John Seed

Three Poems from PICTURES FROM MAYHEW: LONDON 1850

XVIII


It would take £1 to start me
well I could go to market &
buy my draught of eels a shilling
cheaper & I could afford to cut
my pieces a little bigger & people
where they gets used well comes again
don't you see I could have sold
more eels if I'd had ‘em today
& soup too why there’s four hours
of about the best time tonight that
I’m losing now cause I’ve nothing to
sell the man in the market can
give more than we can he gives
what’s called the lumping ha’p’orth that is
seven or eight pieces ah that I
dare say he does some of the
boys has told me he gives as
many as eight pieces & then the
more eels you biles up the richer
the liquor is & in our little
tin-pot way it’s like biling up
a great jint of meat in a
hocean of water in course we can’t
compete agin the man in the market
& so we’re being ruined entirely the
boys very often comes & asks me
if I’ve got a farden’s-worth of
heads the woman at Broadway they tells
me sells ‘em at four a farden
& a drop of liquor we chucks
‘em away there’s nothing to eat on
them but the boys will eat anything