From a history of Cries of London book -
"This celebrated vendor of gingerbread, from his eccentricity of character, and extensive dealings in his particular way, was always hailed as the King of itinerant tradesmen. He was a constant attendant in the crowd at all metropolitan fairs, mob meetings. Lord Mayor's shows, public, executions, and all other holiday and festive gatherings!
In his person he was tall, well made, and his features handsome. He affected to dress like a person of rank; white and gold lace suit of clothes, lace ruffled shirt, laced hat and feather, white stockings, with the addition of a white apron. Among his harangues to gain customers, take the following piece as a fair sample of the whole :—
"Mary, Mary, where are you now Mary? I live, when at home, at the
second house in Litttle diddy-ball-street, two steps under ground, with a
wiscum, riscum, and a why-not. Walk in, ladies and gentlemen; my shop is on the
second-floor backwards, with a brass knocker on the door, and steel steps
before it. Here is your nice gingerbread, it will melt in your mouth like a
red-hot brickbat, and rumble in your inside like Punch and his
wheelbarrow."
He always finished his address by singing this fag end of some popular ballad :—
He always finished his address by singing this fag end of some popular ballad :—
Hence arose his nickname "Tiddy-Doll." In Hogarth's print of
the "Idle 'Prentice Executed At Tyburn." Tiddy-Doll is seen holding
up a gingerbread cake with his left hand, his right hand within his coat, to
imply that he is speaking the truth from his heart, while describing the
superiority of his wares over those of any other vendor in the fair! while he
still anxiously enquires :—
"Mary, Mary, where are you now
Mary?"
His proper name was Ford, and so well known was he that, on his once
being missed for a week from his usual stand in the Haymarket, on the occason
of a visit which he paid to a country fair, a ''Catch-penny" account of
his alleged murder was printed, and sold in the streets by thousands.
Allusions to Tiddy-Doll, and sayings derived from him have reached to
our own time, thus, we still say to an over-dressed person— "You are as
tawdry as Diddy-doll," "You are quite Tiddy-doll, you look as fine as
Tiddy-doll," he or she is said to be "all Tiddy-doll," &c.
Hindley, Charles. A History of
the Cries of London: Ancient and Modern.
London: 1881
Hogarth's Tiddy-Doll
"A boy... is earnestly watching the motions of a vender of
gingerbread, at that time well known by the name of Tiddy-Doll, from the
burthen of the song he usually sang in commendation of his cakes."
The Works of William Hogarth.
London: 1812
Napoleon as Tiddy-Doll
“Tiddy-Doll, the great French gingerbread-baker [Napoleon]; drawing out a new
batch of kings - his man, Hopping Talley [Talleyrand], mixing up the dough” by James Gillray 1806 in the Library of
Congress online print collection.
The Cries of London, for the Instruction and amusement of good children. Decorated with wood-cuts from life. York: J. Kendrew, c1820?
Gingerbread posts HERE
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Researching Food History HOME
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment