called cuckoo-flowers by the country people. Though it has been affirmed
that saloop is the root of the mascula only, yet those of the morio, and
of some other species of orchis, will do equally as well, as I can affirm
from my own experience; consequently, to give a description of the mascula
in particular will be useless. As most country people are acquainted with
these plants by the name of cuckoo-flowers, it certainly would be worth
their while to employ their children to collect the roots for sale; and
though they may not be quite so large as those that come from abroad, yet
they may be equally as good, and as they are exceedingly plentiful, enough
might annually be gathered for our own consumption, and thus a new article
of employment would be added to the poorer sort of people.
"The time for taking them up is when the seed is about ripe, as then the
new bulbs are fully grown; and all the trouble of preparing them is, to
put them, fresh taken up, into scalding hot water for about half a minute;
and on taking them out, to rub off the outer skin; which done, they must
be laid on tin plates, and set in a pretty fierce oven for eight or ten
minutes, according to the size of the roots; after this, they should be
removed to the top of the oven, and left there till they are dry enough to
pound.
"Saloop is a celebrated restorative among the Turks, and with us it stands
recommended in consumptions, bilious cholics, and all disorders proceeding
from an acrimony in the juices.
"Some people have a method of candying the roots, and thus prepared they
are very pleasant, and may be eaten with good success against coughs and
inward soreness."
SMITHFIELD PUDDING.
PLATE XXIX.
It would be almost criminal to proceed in my account of the present cry
without passing a due encomium on the subject of it. The good qualities of
an English pudding, more especially when it happens to be enriched with
the due portion of enticing plums, are well known to most of us. It is a
luxury to which our Gallic neighbours are entire strangers, and an article
of cookery worth any dozen of their harlequin kick-shaws.
The justly-celebrated comedian, Ned Shuter, was so passionately fond of
this article that he would never dine without it, and anything that led to
the bare mention of a pudding would burst the silence of a couple of
hours' smoking; he was on one occasion known to lay down his pipe, and to
exclaim, that the dinner the gentleman had just described would have been
a very good one if there had but been a plum-pudding. The places where
this excellent commodity is chiefly exposed to sale in the manner
described in the engraving, are those of the greatest traffic or
publicity, such as Smithfield on a market morning, where waggoners,
butchers, and drovers, are sure to find their pence for a slice of hot
pudding. Fleet Market, Leadenhall, Honey Lane, and Spital Fields, have
each their hot-pudding men. In the lowest neighbourhoods in Westminster,
where the soldiers reside, cook-shops find great custom for their pudding.
The stalls, near the Horse Guards always have large quantities ready
cut into penny slices, piled up like boards in a timber-yard.
[Illustration: _Smithfield Pudding_]
At the time of relieving guard, vendors of pudding are always to be found
on the parade. There is a black man, a handsome, well-made fellow,
remarkably clean in his person, and always drest in the neatest manner,
who never fails to sell his pudding; he also frequents the Regent's Park
on a Sunday afternoon, and, though he has no wit, his nonsense pleases the
crowd. This person, who is now at the top of his calling, had a
predecessor of the name of Eglington, who likewise carried on the business
of a tailor.
He was a well-made and very active man, and by reason of his being seen in
various parts of London nearly at the same time, was denominated the
"Flying Pudding Man." His principal walk was in the neighbourhood of Fleet
Market and Holborn Bridge, and his smartness of dress and quickness of
repartee gained the attention of his customers; he seldom appeared but in
a state of perfect sobriety, and many curious anecdotes are related of
him.
On the approach of Edmonton Fair, wishing to see the sports and pastimes
of the place, he ordered his wife to make as many puddings as to fill a
hackney coach. This being done, on the morning of the opening of the fair
a coach was hired for the puddings, and the pudding man and pudding lady
took their seats by the side of the coachman. On their arrival at the fair
he put on his well-known dress, and instantly commenced his cry of
"pudding," whilst the lady supplied him from the coach. In a few hours'
time, when his stock was all disposed of, he resumed his best attire, and
with his fair spouse proceeded to visit the various shows.
His well-known features were soon recognized by thousands who frequented
the fair, and their jeers of "hot, hot, smoking hot," resounded from booth
to booth. At the close of the day this constant couple walked home well
laden with the profits they had made. There is hardly a fight on the
Scrubs,[19] nor a walking match on Blackheath, that are not visited by the
pudding men.
