Buy oranges!—No better sold,—
New brought in Spanish ships;
As yellow bright as minted gold,
As sweet as ladies’ lips.
Come, maidens, buy; nor judge my fruit
From beauty’s bait—the skin;
Nor think, like fops, with gaudy suit,
They’re dull and crude within.
Buy oranges!
Buy oranges!—Buy courtiers, pray,
And as ye drain their juice,
Then, cast the poor outside away,
A thing that’s served its use;
Why, courtier, pause; this truth translate,
Imprinted in the rind;
However gay the courtier’s state,
’Tis yet of orange kind.
Buy oranges!
Buy oranges!—Coquetting fair,—
As sweet reproach come buy;
And, as the fruit ye slice and share,
Remember with a sigh—
A heart divided needs must cast
The faith which is its soul;
If, maidens, ye would have it last,
Give none—if not the whole.
Buy oranges!
(The by-standers all applaud.)

The orange-woman who carried the golden fruit through every street and alley, with the musical cry of:—“Fine Oranges and Lemons,” lasted for a century or two. Then the orange-woman became, as everything else became, a more prosaic person as she approached our own times. She was a barrow-woman at the end of the last century: and Porson has thus described her:—

“As I walked through the Strand, so cheerful and gay,
I met a young girl a-wheeling a barrow;
‘Fine fruit, sir,’ says she, ‘and a bill of the play.’”

The transformation was the same with the strawberry and cherry-women.

From the “Collection of Ancient Songs and Ballads, written on various subjects, and printed between the years MDLX. and MDCC.” in the British Museum, and now known as the Roxburghe Ballads, we take the ballad of:—

THE CRIES OF LONDON.

Tune—The Merry Christ-church Bells.

Hark! how the cries in every street
Make lanes and allies ring:
With their goods and ware, both nice and rare,
All in a pleasant lofty strain;
Come buy my gudgeons fine and new.
Old cloaths to change for earthen ware,
Come taste and try before you buy,
Here’s dainty poplin pears.
Diddle, diddle, diddle dumplins, ho!
With walnuts nice and brown.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Any old cloaths, suits, or coats.
Come buy my singing birds.
Oranges or lemons. Newcastle salmon.
Come buy my ropes of onions, ho!
Come buy my sand, fine silver sand.
Two bunches a penny, turnips, ho!
I’ll change you pins for coney-skins.
Maids, do you want any milk below?
Here’s an express from Admiral Hawke,
The Admiral of renown.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.

Maids, have you any kitchen stuff?
Will you buy fine artichoaks?
Come buy my brooms to sweep your rooms.
Will you buy my white-heart cabbages, ho!
Come buy my nuts, my fine small nuts,
Two cans a penny, crack and try.
Here’s cherries round, and very sound.
Maids, shall I sweep your chimnies high?
Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, goes the tinker’s pan,
With a merry cheerful sound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Here’s fine herrings, eight a groat.
Hot codlins, pies and tarts.
New mackerel I have to sell.
Come buy my Wellfleet oysters, ho!
Come buy my whitings fine and new.
Wives, shall I mend your husbands’ horns?
I’ll grind your knives to please your wives,
And very nicely cut your corns.
Maids, have you any hair to sell.
Either flaxen, black, or brown?
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Work for a cooper, maids give ear,
I’ll hoop your tubs and pails.
Come Nell and Sue, and buy my blue.
Maids, have you any chairs to mend?
Here’s hot spiced-gingerbread of the best,
Come taste and try before you buy.
Here’s elder-buds to purge your bloods.
But black your shoes is all the cry.
Here’s hot rice milk, and barley broth.
Plumb-pudding a groat a pound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.

Here’s fine rosemary, sage, and thyme.
Come buy my ground ivy.
Here’s fatherfew, gilliflowers and rue.
Come buy my knotted marjorum, ho!
Come buy my mint, my fine green mint.
Here’s fine lavender for your cloaths.
Here’s parsley and winter-savory.
And heart’s-ease which all do choose.
Here’s balm and hissop, and cinquefoil,
All fine herbs, it is well known.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Here’s pennyroyal and marygolds.
Come buy my nettle-tops.
Here’s water-cresses and scurvy-grass.
Come buy my sage of virtue, ho!
Come buy my wormwood and mugwort.
Here’s all fine herbs of every sort.
Here’s southernwood, that’s very good,
Dandelion and houseleek.
Here’s dragon’s-tongue and wood-sorrel.
With bear’s-foot and horehound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Here’s green coleworts and brocoli.
Come buy my radishes.
Here’s fine savoys, and ripe hautboys.
Come buy my young green hastings, ho!
Come buy my beans, right Windsor beans.
Two pence a bunch young carrots, ho!
Here’s fine nosegays, ripe strawberries.
With ready picked salad, also.
Here’s collyflowers and asparagus.
New prunes two-pence a pound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.

Here’s cucumbers, spinnage, and French beans.
Come buy my nice sallery.
Here’s parsnips and fine leeks.
Come buy my potatoes, ho!
Come buy my plumbs, and fine ripe plumbs.
A groat a pound, ripe filberts, ho!
Here’s corn-poppies and mulberries.
Gooseberries and currants also.
Fine nectarines, peaches, and apricots.
New rice two-pence a pound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Buy a rabbit, wild duck, or fat goose.
Come buy a choice fat fowl.
Plovers, teal, or widgeons, come buy my pigeons.
Maids, do you want any small coal?
Come buy my shrimps, my fine new shrimps,
Two pots a penny, taste and try.
Here’s fine saloop, both hot and good.
But Yorkshire muffins is the cry.
Here’s trotters, calf’s feet, and fine tripes.
Barrel figs, three-pence a pound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.
Here’s new-laid eggs for ten a groat.
Come buy water’d cod.
Here’s plaice and dabs, lobsters and crabs.
Come buy my maids, and flounders, ho!
Come buy my pike, my fine live pike.
Two-pence a hundred cockles, ho!
Shads, eels, and sprats. Lights for your cats.
With haddocks, perch, and tench also.
Here’s carp and tench, mullets and smelts.
Butter sixpence a pound.
Let none despise the merry, merry cries
Of famous London town.

Printed and sold at the Printing-office in Bow-church-yard, London.

“Holloway cheese-cakes” was once one of the London cries; they were sold by a man on horseback; and in “Jack Drum’s Entertainment,” a Comedy, 1601, in a random song, the festive character of this district is denoted:—