I read this excerpt in a recent reference by Iain Hutchison to the story of "Hawkie", who was an itinerant seller of "broadsheets" and traveled Scotland in about 1830. http://www.gla.ac.uk/t4/dumfries/files/layer2/glasgow_broadside_ballads/hawkie.htm Not often that one can get even a brief view of the "underside" of society in those days. The original, to which Iain kindly provided an URL is worth reading, but here's the account of Hawkie's short stay in Wigtownshire. He buys 'broadsheets' in quantity (quires) and it seems that after delivering himself of a spiel (to use a modern term) he sells the sheets and makes a profit on them. This enterprise is to him known as a "cadge" as I read it, but it's interesting that he sees himself as a beggar too. Evidently local booksellers carried stocks of these sheets for the use of such itinerants as Hawkie. Another aspect which is unfamiliar is that a beggar "calls" a town or village as he, or she, goes the rounds and asks for small donations. "I came to Ferrytown of Cree, which is a poor town, containing a few one-storeyed, thatched houses, occupied mostly by Irish families, the most of whom support idleness at the expense of misery. As I entered the village I was accosted by several men and children, asking if I wanted lodgings. That is a bad sign, I therefore declined the whole of the offers. "At last, a woman with a basket came up and offered a bed at 3d. a night. I went with her and was agreeably disappointed in finding a good lodging, fire and bed. There is no use of a traveller calling this village, as one third of the inhabitants are all beggars. I therefore started for Newton-Stewart, about six or seven miles distant. This is a smart and good town, containing shops of all descriptions, it consists of one street, being a row of houses on each side of about three-quarters of a mile in length, with another street leading to the Ferrytown of Cree. It is good work for a cadge, and is worth, on an average, from 3s. 6d. to 4s. "In most places in Galloway the "farm" lodgings are against the common lodging houses, as the travellers seldom come to these in this district except when selling, on a cold or wet night. There are a great number of beggars, but all are of the lazy cast, and, when coming from their rounds, few lodging-houses will admit them, as it is impossible they can be clean, and, although I am a beggar, I would scarce feed a dog with the scraps of food that they carry, after cadging, with it on their back through the day, with a child riding above it, and lying under their heads for a pillow at night. Yet, I often wondered to see in lodging-houses, respectable women demeaning themselves to purchase and offer to any person, the articles they would not use themselves. In Galloway, it would be hard to estimate either the number of beggars or the expense of their support. "I left Newton-Stewart and came to Glenluce, this is a small moorland village, poor, but charitable. It is famous as the burying place of the celebrated "Michael Scott", whose memory will be ever dear to those who cherish the recital of witch and fairy tales. "I proceeded to Stranraer, which is the largest town inn the county. I had "called" it before. I do not know how to term this place, as it contains an Ireland - a Dublin and a Belfast - of its own. The first time I visited it was on a Saturday. Their own poor, as they called them, were calling the town, who, by appearance, were all Irish. The answer I got at almost every door was, "We serve none but our own poor." I thought I was never going to get one halfpenny, but at last I got twopence, and went to a bookseller's shop, where I found a few quires of "Watty and Meg" I went and started the town, and in less than an hour I had upwards of five shillings. "By this time it was getting far on in the afternoon, so I recruited my stock, and held forth "A cure for ill wives", knowing that if I did not sell that night, I would have little chance on Monday, so I continued till on the border of 10 o'clock, when I had sold night to three quires, and by that means made up an ill day's cadge. I halted here for some days, and then, travelling by the Carron and Ballantrae road, I came to Girvan. [Then onward into Ayshire.]