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
Each salesman tries his utmost to sell his wares, tempting the passers-by
with his bargains. The boy with his stock of herbs offers "a double
'andful of fine parsley for a penny;" the man with the donkey-cart filled
with turnips has three lads to shout for him to their utmost, with their
"Ho! ho! hi-i-i! What do you think of us here? A penny a bunch--hurrah for
free trade! _Here's_ your turnips!" Until it is seen and heard, we have no
sense of the scramble that is going on throughout London for a living. The
same scene takes place at the Brill--the same in Leather-lane--the same in
Tottenham-court-road--the same in Whitecross-street; go to whatever corner
of the metropolis you please, either on a Saturday night or a Sunday
morning, and there is the same shouting and the same struggling to get the
penny profit out of the poor man's Sunday's dinner.
Since the above description was written, the New Cut has lost much of its
noisy and brilliant glory. In consequence of a New Police regulation,
"stands" or "pitches" have been forbidden, and each coster, on a market
night, is now obliged, under pain of the lock-up house, to carry his tray,
or keep moving with his barrow. The gay stalls have been replaced by deal
boards, some sodden with wet fish, others stained purple with
blackberries, or brown with walnut peel; and the bright lamps are almost
totally superseded by the dim, guttering candle. Even if the pole under
the tray or "shallow" is seen resting on the ground, the policeman on duty
is obliged to interfere.
The mob of purchasers has diminished one-half; and instead of the road
being filled with customers and trucks, the pavement and kerbstones are
scarcely crowded.
THE SUNDAY MORNING MARKETS.
Nearly every poor man's market does its Sunday trade. For a few hours on
the Sabbath morning, the noise, bustle, and scramble of the Saturday night
are repeated, and but for this opportunity many a poor family would pass a
dinnerless Sunday. The system of paying the mechanic late on the Saturday
night--and more particularly of paying a man his wages in a
public-house--when he is tired with his day's work, lures him to the
tavern, and there the hours fly quickly enough beside the warm tap-room
fire, so that by the time the wife comes for her husband's wages, she
finds a large portion of them gone in drink and the streets half cleared,
thus the Sunday market is the only chance of getting the Sunday's dinner.
Of all these Sunday morning markets, the Brill, perhaps, furnishes the
busiest scene; so that it may be taken as a type of the whole.
The streets in the neighbourhood are quiet and empty. The shops are closed
with their different coloured shutters, and the people round about are
dressed in the shiny cloth of the holiday suit. There are no "cabs," and
but few omnibuses to disturb the rest, and men walk in the road as safely
as on the footpath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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