When malefactors were executed at Tyburn, the pudding men of the day were
sure to be there, and indeed so many articles were sold, and the cries of
new milk, curds and whey, spice cakes, barley sugar, and hot spice
gingerbread, were so numerous and loud, that this place on the day of
execution was usually designated by the thousands of blackguards who
attended it under the appellation of Tyburn Fair. The reader may see a
faithful representation of this melancholy and humourous scene by the
inimitable Hogarth, in the Execution Plate of his Idle Apprentice. In this
engraving he will also find a correct figure of the triangular gallows,
commonly called the "Three-legged Mare," and which stood upon the site
afterwards occupied by the turnpike house, at the end of Oxford Street.
In many instances the pudding sold in the streets has a favourable aspect,
and under some circumstances perhaps proves a delicious treat to the
purchaser.
Nothing can be more gratifying than to enable a poor little
chimney-sweeper to indulge his appetite with a luxury before which he has
for some minutes been standing with a longing inclination; and as this
gratification can be accomplished at a very trifling expense, it were
surely much better to behold it realized than to see the canting
Tabernacle beggar carry away the pennies he has obtained to the gin shop.
It gives the writer great pleasure to state to the readers of Jonas
Hanway's little tract in defence of chimney-sweepers, that, after
witnessing with the most painful sensations the great and wanton cruelty
which has for years been exercised upon that defenceless object the infant
chimney-sweeper, he has of late frequently visited several houses of their
masters, where he found in some instances that they had much better
treatment than formerly, and, to the credit of many of the masters, that
the boys had been as well taken care of, as to bedding and food, as the
nature of their wretched calling could possibly admit of. By three or four
of the principal master chimney-sweepers, the boys were regaled on Sundays
with the old English fare of roast beef and plum pudding. Whatever may be
the opinion of grave and elderly persons with respect to the lads of the
present day, who as soon as they are indulged with a dandy coat by their
silly mothers strut about like jackdaws and attempt to look big, even upon
their grandfathers, yet we must declare, and perhaps to the satisfaction
of these little men of sixteen, that they do not stand alone, for even
some of the chimney-sweepers' boys, particularly those of the higher
masters, regard the custom of dancing about the streets on May-day as low
and vulgar, and prefer visiting the tea gardens, where they can display
their shirt collars drawn up to their eyes.
Certain it is that the greater number of those who now perambulate the
streets as chimney-sweeps on May-day, are in reality disguised gypsies,
cinder-sifters, and nightmen. Nor is the protraction of this ceremony in
modern times from one to three days, even by its legitimate owners,
unworthy of notice in this place; inasmuch as there is good reason for
supposing that the money collected during the first two of those days is
transferred to the pockets of the masters, instead of being applied for
the benefit of the poor boys, whilst the well-meant benevolence of the
public is shamefully deluded.
THE BLADDER MAN.
PLATE XXX.
Within the memory of the author's oldest friends, London has been visited
by men similar to Bernardo Millano, whose figure is pourtrayed in the
following Plate. About sixty years ago there was a Turk, of a most pompous
appearance, who entertained crowds in the street by playing on an
instrument of five strings passed over a bladder, and drawn up to the ends
of a long stick, something like that exhibited in the etching, and which
instrument is said to have been the original hurdy-gurdy. This Turk
contrived by the assistance of his nose, which was a pretty large one, to
produce a noise with which most of the spectators seemed to be pleased.
The splendour of his dress, and the pomposity of his manner, procured him
a livelihood for some years. His success induced other persons to imitate
him; the most remarkable of whom was the famous Matthew Skeggs, who
actually played a concerto on a broomstick, at the Little Theatre in the
Haymarket, in the character of Signor Bumbasto. His portrait was painted
by Thomas King, a particular friend of Hogarth, and engraved by Houston.
Skeggs, who then kept a public-house, the sign of the "Hoop and Bunch of
Grapes," in St. Alban's Street, now a part of Waterloo Place, published it
himself. Skeggs's celebrity is noticed in the following extract from G. A.
Stevens: "The choice spirits have ever been famous for their talents as
musical artists. They usually met at the harvest-homes of grape gathering.
There, exhilarated by the pressings of the vintage, they were wont to
sing songs, tell stories, and show tricks, from their first emerging until
their perihelion under the presidentship of Mr. George Alexander Stevens,
Ballad-Laureat to the Society of Choice Spirits, and who appeared at
Ranelagh in the character of Comus, supported by those drolls of merry
memory. Unparalleled were their performances, as _first fists_ upon the
salt-box, and inimitable the variations they would twang upon the _forte_
and _piano_ Jew's harp; excellent was _Howard_ in the chin concerto, whose
nose also supplied the unrivalled tones of the bagpipe. Upon the sticcado,
_Matt. Skeggs_ remains still unrivalled. And we cannot now boast of one
real genius upon the genuine hurdy-gurdy. Alas! these stars are all
extinguished; and the remains of ancient British harmony are now confined
to the manly music of the marrow-bones and cleavers. Everything must sink
into oblivion. Corn now grows where Troy town stood; Ranelagh may be
metamorphosed into a methodists' meeting-house; Vaux-Hall cut into skittle
alleys; the two Theatres converted into auction rooms; and the New
Pantheon become the stately habitation of some Jew pawnbroker: nay, the
Sons of Liberty themselves, &c."
