Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century LondonLondon in the 18th century was the greatest city in the world. It was a magnet that drew men and women from the rest of England in huge numbers. For a few the streets were paved with gold, but for the majority it was a harsh world with little guarantee of money or food. For the poor and destitute, London's streets offered little more than the barest living. Yet men, women and children found a great variety of ways to eke out their existence, sweeping roads, selling matches, singing ballads and performing all sorts of menial labor. Many of these activities, apart from the direct begging of the disabled, depended on an appeal to charity, but one often mixed with threats and promises. Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London provides a remarkable insight into the lives of Londoners, for all of whom the demands of charity and begging were part of their everyday world. |
Contents
| 1 | |
2 Sleeping Rough | 23 |
3 Pauper Professions | 49 |
4 Menaces and Promises | 75 |
5 The Rhetoric of Rags | 97 |
6 Begging from the Parish | 125 |
7 Charity in Stone | 151 |
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apprentices April arrested Astronomical Observations ballad ballad-singers beggarly poor beggars begging Black boys Bridewell Bridewell and Bethlem Canaletto casual century Charing Cross charity churchwardens City of London claimed clothes CLRO Court of Governors Cries December degrees Fahrenheit depicted disabled door Early Modern eighteenth eighteenth-century London Elizabeth England Francis Place frequently George History Hitchcock Hogarth Hospital house of correction inmates James January John Gay Jonathan Justice Room Kearney labour Lane link-boys literary living lodging Lord Mayor Mary Mendicity Metropolis Ned Ward Nevil Maskelyne Newgate night Observatory at Greenwich Old Bailey Oxford Patrick Kearney Paul Paul Sandby pauper pence poverty prisoners prostitution Rag Fair ragged recorded relief rogue literature Royal Observatory Sarah servants settlement Shesgreen shillings Smith social Society St Dionis Backchurch streets of London temperature Thomas Trivia vagrants Ward watchhouse Westminster Coroner's Inquest William William Hogarth woman women workhouse