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Poetry, Verse and Rhymes; Games. 0805: Anon., London Cries

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Introductory essay

The cries of various tradesmen and street-vendors had become the subject of chapbooks by the fifteenth century, according to Carpenter 1984: 135. By the eighteenth century, the cries had begun to form the subject of books for children, the Newbery firm publishing several versions for instance. The tradition continued at least until the late nineteenth century, as this edition in the Hockliffe Collection demonstrates. The publisher Walker and Sons, of Otley in West Yorkshire before the firm's move to London, also produced New London Cries in c.1820: see 0818-0819.

The format of these books was always fairly standard. A wood-cut or engraving of the street-vendor was accompanied by a short verse describing his or her occupation, and including his or her distinctive advertising call: 'ALl round and sound, my Ripe Kentish Cherries', for example (p.3). Besides the cherry-seller, the other trades featuring here are sellers of brooms, crockery, mackerel and hot mutton dumplings, and a dustman, whose trade was the removal of household waste.