[Illustration: _Itinerant Musician_]
Much about this time another Bladder-man was in high estimation, whose
portrait has been handed down to us in an etching by Miller, from a most
spirited drawing by Gravelot. The following verses, which set forth his
woful situation, are placed at the foot of the Plate:
1.
"No musick ever charm'd my mind
So much as bladder fill'd with wind;
But as no mortal's free from fate,
Nor nothing keeps its first estate,
A pamper'd prodigal unkind
One day with sword let out the wind!
My bladder ceas'd its pleasing sound,
While boys stood tantalizing round.
2.
"They well may laugh who always win,
But, had I not then thought on tin,
My misery had been compleat;
I must have begg'd about the street:
But none to grief should e'er give way:
This canister, ne'er fill'd with tea!
Can please my audience as well,
And charm their ears with, O Brave Nell."
Some few years since a whimsical fellow attracted public notice by passing
strings over the skull of a horse, upon which he played as a fidler.
Another man, remarkably tall and thin, made a square violin, upon which he
played for several years, particularly within the centre arches of
Westminster Bridge.
To the eternal honour of the street-players of former times, it will ever
be remembered that the great Purcell condescended to set one of their
elegies to music. "Thomas Farmer, in 1684, lived in Martlet Court, in Bow
Street, Covent Garden. He was originally one of the London street waits,
and his elegy was set to music by Purcell." See Hawkins's History of
Music, Vol. V. p. 18.
The Guardian, No. 1, March 12, 1713, notices the famous John Gale. "There
was, I remember, some years ago, one John Gale, a fellow that played upon
a pipe, and diverted the multitude by dancing in a ring they made about
him, whose face became generally known, and the artists employed their
skill in delineating his features, because every man was judge of the
similitude of them."
A sort of guitar or cittern, and also the fiddle, were used in this
country so early as the year 1364, and may be seen upon a brass monumental
plate to the memory of Robert Braunche and his two wives, in the choir of
St. Margaret's Church at Lynn. The subject alluded to is the
representation of a Peacock feast, consisting of a long table with twelve
persons, besides musicians and other attendants. Engravings of this very
curious monument may be seen in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, vol. i. p.
115; in Carter's Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, vol. ii. plate 15; and in
Cotman's Norfolk Brasses, Pl. III. p. 4.
POSTSCRIPT. BY THE EDITOR.
The interest of the Plates in Mr. Smith's "Antient Topography of London,"
is much increased by numerous spirited little sketches of remarkable
characters well known in the streets of the Metropolis; several of whom
would have formed valuable additions, either to his work on the London
Beggars, intituled, "Vagabondiana," or the present volume: a few of these
shall be here noticed.
1. In the View of the Old Houses in London Wall, p. 63, the man with two
baskets is JOHN BRYSON, well known in London, particularly in rainy
weather. He had been an opulent fishmonger in Bloomsbury Market, but
became, by several losses, so reduced, that he latterly carried nothing
except nuts in his basket; but his custom to the last was to cry every
sort of fish from the turbot to the perriwinkle, never heeding the calls
of those unacquainted with his humour. In the same Plate is WILLIAM
CONWAY, whose cry of "Hard metal Spoons to sell or change," was familiar
to the inhabitants of London and its environs. This man's portrait is also
given by Mr. Smith in the present work, p. 63.
2. In the View of old Houses at the West end of Chancery Lane, p. 48, are
several figures drawn from the life. The woman with crutches represents
ANNE SIGGS. She was remarkable for her cleanliness, a rare quality for her
fraternity. Slander, from whose sting the most amiable persons are not
invulnerable, tempted this woman to spread a report of her being the
sister of the celebrated tragedian, Mrs. Siddons. From a work of singular
character by Mr. James Parry, it appears that she was a daughter of an
industrious breeches-maker at Dorking in Surrey. Another back view of this
woman occurs in the Plate of Duke Street, Smithfield, in p. 54.
