Addison accuses the London street criers of cultivating the accomplishment of crying their wares so as not to be understood; and in that curious medley of _bons-mots_ and biographical sketches, "The Olio," by Francis Grose,--dated 1796, but written probably some twenty years earlier,--the author says, "The variety of cries uttered by the retailers of different articles in the streets of London make no inconsiderable part in its novelty to strangers and foreigners. An endeavour to guess at the goods they deal in through the medium of language would be a vain attempt, as few of them convey any articulate sound. It is by their tune and the time of day that the modern cries of London are to be discriminated." J. T. Smith says that the no longer heard cry of "Holloway Cheese-Cakes" was pronounced "_All my Teeth Ache_;" and an old woman who sold mutton dumplings in the neighbourhood of Gravel Lane called, "_Hot Mutton Trumpery_;" while a third crier, an old man who dealt in brick-dust, used to shout something that sounded exactly like "_Do you want a lick on the head?_" Another man--a vendor of chickweed--brayed like an ass; while a stentorian bawler, who was described as a great nuisance, shouted "Cat's Meat," though he sold cabbages. Indeed, some of the cries in our own day would appear to be just as difficult to distinguish. A lady tells me that in a poor district she regularly visits, the coal-cart man cries: "I'm on the woolsack!" but what he means is, "Fine Wallsend Coal!" The philologist will find the pronunciation of the peripatetic Cockney vendor of useful and amusing trifles--almost invariably penn'orths, by the way--worthy of careful study. Here are a couple of phonetically rendered examples: "Bettnooks, a penny fer two, two frer penny." [Button hooks, a penny for two, two for a penny.] "En endy shoo-awn frer penny." [A handy shoe-horn for a penny.] Amongst the twelve etched London Cries "done from the life" by Paul Sandby, in 1766, and now scarce, are the following curious examples:-- My pretty little gimy [smart] tarter for a halfpenny stick, or a penny stick, or a stick to beat your Wives or Dust your cloths! Memorandum books a penny a-piece of the poor blind. God bless you. Pity the blind! Do you want any spoons--hard metal spoons? Have you any old brass or pewter to sell or change? All fire and no smoke. A very good flint or a very good steel. Do you want a good flint or steel? Any tripe, or neat's foot or calf's-foot, or trotters, ho! Hearts, Liver or Lights!