Years ago the tin oven of the peripatetic penny pieman was found to be too small to meet the constant and ever-increasing strain made upon its resources; and the owner thereof has now risen to the dignity of a shop, where, in addition to stewed eels, he dispenses what Albert Smith happily termed "covered uncertainties," containing messes of mutton, beef, or seasonable fruit. Contained in a strong wicker basket with legs, or in a sort of tin oven, the pieman's wares were formerly kept hot by means of a small charcoal fire. A sip of a warm stomachic liquid of unknown but apparently acceptable constituents was sometimes offered gratuitously by way of inducement to purchase. The cry of "Hot Pies" still accompanies one of the first and most elementary games of the modern baby learning to speak, who is taught by his nurse to raise his hand to imitate a call now never heard. The specimens of versification that follow are culled from various books of London Cries, written for the amusement of children, towards the end of the last century, and now in the collection of the writer:-- Large silver eels--a groat a pound, live eels! Not the Severn's famed stream Could produce better fish, Sweet and fresh as new cream, And what more could you wish? Pots and Kettles to mend? Your coppers, kettles, pots, and stew pans, Tho' old, shall serve instead of new pans. I'm very moderate in my charge, For mending small as well as large. Buy a Mop or a Broom! My mop is so big, it might serve as a wig For a judge if he had no objection, And as to my brooms, they'll sweep dirty rooms, And make the dust fly to perfection. Nice Yorkshire Cakes! Nice Yorkshire cakes, come buy of me, I have them crisp and brown; They are very good to eat with tea, And fit for lord or clown. Buy my fine Myrtles and Roses! Come buy my fine roses, my myrtles and stocks, My sweet-smelling balsams and close-growing box. Buy my nice Drops--twenty a penny, Peppermint drops! [Illustration: _Rowlandson Delin 1819_ "_Pots and Kettles to Mend!_"] If money is plenty you may sure spare a penny, It will purchase you twenty--and that's a great many. Six bunches a penny, sweet blooming Lavender! Just put one bundle to your nose, What rose can this excel? Throw it among your finest clothes, And grateful they will smell. Buy a live Chicken or a young Fowl? Buy a young Chicken fat and plump, Or take two for a shilling?-- Is this poor honest tradesman's cry; Come buy if you are willing. Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit! a Rabbit! who will buy? Is all you hear from him; The rabbit you may roast or fry, The fur your cloak will trim. My good Sir, will you buy a Bowl?