Soho Bazaar, The.—The first of its kind in England, was established by John Trotter, Esq., to whose family it still belongs. The building covers a space of 300 feet by 150, and extends from the Square to Dean Street on the one hand, and to Oxford Street on the other. The bazaar occupies two floors, and has counter accommodation for upwards of 160 tenants. The two principal rooms in the building are about ninety feet long, and in them the visitor may find almost every trade represented. One large room is set apart for the sale of books, another for furniture, and another for birds, cages, &c.; and at one end of the latter room is a large recess, occupied with a rustic aviary, through which runs a stream of water. Connected with the bazaar are offices for the registration of governesses and the hire of servants, &c.; and the scene that here presents itself during business hours is one well worthy of a visit. The bazaar has been frequently patronised by royalty.
The Soho Bazaar.
Ladies in furs, and gemmen in spurs,
Who lollop and lounge about all day:
The Bazaar in Soho is completely the go—
Walk into the shop of Grimaldi!
Come from afar, here’s the Bazaar!—
But if you won’t deal with us, stay where you are.
Here’s rouge to give grace to an old woman’s face,
Trowsers of check for a sailor;
Here’s a cold ice, if you pay for it twice,
And here’s a hot goose for a tailor.
Soho Bazaar, come from afar:
Sing ri fal de riddle, and tal de ral la.
Here’s a cock’d hat, or an opera flat—
Here’s a broad brim for a Quaker;
Here’s a white wig for a Chancery prig,
And here’s a light weight for a baker.
Soho Bazaar, &c.
A fringed parasol, or a toad-in-the-hole.
A box of japan to hold backy;
Here’s a relief for a widow in grief—
A quartern of Hodge’s jacky.
Soho Bazaar, &c.
Here, long enough, is a lottery puff
(I was half-drunk when it caught me);
It promised, my eyes! what a capital prize:
And here’s all the rhino it brought me.
Soho Bazaar, &c.
“Put it down to the bill,” is the fountain of ill
This has the shopkeepers undone;
Bazaars never trust—so down with your dust,
And help us to diddle all London.
Soho Bazaar, &c.
Something Short.—A drop of summat short. A glass of spirits, neat, unmixed—straight!
Some Tune.—A large amount.
Spavined.—Damaged, injured.
Speeling.—Gambling generally.
Spellken.—A playhouse:—Lord Byron in his Don Juan, Canto xi., stanza 19, uses the word in that sense, and then by way of a foot note, adds—
The advance of science and of language has rendered it unnecessary to translate the above good and true English, spoken in its original purity by the select nobility and their patrons. The following is a stanza of a song which was very popular, at least in my early days:—
On the high toby-spice flash the muzzle,
In spite of each gallows old scout:
If you at the spellken can’t hustle,
You’ll be hobbled in making a clout.
Then your Blowing will wax gallows haughty
When she hears of your scaly mistake,
She’ll surely turn snitch for the forty,
That her Jack may be regular weight.
If there be any gem’men so ignorant as to require a translation, I refer him to my old friend and corporeal pastor and master, John Jackson, Esq., Professor of Pugilism; who, I trust, still retains the strength and symmetry of his model of a form, together with his good humour, and athletic as well as mental accomplishments.