A prized acquisition in my Cries of London collection is a second edition of Charles Hindley’s ‘History of the Cries of London, Ancient & Modern’ from 1884. My predecessor had the same idea to collect images of the Cries and trace their development over time and, in his book, he reprints many wood blocks from earlier chapbooks, including the set below. Originally just the size of a thumbnail, these anonymous finely-observed prints evoke the circumstance and demeanour of hawkers and pedlars in early-nineteenth century London with startling economy of means.
The Rabbit Man - Buy my rabbits! Rabbits, who’ll buy? Rabbit! Rabbit Who will buy?
New Cockles - Buy my cockles! Fine new cockles! Cockles fine and cockles new!
Banbury Cakes - Buy my nice and new Banbury Cakes! Buy my nice new Banbury Cakes, O!
Mulberries - Mulberries, all ripe and fresh today! Only a groat a pottle – full to the bottom!
Capers, Anchovies - Buy my capers! Buy my nice capers! Buy my anchovies! Buy my nice anchovies!
Lavender - Buy my lavender! Sweet blooming lavender! Sweet blooming lavender! Blooming lavender!
Mackerel - Live mackerel! Three a-shilling, O! Le’ping alive, O! Three a-shilling,O!
Shirt Buttons - Buy my shirt buttons! Shirt buttons! Buy shirt buttons! Buttons!
The Herb Wife - Buy rue! Buy sage! Buy mint! Buy rue, sage and mint, a farthing a bunch!
The Tinker - Maids, I mend old pots and kettles! Mend old pots and kettles, O!
Buy fine flounders! Fine dabs! - All alive, O! Fine dabs! Fine live flounders, O!
You may also like to take a look at these other sets of the Cries of London I have collected
John Player’s Cries of London
More John Player’s Cries of London
Faulkner’s Street Cries
Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London
More Samuel Pepys’ Cries of London
Kendrew’s Cries of London
London Characters
Geoffrey Fletcher’s Pavement Pounders
William Craig Marshall’s Itinerant Traders
London Melodies
Henry Mayhew’s Street 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
John Leighton’s London Cries
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
More of Thomas Rowlandson’s Lower Orders
Victorian Tradesmen Scraps
Cries of London Scraps
New Cries of London 1803
Cries of London Snap Cards
Julius M Price’s London Types
Adam Dant’s New Cries of Spittlefields
This post first appeared on Spitalfields Life | In The Midst Of Life I Woke To, please read the originial post: here
