A History of the Cries of London, Ancient and ModernHindley, Charles
History
A History of the Cries of London, Ancient and Modern
Hindley, Charles
Cries -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
Buy a Broom? was formerly a very popular London-cry, when it was usually
rendered thus:--"_Puy a Proom, puy a prooms? a leetle von for ze papy, and
a pig vons for ze lady: Puy a Proom_." Fifty years ago Madame Vestris
charmed the town by her singing and displaying her legs as a _Buy-a-Broom
Girl_.
Buy a broom, buy a broom,
Large broom, small broom,
No lady should e'er be without one, &c.
But time and fashion has _swept_ both the brooms and the girls from our
shores.--Madame Vestris lies head-to-head with Charles Mathews in Kensal
Green Cemetery. _Tempus omnia revelat._
[Illustration: THE LADY AS CRIES CATS' MEAT.
Old Maids, your custom I invites,
Fork out, and don't be shabby,
And don't begrudge a bit of lights
Or liver for your Tabby.
Hark! how the Pusses make a rout--
To buy you can't refuse;
So may you never be without
The _music_ of their _mews_.
Here's famous meat--all lean, no fat--
No better in Great Britain;
Come, buy a penn'orth for your Cat--
A happ'orth for your Kitten.
Come all my barrow for a bob!
Some charity diskivir;
For faith, it ar'n't an easy job
To _live_ by selling _liver_.
Who'll buy? who'll buy of Catsmeat-Nan!
I've bawl'd till I am sick;
But ready money is my plan;
I never gives no tick.
I've got no customers as yet--
In wain is my appeal--
And not to buy a single bit
Is werry ungenteel!]
[Illustration: OUR DANDY CATS' AND DOGS' MEAT MAN.]
Every morning as true as the clock--the quiet of "Our Village Green" is
broken by a peculiar and suggestive cry. We do not hear it yet ourselves,
but Pincher, our black and tan terrier dog, and Smut, our black and white
cat, have both caught the well-known accents, and each with natural
characteristic--the one wagging his tail, the other with a stiff
perpendicular [dorsel appendage] sidles towards the door, demanding as
plainly as possible, to be let out. Yes, it is "Our Dandy Cats' and Dogs'
Meat Man," with his "_Ca' me-e-et--dogs' me yet--Ca' or do-args-me-a-yet,
me a-t--me-yett!!!_" that fills the morning air, and arouses exactly seven
dogs of various kinds, and exactly thirty-one responsive feline
voices--there is a cat to every house on "Our Village Green"--and causes
thirty-one aspiring cat's-tails to point to the zenith. We do not know how
it is, but the Cat's-meat man is the most unerring and punctual of all
those peripatetic functionaries who undertake to cater for the public. The
baker, the butcher, the grocer, the butterman, the fishmonger, and the
coster, occasionally forget your necessities, or omit to call for your
orders--the cat's-meat man never!
[Illustration: GUY FAWKES--GUY.]
There cannot be a better representation of "Guy Fawkes," as he was borne
about the metropolis in effigy in the days "When George the Third was
King," than the above sketch by George Cruikshank.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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