Description
This book is about the history of the cries of London. It covers the time period from Chaucer to the Victorian era and uses illustrations to illustrate its points. The author, Charles Hindley, is very enthusiastic about the printing press and uses examples from different periods to illustrate his points. He focuses on the vendors and their merchandise, and how it has changed over time.
Charles Hindley (d.1893) wrote and edited many books on British popular literature and culture, including Curiosities of Street Literature (1871), Tavern Anecdotes and Sayings (1875) and The History of the Catnach Press (1886, also reissued in this series). This 1881 study traces the distinctive 'cries' of street traders in London from the time of Chaucer to the Victorian period and maintains Hindley's characteristic focus on people rather than mere facts. His use of nearly two hundred woodcuts, including many by Bewick, and his discussion of them at the beginning of the text, testifies to his enthusiasm for the printing press. Using evidence from 'broadsides, books or engravings', music and drama, Hindley vividly portrays the sights and sounds of the streets of London from many different periods, describing the vendors to be found in particular locations, and merchandise from cherries to ballad-sheets, shellfish to lavender, and scissors to ink.
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