3. The man without legs, in the same print, is SAMUEL HORSEY, well known
in Holborn, Fleet Street, and the Strand. In 1816 this man had been a
London beggar for thirty-one years. He had a most Herculean trunk, and his
weather-beaten ruddy face was the picture of health. Mr. Smith has given a
back view of this beggar in "Vagabondiana," p. 37, where are some further
anecdotes of him.
4. The dwarf hobbling up Chancery Lane was JEREMIAH DAVIES, a native of
Wales. He was frequently shewn at fairs, and supported a miserable
existence by performing sleight-of-hand tricks. He was also very strong,
and would lift a considerable weight, though not above three feet high.
5. The tall slender figure next to Davies was a Mr. CREUSE, a truly
singular man, who never begged of any one, but would not refuse money when
offered. He died in Middlesex Court, Drury Lane, and was attended to the
burial ground in that street by friends in two mourning coaches. It is
said he left money to a considerable amount behind him.
6. In the View of Houses in Sweedon's Passage, p. 42, is a portrait of
JOSEPH CLINCH, a noisy bow-legged ballad-singer, who was particularly
famous, about 1795, for his song upon Whittington and his Cat. He likewise
sold a coarse old woodcut of the animal, with its history and that of its
master printed in the back ground.
7. In the view of Winchester Street, p. 68, the person with the umbrella
went under the name of Count VERDION, well known to Book Collectors. This
person was a professor of languages; for several years frequented
Furnival's Inn Coffee-House; and was a member of a man's benefit society
held at the Genoa Arms public house, in Hays's Court, Newport Market. This
supposed Count eventually proved to be a female, and died of a cancer on
the 16th July 1802, at her lodgings in Charles Street, Hatton Garden, in
the 58th year of her age.
8. The short figure, carrying a little box, was sketched from the
celebrated corn-cutter, Mr. CORDEROY, who married a lady five feet six
inches high.
9. The figure beyond Mr. Corderoy, is that of the respectable Bishop of
St. POL DE LEON; of whom a portrait and memoir by Mr. Eardley Wilmot, will
be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1807.
10. In the view of Leadenhall Street, p. 52, the figure with a wig-box in
his hands represents JOSEPH WATKINS, born in 1739 at Richmond, in
Yorkshire; by trade a barber, and a man of retentive memory. He frequently
shaved Hogarth, whom he knew well, and said he was the last person in
London who wore a scarlet roquelaure. He had gathered blackberries on the
north side of the road now Oxford Street, and remembered the old
triangular gallows at Tyburn, as represented in the Execution Plate of the
Idle Apprentice.
11. The next figure is that of a draggle-tailed bawler of dying speeches,
horrid murders, elegies, &c.
12. The female in a morning jacket was sketched from the celebrated Mrs.
ELIZABETH CARTER, the learned translator of Epictetus. She died Feb. 19,
1806.
13. The clumsy figure in a white coat, holding a goose, was well known
about town as a vender of aged poultry.
14. The figure with a cocked hat, was a dealer in old iron, a man well
known at auctions of building materials, and was nicknamed by the brokers
as OLD RUSTY.
In 1815 Mr. Smith published a separate whole-length portrait of "Henry
Dinsdale, nicknamed Sir Harry Dimsdale, mayor of the mock Borough of
Garret, aged 38, anno 1800." It forms a good companion to his
Vagabondiana. Dinsdale was by trade a muffin-man. There is also a spirited
head of Dinsdale by Mr. Smith; and his portrait, in his court dress, is
copied into Hone's Every Day Book, vol. II. p. 829, where, by mistake, it
is called Sir Jeffrey Dunstan.
P. 9. Hand's Bun-house at Chelsea was pulled down April 18, 1839. See
Gentleman's Magazine for May 1839.
In p. 54 the cry of "Young Lambs to Sell" is noticed. It may be added,
that in Hone's Table Book, p. 396, is a spirited engraving of William
Liston, an old soldier, with one arm and one leg, who, in 1821, carried
about "Young Lambs to Sell." The _first_ crier of "Young Lambs to Sell,"
Mr. Hone says, "was a maimed sailor, and with him originated the
manufacture."
THE END.
J. B. Nichols and Son, Printers, 25, Parliament-street.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The remaining copies of this curious work having fallen into the hands
of Messrs. Nichols, it may now be had, with all the supplementary Plates
properly arranged, and with others added to them.
[2] A copy of the Life of Nollekens, enriched with the greater portion of
the autograph correspondence mentioned therein, and with numerous
drawings, portraits, and prints, is in the possession of Mr. Upcott; a
nearly similar copy is also in the library of William Knight, of
Canonbury-house, Islington, esq. who possesses by far the most complete
and valuable series of Mr. Smith's graphic and literary labours. His copy
of the History and Antiquities of Westminster, with numerous drawings of
St. Stephen's Chapel, taken by the Bucklers after the recent
conflagration, is at once unique and unrivalled.
