[Illustration: _"Prison Basket Man"_] + +Few of those gentlemen who come into office of Sheriff with a dashing +spirit quit their station without doing some, and, indeed, to do them +justice, essential service to the community. Sir Richard Phillips, when +sheriff, established the poor boxes put up on the outside of Newgate, with +a restriction that they should be opened in the presence of the Sheriffs, +and distributed by them to the poor prisoners, so that there could be no +embezzlement, and the donations thus rendered certain of being equally and +fairly divided among the proper objects, according to their distressing +claims. + +The following extract is from a work published by Mr. Murray in 1815, +entitled, "Collections relative to Systematic Relief of the Poor," and +which perhaps may be the earliest notice of mendicants by proxy. Plutarch +notices a Rhodian custom, which is particularly mentioned by Phoenix of +Colophon, a writer of Iambics, who describes certain men going about to +collect donations for the crow, and singing or saying, + + "My good worthy masters, a pittance bestow, + Some oatmeal, or barley, or wheat, for the crow; + A loaf, or a penny, or e'en what you will, + As fortune your pockets may happen to fill. + From the poor man a grain of his salt may suffice, + For your crow swallows all and is not over nice. + And the man who can now give his grain and no more, + May another day give from a plentiful store. + Come, my lad, to the door, Plutus nods to our wish, + And our sweet little mistress comes out with a dish. + She gives us her figs, and she gives us a smile, + Heav'n bless her! and guard her from sorrow and guile, + And send her a husband of noble degree, + And a boy to be danced on his grand-daddy's knee; + And a girl like herself, all the joy of her mother, + Who may one day present her with just such another. + God bless your dear hearts all a thousand times o'er, + Thus we carry our crow-song to door after door; + Alternately chaunting we ramble along, + And we treat all who give, or give not, with a song." + +And the song ever concludes: + + "My good worthy masters, your pittance bestow, + Your bounty, my good worthy mistresses, throw. + Remember the crow! he is not over nice; + Do but give as you can, and the gift will suffice." + + + + +[Illustration: _"Rats or Mice to kill"_] + + +RAT-CATCHER. + +PLATE IX. + + +There are two kinds of rats known in this country, the black, which was +formerly very common, but is now rarely seen, being superseded by the +large brown kind, commonly called the Norway rat. The depredations +committed by this little animal, which is about nine inches long, can be +well attested by the millers and feeders of poultry, as in addition to its +mischief it frequently carries off large quantities to its hiding place. + +In 1813 the following computation was made: "The annual value of the +European Empire cannot be less than 25 millions sterling, and of this at +least one fiftieth part, upon the lowest calculation, is eaten and +destroyed by rats and mice; the public loss therefore is at least +500,000_l._ _per annum_, exclusive of the damage done in ships, in store +houses, and buildings of every kind." + +The bite of the rat is keen, and the wound it inflicts painful and +difficult to heal, owing to the form of its teeth, which are long, sharp, +and irregular. It produces from twelve to eighteen at a litter, and were +it not that these animals destroy each other, the country would soon be +overrun with them. + +Mr. Bewick observes, "It is a singular fact in the history of these +animals, that the skins of such of them as have been devoured in their +holes, have frequently been found curiously turned inside out, every part +being completely inverted, even to the ends of the toes." + +In addition to this remark of Mr. Bewick, it may be mentioned, that though +the destruction of rats is so great among themselves, yet they are in some +degree attached to each other, and have even their sports and pastimes. +It is well known that a herd of rats will be defenders of their own holes, +and that when a strange brood trespass upon their premises, they are sure +to be set upon and devoured. They are active as the squirrel, and will, +like that animal, sit up and eat their food. They play at hide and seek +with each other, and have been known to hide themselves in the folds of +linen, where they have remained quite still until their playmates have +discovered them, in the same manner as kittens. Most readers will +recollect the fable where a young mouse suggests that the cat should have +a bell fastened to his neck, so that his companions might be aware of his +approach. This idea was scouted by one of their wiseheads, who asked who +was to tye the bell round the cat's neck? This experiment has actually +been tried upon a rat. A bell was fastened round his neck, and he was +replaced in his hole, with full expectation of his frightening the rest +away, but it turned out that instead of their continuing to be alarmed at +his approach, he was heard for the space of a year to frolick and scamper +with them. In China the Jugglers cause their rats and mice to dance +together to music, and oblige them to take leaps as we teach our cats. The +following is a copy of a handbill distributed in Cornhill a few years ago: + +"A most wonderful Rat, the greatest natural curiosity ever seen in London. + +"A gigantic Female Rat, taken near Somerset House: it is truly worthy the +inspection of the curious, its length being three feet three inches, and +its weight ten pounds three quarters; and twenty-four inches in +circumference. Any lady or gentleman purchasing goods to the amount of one +shilling or upwards, will have an opportunity of seeing it gratis, at No. +5, Sweeting's Alley, Cornhill." + +Rats were made use of as a plague, see 1st Book of Kings, chap. v. Nich. +Poussin painted this subject, which has been engraved by Stephen Picart of +Rome, 1677. + +In a curious tract, entitled "Green's Ghost," published in 1626, Watermen +are nicknamed water-rats; an appellation also bestowed on pirates by the +immortal bard of Avon. + +The down of the musk-rat of Canada is used in the manufacture of hats. +From the tail of the Muscovy musk-rat is extracted a kind of musk, very +much resembling the genuine sort, and their skins are frequently laid +among clothes to preserve them from moths. + +"The musk-rat is of all the small species larger and whiter than the +common. He exhales, as he moves, a very strong smell of musk, which +penetrates even the best inclosures. If, for example, one of the animals +pass over a row of bottles, the liquor they contain will be so strongly +scented with musk that it cannot be drunk. The writer has known tons of +wine touched by them so strongly infected, that it was with the greatest +difficulty, and by a variety of process, that they could be purged of this +smell. These rats are a great plague to all the country, and, if they once +get into a cellar or magazine, are very hard to destroy. Cats will not +venture to attack them, for fear probably of being suffocated by the +smell; nor will the European terrier hurt them." See Les Hindous, par E. +Baltazard Solvyns, tom. 4. Paris, 1812, folio. + +The Norwegians of late years have the following effectual mode of getting +rid of their rats: + +They singe the hair of one of them over a fire, and then let it loose; the +stench is so offensive to his comrades that they all immediately quit the +house, and are eventually destroyed by combating with other broods. This +expedient has become so general, that Norway is relieved of one of its +greatest pests. The above method was communicated to the writer by a +native, who wondered that our farmers had not adopted it. + +It appears in that very masterly set of etchings by Simon Guillain, or +Guilini, from drawings made by Annibal Caracci, of the Cries of Bologna, +published in 1646, that the Rat-catcher had representations of rats and +mice painted upon a square cloth fastened to a pole like a flag, which he +carried across his shoulder. + +The Chinese Rat and Mouse-killer carries a cat in a bag. In Ben Jonson's +time, the King's most excellent Mole-catcher lived in Tothill Street. + + + + +[Illustration: _"Marking Stones"_] + + +MARKING STONES. + +PLATE X. + + +The rare wood-cut, from which the present etching was made, is one of the +curious set of twelve figures engraved in wood of the time of James the +First. Under the figure are the following lines: + + "Buy Marking Stones, Marking Stones buy, + Much profit in their use doth lie: + I've marking stones of colour red, + Passing good,--or else black lead." + +The cry of Marking Stones is also noticed in the play of "Tarquin and +Lucrece." These Marking Stones, as the verses above state, are either of a +red colour, or composed of black lead. They were used in marking of linen, +so that washing could not take the mark out. Every one knows that water +will not take effect upon black lead, particularly if the stick of that +material, which is denominated "a Marking Stone," be heated before it be +stamped. The stone, of a red colour, was probably of a material +impregnated with the red called "ruddle," a colour never to be washed out. +It is used by the graziers for the marking of their sheep, is of an oily +nature, and made in immense quantities, for the use of graziers, at the +Ruddle Manufactory, near the Nine Elms, on the Battersea Road. It was a +red known in the reign of Edward the Third, and much used by the painters +employed in the decorations of St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. + +About fifty years ago it was the custom of those persons who let lodgings +in St. Giles's, above the Two-penny admission, where sheets were afforded +at sixpence the night, to stamp their linen with sticks of marking stones +of ruddle, with the words "Stop Thief," so that, if stolen, the thief +should at once be detected and detained. For this, and many other curious +particulars respecting the lowest classes of the inhabitants of St. Giles +in the Fields, the writer is much indebted to his truly respectable +friend, the late William Packer, Esq. of Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury, and +afterwards of Great Baddow, in Essex, who was born, and resided for the +great part of his life, upon the spot. For the honour of this gentleman's +family, it may be here acknowledged that his father, who was also a truly +respectable man, was one of the promoters of the building of Middlesex +Hospital, which, before the erection of the present building, was an +establishment held in Windmill Street, leading from Tottenham Court Road +to Percy Chapel, in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place. The house which the +Hospital occupied, standing on the South side of the street, has since +been made use of as a French charity school. + + + + +[Illustration: _"Buy a Brush"_] + + +BUY A BRUSH, OR A TABLE BOOK. + +PLATE XI. + + +The Engraving from which the accompanying Plate was copied was one of a +set published by Overton, but without date. Judging from the dress, it +must have been made either in the reign of King James the First or in that +of the succeeding monarch. The inscription over the figure is, "Buy a +Brush or a Table Book." The floors were not wetted, but rubbed dry, even +until they bore a very high polish, particularly when it was the fashion +to inlay staircases and floors of rooms with yellow, black, and brown +woods. On the landing places of the great staircase in the house built by +Lord Orford, now the Grand Hotel, at the end of King Street in Covent +Garden, such inlaid specimens are still remaining, in a beautiful state of +preservation. There are many houses of the nobility where the floors +consist of small pieces of oak arranged in tessellated forms. The room now +occupied by the servants in waiting, and that part of the house formerly a +portion of the old gallery, at Cleveland House, St. James's; the floors of +the state rooms of Montagu House, now the British Museum; and the floor of +the Library in St. Paul's Cathedral, all retain their tessellated forms. +These floors were rubbed by the servants, who wore brushes on their feet, +and they were, and indeed are, so highly polished, in some of the country +mansions, that in some instances they are dangerous to walk upon. This +mode of dry-rubbing rooms by affixing the brush to the feet, is still +practised in France, chiefly by men-servants. + +The Table Book is of very ancient use. Shakspeare thus notices it in his +play of Hamlet: + + _Ham._ My tables: meet it is + I set it down. + +It was a book consisting of several small pieces of slate set in frames of +wood, fastened together with hinges, and closed, as a book for the pocket: +for a representation of one, with a pencil attached to a string, as used +in 1565, see Douce's "Illustrations of Shakspeare and of Ancient Manners," +vol. II. p. 227. It was taken, says that writer, from Gesner's Treatise De +rerum fossilium figuris, &c. Tigur. 