2-982-501 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

A Sketch in the Streets of London, 1858. Engraving '...from a Sketch of M. Louis Bulewski...of a very curious specimen of English nomads...We do not know how better to describe their general costume and appearance than by saying that it is akin to that with which Mr. Dickens has invested Barnaby Budge, plus a certain amount of unwashedness...they bear about them some marks of gipsy origin in their bright dark eyes and long elf locks...It is believed that these particular street Arabs of London are known under the generic name of "birds-nest-sellers;" and the owl's nest in the Sketch before us, which is arranged with an almost artistic effort, would seem to bear out the designation...they deal in birds' nests of every kind, snakes, slow-worms, adders, lizards, hedgehogs, frogs, and snails...They also gather bulrushes, which they sell to bird-stuffers...It is stated that snakes sell for five shillings a pound...Frogs fetch sixpence and a shilling a dozen, and it is gravely asserted are regularly and constantly purchased by Frenchmen for culinary purposes; and one itinerant vender of these quasi comestibles is said to have supplied the keeper of a French hotel in Leicester-square regularly with three dozen a week during the season'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.