192 coAonixG. 



claiming the superiority of their various wares ; 

 pocket-knives with ten blades, a cork-screw, 

 button-hook, punch, picker, lancet, gimlet, gun- 

 screw, and a saw ; trouser-straps, four pairs a 

 shilling; silver watch-guards — " cheap, cheap, 

 very cheap;" patent pens and (n)ever-poiuted 

 pencils, twelve a shilling ; bandana handker- 

 chiefs, that had never seen foreign parts, to be 

 given away for an old hat ; London sparrows, 

 as the coachmakers would say, " yellow bodies," 

 were passed off as canaries, though " their wood 

 notes wild" had never been heard out of the 

 sound of Bow Bells; ill-shaven curs, " shaven 

 and shorn," and looking like the priest in the 

 child's story, " all forlorn," painted, powdered, 

 and decked with blue ribbons, assumed the 

 form of French poodles who *'' did everything 

 but speak;" members of the Society for the 

 Diffusion of Knowledge were hawking literature 

 at the lowest rate imaginable — " H'annuals at 

 the small charge of one shilling; the h'engra- 

 ings, to h'any h'amateur, worth double the 

 money ;" the " Prophetic Almanack" neatly 

 bound, one penny; " a yard and a half of songs 

 for a half-penny;" and " Larks in London," 

 pictorially illustrated, for one shilling. 



The remainder of the group consisting of 



