The True History of Tom & Jerry:
or, Life in London

THE

TRUE HISTORY

OF

TOM & JERRY:

OR,

BILLY WATERS.

One notable effect of “Life in London,” particularly in its dramatised form must be recorded. It broke the heart of poor Billy Waters, the one-legged musical negro, who died in St. Giles’s workhouse, whispering with his ebbing breath, a mild anathema, which sounded very much like: “Cuss him, dam Tom—meē—Tom—meē Jerry!”

Poor Billy endeavoured, up to the period of his last illness, to obtain for a wife and two children what he termed, “An honest living by scraping de cat-gut!” by which he originally collected considerable sums of money at the West-end of the town, where his ribbon-decked cocked hat and feathers, with the grin on his countenance, and sudden turn and kick out of his wooden limb, and other antics and efforts to please, excited much mirth and attention, and were well rewarded from the pockets of John Bull.

THE
True History
OF
TOM AND JERRY;
OR,
The Day and Night Scenes,
OF
LIFE IN LONDON

From the START to the FINISH!
With a Key to the Persons and Places,
Together with a Vocabulary and Glossary
of the
Flash and Slang Terms,
occuring in the course of the work.


BY
CHARLES HINDLEY,
Editor of “The Old Book Collector’s Miscellany; or, a Collection of Readable Reprints
of Literary Rarities” “Works of John Taylor—the Water Poet,” “The Roxburghe
Ballads,” “The History of the Catnach Press,” “The Curiosities of
Street Literature,” “The Book of Ready Made Speeches,”
“Life and Times of James Catnach, late of the
Seven Dials, Ballad Monger,” “Tavern
Anecdotes and Sayings,” etc.


London:
CHARLES HINDLEY, 41, Booksellers’ Row, St. Clement Danes,
Strand, W.C.

INTRODUCTION.

hat Pierce Egan’s Life in London, or Tom and Jerry, was a success, we have plenty of printed evidence and ‘hearsay’! to prove. And we also know—beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the news of its metropolitan fame went forth with almost telegraphic speed throughout the provinces:—From John o’Groat’s House to the Land’s End!—From Dan to Beersheba!—and back again! With Life in London, its language became the language of the day; drawing-rooms were turned into chaffing cribs, and rank and beauty learned to patter flash ad nauseam.

The original work went through several editions in a very short time, and the plates, by the Brothers Cruikshank, were considered so full of amusement that they were transferred to a variety of articles without any loss of time. The Lady taking her gunpowder was enabled to amuse her visitors with the adventures of Tom and Jerry on her highly-finished tea-tray. The lovers of Irish Blackguard experienced a double zest in taking a pinch from a box, the lid of which exhibited the laughable phiz of the eccentric Bob Logic. The country folks were delighted with the handkerchief which displayed Tom getting the best of a Charley, and Dusty Bob and Black Sal “all happiness!” The Female of Quality felt interested with the lively scene of the light fantastic toe at Almack’s, when playing with her elegant fan; and the Connoisseur, with a smile of satisfaction on his countenance, contemplated his screen, on which were displayed the motley groups of high and low characters continually on the move in the metropolis.

Everybody talked of Tom and Jerry, and crowds rushed to the theatres where the uproarious adventures of these popular personages were represented in a dramatic form. Mr. W. T. Moncrieff’s adaptation brought out at the Adelphi Theatre, November 26th, 1821:—which, “by-the way,” was by far the best of the whole bunch!—ran uninterruptedly through two seasons. It then appeared in rapid succession at the Theatres all over England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; likewise in most of the United States of America, the West Indies, &c.

But although Life in London, or, Tom and Jerry did make our grandfathers so very—very! merry in the first quarter of the Nineteenth Century, we are constrained to admit; that it is a terrible dull and tedious work to read through in the present day, and it is on that very account, that we here place before our readers, what we are pleased to term—The True History of Tom and Jerry; for the work has a history of its own, and to exemplify the fact, we have in the first place, made numerous selections from the original work, then given the principal scenes of Moncrieff’s dramatic version of the same, the two concluding chapters of Pierce Egan’s continuation of his Life in London which he entitles—The Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry,