2056.—Old Shoes for some Brooms!details

“Four for sixpence, mackerel!” (Fig. 2058) was the cry of a fish-wife, such as we still hear every day [in 1840s London]. “Old shoes for some brooms!” (Fig. 2057) indicated a state of things when street-barter was much more extensively practised than at present, though the custom has by no means disappeared. If we do not so often as of old hear the cry of “Pots to mend!” (Fig. 2056), and if the tinker has ceased to be the popular personage he once was, the fraternity has not yet wholly gone out; his utility has preserved him. (p. 211)