1565. The Almanacs of that time +likewise contained tables of a composition like asses skin. One of these +was in the possession of Mr. Douce. + +It is a very curious fact that the farmers, graziers, and horse dealers, +use at this day a Table Book consisting of slates bound in wood, with a +pencil attached to it, exactly of the same make as that referred to as +used in 1565, and such are now regularly sold at the toy shops. We may +conclude that persons in the higher ranks of life used sheets of ivory put +together as a book, for we frequently meet with such, elegantly adorned +with clasps, of very old workmanship. + +Howell, in his "Familiar Letters," 4to. p. 7, published 1645, says, "This +return of Sir Walter Raleigh from Guiana puts me in minde of a facetious +tale I read lately in Italian, (for I have a little of that language +already,) how Alphonso King of Naples sent a Moor, who had been his +captive a long time, to Barbary, to buy horses, and to return by such a +time. Now there was about the King a kinde of buffon or jester who had a +Table Book, wherein he was used to register any absurdity, or +impertinence, or merry passage, that happened about the Court. That day +the Moor was dispatched for Barbary, the said jester waiting upon the King +at supper, the King called for his journall, and askt what he had observed +that day; thereupon he produced his Table Book, and amongst other things +he read how Alphonso King of Naples had sent Beltran the Moor, who had +been a long time his prisoner, to Morocco, his own country, with so many +thousand crowns to buy horses. The King asked him 'why he inserted that?' +'Because,' said he, 'I think he will never come back to be a prisoner +again, and so you have lost both man and money.' 'But, if he do come, then +your jest is marr'd,' quoth the King. 'No, sir; for if he return, I will +blot out your name, and put him in for a fool.'" + + + + +FIRE-SCREENS. + +PLATE XII. + + +The next plate is a copy from the same set of prints from which the +preceding one was taken, and has the following inscription engraved above +it: + + "I have screenes if you desier, + To keepe yr butey from ye fire." + +It appears from the extreme neatness of this man, and the goods which he +exhibits for sale, that they were of a very superior quality, probably of +foreign manufacture, and possibly from Leghorn, from whence hats similar +to those on his head were first brought into England. These Leghorn hats +were originally imported and sold by our Turners, who generally had the +Leghorn hat for their sign. England certainly can boast of superiority in +almost every description of manufacture, over those of most parts of the +world; but it never successfully rivalled the Basket-makers and +Willow-workers of France and Holland, either for bleaching or weaving; nor +perhaps is it possible for any skill to exceed that of the French in their +present mode of making baskets and other such ware. Even the children's +rattles of the Dutch and French, surpass anything of the kind made in this +country. The willow is common in most parts of Holland, so that they have +a great choice of a selection of wood, and the females are taught the art +of twisting it at a very early age. It must be acknowledged, that the +natives of Hudson's Bay are very curious workers of baskets and other +useful articles made of the barks of trees, and even the most uncultivated +nations often display exquisite neatness in their modes of making them. +The French carry their basket ware either in small barrows or in little +carts, and sell them at so cheap a rate, by reason of the few duties they +have to pay to Government, that it would be impossible for an Englishman, +were he master of the art of producing them, to sell them for less than +ten times the sum. + +[Illustration: _"I have Screenes if you desier to keepe yr Buty from ye +fire."_] + +That very wonderful people the Chinese probably were the first who thought +of hand-screens to protect the face from the sun. We find them introduced +in their earliest delineations of costume. The feathered fans of our +Elizabeth might occasionally have been used as fire screens, in like +manner as those now imported from the East Indies, also composed of +feathers, and which frequently adorn our chimney pieces. It is possible, +however, that as our vendor of Fire-screens has particularly acquainted us +with the use of his screens, they might have been the first that were +introduced decidedly for that purpose. + + + + +SAUSAGES. + +PLATE XIII. + + +The female vendor of Sausages exhibited in the following Plate, is of the +time of Charles II. and has here been preferred to a similar character +belonging to the preceding reign, her dress and general appearance being +far more picturesque. Under the original print are the following lines: + + "Who buys my Sausages! Sausages fine! + I ha' fine Sausages of the best, + As good they are as e'er was eat, + If they be finely drest. + Come, Mistris, buy this daintie pound, + About a Capon rost them round." + +Almost every county has some peculiar mode of making sausages, but as to +their general appearance they are tied up in links. There are several +sorts which have for many years upheld their reputation, such as those +made at Bewdley in Oxfordshire, at Epping, and at Cambridge, places +particularly famous for them. The sausages from Bewdley, Epping, and +Cambridge, are mostly sold by the poulterers, who are in general very +attentive in having them genuine. They are brought to Leadenhall, Newgate, +and other markets, neatly put up in large flat baskets, similar to those +in which fresh butter is sent to town. The Oxford gentlemen frequently +present their London friends with some of the sausage meat put up in neat +brown pans; this is fried in cakes, and is remarkably good. + +The pork-shops of Fetter Lane have been for upwards of 150 years famous +for their sausages; indeed the pork-shops throughout London are +principally supported by a most extensive sale of sausages. + +[Illustration: _"Sausages"_] + +Ben Jonson, in his play of Bartholomew Fair, exhibits sausage stalls, +their contents being prime articles of refreshment at that very ancient +festival. In a very curious tract, entitled, "A Narrative of the Life of +Mrs. Charlotte Charke, (_youngest daughter_ of Colley Cibber, Esq.) +written by herself, the second edition, printed for W. Reeve, in Fleet +Street, 1759," the authoress, after experiencing some of the most curious +vicissitudes, in the midst of her greatest distress, says, "I took a neat +lodging in a street facing _Red Lyon Square_, and wrote a letter to Mr. +_Beard_, intimating to him the sorrowful plight I was in; and, in a +quarter of an hour after, my request was obligingly complied with by that +worthy gentleman, whose bounty enabled me to set forward to _Newgate +Market_, and bought a considerable quantity of pork at the best hand, +which I converted into sausages, and with my daughter set out laden with +each a burden as weighty as we could well bear; which, not having been +used to luggages of that nature, we found extremely troublesome. But +_Necessitas non habeat legem_, we were bound to that or starve. + +"Thank heaven, our loads were like AEsop's, when he chose to carry the +bread, which was the weightiest burden, to the astonishment of his +fellow-travellers; not considering that his wisdom preferred it, because +he was sure it would lighten as it went: so did ours, for as I went only +where I was known, I soon disposed, among my friends, of my whole cargo; +and was happy in the thought, that the utmost excesses of my misfortunes +had no worse effect on me, than an industrious inclination to get a small +livelihood, without shame or reproach; though the Arch-Dutchess of our +family, who would not have relieved me with a halfpenny roll or a draught +of small-beer, imputed this to me as a crime; I suppose she was possessed +with the same dignified sentiments Mrs. Peachum is endowed with, and +THOUGHT THE HONOUR OF THEIR FAMILY WAS CONCERNED; if so, she knew the way +to have prevented the disgrace, and in a humane, justifiable manner, have +preserved her own from that taint of cruelty I doubt she will never +overcome." + +The wretched vendors of sausages, who cared not what they made them of, +such as those about forty years back who fried them in cellars in St. +Giles's, and under gateways in Drury Lane, Field Lane, commonly called +"Food and Raiment Alley, or Thieving Lane, alias Sheep's Head Alley," with +all its courts and ramifications of Black Boy Alley, Saffron Hill, +Bleeding Heart Yard, and Cow Cross, were continually persecuting their +unfortunate neighbours, to whom they were as offensive as the melters of +tallow, bone burners, soap boilers, or cat-gut cleaners. This "Food and +Raiment Alley," so named from the cook and old clothes shops, was in +former days so dangerous to go through, that it was scarcely possible for +a person to possess his watch or his handkerchief by the time he had +passed this ordeal of infamy; and it is a fact, that a man after losing +his pocket-handkerchief, might, on his immediate return through the Lane, +see it exposed for sale, and purchase it at half the price it originally +cost him, of the mother of the young gentleman who had so dextrously +deprived him of it. Watches were, as they are now in many places in +London, immediately put into the crucible to evade detection. + + + + +[Illustration: _"New Elegy"_] + + +NEW ELEGY. + +PLATE XIV. + + +This figure was drawn and etched by the writer from an itinerant vendor of +Elegies, Christmas Carols, and Love Songs. His father and grandfather had +followed the same calling. + +When this man was asked what particular event he recollected, his +information was principally confined to the Elegies he had sold. He seemed +anxious, however, to inform the public that in the year 1753 the quartern +loaf was sold at fourpence halfpenny, mutton was two-pence halfpenny a +pound, that porter was then three-pence a pot, and that the National Debt +was twenty-four millions. Notwithstanding this man's memory served him in +the above particulars, which perhaps he had repeated so often that he +could not forget them, yet he positively did not know his age; he said he +never troubled his head with that, for that his father told him if he only +mentioned the year of his birth any scholar could tell it. His father, he +observed, cried the Elegy of that notorious magistrate Sir Thomas de +Veil,[13] which went through nine editions, as there was hardly a thief or +strumpet that did not purchase one. + +Hogarth is supposed to have introduced this magistrate in his "Woman +swearing a Child to a grave Citizen." In his Plate of "Night," the drunken +Freemason has also been supposed to be Sir Thomas de Veil. This man had +rendered himself so obnoxious by his intrigues with women, and his +bare-faced partialities in screening the opulent, that the executors, who +were afraid of the coffin being torn to pieces by the mob, privately +conveyed it to a considerable distance from Bow Street by three o'clock in +the morning. + +It was formerly not only the custom to print Elegies on the great people, +but on all those in the lowest class of life who had rendered themselves +conspicuous as public characters. Indeed we may recollect the Elegies to +the memory of Sam House, the political tool of Mr. Fox among the vulgar +part of his voters, and also that to the memory of Henry Dimsdale, the +muffin man, nicknamed Sir Harry Dimsdale, the Mayor of Garratt, who +succeeded the renowned Sir Jeffrey Dunstan, commonly called Old Wigs, from +his being a purchaser of those articles. The last Elegy was to the memory +of the lamented Princess Charlotte, and it was then that the portrait of +the above-mentioned Elegy-vender was taken. + +With respect to his Christmas Carols, he said they had varied almost every +year in their bordered ornaments; and the writer regrets the loss of a +collection of Christmas Carols from the time of this man's grandfather, +which, had he been fortunate enough to have made his drawing of the above +vendor only three days before, he could have purchased for five shillings. +The collectors in general of early English woodcuts may not be aware that +there were printed Christmas Carols so early as Queen Mary the First. The +writer, when a boy, detected several patches of one that had been fastened +against the wall of the Chapel of St. Edmond in Westminster Abbey. It had +marginal woodcut illustrations, which reminded him of those very +interesting blocks engraved for "Hollinshed's Chronicle." It appears that +some part of this curious Carol was remaining when Mr. Malcolm wrote his +description of the above Chapel for his Work on London. (Vol. I. p. 144.) + +Love Songs, however old they might be, were pronounced by our +Elegy-vender to be always saleable among the country people. Robert +Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," part 3, sect. 2, speaking of love +songs, says, "As Carmen, Boyes, and Prentises, when a new song is +published with us, go singing that new tune still in the streets, they +continually acted that tragical part of _Perseus_, and in every man's +mouth was _O, Cupid! Prince of Gods and Men!_ pronouncing still like +stage-players, _O, Cupid!_ they were so possessed all with that rapture, +and thought of that pathetical love speech, they could not a long time +after forget, or drive it out of their minds, but, _O, Cupid! Prince of +Gods and Men!_ was ever in their mouths." + +In the second volume, page 141, of Shenstone's Works, the author says, +"The ways of ballad singers, and the cries of halfpenny pamphlets, +appeared so extremely humourous, from my lodgings in Fleet Street, that it +gave me pain to observe them without a companion to partake. For, alas! +laughter is by no means a solitary entertainment." + + + + +ALL IN FULL BLOOM. + +PLATE XV. + + +The repeated victories gained by England over her enemies, and her +unbounded liberality to them when in distress, not only by her pecuniary +contributions, but by allowing this country to be their general seat of +refuge during their own commotions, encouraged the ignorant among them +still to continue in their belief that the streets of our great city were +paved with gold. The consequence has been, that the number of idle +foreigners who have been tempted to quit their homes have increased the +vagrants who now infest our streets with their learned mice and chattering +monkies, to the great annoyance of those passengers who do not contribute +to their exhibitions; for it is their practice not only to let the animals +loose to the extent of a long string, but to encourage them to run up to +the balconies, oftentimes to the great terror of the families who have +disregarded their impertinent importunities. + +The writer of this work once reprimanded a French organist for throwing +his dancing mice upon a nursery maid, because she did not contribute to +reward him for the amusement they afforded her young master. + +Among the various foreigners thus visiting us to make their fortunes is +Anatony Antonini, a native of Lucca in Tuscany, from which place come most +of those fellows who carry images and play the organ about our streets. He +is exhibited in the annexed etching, with his show board of artificial +flowers, "All in full bloom!" constructed of silk and paper, with wires +for their stalks. The birds perched on their branches are made of wax, +cast from plaster of Paris moulds. They are gaily painted and +varnished, and in some instances so thin that their bodies are quite +transparent. + +[Illustration: _All in full bloom_] + +The custom of casting figures in wax is very ancient, especially in Roman +Catholic countries, where they represent the Virgin and Child and other +sacred subjects as articles of devotion for the poorer sort of people who +cannot afford to purchase those carved in ivory. It is said that Mrs. +Salmon's exhibition of wax-work in Fleet Street, whose sign of a Salmon +was noticed by Addison in the Spectator, owes its origin to a +schoolmistress, the wife of one of Henry the Seventh's body guards. This +woman distributed little wax dolls as rewards to the most deserving of her +scholars, and, it is reported, brought the art from Holland. + +Some few years ago a very interesting exhibition of artificial flowers was +made in Suffolk Street, Charing Cross, by a female of the name of Dards, +who had most ingeniously produced many hundreds of the most beautiful +flowers from fishes' bones, which, when warm, she twisted into shapes. The +leaves were made from the skins of soles, eels, &c. which were stained +with proper colours. The flowers of the lily of the valley were +represented by the bones of the turbot which contain the brain, and were +so complete a deception that they were often mistaken for a bunch of the +real flowers. This exhibition did not answer the expectation of Mrs. +Dards, as few persons could believe it possible that fishes' bones were +capable of being converted into articles of such elegance. + +The ribs of the whale were frequently erected at the entrances of our tea +gardens, and many remained within memory at the Spring Gardens, Chelsea; +Cromwell's Gardens, Brompton; Copenhagen House, &c. The inhabitants of the +coast of Mechran, who live mostly upon fish, build their houses of the +rudest materials, frequently of the large fish that are thrown on the +shore. + +About thirty-five years ago, there was another very singular "All +blooming" man, a black with wooden legs, who carried natural flowers about +the streets. His trick to claim attention was remarkable, as he generally +contrived to startle passengers with his last vociferation. His cry was, +"All blooming! blooming! blooming!!! all alive! alive!! alive!!!" + +It is notable fact that blacks, when they become public characters in our +streets, as they are more or less masters of humour, display their wit to +the amusement of the throng, and thereby make a great deal of money. They +always invent some novelty to gain the attention of the crowd. One of +these fellows, under the name of Peter, held a dialogue between himself +and his master, nearly to the following effect: + +_Master._ "Oh, Peter, you very bad boy; you no work; you lazy +dog."--_Peter._ "Oh massa, 'give me this time, Peter Peter do so no more; +Peter Peter no more run away."--This duet he accompanied with a guitar, in +so humourous a style, that he was always sure to please his audience. He +would, at the completion of his song, pass himself through a hoop, and, +while holding a stick, twist his arms round his body in a most +extraordinary manner. His last performance was that of placing his head +backwards between his legs and picking up a pin with his mouth from the +ground, without any assistance from hands, his arms being folded round his +body before he commenced his exhibition. + +The Chinese florist carries his flowers in two flat baskets suspended from +a pole placed across his shoulders, the whole being similar to our scales +with their beam. + + + + +[Illustration: _Old Chairs to mend_] + + +OLD CHAIRS TO MEND. + +PLATE XVI. + + +The Plate exhibits the figure of Israel Potter, one of the oldest menders +of chairs now living, who resides in Compton's Buildings, Burton Crescent, +and sallies forth by eight o'clock in the morning, not with a view of +getting chairs to mend; for, from the matted mass of dirty rushes which +have sometimes been thrown across his shoulders for months together, +without ever being once opened, it must be concluded that his cry of "Old +chairs to mend" avails him but little; the fact is, that like many other +itinerants, he goes his rounds and procures broken meat and subsistence +thus early in the morning for his daily wants. + +The seating of chairs with rushes cannot be traced further back than a +century, as the chairs in common as well as public use in the reign of +Queen Anne had cane seats and backs. Previously to that time, and even in +the days of Elizabeth, cushion seats and stuffed backs were made use of. + +In the reign of Henry the Eighth, and in remoter times, the chairs were +made entirely of wood, and in many instances the backs were curiously +carved, either with figures, grotesque heads, or foliage. Most of the +early chairs had arms for supporting elbows, and which were also carved. +In the Archaeologia, published by the Society of Antiquaries, several +representations of ancient chairs are given.[14] Of the Royal thrones, the +reader will find a curious succession, from the time of Edward the +Confessor to that of James the First, exhibited in the great seals of +England, representations of most of which have been published by Speed in +his History of Great Britain, and in Sandford's Genealogical History of +England. + +The cry of "Old Chairs to mend!" is frequently uttered with great +clearness, and occasionally with some degree of melody. Suett, the late +facetious Comedian, took the cry of "Old Chairs to mend," in an interlude, +entitled, the "Cries of London," performed some years since in the Little +Theatre in the Haymarket, and repeated the old lines of + + "Old Chairs to mend! Old Chairs to mend! + If I had the money that I could spend, + I never would cry Old Chairs to mend."[15] + +The late John Bannister, who performed in the same piece, took the cry of +"Come here's your scarlet ware, long and strong scarlet garters, twopence +a pair, twopence a pair, twopence a pair!" which was a close imitation of +a little fellow who made a picturesque appearance about the streets with +his long scarlet garters streaming from the end of a pole. + +The late eccentric actor Baddeley, who left a sum of money to purchase a +cake to be eaten by his successors every Twelfth Night, in the Green-room +of Drury Lane Theatre, took the cry of "Come buy my shrimps, come buy my +shrimps, prawns, very large prawns, a wine-quart a penny periwinkles." + +The late Dr. Owen informed the present writer that he had heard that the +author of "God save the King" caught the tones either from a man who cried +"Old Chairs to mend," or from another who cried "Come buy my door-mats;" +and it is well known that one of Storace's most favourite airs in "No Song +no Supper," was almost wholly constructed from a common beggar's chaunt. + + + + +[Illustration: _Prickle Maker_] + + +THE BASKET-MAKER. + +PLATE XVII. + + +The man whose figure affords the subject of the next Plate is a journeyman +Prickle-maker, and works in a cellar on the western side of the Haymarket. +A prickle is a basket used by the wine-merchants for their empty bottles; +it is made of osiers unpeeled and in their natural state, and the basket +is made loose with open work, so that when it is filled with bottles it +may ride easy in the wine-merchant's caravan, and without the least risk +of breaking them. The maker of prickles begins the formation of the bottom +of the basket by placing the osier twigs in the form of a star flat upon +the ground; he then with another twig commences his weaving by twisting it +under and over the ends of the twigs which meet in the centre of the star, +and so he goes on to the extent of the circumference of the intended +prickle; he then bends up the surrounding twigs, which are in a moist +state, and binds them in the middle and the top, and thus the prickle is +finished. The formation of hampers for wine-merchants' sieves, and baskets +for the gardeners and fishmongers, and indeed that of all other basket +work, is begun in the same way as the prickle. The basket-maker is seated +upon a broad flat stage consisting of at least four boards clamped +together, touching the ground at one end, on which his feet are placed, +but elevated about six feet. Upon the end where he is seated free air +passes under him, and thus he takes less cold from the ground of the +cellar. + +In Lapland large baskets are made by two persons, a man and a woman. Their +mode of forming their baskets in every particular is similar to that of +the English. On the banks of the Thames, from Fulham to Staines, there +were formerly numerous basket-makers' huts, but opulent persons, anxious +to have houses on those delightful spots, purchased the ground on the +expiration of the leases, and erected fashionable villas on their site. +The inducement for the basket-makers occupying the sides of the Thames, +was the great supply of osiers or young willows which grow on the aits, +particularly at Twickenham and Staines. + +The usual price of each prickle is two shillings and three pence. +Notwithstanding the numbers of osiers grown in this country, the produce +is not sufficient, as an extensive importation of twigs is annually made +from Holland, where immense quantities of baskets of every description are +made. The Dutch are particularly neat and famous for their willow sieves, +which find a ready market in every country. + +The reader may probably be amused with a list of those trades exercised in +Holland, which in their pronunciation and meaning resemble the same in +this country, beginning with the + + Sieve Maker, which in Dutch is Zeevmaker. + Baker Bakker. + Scale Maker Balansmaker. + Book Binder Boekbinder. + Brewer Broonwer. + Glass-blower Glasblazer. + Glazier Glazemaker. + Goldsmith Goudsmit. + Musical Instrument Maker Instrumentmaker. + Lanthorn Maker Lantaarnmaker. + Paper Maker Papiermaker. + Perriwig Maker Paruikmaker. + Pump Maker Pompemaker. + Potter, Pottebaker. + Shoemaker Schoenmaker. + Smith Smit. + Schoolmaster Schoolmeester. + Waggon Maker Wagenmaker. + Weaver Weever. + Sail Maker Zailmaker. + + + + +THE POTTER. + +PLATE XVIII. + + +At about a mile from the back of Jack Straw's Castle, Hampstead Heath, +through one of the prettiest lanes near London, the traveller will find +that beautifully rural spot called "Child's Hill." This was the favourite +walk of Gainsborough and Loutherburgh, both of whom occasionally had +lodgings near the Heath for the purpose of study; and perhaps no place +within one hundred miles of London affords better materials for the +landscape painter's purpose than Hampstead Heath and its vicinity, +particularly that most delightful spot above described, where the Pottery +stands, which afforded the subject of the ensuing Plate. + +At this Pottery, which is placed in a sequestered dell, the moulds used by +the sugar bakers for casting their loaves of sugar in, are made. They are +of different sizes, turned by the moulder, with the assistance of a boy, +who is employed in keeping the lathe in motion. The clay is remarkably +good, and burns to a rich red colour. + +[Illustration: _Sugar-Mould Pottery Child's Hill, Hendon_] + +The following is a list of the places where sugar bakers' moulds are made, +for they are not to be had at the Potteries in general; viz. that +above-mentioned, at Child's Hill, near Hampstead Heath, in the parish of +Hendon; one at Brentford; one at Clapham; one at Greenwich; three at +Deptford; and two at Plumsted. Though the clay varies in texture, and +likewise in colour in some slight degree, when baked, on almost every spot +where a Pottery is erected, yet in no instance does it so peculiarly +differ as at the Pottery in High Street, Lambeth, leading to Vauxhall. The +clay principally used at that place is preferred by the sculptors for +their models of busts, figures, and monuments. It never stains the +fingers, and is of so beautiful a texture that all parts of the model may +be executed with it, in the most minute degree of sharpness and spirit; +and, when baked, it is not of that fiery red colour, like a tile, but +approaches nearer to the tone of flesh, has a beautiful bloom with it, and +is very similar, though not quite so dark, as those fine specimens of +Terracottas in the Towneley Gallery, in the British Museum. The great +sculptors Roubiliac and Rysbrach not only constantly preferred it, but +brought it into general use among the artists. + +At the Lambeth Pottery, the first imitations of the Dutch square white +glazed tiles, decorated with figures of animals and other ornaments, +painted in blue, and sometimes purple, were made in England. The fashion +of thus decorating the backs of chimnies was introduced into this country +soon after the arrival of William the Third, and continued till about +fifty years ago. Chimnies thus ornamented are frequently to be met with in +country houses, particularly in bed-rooms; but in London, where almost +every body enters on a new fashion as soon as it appears, there are fewer +specimens left. The chimney of the room in Bolt Court, in which Dr. +Johnson died, was decorated with these tiles, most of the subjects of +which were taken from Barlow's etchings of AEsop's Fables. Dinner services +were produced of the same material, and painted blue or purple, like the +above tiles. Sir James Thornhill, the painter of the pictures which adorn +the dome of St. Paul's, and Paul Ferg, when young men, were employed at +the Chelsea China manufactory, and there are specimens of plates and +dishes painted by them now and then to be met with in the cabinets of the +curious. At Mrs. Hogarth's sale (Sir James Thornhill's daughter), Lord +Orford purchased twelve dinner plates painted by her father; the subjects +were the Signs of the Zodiac, and they are preserved at Strawberry Hill. + +In common ware, jugs, handbasins, dinner services, &c. are not painted, +but printed, the mode of executing which is rather curious. Trees, +hay-makers, cows, farm-houses, windmills, &c. are engraved on +copper-plates, which are filled with blue colour (smalt). Impressions from +them are taken on common blotting paper, through the rolling press. These +impressions are immediately put on the earthen ware, and when the +blotting-paper is dry, it is washed off, and the blue colour remains upon +the dish, &c. + + + + +[Illustration: _Staffordshire Ware_] + + +STAFFORDSHIRE WARE. + +PLATE XIX. + + +Of all the tradesmen who supply the domestic table, there are none more +frequently called upon than the earthen-ware man. In great families, where +constant cooking is going on, the dust-bin seldom passes a day without +receiving the accidents to which a scullery is liable, nor is there, upon +an average, a private family in England that passes a week without some +misfortune to their crockery. Many householders set down at least ten +pounds a year for culinary restorations; so that the itinerant +Staffordshire Ware vendor, exhibited in the following plate, is sure to +sell something in every street he enters, particularly since that ware has +been brought by water to Paddington, whence he and many others, who go all +over the town to dispose of their stock in baskets, are regularly +supplied; and in consequence of the safety and cheapness of the passage, +they are enabled to dispose of their goods at so moderate a rate that they +can undersell the regular shopkeeper. + +Staffordshire is the principal place in England for the produce of earthen +ware; the manufactories cover miles of land, and the minds of the people +appear to be solely absorbed in their business. Coals cost them little but +the labour of fetching; they work from twelve to fourteen hours a day, and +those who choose to perform what they call over-time, are employed sixteen +hours in each day. The men have for twelve hours in each day, being common +time, seven shillings per week; the women four shillings, and the +children, who turn the lathes, two shillings and sixpence. These people +are so constantly at work and perpetually calling out "turn," when they +wish it to go faster, to the boy who gives motion to the lathe, that it is +said that those who fall into intoxication are sure, however drunk they +may be, to call to the boy to turn, whether at work or not. There are men +who make plates, others who make basins, &c.; and those who make jugs, tea +and milkpots, have what they call handle-men, persons whose sole business +it is to prepare the handles and stick them on. Their divisions of land, +similar to banks or hedges, as well as their roads, for miles, are wholly +constructed of their broken earthen-ware. + +They have their regular packers, who pique themselves on getting in a +dozen of plates more than usual in an immense basket. + +When they meet with a clay that differs in colour from that they have been +using, they will apply themselves most readily to make up a batch of +plates, basins, or tea-cups, well knowing the public are pleased with a +new colour; and it is a curious fact that there are hundreds of varieties +of tints produced from the different pits used by these Staffordshire +manufactories. There are men whose business it is to glaze the articles, +and others who pencil and put on the brown or white enamel with which the +common yellow jug is streaked or ornamented. In the brown or yellow baking +dishes used by the common people, the dabs of colour of brown and yellow +are laid on by children, with sticks, in the quickest way imaginable. The +profits of earthen-ware in general are very great, as indeed they ought to +be, considering the brittleness of the article, and the number of +accidents they are continually meeting with, as is demonstrated by their +hedge-rows and roads. + +An article that is sold for fourpence in London, costs but one penny at +the manufactory. + + + + +[Illustration: _Hard Metal Spoons_] + + +HARD METAL SPOONS TO SELL OR CHANGE. + +PLATE XX. + + +William Conway, of Crab Tree Row, Bethnall Green, is the person from whom +the following etching was made. He was born in 1752, in Worship Street, +which spot was called Windmill Hill, and first started with or rather +followed his father as an itinerant trader, forty-seven years ago. This +man has walked on an average twenty-five miles a day six days in the week, +never knew a day's illness, nor has he once slept out of his own bed. His +shoes are made from the upper leather of old boots, and a pair will last +him six weeks. He has eleven walks, which he takes in turn, and these are +all confined to the environs of London; no weather keeps him within, and +he has been wet and dry three times in a day without taking the least +cold. + +His spoons are made of hard metal, which he sells, or exchanges for the +old ones he had already sold; the bag in which he carries them is of the +thickest leather, and he has never passed a day without taking some money. +His eyes are generally directed to the ground, and the greatest treasure +he ever found was a one pound note; when quarters of guineas were in +currency, he once had the good fortune to pick up one of them. + +He never holds conversation with any other itinerant, nor does he drink +but at his dinner; and it is pleasant to record, that Conway in his walks, +by his great regularity, has acquired friends, several of whom employ him +in small commissions. + +His memory is good, and among other things he recollects Old Vinegar, a +surly fellow so called from his brutal habits. This man provided sticks +for the cudgel players, whose sports commenced on Easter Monday, and were +much frequented by the Bridewell-boys. He was the maker of the rings for +the boxers in Moorfields, and would cry out, after he had arranged the +spectators by beating their shins, "Mind your pockets all round." The name +of Vinegar has been frequently given to crabbed ringmakers and boxers. +Ward, in his "London Spy," thus introduces a Vinegar champion: + + "Bred up i' th' fields of Lincoln's Inn, + Where _Vinegar_ reigns master; + The forward youth doth thence begin + A broken head to loose or win, + For shouts, or for a plaister." + +It is to be hoped that this industrious man has saved some little to +support him when his sinews are unable to do their duty; for it would be +extremely hard, that a man who has conducted himself with such honesty, +punctuality, and rigid perseverance, should be dependent on the parish, +particularly as he declares, and Conway may be believed, that he never got +drunk in his life. The present writer was much obliged to this man for a +deliverance from a mob. He had when at Bow commenced a drawing of a +Lascar, and before he had completed it, he found himself surrounded by +several of their leaders, who were much enraged, conceiving that he was +taking a description of the man's person in order to complain of him. +Conway happened to come up at the moment, and immediately exclaimed, "Dear +heart, no, this gentleman took my picture off the other day, he only does +it for his amusement; I know where he lives; he don't want to hurt the +man;" on hearing which speech, a publican kindly took upon him to appease +the Lascars. + + + + +[Illustration: _Dancing Dolls_] + + +DANCING DOLLS. + +PLATE XXI. + + +By all the aged persons with whom the author has conversed, it is agreed +that from the time of Hogarth to the present day the street strollers with +their Dancing Dolls on a board have not appeared. + +The above artist, whose eye glanced at every description of nature, and +whose mind was perpetually alive to those scenes which would in any way +illustrate his various subjects, has introduced, in his inimitable print +of Southwark Fair, the figure of a little man, at that time extremely well +known in London, who performed various tricks with two dancing dolls +strung to a flat board; his music was the bagpipes, on which he played +quick or slow tunes, according to the expression he wished to give his +puppets. These dolls were fastened to a board, and moved by a string +attached to his knee, as appears in the figure of the boy represented in +the present Plate. Since the late Peace, London has been infested with ten +or twelve of these lads, natives of Lucca, whose importunities were at +first made with all their native impudence and effrontery, for they +attempted to thrash the English boys that stood between their puppets and +the spectators, but in this they so frequently were mistaken that they +behave now with a little more propriety. + +The sounds they produce from their drums during the action of their dolls +are full of noise and discord, nor are they masters of three notes of +their flute. Lucca is also the birth place of most of those people who +visit England to play the street organ, carry images, or attend dancing +bears or dolls. In Italy there are many places which retain their +peculiar trades and occupations; as for example, one village is inhabited +by none but shoemakers, whose ancestors resided in the same place and +followed a similar employment. + + + + +[Illustration: _The Dancing Ballad-Singer with his Sprig of Sillelah and +Shamrock so green_] + + +SPRIG OF SHILLELAH AND SHAMROCK SO GREEN. + +PLATE XXII. + + +The annexed etching was taken from Thomas M'Conwick, an Irishman, who +traverses the western streets of London, as a vendor of matches, and, like +most of his good-tempered countrymen, has his joke or repartee at almost +every question put to him, duly attempered with native wit and humour. +M'Conwick sings many of the old Irish songs with excellent effect, but +more particularly that of the "Sprig of Shillelah and Shamrock so green," +dances to the tunes, and seldom fails of affording amusement to a crowded +auditory. + +The throne at St. James's was first used on the Birth Day of Queen +Charlotte, after the union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, +and the Shamrock, the badge of the Irish nation, is introduced among the +decorations upon it. + +M'Conwick assured me, when he came to London, that the English populace +were taken with novelty, and that by either moving his feet, snapping his +fingers, or passing a joke upon some one of the surrounding crowd, he was +sure of gaining money. He carries matches as an article of sale, and +thereby does not come under the denomination of a pauper. Now and then, to +please his benefactors, he will sport a bull or two, and when the laugh is +increasing a little too much against him, will, in a low tone, remind them +that bulls are not confined to the lower orders of Irish. The truth of +this assertion may be seen in Miss Edgworth's Essay on Irish bulls, +published 1803, from which the following is an extract: + +"When Sir Richard Steele was asked how it happened that his countrymen +made so many bulls, he replied, 'It is the effect of climate, sir; if an +Englishman were born in Ireland, he would make as many.'" However, great +mistakes are sometimes made by the wisest of the English; for it is +reported of Sir Isaac Newton, that after he had caused a great hole to be +made in his study door for his cat to creep through, he had a small one +for the kitten. + +When the present writer gave this Irishman a shilling for standing for his +portrait, he exclaimed, "Thanks to your honour, an acre of performance is +worth the whole land of promise." + + + + +[Illustration: _"Ginger Bread Nuts"_] + + +GINGERBREAD NUTS, OR JACK'S LAST SHIFT. + +PLATE XXIII. + + +The etching in front of the present Plate, was taken from Daniel Clarey, +an industrious Irishman, well known to the London schoolboy as a +gingerbread-nut lottery office keeper. Dan had fought for his country as a +seaman, and though from some unlucky circumstance he is not entitled to +the comforts of Greenwich Hospital, still he boasts of the honour of +losing his leg in an engagement on the "Salt Seas." Rendered almost +destitute by the loss of his limb, he was nevertheless not wanting in wit +to gain a livelihood, and became a vendor of gingerbread-nuts, which he +disposed of by way of lottery, and humourously calls this employment, +"Jack's last Shift." Though Dan is inferior in some respects to his lively +countryman McConwick, who has afforded theme for the preceding pages, yet +he is blessed with a sufficient memory to recollect what he has heard, and +has persuasive eloquence enough to assure the boys that his lottery is no +"South Sea Bubble," where, as he tells them, "not even saw-dust was +produced, when deal boards were promised; but that every adventurer in his +scheme is sure of having a prize from seven to one hundred nuts, there +being no blanks to damp the courage of any enterprizing youth; that some +of his gingerbread shot are so highly seasoned that they are as hot as the +noble Nelson's balls when he last peppered the jackets of England's foes." +The manner of obtaining these gingerbread prizes is as follows:--The +hollow box held by Clarey has twenty-seven holes variously numbered, and +any one of the strings at the bottom of the box being pulled, causes a +doll's head to appear at the hole, which decides, according to its number, +the good or ill fortune of the halfpenny adventurer. He acknowledges to +his surrounding visitors that he "knows nothing of the lingo of his +predecessors, the famed Tiddy Dolls of their day, but that he is quite +certain that if _their_ gingerbread rolled down the throat like a +wheel-barrow, _his_ nuts are far superior, for that, should any one of his +noble friends prove so fortunate as to draw a prize of one hundred of +them, he would be entitled to those of half the usual size, so delicately +small that they would be no bigger than the quack doctor's pills, who +chalks his name on the walls far and near about London; and as for the +innocency of these little pills, he had been assured by a leading member +of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, who was very fond of tasting +them, that they would do no harm to an _infant babe_, no, not even if they +were given it on a Sunday within church time." This mode of gulling the +boys with nuts of half the size, if they won a double prize, was equalled +by a well-known churchwarden, within these few years, who, upon his coming +into office, ordered threepenny loaves to be made instead of sixpenny, so +that he might be respectfully saluted by as many more poor people as he +passed through the church-yard on a Sunday after his distribution, and +thereby obtain popularity. Nor is the device in question very dissimilar +to the mode adopted in some modern private lotteries, where there are no +blanks to chagrin the purchasers. + +The simpleton who attempts to sell gingerbread-nuts gains but little +custom compared with the man of dashing wit; and there have been many of +the latter description on the town within memory, particularly, about +thirty-five years ago, a short red-nosed fellow in a black bushy wig, who +trundled a wheel-barrow through St. Martin's Court, Cranbourn Alley, and +the adjacent passages. This man, who was attended by a drab of a wife to +take the money, was master of much drollery; he would contrast the heated +polities of the day with the mildness of his gingerbread, to the no small +amusement of Mr. Sheridan, who, when on his way to the election meetings +held at the Shakspeare tavern, in favour of his friend Mr. Fox, was once +seen to smile and pouch this fellow a shilling; that distinguished mark of +approbation from the author of the "School for Scandal" being gained by +this gingerbread man by means of the following couplet: + + "May Curtis, with his "Speedy Peace, and soon," + Send gingerbread up to the man in the moon." + +This fellow would frequently boast of his having danced Horne Tooke upon +his knee when he was shopman to that gentleman's father, then a poulterer, +or, in genteeler terms, a "Turkey Merchant," called by the vulgar a +"Feather Butcher," at the time he lived in Newport Market. + +This humourist had his pensioners like the dog and cat's meat man, nor +would he ever pass any of them without distributing his broken gingerbread +and bits of biscuit: he was particularly kind to one man, who may yet be +within the recollection of many persons; he was short in stature carried a +wallet, and wore a red cap, and would begin his walk through May's +Buildings at six in the evening and arrive safely by nine at Bedford Bury. +In his progress he would repeat the song of "Taffy was a Welchman," upon +an average, eight times within an hour; and, in order that his singing +might be of a piece with his crawling movements, his lengthened tones were +made to pass through his nose in so inarticulate a manner as frequently to +induce boys to shake him from a supposed slumber. His name was Richard +Richards, but from his extreme sloth he was nicknamed by his +broken-biscuit benefactor "Mr. Step-an-hour." The money made by the +gingerbread heroes is hardly credible; however, it is of little use, as +the profits are generally spent in gin and hot suppers. + + + + +[Illustration: _Chick Weed_] + + +CHICKWEED AND GROUNDSEL. + +PLATE XXIV. + + +The subject of this Plate is George Smith, a Brush-maker out of employ, in +consequence of frequent visitations of the rheumatism. This man, finding +affliction increase upon him in so great a degree as to render him +incapable of pursuing his usual occupation, determined on selling +chickweed, an article easily procured without money, and for which there +is a certainty of meeting at least one customer in almost every street, as +there are scarcely three houses together without their singing birds. + +After a very short trial of his new calling, he found he had no occasion +to cry his chickweed, for that if he only stood with it before the house, +so that the birds could see it, the noise they made was sufficient, as +they generally attracted the notice of some one of the family, who soon +perceived that the little songsters were chirping at the chickweed man. +This can readily be believed by all those who keep birds, for the breaking +of a single seed will elate them. + +Bryant, in his "Flora Diaetetica," p. 94, speaking of the article in +question, says, "This is a small annual plant, and a very troublesome weed +in gardens. The stalks are weak, green, hairy, succulent, branched, about +eight inches long, and lodge on the ground. The leaves are numerous, +nearly oval, sharp-pointed, juicy, of the colour of the stalks, and stand +on longish footstalks, having membranous bases, which are furnished with +long hairs at their edges. The flowers are produced at the bosoms of the +leaves, on long slender pedicles; they are small and white, consist of +five split petals each, and contain five stamina and three styles. The +leaves of this plant have much the flavour of corn-sallad, and are eaten +in the same manner. They are deemed refrigorating and nutritive, and +excellent for those of a consumptive habit of body. The plant formerly +stood recommended in the shops as a vulnerary." + +Buchan says of groundsel, "This weed grows commonly in gardens, fields, +and upon walls, and bears small yellow flowers and downy seeds; it does +not often grow above eight inches high: the stalk is round, fleshy, +tolerably straight, and green or reddish; the leaves are oblong, +remarkably broad at the bases, blunt, and deeply indented at the edges; +the flowers grow in a kind of long cups, at the top of the stalks and +branches. It flowers through all the milder months of the year. The juice +of this herb, taken in ale, is esteemed a gentle and very good emetic, +bringing on vomiting without any great irritation or pain. It assists +pains in the stomach, evacuates phlegm, cures the jaundice, and destroys +worms. Applied externally, it is said to cleanse the skin of foul +eruptions." + + + + +[Illustration: _"Bilberries"_] + + +BILBERRIES. + +PLATE XXV. + + +Bilberries are a modern article of sale, and were first brought to London +about forty years ago by countrymen, who appeared in their smock-frocks, +with every character of rusticity. In the course of a little time, +bilberries were so eagerly bought that it induced many persons to become +vendors, and they are now brought to the markets as a regular article of +consumption for the season. + +These berries mostly grow in Hertfordshire, from whence indeed they are +brought to town in very high perfection, and are esteemed by the housewife +as wholesome food when made into a pudding; and, though usually sold at +fourpence a pint, they are sometimes admitted to the genteel table in a +tart. + +Dr. Buchan has the following remarks on the Bilberry-bush: he says that it +is "a little tough shrubby plant, common in our boggy woods, and upon wet +heaths. The stalks are tough, angular, and green; the leaves are small; +they stand singly, not in pairs, and are broad, short, and indented about +the edges. The flowers are small but pretty, their colour is a faint red, +and they are hollow like a cup. The berries are as large as the biggest +pea; they are of a blackish colour, and of a pleasant taste. A syrup made +of the juice of bilberries, when not over ripe, is cooling and binding." + +Among the former Cries of London, those of Elderberries, Dandelion, &c. +were not unfrequent, and each had in its turn physicians as well as +village doctresses to recommend them. "The inner part of the +Elderberry-tree," says Dr. Buchan, "is reputed to cure dropsies, when +taken in time, frequently repeated and long persevered in; a cooling +ointment is made by boiling the flowers in lard till they are crisp, and +then straining it off; the juice of the berries boiled down with sugar, or +without, till it comes to the consistence of honey, is the celebrated rob +of elder, highly extolled in colds and sore throats, though of late years +it seems to have yielded to the preparations of black currants. Wine is +made from elderberries, which somewhat resembles Frontiniac in flavour." + +The same author says of Dandelion, that "the root is long, large, and +white within; every part of the plant is full of milky juice, but most of +all the root, from which, when it is broken, it flows plentifully, and is +bitterish, but not disagreeable to the taste." + +The leaves are sometimes eaten as sallad when very young, and in some +parts of the Continent they are blanched like celery for this purpose; +taken this way, in sufficient quantity, they are a remedy for the scurvy. + +Bryant, in his "Flora Diaetetica," page 103, says, "The young tender leaves +are eaten in the spring as lettuce, they being much of the same nature, +except that they are rather more detergent and diuretic. Boerhaave greatly +recommended the use of dandelion in most chronical distempers, and held it +capable of resolving all kinds of coagulations, and most obstinate +obstructions of the viscera, if it were duly continued. For these purposes +the stalks may be blanched and eaten as celery." + +There is a fashion in the Cries of London as there are "tides in the +affairs of men," particularly in articles that are used as purifiers of +the blood. About fifty years ago, nothing but Scurvy-grass was thought of, +and the best scurvy-grass ale was sold in Covent Garden, at the +public-house at the corner of Henrietta Street. + + + + +[Illustration: _"Simplers"_] + + +SIMPLERS. + +PLATE XXVI. + + +Those persons who live in the country and rise with the sun can bear +testimony to the activity of the Simpler, who commences his selections +from the ditches and swampy grounds at that early period of the day, and, +after he has filled a large pack for his back, trudges for fifteen miles +to the London markets, where perhaps he is the first who offers goods for +sale; he then returns back and sleeps in some barn until the next +succeeding sun. Such an instance of rustic simplicity is William Friday, +whose portrait is exhibited in the annexed plate. This man starts from +Croydon, with champignons, mushrooms, &c. and is alternately snail-picker, +leech-bather, and viper-catcher. Simpling is not confined to men; but +women, particularly in some counties, often constitute a greater part of +the community, and they appear to be a distinct class of beings. The plate +which accompanies this description exhibits three women Simplers returning +from market to Croydon; they were sketched on the Stockwell Road, and are +sufficient to shew their gait. + +The Simplers, particularly the women, are much attached to brass rings, +which they display in great profusion upon almost every finger: their +faces and arms are sunburnt and freckled, and they live to a great age, +notwithstanding their constant wet and heavy burthens, which are always +earned on the loins. + +To the exertions of these poor people the public are much indebted, as +they supply our wants every day; indeed the extensive sale of their +commodities, which they dispose of to the herb-shops in Covent Garden, +Fleet, and Newgate Markets, must at once declare them to be a most useful +set of people. Among the numerous articles culled from the hedges and the +springs, the following are a few in constant consumption: water-cresses, +dandelions, scurvy-grass, nettles, bitter-sweet, cough-grass, feverfew, +hedge mustard, Jack by the hedge, or sauce-alone. + +Dr. Buchan observes, that "Bitter-sweet is a common wild plant, with weak +but woody stalks, that runs among our hedges, and bears bunches of pretty +blue flowers in summer, and in autumn red berries; the stalks run to ten +feet in length, but they cannot support themselves upright; they are of a +bluish colour, and, when broken, have a very disagreeable smell like +rotten eggs. The leaves are oval, but sharp-pointed, and have each two +little ones near the base; they are of a dusky green and indented, and +they grow singly on the stalks. The flowers are small and of a fine +purplish blue, with yellow threads in the middle; the berries are oblong." + +The same author, speaking of Cough-grass, says, "However offensive this +weed may be in the fields and gardens, it is said to have its uses in +medicine, and should teach us that the most common things are not +therefore despicable, since it is certain that nothing was made in vain." + +The Doctor observes, that "Jack by the hedge, or sauce alone, is an annual +plant, which perishes every year, but makes a figure in the spring, and is +common in our hedges. The root is small, white, and woody, the stalks rise +to the height of three feet, and are slender, channelled, hairy, and very +straight. The leaves, which stand on long foot-stalks, are large, broad, +short, and roundish; and those which grow on the stalk somewhat pointed at +the extremities, and waved at the edges. They are of a pale yellow green +colour, thin and slender, and being bruised, smell like onions or garlic. +The flowers, which stand ten or a dozen together at the tops of the +branches, are small and white, consisting each of four leaves; these are +followed by slender pods, containing small longish seeds. It is found in +hedges, and on bank sides, and flowers in May." + +Many of the simples of England are peculiar to particular spots, as the +following extract from Gerarde's Herbal, fol. 1633, Lond. edited by Thomas +Johnson, will demonstrate. "Navelwort, or wall penniwoort. The first kind +of penniwoort groweth plentifully in Northampton upon every stone wall +about the towne, at Bristow, Bathe, Wells, and most places of the West +Countrie, upon stone walls. It groweth upon Westminster Abbey, over the +doore that leadeth from Chaucer's tombe to the old palace." From an +address to his courteous readers, it appears that Gerarde first +established his Herbal in the year 1597, in the month of December, and +that he then resided in Holborn. Thomas Johnson, Gerarde's editor, dates +his address to his reader from his house on Snow Hill, Oct. 22, 1633. +Hence it will appear that any thing these writers may have said respecting +the structure of the buildings or topography of the suburbs in which they +herbarized, is to be depended upon. + +Snails are brought to market by the Simpler, and continue to be much used +by consumptive persons. There are various sorts which are peculiar to +particular spots; for instance, at Gayhurst, in Buckinghamshire, the Helix +Pomoeria were there turned down for the use of Lady Venetia Digby when +in a weak state. The house now belongs to Miss Wright, a descendant of +Lord Keeper Wright, where these snails continue in great profusion. Near +the old green-houses built by Kent in Kensington Gardens, the same snail +is frequently found; it has a yellow shell, and was prescribed and placed +there for William the Third. + +Vipers formerly were sold in quantities at the Simpling Shops, but of late +years they are so little called for that not above one in a month is sold +in Covent Garden Market. There were regular viper catchers, who had a +method of alluring them with a bit of scarlet cloth tied to the end of a +long stick. + +The following lines are extracted from a curious half-sheet print, +entitled, "The Cries of London," to the tune of "Hark, the merry merry +Christ Church bells," printed and sold at the printing office in Bow +Church Yard, London. To this plate are prefixed two very curious old +wood-blocks, one of a Galantie-show man, of the time of King William the +Third, and the other of the time of James the First, representing a +Salt-box man, and is perhaps one of the earliest specimens of that +character. The lines alluded to are: + + "Here's fine rosemary, sage, and thyme! + Come buy my ground ivy. + Here's fetherfew, gilliflowers, and rue, + Come buy my knotted marjorum, ho! + Come buy my mint, my fine green mint, + Here's fine lavender for your clothes, + Here's parsley and winter-savory, + And hearts-ease, which all do choose. + Here's balm and hissop, and cinquefoil, + All fine herbs, it is well known. + Let none despise the merry merry Cries + Of famous London Town! + + Here's pennyroyal and marygolds! + Come buy my nettle-tops. + Here's water-cresses and scurvy-grass! + Come buy my sage of virtue ho! + Come buy my wormwood and mugwort, + Here's all fine herbs of every sort. + Here's southernwood that's very good, + Dandelion and houseleek. + Here's dragon's tongue and wood sorrel, + With bear's foot and horehound. + Let none despise the merry merry Cries + Of famous London Town!" + + + + +[Illustration: _"Washerwomen"_] + + +WASHER-WOMEN, CHAR-WOMEN, AND STREET NURSES. + +PLATE XXVII. + + +Perhaps there is not a class of people who work harder than those +washer-women who go out to assist servants in what is called a heavy wash; +they may be seen in the winter time, shivering at the doors, at three and +four o'clock in the morning, and are seldom dismissed before ten at night, +this hard treatment being endured for two shillings and sixpence a day. +They may be divided into two classes, the industrious, who labour +cheerfully to support their little ones, and, too often, an idle and cruel +husband; and those that take snuff, drink gin, and propagate the scandal +of the neighbourhood, seldom quitting the house of their employer without +gaining the secrets of the family, which they acquire by pretending to +tell the fortunes of every one in the house to the servants of the family, +by the manner in which the grouts of the tea adhere to the sides of the +tea-cup. Most of these people, who are generally round-shouldered and +lop-sided, are so accustomed to chatter with the servants, that they +acquire a habit of keeping their mouths open, either horizontally or +perpendicularly; and it is evident from Hollar's etchings of Leonardo da +Vinci's caricatures that the latter must have studied the grimaces of this +class of people. Some of these old washer-women, when they happen to meet +with a discreet and silent domestic, will speak to the cat or the dog, and +even hold conversation with themselves rather than lose the privilege of +utterance. + +These wretches are always full of complaints of their coughs, asthmas, or +pains in the stomach, but these are mere efforts to procure an extra glass +of cordial. + +The Char-women are that description of people who go about to clean +houses, either by washing the wainscot, scrubbing the floors, or +brightening the pots and kettles; they are generally worse drabs, if +possible, than the lowest order of washer-women; they will either filch +the soap, steal the coals, or borrow a plate, which they never return; and +yet the women of this calling who conduct themselves with sobriety and +honesty, are great acquisitions to single gentlemen, particularly students +in the law. + +Few families, however watchful they may be over the conduct of their +servants, are aware of the extreme idleness and profligacy of some of +them. + +If the mistress of a house would for once rise at five o'clock, she might +behold a set of squalid beings engaged in whitening the steps of the +doors; she may even observe some of them, who have procured keys of the +area gates, descend the steps to procure from the kitchen pails of +hog-wash, with meat and bread wrapped up in tattered aprons; so that their +servants, by thus getting rid of the door-cleaning business, remain in bed +after the milkwoman, by the help of a string, has lowered her can into the +area. This dishonesty of the servants has been extended, from a few broken +crusts, to the more generous gift of half a loaf in a morning. + +On the contrary, it is a fact too well known, that there are many servants +who rise too early, particularly those who attend to the flattery of men +who sneak into houses, pretending to be in love with their charming +persons, merely for the purpose of obtaining the surest mode of robbing +the house, either then or in future. + +There are hundreds of old women who take charge of the children of those +who go out for daily hire. These Nurses drag the infants in all sorts of +ways about the streets for the whole day, and sometimes treat them very +ill, and, imitating the mode usually adopted by the vulgar part of nurses +in families, to pacify the squalling and too often hungry infants, terrify +them with a threat that Tom Poker, David Stumps, or Bonaparte, are coming +to take them away. This custom of frightening children, which was +practised in very early times, was made use of by the Spanish nurses after +the defeat of the Armada. Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," part I, +sec. 2: "Education a cause of Melancholy. There is a great moderation to +be had in such things as matters of so great moment, to the making or +marring of a childe. Some fright their children with beggars, bugbears, +and hobgoblins, if they cry or be otherways unruly." + +Among the very few single prints published in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth, there is one engraved on wood, measuring twenty inches by +thirteen; it contains multitudes of figures, and is so great a rarity, +that the author has seen only one impression of it, which is in the truly +valuable and interesting collection of prints presented in the most +liberal manner to the British Museum by Sir Joseph and Lady Banks. + +This print, which has escaped the notice of all the writers on the Graphic +Art, is entitled, "Tittle-Tattle, or the several Branches of Gossipping;" +at the foot of the print are the following verses, evidently in a type and +orthography of a later time: + + 1. + + At childbed when the gossips meet, + Fine stories we are told; + And if they get a cup too much, + Their tongues they cannot hold. + + 2. + + At market when good housewives meet, + Their market being done, + Together they will crack a pot + Before they can get home. + + 3. + + The bakehouse is a place, you know, + Where maids a story hold, + And if their mistresses will prate, + They must not be controll'd. + + 4. + + At alehouse you see how jovial they be, + With every one her noggin; + For till the skull and belly be full + None of them will be jogging. + + 5. + + To Church fine ladies do resort, + New fashions for to spy, + And others go to Church sometimes, + To shew their bravery. + + 6. + + Hot-house makes a rough skin smooth, + And doth it beautify; + Fine gossips use it every week, + Their skins to purify. + + 7. + + At the conduit striving for their turn, + The quarrel it grows great, + That up in arms they are at last, + And one another beat. + + 8. + + Washing at the river's side + Good housewives take delight; + But scolding sluts care not to work, + Like wrangling queens they fight. + + 9. + + Then gossips all a warning take, + Pray cease your tongue to rattle; + Go knit, and sew, and brew, and bake, + And leave off TITTLE-TATTLE. + + + + +[Illustration: _"Smithfield Saloop"_] + + +SMITHFIELD SALOOP. + +PLATE XXVIII. + + +About a century ago, almost every corner of the more public streets was +occupied at midnight, until six or seven in the morning, by the sellers of +frumenty, barley broth, cow-heel soup, and baked ox-cheek; and in those +days when several hundreds of chairmen were nightly waiting in the +metropolis, and it was the fashion for the bloods of the day to beat the +rounds, as they termed it, there was a much greater consumption of such +refreshments. + +The scenes of vice at the above period were certainly far more frequent +than they are at present, for hard drinking, and the visitation of +brothels were then esteemed as the completion of what was termed genteel +education; and it was no unusual thing to see the famous Quin, with his +inseparable associate Frank Hayman, the painter, swearing at each other in +the kennel, but both with a full determination to remain there until the +watchman went his round. + +The numerous songs of the day, and the incomparable plates by Hogarth, +will sufficiently show the folly and vice of those drinking times, when +the courtier, after attending the drawing-room of St. James's, would walk +in his full dress, with bag and sword, from the palace, to the diabolical +coffee-room of Moll King, in Covent Garden, where he would mix, sit, and +converse with every description of character. + +Moll King's was the house now the sign of the Green Man, and was a mere +hovel, so destitute of accommodation that the principal chamber of vice +was immediately over the coffee room, and could only be ascended by a drop +ladder. + +Saloop, the subject of this etching, has superseded almost every other +midnight street refreshment, being a beverage easily made, and a long time +considered as a sovereign cure for head-ache arising from drunkenness. But +no person, unless he has walked through the streets from the hour of +twelve, can duly paint the scenes of the saloop stall with its variety of +customers. + +Whoever may be desirous of tasting saloop in the highest perfection, may +be gratified at Reid's Coffee House,[16] No. 102, Fleet Street, which was +the first respectable house where it was to be had, and established in the +year 1719. The following lines are painted on a board, and suspended in +the coffee room: + + "Come all degrees now passing by, + My charming liquor taste and try; + To Lockyer[17] come, and drink your fill; + Mount Pleasant[18] has no kind of ill. + The fumes of wine, punch, drams, and beer, + It will expell; your spirits cheer; + From drowsiness your spirits free. + Sweet as a rose your breath shall be. + Come taste and try, and speak your mind; + Such rare ingredients here are joined, + Mount Pleasant pleases all mankind." + +The following extract respecting saloop, is taken from p. 38 of "Flora +Diaetetica, or History of Esculent Plants," by Charles Bryant, of Norwich, +1783. "Orchis Mascula. This is very common in our woods, meadows, and +pastures, and the powdered roots of it are said to be the saloop which is +sold in the shops; but the shop roots come from Turkey. + +"The flowers of most of the plants of this genus are indiscriminately +called cuckoo-flowers by the country people. Though it has been affirmed +that saloop is the root of the mascula only, yet those of the morio, and +of some other species of orchis, will do equally as well, as I can affirm +from my own experience; consequently, to give a description of the mascula +in particular will be useless. As most country people are acquainted with +these plants by the name of cuckoo-flowers, it certainly would be worth +their while to employ their children to collect the roots for sale; and +though they may not be quite so large as those that come from abroad, yet +they may be equally as good, and as they are exceedingly plentiful, enough +might annually be gathered for our own consumption, and thus a new article +of employment would be added to the poorer sort of people. + +"The time for taking them up is when the seed is about ripe, as then the +new bulbs are fully grown; and all the trouble of preparing them is, to +put them, fresh taken up, into scalding hot water for about half a minute; +and on taking them out, to rub off the outer skin; which done, they must +be laid on tin plates, and set in a pretty fierce oven for eight or ten +minutes, according to the size of the roots; after this, they should be +removed to the top of the oven, and left there till they are dry enough to +pound. + +"Saloop is a celebrated restorative among the Turks, and with us it stands +recommended in consumptions, bilious cholics, and all disorders proceeding +from an acrimony in the juices. + +"Some people have a method of candying the roots, and thus prepared they +are very pleasant, and may be eaten with good success against coughs and +inward soreness." + + + + +SMITHFIELD PUDDING. + +PLATE XXIX. + + +It would be almost criminal to proceed in my account of the present cry +without passing a due encomium on the subject of it. The good qualities of +an English pudding, more especially when it happens to be enriched with +the due portion of enticing plums, are well known to most of us. It is a +luxury to which our Gallic neighbours are entire strangers, and an article +of cookery worth any dozen of their harlequin kick-shaws. + +The justly-celebrated comedian, Ned Shuter, was so passionately fond of +this article that he would never dine without it, and anything that led to +the bare mention of a pudding would burst the silence of a couple of +hours' smoking; he was on one occasion known to lay down his pipe, and to +exclaim, that the dinner the gentleman had just described would have been +a very good one if there had but been a plum-pudding. The places where +this excellent commodity is chiefly exposed to sale in the manner +described in the engraving, are those of the greatest traffic or +publicity, such as Smithfield on a market morning, where waggoners, +butchers, and drovers, are sure to find their pence for a slice of hot +pudding. Fleet Market, Leadenhall, Honey Lane, and Spital Fields, have +each their hot-pudding men. In the lowest neighbourhoods in Westminster, +where the soldiers reside, cook-shops find great custom for their pudding. +The stalls, near the Horse Guards always have large quantities ready +cut into penny slices, piled up like boards in a timber-yard. + +[Illustration: _Smithfield Pudding_] + +At the time of relieving guard, vendors of pudding are always to be found +on the parade. There is a black man, a handsome, well-made fellow, +remarkably clean in his person, and always drest in the neatest manner, +who never fails to sell his pudding; he also frequents the Regent's Park +on a Sunday afternoon, and, though he has no wit, his nonsense pleases the +crowd. This person, who is now at the top of his calling, had a +predecessor of the name of Eglington, who likewise carried on the business +of a tailor. + +He was a well-made and very active man, and by reason of his being seen in +various parts of London nearly at the same time, was denominated the +"Flying Pudding Man." His principal walk was in the neighbourhood of Fleet +Market and Holborn Bridge, and his smartness of dress and quickness of +repartee gained the attention of his customers; he seldom appeared but in +a state of perfect sobriety, and many curious anecdotes are related of +him. + +On the approach of Edmonton Fair, wishing to see the sports and pastimes +of the place, he ordered his wife to make as many puddings as to fill a +hackney coach. This being done, on the morning of the opening of the fair +a coach was hired for the puddings, and the pudding man and pudding lady +took their seats by the side of the coachman. On their arrival at the fair +he put on his well-known dress, and instantly commenced his cry of +"pudding," whilst the lady supplied him from the coach. In a few hours' +time, when his stock was all disposed of, he resumed his best attire, and +with his fair spouse proceeded to visit the various shows. + +His well-known features were soon recognized by thousands who frequented +the fair, and their jeers of "hot, hot, smoking hot," resounded from booth +to booth. At the close of the day this constant couple walked home well +laden with the profits they had made. There is hardly a fight on the +Scrubs,[19] nor a walking match on Blackheath, that are not visited by the +pudding men. + +When malefactors were executed at Tyburn, the pudding men of the day were +sure to be there, and indeed so many articles were sold, and the cries of +new milk, curds and whey, spice cakes, barley sugar, and hot spice +gingerbread, were so numerous and loud, that this place on the day of +execution was usually designated by the thousands of blackguards who +attended it under the appellation of Tyburn Fair. The reader may see a +faithful representation of this melancholy and humourous scene by the +inimitable Hogarth, in the Execution Plate of his Idle Apprentice. In this +engraving he will also find a correct figure of the triangular gallows, +commonly called the "Three-legged Mare," and which stood upon the site +afterwards occupied by the turnpike house, at the end of Oxford Street. + +In many instances the pudding sold in the streets has a favourable aspect, +and under some circumstances perhaps proves a delicious treat to the +purchaser. + +Nothing can be more gratifying than to enable a poor little +chimney-sweeper to indulge his appetite with a luxury before which he has +for some minutes been standing with a longing inclination; and as this +gratification can be accomplished at a very trifling expense, it were +surely much better to behold it realized than to see the canting +Tabernacle beggar carry away the pennies he has obtained to the gin shop. +It gives the writer great pleasure to state to the readers of Jonas +Hanway's little tract in defence of chimney-sweepers, that, after +witnessing with the most painful sensations the great and wanton cruelty +which has for years been exercised upon that defenceless object the infant +chimney-sweeper, he has of late frequently visited several houses of their +masters, where he found in some instances that they had much better +treatment than formerly, and, to the credit of many of the masters, that +the boys had been as well taken care of, as to bedding and food, as the +nature of their wretched calling could possibly admit of. By three or four +of the principal master chimney-sweepers, the boys were regaled on Sundays +with the old English fare of roast beef and plum pudding. Whatever may be +the opinion of grave and elderly persons with respect to the lads of the +present day, who as soon as they are indulged with a dandy coat by their +silly mothers strut about like jackdaws and attempt to look big, even upon +their grandfathers, yet we must declare, and perhaps to the satisfaction +of these little men of sixteen, that they do not stand alone, for even +some of the chimney-sweepers' boys, particularly those of the higher +masters, regard the custom of dancing about the streets on May-day as low +and vulgar, and prefer visiting the tea gardens, where they can display +their shirt collars drawn up to their eyes. + +Certain it is that the greater number of those who now perambulate the +streets as chimney-sweeps on May-day, are in reality disguised gypsies, +cinder-sifters, and nightmen. Nor is the protraction of this ceremony in +modern times from one to three days, even by its legitimate owners, +unworthy of notice in this place; inasmuch as there is good reason for +supposing that the money collected during the first two of those days is +transferred to the pockets of the masters, instead of being applied for +the benefit of the poor boys, whilst the well-meant benevolence of the +public is shamefully deluded. + + + + +THE BLADDER MAN. + +PLATE XXX. + + +Within the memory of the author's oldest friends, London has been visited +by men similar to Bernardo Millano, whose figure is pourtrayed in the +following Plate. About sixty years ago there was a Turk, of a most pompous +appearance, who entertained crowds in the street by playing on an +instrument of five strings passed over a bladder, and drawn up to the ends +of a long stick, something like that exhibited in the etching, and which +instrument is said to have been the original hurdy-gurdy. This Turk +contrived by the assistance of his nose, which was a pretty large one, to +produce a noise with which most of the spectators seemed to be pleased. +The splendour of his dress, and the pomposity of his manner, procured him +a livelihood for some years. His success induced other persons to imitate +him; the most remarkable of whom was the famous Matthew Skeggs, who +actually played a concerto on a broomstick, at the Little Theatre in the +Haymarket, in the character of Signor Bumbasto. His portrait was painted +by Thomas King, a particular friend of Hogarth, and engraved by Houston. +Skeggs, who then kept a public-house, the sign of the "Hoop and Bunch of +Grapes," in St. Alban's Street, now a part of Waterloo Place, published it +himself. Skeggs's celebrity is noticed in the following extract from G. A. +Stevens: "The choice spirits have ever been famous for their talents as +musical artists. They usually met at the harvest-homes of grape gathering. +There, exhilarated by the pressings of the vintage, they were wont to +sing songs, tell stories, and show tricks, from their first emerging until +their perihelion under the presidentship of Mr. George Alexander Stevens, +Ballad-Laureat to the Society of Choice Spirits, and who appeared at +Ranelagh in the character of Comus, supported by those drolls of merry +memory. Unparalleled were their performances, as _first fists_ upon the +salt-box, and inimitable the variations they would twang upon the _forte_ +and _piano_ Jew's harp; excellent was _Howard_ in the chin concerto, whose +nose also supplied the unrivalled tones of the bagpipe. Upon the sticcado, +_Matt. Skeggs_ remains still unrivalled. And we cannot now boast of one +real genius upon the genuine hurdy-gurdy. Alas! these stars are all +extinguished; and the remains of ancient British harmony are now confined +to the manly music of the marrow-bones and cleavers. Everything must sink +into oblivion. Corn now grows where Troy town stood; Ranelagh may be +metamorphosed into a methodists' meeting-house; Vaux-Hall cut into skittle +alleys; the two Theatres converted into auction rooms; and the New +Pantheon become the stately habitation of some Jew pawnbroker: nay, the +Sons of Liberty themselves, &c." + +[Illustration: _Itinerant Musician_] + +Much about this time another Bladder-man was in high estimation, whose +portrait has been handed down to us in an etching by Miller, from a most +spirited drawing by Gravelot. The following verses, which set forth his +woful situation, are placed at the foot of the Plate: + + 1. + + "No musick ever charm'd my mind + So much as bladder fill'd with wind; + But as no mortal's free from fate, + Nor nothing keeps its first estate, + A pamper'd prodigal unkind + One day with sword let out the wind! + My bladder ceas'd its pleasing sound, + While boys stood tantalizing round. + + 2. + + "They well may laugh who always win, + But, had I not then thought on tin, + My misery had been compleat; + I must have begg'd about the street: + But none to grief should e'er give way: + This canister, ne'er fill'd with tea! + Can please my audience as well, + And charm their ears with, O Brave Nell." + +Some few years since a whimsical fellow attracted public notice by passing +strings over the skull of a horse, upon which he played as a fidler. +Another man, remarkably tall and thin, made a square violin, upon which he +played for several years, particularly within the centre arches of +Westminster Bridge. + +To the eternal honour of the street-players of former times, it will ever +be remembered that the great Purcell condescended to set one of their +elegies to music. "Thomas Farmer, in 1684, lived in Martlet Court, in Bow +Street, Covent Garden. He was originally one of the London street waits, +and his elegy was set to music by Purcell." See Hawkins's History of +Music, Vol. V. p. 18. + +The Guardian, No. 1, March 12, 1713, notices the famous John Gale. "There +was, I remember, some years ago, one John Gale, a fellow that played upon +a pipe, and diverted the multitude by dancing in a ring they made about +him, whose face became generally known, and the artists employed their +skill in delineating his features, because every man was judge of the +similitude of them." + +A sort of guitar or cittern, and also the fiddle, were used in this +country so early as the year 1364, and may be seen upon a brass monumental +plate to the memory of Robert Braunche and his two wives, in the choir of +St. Margaret's Church at Lynn. The subject alluded to is the +representation of a Peacock feast, consisting of a long table with twelve +persons, besides musicians and other attendants. Engravings of this very +curious monument may be seen in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, vol. i. p. +115; in Carter's Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, vol. ii. plate 15; and in +Cotman's Norfolk Brasses, Pl. III. p. 4. + + + + +POSTSCRIPT. BY THE EDITOR. + + +The interest of the Plates in Mr. Smith's "Antient Topography of London," +is much increased by numerous spirited little sketches of remarkable +characters well known in the streets of the Metropolis; several of whom +would have formed valuable additions, either to his work on the London +Beggars, intituled, "Vagabondiana," or the present volume: a few of these +shall be here noticed. + +1. In the View of the Old Houses in London Wall, p. 63, the man with two +baskets is JOHN BRYSON, well known in London, particularly in rainy +weather. He had been an opulent fishmonger in Bloomsbury Market, but +became, by several losses, so reduced, that he latterly carried nothing +except nuts in his basket; but his custom to the last was to cry every +sort of fish from the turbot to the perriwinkle, never heeding the calls +of those unacquainted with his humour. In the same Plate is WILLIAM +CONWAY, whose cry of "Hard metal Spoons to sell or change," was familiar +to the inhabitants of London and its environs. This man's portrait is also +given by Mr. Smith in the present work, p. 63. + +2. In the View of old Houses at the West end of Chancery Lane, p. 48, are +several figures drawn from the life. The woman with crutches represents +ANNE SIGGS. She was remarkable for her cleanliness, a rare quality for her +fraternity. Slander, from whose sting the most amiable persons are not +invulnerable, tempted this woman to spread a report of her being the +sister of the celebrated tragedian, Mrs. Siddons. From a work of singular +character by Mr. James Parry, it appears that she was a daughter of an +industrious breeches-maker at Dorking in Surrey. Another back view of this +woman occurs in the Plate of Duke Street, Smithfield, in p. 54. + +3. The man without legs, in the same print, is SAMUEL HORSEY, well known +in Holborn, Fleet Street, and the Strand. In 1816 this man had been a +London beggar for thirty-one years. He had a most Herculean trunk, and his +weather-beaten ruddy face was the picture of health. Mr. Smith has given a +back view of this beggar in "Vagabondiana," p. 37, where are some further +anecdotes of him. + +4. The dwarf hobbling up Chancery Lane was JEREMIAH DAVIES, a native of +Wales. He was frequently shewn at fairs, and supported a miserable +existence by performing sleight-of-hand tricks. He was also very strong, +and would lift a considerable weight, though not above three feet high. + +5. The tall slender figure next to Davies was a Mr. CREUSE, a truly +singular man, who never begged of any one, but would not refuse money when +offered. He died in Middlesex Court, Drury Lane, and was attended to the +burial ground in that street by friends in two mourning coaches. It is +said he left money to a considerable amount behind him. + +6. In the View of Houses in Sweedon's Passage, p. 42, is a portrait of +JOSEPH CLINCH, a noisy bow-legged ballad-singer, who was particularly +famous, about 1795, for his song upon Whittington and his Cat. He likewise +sold a coarse old woodcut of the animal, with its history and that of its +master printed in the back ground. + +7. In the view of Winchester Street, p. 68, the person with the umbrella +went under the name of Count VERDION, well known to Book Collectors. This +person was a professor of languages; for several years frequented +Furnival's Inn Coffee-House; and was a member of a man's benefit society +held at the Genoa Arms public house, in Hays's Court, Newport Market. This +supposed Count eventually proved to be a female, and died of a cancer on +the 16th July 1802, at her lodgings in Charles Street, Hatton Garden, in +the 58th year of her age. + +8. The short figure, carrying a little box, was sketched from the +celebrated corn-cutter, Mr. CORDEROY, who married a lady five feet six +inches high. + +9. The figure beyond Mr. Corderoy, is that of the respectable Bishop of +St. POL DE LEON; of whom a portrait and memoir by Mr. Eardley Wilmot, will +be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1807. + +10. In the view of Leadenhall Street, p. 52, the figure with a wig-box in +his hands represents JOSEPH WATKINS, born in 1739 at Richmond, in +Yorkshire; by trade a barber, and a man of retentive memory. He frequently +shaved Hogarth, whom he knew well, and said he was the last person in +London who wore a scarlet roquelaure. He had gathered blackberries on the +north side of the road now Oxford Street, and remembered the old +triangular gallows at Tyburn, as represented in the Execution Plate of the +Idle Apprentice. + +11. The next figure is that of a draggle-tailed bawler of dying speeches, +horrid murders, elegies, &c. + +12. The female in a morning jacket was sketched from the celebrated Mrs. +ELIZABETH CARTER, the learned translator of Epictetus. She died Feb. 19, +1806. + +13. The clumsy figure in a white coat, holding a goose, was well known +about town as a vender of aged poultry. + +14. The figure with a cocked hat, was a dealer in old iron, a man well +known at auctions of building materials, and was nicknamed by the brokers +as OLD RUSTY. + +In 1815 Mr. Smith published a separate whole-length portrait of "Henry +Dinsdale, nicknamed Sir Harry Dimsdale, mayor of the mock Borough of +Garret, aged 38, anno 1800." It forms a good companion to his +Vagabondiana. Dinsdale was by trade a muffin-man. There is also a spirited +head of Dinsdale by Mr. Smith; and his portrait, in his court dress, is +copied into Hone's Every Day Book, vol. II. p. 829, where, by mistake, it +is called Sir Jeffrey Dunstan. + +P. 9. Hand's Bun-house at Chelsea was pulled down April 18, 1839. See +Gentleman's Magazine for May 1839. + +In p. 54 the cry of "Young Lambs to Sell" is noticed. It may be added, +that in Hone's Table Book, p. 396, is a spirited engraving of William +Liston, an old soldier, with one arm and one leg, who, in 1821, carried +about "Young Lambs to Sell." The _first_ crier of "Young Lambs to Sell," +Mr. Hone says, "was a maimed sailor, and with him originated the +manufacture." + + +THE END. + + +J. B. Nichols and Son, Printers, 25, Parliament-street. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The remaining copies of this curious work having fallen into the hands +of Messrs. Nichols, it may now be had, with all the supplementary Plates +properly arranged, and with others added to them. + +[2] A copy of the Life of Nollekens, enriched with the greater portion of +the autograph correspondence mentioned therein, and with numerous +drawings, portraits, and prints, is in the possession of Mr. Upcott; a +nearly similar copy is also in the library of William Knight, of +Canonbury-house, Islington, esq. who possesses by far the most complete +and valuable series of Mr. Smith's graphic and literary labours. His copy +of the History and Antiquities of Westminster, with numerous drawings of +St. Stephen's Chapel, taken by the Bucklers after the recent +conflagration, is at once unique and unrivalled. + +[3] Mr. Smith went to breakfast with Mr. Kean, who met him in the Hall, +and asked him if he would like to see his lion; at the same moment +introduced him to the beast in the parlour, who fawned about him; Mr. Kean +became alarmed, and enticed the animal to the window, whilst Mr. Smith +went up to Mrs. Kean in the drawing-room, who, on hearing of the +circumstance, exclaimed, "Is Edmund mad?" Mr. Smith that morning made a +sketch of the lion in his den. + +[4] This painted glass, 24 inches by 16, commemorates a very valuable +benefaction to the parish of Lambeth, by a person unknown, of a piece of +land, called, in 1504, Church Hope; in 1623, the Church Oziers, or Ozier +Hope; and in 1690, Pedlar's Acre; let in 1504 at 2_s._ 8_d._, and now +covered with houses and wharfs. Hope or Hoope signifies an isthmus or neck +of land projecting into the river, or an inclosed piece of low marsh land. +By the Churchwardens' Accounts, in 1607, it appears there was then a +picture of the Pedlar; but the present pane is thus noticed: "1703. March +6. Paid Mr. Price for a new glass Pedler L2." Nichols's Lambeth Parish, +pp. 30, 31, 39; Allen's Lambeth, p. 62; in both which works are also +representations of this painted glass. N. + +[5] A view of this house is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for May +1801. Dr. Swift, in his Journal to Stella, Nov. 15, 1712, mentioning the +death of the Duke of Hamilton, in a duel with Lord Mahon, says, "the Duke +was helped towards the Cake-house by the Ring in Hyde Park (where the duel +was fought), and died on the grass before he could reach the house." N. + +[6] This curious series of the Cries of London, drawn after the life, was +engraved on 74 copper-plates by Tempesta, after Laroon. It is noticed in +Hone's Table Book, vol. ii. p. 131, where twenty of these Cries not now +heard in the streets are described, and the following figures are copied. +1. "Buy a fine singing bird," vol. i. p. 510; 2. "Six pence a pound, fair +cherries;" and 3. "Troop every one!" the seller of hobby-horses, toys for +children, i. 686; 4. "Any New-River water here," p. 733; 5. "Fine Writing +Ink;" and 6. "Buy an Iron Fork, or a Spoon," vol. ii. p. 431. The Set of +Cries by Paul Sandby, consists of twelve. Both these have many real +portraits. (Gough's Brit. Top. i. 689.) N. + +[7] It is much to be regretted that Mr. Smith never completed this work, +for which he had collected valuable materials, which we fear are +dispersed. N. + +[8] Representations of these cressets are given in Douce's "Illustrations +of Shakspeare," and in "Hone's Every Day Book," i. 831. N. + +[9] Stowe, edit. 1618, p. 160. These extracts from Stowe attracted the +notice of Mr. Hone, who has inserted them, with many suitable remarks, in +his "Every Day Book," i. 827. N. + +[10] This work was very popular. The eighth edition bears this title: +"English Villanies, eight several times prest to Death by the Printers, +but still reviving again, are now the eighth time (as at the first) +discovered by Lanthorne and Candlelight, &c. Lond. 1618." N. + +[11] Copied in Hone's "Table Book," vol. i. p. 733. N. + +[12] Elizabeth, one of the learned and accomplished daughters of Sir +Anthony Cooke, Knt. was first married to Sir Thomas Hobye, (who died at +Paris in 1566.) She was afterwards married to John Lord Russell, (who died +in 1584); and having lived his widow 25 years, was buried at Bisham, June +2, 1609.--Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, III. 132. N. + +[13] Sir Thomas de Veil died Oct. 7, 1746, in his 63d year, and was buried +at Denham, Bucks. A good memoir of him will be found in Gent. Mag. for +1747, p. 562. N. + +[14] Since this work was written, an excellent work on Ancient Furniture +has been published, the plates engraved by Henry Shaw, F.S.A. and +described by Sir Samuel R. Meyrick, K.H. F.S.A. + +[15] This appears to have been an adaptation from-- + + Young Lambs to sell! Young Lambs to sell! + If I'd as much money as I could _tell_ + I never would cry, Young Lambs to sell! + +[16] The lovers of saloop can no longer enjoy their favourite beverage at +this the original shop, it having been closed as a coffee-house in June +1833, the proprietor having been unfortunately too fond of liquor more +spirituous than his own saloop. It is now a shoe-warehouse. N. + +[17] Lockyer was the name of the first proprietor of the house. + +[18] Mount Pleasant is in America, and produces the sassafras, from which +the proprietor of the above coffee-house made the saloop. + +[19] Wormholt or Wormwood Scrubs, in the parish of Hammersmith. The +following is extracted from the Sporting Magazine, Oct. 1802, p. 15. "On +Thursday a pitched battle, for twenty guineas a side, was fought between +O'Donnel and Pardo Wilson, brother-in-law to Belcher; and the ground fixed +upon for the combat was the _Scrubs_, through which the Paddington canal +runs, about four miles from Hyde Park Corner." Wormholt Scrubs has long +been rented of the parish of Hammersmith by the Government as an exercise +ground for the cavalry. At the present time Wormholt Scrubs is traversed +by three railways, the London and Birmingham, the Great Western, and one +now making to join the two former ones with the Thames. N. + + + + + _Of Nichols and Son, may be had, Price 5l. 5s._ + + A NEW EDITION OF + THE ANTIQUITIES OF WESTMINSTER, + THE OLD PALACE, ST. STEPHEN'S CHAPEL, &c. + + ILLUSTRATED BY + THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY ENGRAVINGS + OF TOPOGRAPHICAL SUBJECTS, + OF WHICH THE GREATER PART NO LONGER EXIST. + + DRAWN ON THE SPOT, OR COLLECTED FROM SCARCE DRAWINGS + OR PAINTINGS, + + BY JOHN THOMAS SMITH. + + +_In this Edition the "Sixty-two additional Plates," published subsequently +to the original Work, are inserted in their proper places; together with +twenty-two other Plates strictly illustrative of Mr. Smith's publication; +forming together a collection of Engravings illustrative of the antient +City of Westminster unequalled in any other work._ + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cries of London, by John Thomas Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRIES OF LONDON *** + +***** This file should be named 37817.txt or 37817.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/1/37817/ + +Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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