The cries of London : exhibiting several of the itinerant traders of antient and modern times . cats meatman, nor w^ould he ever pass any of them without distributinghis broken gingerbread and bits of biscuit: he was particularlykind to one man, who may yet be within the recollection ofmany persons; he was short in stature carried a wallet, andwore a red cap, and would begin his walk through MaysBuildings at six in the evening and arrive safely by nine atBedford Bury. In his progress he would repeat the song of Taffy was a Welchman, upon an average, eight times withinan hour; and, in order tha
The cries of London : exhibiting several of the itinerant traders of antient and modern times . cats meatman, nor w^ould he ever pass any of them without distributinghis broken gingerbread and bits of biscuit: he was particularlykind to one man, who may yet be within the recollection ofmany persons; he was short in stature carried a wallet, andwore a red cap, and would begin his walk through MaysBuildings at six in the evening and arrive safely by nine atBedford Bury. In his progress he would repeat the song of Taffy was a Welchman, upon an average, eight times withinan hour; and, in order that his singing might be of a piecewith his crawling movements, liis lengthened tones were madeto pass through his nose in so inarticulate a manner as fre-quently to induce boys to shake him from a supposed slumber. 72 His name was Richard Richards, but from his extreme slothhe was nicknamed by his broken-biscuit benefactor Mr. Step-an-hour. The money made by the gingerbread heroes ishardly credible; however, it is of little use, as the profits aregenerally spent in gin and hot suppers. CHICKWEED AND XXIV. The subject of this Plate is George Smith, a Brush-maker out of employ, in consequence of frequent visi-tations of the rheumatism. This man, finding afflictionincrease upon him in so great a degree as to renderhim incapable of pursuing his usual occupation, determinedon selling chickweed, an article easily procured withoutmoney, and for which there is a certainty of meeting at leastone customer in almost every street, as there are scarcelythree houses together mthout their singing birds. After a very short trial of his new calling, he found he hadno occasion to cry his chickweed, for that if he only stoodwith it before the house, so that the birds could see it, thenoise they made was sufficient, as they generally attracted thenotice of some one of the family, who soon perceived that thelittle songsters were chirping at the chickweed man. Thiscan readily be
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