The Cries Of London
It is my delight to show you the latest addition to my collection – this tiny anonymous pamphlet no larger than a folded banknote entitled simply THE CRIES OF LONDON. More than two centuries old, it is one of innumerable publications on this subject down through the ages and consequently only of little monetary worth. Yet, to me, this shabby rag is one of my favourites in the series because of the modesty of its production. The stained pages evidence its fond usage by those who, once upon a time, actually saw these mythic characters upon the streets of London.
You may also like to take a look at these other sets of the Cries of London
More John Player’s Cries of London
More Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London
Geoffrey Fletcher’s Pavement Pounders
William Craig Marshall’s Itinerant Traders
H.W.Petherick’s London Characters
John Thomson’s Street Life in London
Aunt Busy Bee’s New London Cries
Marcellus Laroon’s Cries of London
William Nicholson’s London Types
Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana of 1817
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana II
John Thomas Smith’s Vagabondiana III
Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders
We’ve got plenty of dust. Shame nobody collects it round here.
Thank you; this ‘shabby rag’ is indeed a treasure. sbw
The little book is a treasure, thanks for sharing the pictures. Valerie
That head-hat of live Lobsters must have been a sight to see
I envy you the possession of the above booklet, it is a very attractive combination of images and print. As some of the food items would be seasonal I wonder what the vendors sold at other times of the year?
can quite understand why you love this little book – I can just see those people and hear their cries. The beautiful woodcuts, if that’s what they are, absolutely bring them alive.
I remember as a small boy hearing the ‘rag and bone’ man call out from his horse and cart. On a recent trip to old town Dhaka in Bangladesh I heard lots of different cries from individuals selling or offering services.
Utterly charming. I remember my Grandad reciting this ditty:
Old chairs to mend, old chairs to mend
If I’d all the money I could spend
I wouldn’t cry old chairs to mend
I concur about the lobster hat! Plus the man wearing all the old clothes at once. I wonder if this was something to teach children to read? It is charming and poignant. And elegant. Thank you for sharing this treasure.
Oh my goodness, this is the best yet! — not only are images full of life, but the language is sprightly too.
Being on the New England seacoast, I love the notion of walking around with a basket of lively lobsters on my head.
I remember an old bloke going around mending chairs when I was a child in the mid sixties. And, of course, the rag and bone man shouting ‘Any old iron?’ from a horse drawn cart. My favourite of these criers is the dustman because the name lingers on even in these days of recycling. A wonderful find.
In the early 1970’s I livd on the Isle of Dogs for a few years. Even then the knife grinder still came around with his small portable grinder singing in a lovely song song voice, “Any knives to grind, get your scissors sharpened”. I can still hear him now.
Wish someone would come sharpen my knives today! Or that I had a woven chair that needed mending… wouldn’t it be fun to watch someone repair our chair?
Two hundred years ago someone put this pamphlet away for safe-keeping. Wish they had known how much we would appreciate their action.
Do you know if the dust was brick dust?
Wonderful peek into the distant past, so glad to find this
Thank you for this wonderful collection of Street Cries. The poet Marjorie Welish published, in 1991, a group of poems called ‘Some Street Cries’ — in The Windows Flew Open. Her own variations on this extraordinfary form of public poetry — here’s part of one:
Give a sphere new life
by ruling it with lines of evergreen
I promise you ink that branches and conceives!
I promise you all of utility!
I promise you black freshets and gray,
a few drops are all you need, ladies!