[3] Mr. Smith went to breakfast with Mr. Kean, who met him in the Hall,
and asked him if he would like to see his lion; at the same moment
introduced him to the beast in the parlour, who fawned about him; Mr. Kean
became alarmed, and enticed the animal to the window, whilst Mr. Smith
went up to Mrs. Kean in the drawing-room, who, on hearing of the
circumstance, exclaimed, "Is Edmund mad?" Mr. Smith that morning made a
sketch of the lion in his den.
[4] This painted glass, 24 inches by 16, commemorates a very valuable
benefaction to the parish of Lambeth, by a person unknown, of a piece of
land, called, in 1504, Church Hope; in 1623, the Church Oziers, or Ozier
Hope; and in 1690, Pedlar's Acre; let in 1504 at 2_s._ 8_d._, and now
covered with houses and wharfs. Hope or Hoope signifies an isthmus or neck
of land projecting into the river, or an inclosed piece of low marsh land.
By the Churchwardens' Accounts, in 1607, it appears there was then a
picture of the Pedlar; but the present pane is thus noticed: "1703. March
6. Paid Mr. Price for a new glass Pedler L2." Nichols's Lambeth Parish,
pp. 30, 31, 39; Allen's Lambeth, p. 62; in both which works are also
representations of this painted glass. N.
[5] A view of this house is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for May
1801. Dr. Swift, in his Journal to Stella, Nov. 15, 1712, mentioning the
death of the Duke of Hamilton, in a duel with Lord Mahon, says, "the Duke
was helped towards the Cake-house by the Ring in Hyde Park (where the duel
was fought), and died on the grass before he could reach the house." N.
[6] This curious series of the Cries of London, drawn after the life, was
engraved on 74 copper-plates by Tempesta, after Laroon. It is noticed in
Hone's Table Book, vol. ii. p. 131, where twenty of these Cries not now
heard in the streets are described, and the following figures are copied.
1. "Buy a fine singing bird," vol. i. p. 510; 2. "Six pence a pound, fair
cherries;" and 3. "Troop every one!" the seller of hobby-horses, toys for
children, i. 686; 4. "Any New-River water here," p. 733; 5. "Fine Writing
Ink;" and 6. "Buy an Iron Fork, or a Spoon," vol. ii. p. 431. The Set of
Cries by Paul Sandby, consists of twelve. Both these have many real
portraits. (Gough's Brit. Top. i. 689.) N.
[7] It is much to be regretted that Mr. Smith never completed this work,
for which he had collected valuable materials, which we fear are
dispersed. N.
[8] Representations of these cressets are given in Douce's "Illustrations
of Shakspeare," and in "Hone's Every Day Book," i. 831. N.
[9] Stowe, edit. 1618, p. 160. These extracts from Stowe attracted the
notice of Mr. Hone, who has inserted them, with many suitable remarks, in
his "Every Day Book," i. 827. N.
[10] This work was very popular. The eighth edition bears this title:
"English Villanies, eight several times prest to Death by the Printers,
but still reviving again, are now the eighth time (as at the first)
discovered by Lanthorne and Candlelight, &c. Lond. 1618." N.
[11] Copied in Hone's "Table Book," vol. i. p. 733. N.
[12] Elizabeth, one of the learned and accomplished daughters of Sir
Anthony Cooke, Knt. was first married to Sir Thomas Hobye, (who died at
Paris in 1566.) She was afterwards married to John Lord Russell, (who died
in 1584); and having lived his widow 25 years, was buried at Bisham, June
2, 1609.--Nichols's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth, III. 132. N.
[13] Sir Thomas de Veil died Oct. 7, 1746, in his 63d year, and was buried
at Denham, Bucks. A good memoir of him will be found in Gent. Mag. for
1747, p. 562. N.
[14] Since this work was written, an excellent work on Ancient Furniture
has been published, the plates engraved by Henry Shaw, F.S.A. and
described by Sir Samuel R. Meyrick, K.H. F.S.A.
[15] This appears to have been an adaptation from--
Young Lambs to sell! Young Lambs to sell!
If I'd as much money as I could _tell_
I never would cry, Young Lambs to sell!
[16] The lovers of saloop can no longer enjoy their favourite beverage at
this the original shop, it having been closed as a coffee-house in June
1833, the proprietor having been unfortunately too fond of liquor more
spirituous than his own saloop. It is now a shoe-warehouse. N.
[17] Lockyer was the name of the first proprietor of the house.