THE ORIGIN OF THE LONDON COSTERMONGERS. [To THE EDITOR Or
THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,--I am a reader of your valued periodical. In Mr. A. R. Hope-Moncrieff's book London, p. 247, there is an allusion to the costermongers of London and their connexion with Spain. About fifteen years .ago the similarity of these people to the Spanish gipsy was spoken of by Mr. Will Jenkins, an English decorative artist, then in our employ, and recently I have talked with one of the professors in Harvard University about the same subject. In my youth I resided in London, and recall the picturesque costume. The .men wore corduroy trousers, tight at the knee and belled at the ankle, and a row of round buttons or pearls close together down each outside seam, and around the neck they tied a coloured kerchief. The. women were given to wide-brimmed hats with large ostrich plumes— purple, if my memory serves me eorrectly. The opulent among the costermongers possessed a donkey and cart They were a
peculiar class. They were quite set off from the rest of. the East Londoners, and they used a slang in their conversation quite their own, or, at least,- it was difficult to understand, although I was familiar with much of the Cockney dialect. The Mexican of to-day has several points similar to the old London costermonger as I remember him, except as to headgear. I shall be extremely grateful for any information you can gise me on this interesting subject.—I am. Sir, &c.,
98 Avon Hill Street, Cambridge, Mass. SIDNEY A. Klemm
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