Mechanical musical instrument invented for the 1851 London Great Exhibition by Henry Mayhew
He also coined “flaxen Saxon.” With other absurdities.
Tag: paris
An organ-grinder at Archway
Pleasures and treasures of the Edwardian street, by a descendant of Scottish banditti.
Hackney Brook restoration scheme
Iain Sinclair wrote of when “global warming rolls a warm sea [up] the course of the old Hackney Brook.” The flow’s going to be the other way. Let me explain.
The Singing Organ-Grinder’s top 10 pig songs
Sincerity meets spam.
Karl Marx condemns organ-grinders!
“Vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, mountebanks, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, maquereaux, brothel keepers, porters, literati, organ grinders, ragpickers, knife grinders, tinkers, beggars”
Two versions of Flann O’Brien’s “The workman’s friend”
With some relevant chunks of Henry Fielding.
Noisy buskers used to drown out the sounds of murder
But were organ-grinders really complicit in the 1817 killing at Rodez of the French politician Fualdès, as the translation suggests, or were the vielles hurdy-gurdies, as you’d expect?
I changed my name
“Barcelona, Londres y Tilligte” no cabía en la tarjeta de visita. / “Barcelona, London and Tilligte” didn’t fit on my business card.
The 1903 Paris-Madrid race that got away
A remarkable feat of memory from Arturo Barea’s autobiography.
