nner of his calling them, acquired the name of Golly Molly
Puff; by this singularity he became a noted character, and at almost
every period some such peculiar itinerant has become remarkable in the
streets of London. Some years back, a poor wretched being who dealt in
shreds and patches, used to walk about, inviting people by the following
lines--

"Linen, woollen, and leather,
Bring 'em out altogether."

~~375~~~ Another, a sleek-headed whimsical old man, appeared, who was
commonly called the Wooden Poet, from his carrying wooden ware, which
was slung in a basket round his neck, and who chaunted a kind of song in
doggerel rhyme, somewhat similar to the following--

"Come, come, my worthy soul,
Will you buy a wooden bowl?
I am just come from the Borough,
Will you buy a pudding stirrer.
I hope I am not too soon,
For you to buy a wooden spoon.
I've come quick as I was able,
Thinking you might want a ladle,
And if I'm not too late,
Buy a trencher or wood plate.
Or if not it's no great matter,
So you take a wooden platter.
It may help us both to dinner,
If you'll buy a wooden skimmer.
Come, neighbours, don't be shy, for I deal just and fair,
Come, quickly come and buy, all sorts of wooden ware."

"Very well, indeed, for a wooden poet," exclaimed Bois; "he certainly
deserved custom at all events: his rivals, Walter Scott or Lord Byron,
would have turned such a poetical effusion to some account--it would
have been dramatized--Murray, Longman, &c. would have been all in a
bustle, puffing, blowing, and advertising. We should have had piracies,
Chancery injunctions, and the d------1 to pay; but alas! it makes all
the difference whether a poet is fashionable and popular or not."{1}

1 Lord Byron, in his preface to a recent publication,
complains that among other black arts resorted to, for the
purpose of injuring his fair fame, he has been accused of
receiving considerable sums for writing poetical puffs for
Warren's blacking. We can safely acquit his Lordship of this
charge, as well as of plagiarism from the poems he alludes
to; but it has led to a curious rencontre between the
blacking-laureat, and his patron the vender of the shin-ing
jet; and after considerable black-guardism between the