London Labour and the London Poor (Penguin Classics)
Henry Mayhew
Language: English
Pages: 510
ISBN: 0140432418
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Unflinching reports of London’s poor from a prolific and influential English writer
London Labour and the London Poor originated in a series of articles, later published in four volumes, written for the Morning Chronicle in 1849 and 1850 when journalist Henry Mayhew was at the height of his career. Mayhew aimed simply to report the realities of the poor from a compassionate and practical outlook. This penetrating selection shows how well he succeeded: the underprivileged of London become extraordinarily and often shockingly alive.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Ground rosin and sulphur together. I light the tow, and with a knife and fork I set down to it and eat it, and exclaim, “This is my light supper.” There isn’t no holding the breath so much in this trick as in the others, but you must get it into the mouth any how. It’s like eating a hot beefsteak when you are ravenous. The rosin is apt to drop on the flesh and cause a long blister. You see, we have to eat it with the head up, full-faced; and really, without it’s seen, nobody would believe what I.
Very miserable to be poor, like me. I have sixty and tirteen years. I cannot march now but vith plenty of pains. Von doctor have give to me a letter for to present to de poor-house. He did give me my medicine for nothing—gratis. He is obliged, he is de doctor of de paroisse.* He is a very brave and honest man, dat doctor dare. At de poor-house day have give to me a bread and six sous on Friday of de veek dat is past, and told me to come de Vednesday next. But I am arrive dere too late, and dey.
Penalties for ‘valiant beggars and sturdy vagabonds’, i.e. vagrants who were ‘whole and mighty in body, and able to labour’. ‘wide-awake’: a soft felt hat with a broad brim and low crown, said to have been punningly named for not having a ‘nap’. axed: asked (slang). tramper’s house: a low lodging-house. the wheel: the treadwheel, one of the punishments associated with imprisonment with hard labour, was introduced in the second decade of the nineteenth century; Mayhew describes its operation.
Life, Trial, and Execution.’ In the most ‘popular’ murders, the street ‘papers’ are a mere recital from the newspapers, but somewhat more brief, when the suspected murderer is in custody; but when the murderer has not been apprehended, or is unknown, ‘then,’ said one Death-hunter, ‘we has our fling, and I’ve hit the mark a few chances that way. We had, at the werry least, half-a-dozen coves pulled up in the slums that we printed for the murder of “The Beautiful Eliza Grimwood,* in the.
Picked it up for that purpose, and then saw it was a cheque. It was on the London and County Bank, 21, Lombard-street. I took it there, and got 10s. for finding it. I went there in my rags, as I am now, and the cashier stared a bit at me. The cheque was drawn by a Mr Knibb, and payable to a Mr Cox. I did think I should have got the odd 15s. though.’ Between the London and St Katherine’s Docks and Rosemary Lane, there is a large district interlaced with narrow lanes, courts, and alleys ramifying.