The sale of hot green peas in the streets of London is of great antiquity, that is to say, if the cry of "_Hot peascods! one began to cry_," recorded by Lydgate in his _London Lackpenny_, may be taken as having intimated the sale of the same article under the modern cry of "_Hot green peas! all hot, all hot! Here's your peas, hot, hot, hot!_" In many parts of the country it is, or was, customary to have a "_scalding of peas_," as a sort of rustic festivity, at which green peas scalded or slightly boiled with their pods on are the main dish. Being set on the table in the midst of the party, each person dips his peapod in a common cup of melted butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, and extracts the peas by the agency of his teeth. At times one bean, shell and all is put into the steaming mass, whoever gets this bean is to be first married. The sellers of green peas "hot, all hot!" have no stands but carry them in a tin pot or pan which is wrapped round with a thick cloth, to retain the heat. The peas are served out with a ladle, and eaten by the customers out of basins provided with spoons by the vendor. Salt and pepper are supplied _at discretion_, but the _fresh!_ butter to grease 'em (_avec votre permission_.) The hot green peas are sold out in halfpennyworths and pennyworths, some vendors, in addition to the usual seasoning supplied, add _a suck of bacon_. The "suck of bacon" is obtained by the street Arabs from a piece of that article, securely fastened by a string, to obtain a "relish" for the peas, or as is usually said "to flavour 'em;" sometimes these young gamins manage to bite the string and then _bolt_ not only the bacon, but away from the vendors. The popular saying "a plate of veal cut with a _hammy_ knife" is but a refined rendering of the pea and suck-'o-bacon, street luxury trick. Pea soup is also sold in the streets of London, but not to the extent it was twenty years ago, when the chilled labourer and others having only a halfpenny to spend would indulge in a basin of--"_All hot!_" [Illustration: THE FLOWER-POT MAN. Here comes the old mail with his flowers to sell, Along the streets merrily going; Full many a year I've remember'd him well, With, "Flowers, a-growing, a-blowing." Geraniums in dresses of scarlet and green; Thick aloes, that blossom so rarely; The long creeping cereus with prickles so keen, Or primroses modest and early. The myrtle dark green, and the jessamine pale, Sweet scented and gracefully flowing, This flower-man carries and offers for sale, "All flourishing, growing, and blowing."]