The majority were illustrated—if, indeed, any can be called illustrated—for the woodcuts were generally served out with a charming impartiality, and without the slightest regard to the subject of the ballad. What previous work these blocks had served, goodness only knows; they were probably bought at trade sales, and had illustrated books that were out of date or unsaleable. They vary from the sixteenth century to Bewick, some of whose works are occasionally met with; but, taking them as a whole, we must fain confess that art as applied to these Ballads was at its very lowest. Their literary merit is not great—but what can you expect for half-a-crown? which was the price which Jemmy Catnach,[1] of Monmouth Court, Seven Dials, used to pay for their production. Catnach issued a large number from his press (in fact, his successor, Fortey, advertised that he had four thousand different sorts for sale), and his name is used as a “household word” to designate this class of Ballad. But, in fact, he only enjoyed the largest share of the London trade, whilst the Provinces were practically independent—Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Preston, Hull, Sheffield, Durham, etc., had their own ballad-mongers, who wrote somewhat after the manner of the author of “The Bard of Seven Dials.”

“And it’s my plan, that some great man
Dies with a broken head, Sirs,
Vith a bewail, I does detail
His death ’afore e’s dead, Sirs.
And while his friends and foes contends,
They all my papers buy, Sirs,
Yes, vithout doubt, I sells ’em out,
’Cos there my talent lies, Sirs.”

The Ballad singers and vendors made money rapidly over any event which took the popular fancy—a good blood-curdling murder being very profitable; and the business required very little capital, even that being speedily turned over. Generally, the singers worked singlehanded, but sometimes two would join, and then the Ballad took an antiphonal form, which must have relieved them very much, and the crowd which gathered round them was the surest proof that their vocal efforts were appreciated.

They are gone—probably irrevocably—but a trace of the vendor still lingers amongst us. One or two still remain about Gray’s Inn Road, Farringdon Road, and other neighbourhoods; but I venture to say, as they drop out, they will find no successors. You may know them, if ever lucky enough to meet with one, by their canvas screens, on which are pinned the ballads—identical with that immortal screen of which Mr. Silas Wegg (in Dickens’s “Our Mutual Friend”) was the proud proprietor; but these modern Ballads are mostly reproductions of Music Hall songs, and have very little in common with those about which I write.

I have taken the first fifty years of this century, when this style of Street Ballad was at its best, but I have liberally interpreted my fifty years, by extending its margin by a year or two either way—thus, I include the Mutiny at the Nore in 1798, and the Great Exhibition of 1851, and I have selected those that bear on most, and elucidate best, the social manners and customs of that period.

JOHN ASHTON.

CONTENTS.

SOCIAL.
PAGE
Sale of a Wife[1]
A Woman never knows when her Day’s Work’s done[5]
The Treats of London[9]
The Income Tax[12]
Striking Times[17]
The Mechanic’s Appeal to the Public[21]
Women’s Sayings[24]
Bob Logic’s Description of the New Brighton Diligence for Inside Passengers only[31]
Paper’d-up Hair[34]
I likes a Drop of Good Beer[36]
The Snob and the Bottle[38]
Rory O’More turned Teetotal[42]
Hurrah for Father Mathew’s Mill[45]
How Five and Twenty Shillings were expended in a Week[48]
The Way to live[52]
The Cries of London[55]
The Honest Policeman of Mitcham[59]
Cookey Darling[62]
I should like to be a Policeman[64]
Bendigo, Champion of England[67]
The Bold Irish Yankey Benicia Boy[71]
I’m a Gent[75]
Jullien’s Grand Polka[77]
Margate Hoy[80]
Crystal Palace[82]
HUMOROUS.
Sheep’s Eyes for Ever[85]
Cab, Cab, Cab[88]
The Rush Light[91]
If I had a Donkey wot wouldn’t go[94]
Shovel and Broom[96]
Vilikins and his Dinah[98]
The Exciseman Outwitted[101]
Giles Scroggin’s Ghost[103]
The Strange Man[105]
A Sight for a Father[108]
Humours of Bartlemy Fair[111]
Georgy Barnwell[116]
Jonathan Brown[119]
Wery Pekooliar, or the Lisping Lovers[121]
The Babes in the Wood[124]
Kate’s Young Man[128]
He was such a Nice Young Man[131]
Mrs. Monday[135]
All to astonish the Browns[138]
The Ratcatcher’s Daughter[142]
Hot Codlings[145]
The Wonderful Crocodile[147]
The Thief’s Arm[150]
Cork Leg[153]
The One Horse Chay[156]
The Literary Dustman[160]
The Bill Sticker[164]
Things I don’t like to see[167]
The Barrel of Pork[170]
All Round my Hat[173]
Here’s the Man a-coming![175]
The Nobby Head of Hair[177]
Miss Bailey’s Ghost[180]
Humphrey Duggins[182]
COUNTRY.
The Honest Ploughman, or 90 Years Ago[184]
The New Fashioned Farmer[188]
Present Times, or Eight Shillings a Week[192]
Jig, Jig, to the Hirings[195]
Country Statutes[199]
The Bold Poacher[202]
Death of Poor Bill Brown[204]
The Jolly Angler[206]
The Humours of the Races[209]
The Bonny Grey[212]
The King and West Countryman[213]
Hodge in London[215]
SEA.
Death of Parker[218]
The Battle of Boulogne[221]
Victory[223]
The Battle of Navarino[225]
Duke William’s Frolic[228]
The King and the Sailor[232]
Jack Binnacle and Queen Victoria[234]
Sweet William[238]
The Poor Smuggler’s Boy[240]
The Smuggler’s Bride[242]
The Female Smuggler[245]
Jack returned from Sea[248]
The Jolly Roving Tar[251]
Young Henry of the Raging Main[253]
Jack Robinson[256]
Bold William Taylor[259]
Ratcliffe Highway in 1842[262]
The Greenland Whale Fishery[265]
The New York Trader[268]
THE QUEEN.
Viva Victoria[271]
Queen Victoria[273]
The Queen’s Marriage[276]
A New Song on the Birth of the Prince of Wales[279]
The Queen and the Coal Exchange[281]
Crystal Palace[284]
Queen’s Visit to France[287]
The Queen’s Dream[290]
Lovely Albert[294]
HISTORICAL.
Brave Nelson[298]
Lord Nelson[300]
Battle of Waterloo[303]
King George IV.’s Welcome to Scotland[305]
The Death of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P.[308]
Death of Wellington[311]
POLITICAL.
The Chronicles of the Pope[313]
The Happy Reform[318]
The Operatives’ March[321]
A New Alphabetical Song on the Corn Law Bill[322]
A New Song on the Corn Bill[327]
The Crisis[331]
Chartists are coming[335]
The Song of the Lower Classes[338]
A New Hunting Song[340]
MISCELLANEOUS.
The Wonderful Wonders of Town[343]
Law[346]
Jim Crow[349]
The Workhouse Boy[351]
The Wild Rover[353]
The Diggins, O![355]
Botany Bay[359]
Van Dieman’s Land[361]
Farewell to Judges and Juries[364]
My Bonny Black Bess[366]
Life of the Mannings[368]
The Life and Trial of Palmer[371]
Mary Arnold, the Female Monster[374]
The Undertaker’s Club[377]
A Tidy Suit for all that[379]
The Ragged Coat[382]
The Collier Swell[385]
The London Merchant[388]
Riley’s Farewell[390]
Young William[392]
The Broken Hearted Gardener[394]
Boxing Day in 1847[396]
St. James’s and St. Giles’s[399]
The Three Butchers[403]