They are gone--probably irrevocably--but a trace of the vendor still lingers amongst us. One or two still remain about Gray’s Inn Road, Farringdon Road, and other neighbourhoods; but I venture to say, as they drop out, they will find no successors. You may know them, if ever lucky enough to meet with one, by their canvas screens, on which are pinned the ballads--identical with that immortal screen of which Mr. Silas Wegg (in Dickens’s “Our Mutual Friend”) was the proud proprietor; but these modern Ballads are mostly reproductions of Music Hall songs, and have very little in common with those about which I write. I have taken the first fifty years of this century, when this style of Street Ballad was at its best, but I have liberally interpreted my fifty years, by extending its margin by a year or two either way--thus, I include the Mutiny at the Nore in 1798, and the Great Exhibition of 1851, and I have selected those that bear on most, and elucidate best, the social manners and customs of that period. RIGHT JOHN ASHTON. [Illustration: J. CATNACH PRINTER _and_ PUBLISHER. ] CONTENTS. SOCIAL. PAGE SALE OF A WIFE 1 A WOMAN NEVER KNOWS WHEN HER DAY’S WORK’S DONE 5 THE TREATS OF LONDON 9 THE INCOME TAX 12 STRIKING TIMES 17 THE MECHANIC’S APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC 21 WOMEN’S SAYINGS 24 BOB LOGIC’S DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW BRIGHTON DILIGENCE FOR INSIDE PASSENGERS ONLY 31 PAPER’D-UP HAIR 34 I LIKES A DROP OF GOOD BEER 36 THE SNOB AND THE BOTTLE 38 RORY O’MORE TURNED TEETOTAL 42 HURRAH FOR FATHER MATHEW’S MILL 45 HOW FIVE AND TWENTY SHILLINGS WERE EXPENDED IN A WEEK 48 THE WAY TO LIVE 52 THE CRIES OF LONDON 55 THE HONEST POLICEMAN OF MITCHAM 59 COOKEY DARLING 62 I SHOULD LIKE TO BE A POLICEMAN 64 BENDIGO, CHAMPION OF ENGLAND 67 THE BOLD IRISH YANKEY BENICIA BOY 71 I’M A GENT 75